1987 Colt MK IV Series 80 Officers ACP

[Sharps40]

Sorry for the delays between pics and text. "Vandals" in our area took out Spectrum TV/Internet and Verizon Cellular for about 16 hrs....everything is back up now.....guess they'll have to start installing cut resistant lines. Though how they "Cut" a line to take down the entire areas cell service is beyond me...but I ain't the smartest....just thought that cable was cables and wireless was cable less.....oh well, to the guns.

So, back to my youth.....almost 40 years ago, I had a durn near new first year issue Colt Mk IV Series 80 Officers ACP in Blue.... Rex the Wonder Gun I called it. Since I was young and dumb, I used it as the test bed for every single gadget that could possibly make me THE RINGER at the various IPSC (yup....that long ago) matches outgunning and out performing everybody with 1.5" less barrel and 2 less rounds per magazine. (The original officers had 6 round mags and there were no reliable extra capacity mags or guts conversions that fit flush.) Double sided oversize safety (that regularly lost the right side to the ground about the middle of a match...), really long three hole over travel adjustable ambiguously GAY trigger, hammer hooks reduced to .018", polished sear, polished everything inside, twice....checkered steel mainspring housing, wrap around grips, irritating screw together guide rod with single mainspring and a reverse plug that would rotate about 45 degrees and lock up the gun, split tail 4 footed reduced power trigger and sear spring, reduced power mainspring, match grade bushingless bull**** drop in barrel with thread on muzzle compensator, fully adjustable rear sights, big tall dot front sight (well before tritium or even fiber optic), extended mag release, mag well, extended slide release, long link....none of which made a damn bit of difference at the matches in terms of winning....sure as hell did go a long way toward emptying my wallet and ensuring the gun would regularly choke on fmj ball ammunition.

Overall, Rex the WonderGun was exactly the same cosmetically and functionally as the common and regularly available on forum for cheep AR15 FrankinMess.

So, since old Rex went from 100% reliable to a really questionable almost turd, I sold him to another young fella enamored of the speed freak mods then coming on line and popular in the press and guaranteed to make us all a no practice needed IPSC Match Destroying Machine!.....

Lesson learned....took almost 40 years to recover.

Found a low mileage stainless 1987 YOM in mostly original condition...

I'll go through what's changed and get it back to stock reliability. Probably the only "lends flair" item will be grip panels.

Shown below, the initial unboxing.

 

[Sharps40]

Nice Matt stainless....reminds me of the mat blue finish on my original. A few marks....some folks call them idiot marks,....I don't care, holster and use does more damage in a year than that....I think the term idiot mark is only used by fellas that buy them, photograph them and leave them in the box or a rug or a safe....sorta like them fellas that have a truck but won't put gravel or firewood in the bed.....some advice from an old hand.....use it, you'll be happier in the long run.

 

[Sharps40]

This one is old enough that it was subject to the trickery of overly long weird looking grooved holed polished and over travel adjusted trigger....a Wilson I believe. Really doesn't pair well with the grip mods....I'd think that big hands would need big grips and long trigger....

But this mess has long trigger and the thinnest grips I've ever come across. Factory grips thinned on the back until plunger cover was gone....then to thin them even more, all the diamonds ground flat and the grooves filled with finish....slick and thin with a long reach, kind of like trying to hang on to a waxed board. Quite odd.

 

[Sharps40]

Here the original dual spring arrangement I so foolishly replaced in my youth against the early reports of failed plugs..and the absolute requirement for a heavy recoil reducing accuracy inducing reliability increasing full length guide rod.....(ummm, since found it all to be bullsnot)....I've never seen a failed plug and can only find one picture of a failed plug on the whole internet and weight/reliability.....prove it.

So, I ordered two more pairs of NOS recoil springs and a used factory plug.....just in case....I assume the spare plug will just sit in the spares drawer.

 

[Sharps40]

The critical areas of the original sear, disconnector and hammer hooks are blessedly unmolested. Not even polished and apparently, little wear from being used....e.g. low mileage. A match to the story told by the slide ways/frame rails and the barrel lugs and slide lugs, and the barrel to bushing contact ... little or no indication the slide went back and forth much at all.

 

[Sharps40]

Now, somebody did dillywiener around with the trigger and its associated spring. Here the "Had to have it when I was young and dumb" trigger has been removed and a nice Colt issue factory short trigger is ready to go back in.

And we see a nice Colt factory spring, only mod I can see is the polishing of the feet....no harm done, I'll leave it alone as it seems to function perfectly.

 

[Sharps40]

And since the factory wood grips have been sanded to the point of...well, not useful or aesthetically pleasing to me....a nice rounded pair of synthetic black engraved grips are on hand and a set of standard height grip bushings with matching screws are inbound with the recoil springs.

 

[above_all]

I found a used Colt Series 80 MKIV Gold Cup National Match made in 1988 in a local pawn shop a few years ago. I did a full strip and rebuild on it. Replaced all the springs.

What I wasn't prepared for, was the Series 80 sear and firing pin safety assembly. My previous experience with the 1911 was on non-Series 80 1911's. I lost that small sear spring. After getting replacements, it took a while to get it all back together.

Still, it turned out nice and is now one of my favorite 1911's. It was just the firearm when I bought it. I detailed it and put together the case, mags, paperwork, etc.

 

[Sharps40]

Yup. The officers has the same Series 80 Safety levers but uses a different sear and disconnect....no additional springs in-between the two. But, the officers is not really intended to have a glass break trigger either.....even though I tried to go there in my younger days....!

 

[41mag]

Slicker than owlsheet !!
A very fine weapon - anyone would be proud to have. Anyone with any sense anyhow !
Thanks for sharing .