Colt Series 70 Mark IV Government Model

One Saturday morning while walking through a local gun show I spotted a nice looking Colt 1911 on a vendors table. Upon inspection of the old Colt I found it to be a very nice blued Series 70 Government Model 1911 in 45 ACP. The blued gun was in great shape and better yet was all original. Series 70 Colt 1911 pistols are like a Volkswagen they are easily and more often than not altered from their factory configuration. I have been a fan of the Series 70 Colt 1911 since I bought my first one. It is a Series 70 Colt Gold Cup National Match. My gun has assisted me in putting many pins and plates as well as soda cans out of their misery. The price of this Colt Government Model was good so I bought it. It will fit in nicely with the others in my collection.

The Colt Mark IV Series 70 Government Model is the first improvement to be made to the Colt 1911 A1 since 1924. In order to improve the long standing complaint of the 1911 not having "Match Accuracy" Colt developed a collet style barrel bushing with four flexible fingers that centered the barrel perfectly in relation to the slide. Why this worked well. Ammunition advances of the time led to the fingers breaking causing Colt warranty problems so Colt reverted back to the standard bushing. The Pistols remained basically the same until Colt caved to the product liability lawyers in 1983. Colt discontinued the Series 70 and brought out the Series 80 1911 with its firing pin safeties. While just as reliable and just as accurate the gun was not seen as an original design 1911. Colt's sales started to suffer.

The Series 70 guns were, in my opinion, the last of the old world style of finishing guns. The bluing on the flats of the gun receives a mirror like finish. The rounded surfaces are sandblasted to create a non-glare finish. The grips are of checkered walnut and are highlighted by Colt Medallions. In addition to blue the Series 70 Colts were available in high polish nickel and for a few years an Electrolysis Nickel. The Guns came in 45 ACP, in 9mm Luger, 38 super and 9mm Steyer (very rare). The Series 70 was also available In the Colt Combat Commander configuration and aluminum framed version called Lightweight Commander. As mentioned earlier the Series 70 also came in the dandy Gold Cup National Match with Colt Eliasion sights.