Production gun held to production standards (1070M45). VS (1070CQB) Custom shop gun that is held to custom shop standards, has a gunsmith fitted barrel, a tuned trigger, is held to custom shop accuracy standard, also comes with the Pelican case and Otis cleaning kit.
Brent

You’ve probably gotten my drift—this is an outstanding battle pistol with impressive inherent accuracy, absolute top-of-the-line quality, and exceptional reliability. And if that weren’t enough, according to Colt’s Custom Shop Manager Brent Turchi, they will produce anywhere from 80 to 100 of these per month for sale to the general public.

But instead of getting a production model Marine 1911 pistol for the civilian asking price of $1,995, you will get a boatload more for your investment. Colt Custom Shop gunsmith Matthew LaBonte walked me through the added steps that they will take with each consumer weapon to make a great thing even better.

According to Matt, some of these added steps include: custom-fitting the slide to the receiver; cleaning the face of the sear and back-cutting it for a shorter roll; cleaning up the hammer hooks for smoothness; reducing the trigger pull from the USMC 4 pounds standard spec down to 3 pounds; cleaning up the barrel sides, hood, radial locking lugs, and lower locking lugs to insure a more consistent lockup…all painstakingly done by hand.

The bottom line for this labor of love? They will guarantee one inch groups using the standard USMC accuracy protocol (recall that their standard is a max group of 2.4 inches) of five shots at 15 yards using the standard USMC spec 230 grain +P FMJ load manufactured by Federal…and they will send you the target to prove it! If you can find ammo it likes more, you should be able to print sub one inch groups.

Each Colt Marine Pistol offered to consumers not wearing USMC digital camo BDUs will come packed in a custom-designed, olive drab, waterproof, locking Pelican case, including two seven-round Wilson 47CB magazines, a Colt branded Otis cleaning kit, a Colt lock and the actual target that was shot by the hand of the Colt rangemaster to prove its mettle. And for all this, is the USMC M45 (and the consumer version model O1070CQB) worth the price tag?