I picked up my new Colt 70 a few days ago and finally got out to go shooting today as the weather permitted.  I brought along my Kimber Warrior and my Ed Brown Kobra for comparison.  The Kimber has over 1000 rds through it.  It has a reliability package by Kimber.  It was not 100% until after the better part of 300 rds and the reliability package was done.  It has had over 700-800 rounds without a FTF or FTE,  with the last few hundred being HPs.  The Ed Brown is still in the break-in phase, with after today still only having around 200 rds through it.  The Colt had 12 FTEs in the first 30 rds, but after that cleared up and ran the rest of the day without a problem, with a total of over 200 rds of FMJs.  The Colt was surprisingly accurate, as you will see from some of the pics below.  The trigger is not in the same league as the Kimber and Brown, and the grip left a nice red mark on the top of my hand between my thumb and my first finger.  Is this why the beavertail is so popular?  The sights are dead on, but it throws the brass over the top of your head and not out to the side.  Does anyone know a good fix for this?  Wilson, Brown extractor?  We shot a combination of CCI Blazer, WWB, and REM UMC, all FMJ, through the Colt and Brown.  The Remington was the most accurate.   It is hard to judge the Ed Brown as it is still in break-in, but it does not seem to like the Remington UMC.  This makes sense because in a letter from Ed Brown that came with the pistol, it said to use only Winchester and Federal.    Since the Kimber is not in break-in anymore, we ran some Remington HP and +P+ HPs without any problems.

Here are the pics:

The three guns:



Some of our best groups.  All were five shot groups at 20 ft.

This was my wife's best shot of the day, so it is hanging on the refrigerator

My wife with the Colt:

I don't want her shooting at me!  JD

Is that a Christmas tree stand?

What is the Kimber relability package?

Quoted: Is that a Christmas tree stand? What is the Kimber relability package?

Yep, it works pretty good with some rocks in the bottom for weight.  On my invoice from Kimber it said Throated and polished barrel.  They also polished the feed ramp, top of the barrel and fixed the sights but all of that was not on the invoice.

Quoted: The Colt was surprisingly accurate, as you will see from some of the pics below.  The trigger is not in the same league as the Kimber and Brown, and the grip left a nice red mark on the top of my hand between my thumb and my first finger.  Is this why the beavertail is so popular?  The sights are dead on, but it throws the brass over the top of your head and not out to the side.  Does anyone know a good fix for this?  Wilson, Brown extractor?

Welcome to the world of hammer bite

Yes, that'll happen if you use a high hold on stock 1911's. I still have a nasty scar on my hand from me ignoring the pain one day, plowing through some 500+ rounds..only to find my hand was bloody, dried skin was all over the back of the hammer, etc. Couldn't shoot for a month, it induced too much flinch from the pain.

There are three and a half (yes, I'm serious) fixes for it...

1) Don't shoot high-hold! Hold the grip down a little lower. Get the web of your thumb out from that area and you'll be fine.

2) Bob the hammer - break out the dremel or if you want to work slow and carefully, some files..and file down the thumb part of the hammer a bit. It won't effect function, it should still look ok, and if you dress it well, it'll look really good. Simple is good. No need to go nuts filing it down; just enough so that it no longer contacts you under recoil.

3) Fit the beavertail safety...but this leads to the .5:

3.5) You'll also need a new hammer here, either a Commander-styled hammer, or something similar.  If you look at the Ed Brown or Kimber, the thumb back part of the hammer is shorter than the Colt.


As far as extraction/ejection, you can tune the extractor and ejector with some files and stones..make a bevel here, angle there, etc. Pretty simple to do if you don't mind taking your time. However, as the Colt has a standard ejection port and the EB and Kimber more than likely have lowered and flaired ports, you'll only be able to tune it so much.  I wouldn't worry unless it throws the brass AT you instead of above you, or even worse, fails to eject it and crunches the case up.

Congrats on the new guns!

After I got home I noticed that the brass was hiting the bottom middle of the ejection port.  Then the brass flies up and over your head. Some one have a suggestion on where to modify the extractor first? I think Ill pick up a Wilson or brown extractor and take my dremel next time we go shooting.  That way If I mess one up I still have a spare.
   Maybe I will try and take off the sharp edges of the hammer.  If I still bleed after shooting then I might just take some of the hammer off like you suggested in #1. Hell I might just send it off to YoBo.  Can I justify a Brown and a YoBo?  Maybe he has a Layaway plan.

Quoted: After I got home I noticed that the brass was hiting the bottom middle of the ejection port.  Then the brass flies up and over your head.

Yep, that's why your Brown has a lowered ejection port..if you put the two side-by-side you'll see the Colt's sidewall is much taller than the others.

If you want to get into tuning your ejection, you'll need to work on your extractor AND ejector. There should be plenty of text on the subject available in Google

However...most people just lower the ejection port and go for positive ejection out, instead of tuned ejection. With a lowered and flaired ejection port, it's also a lot easier on the brass if you reload...

If you go with the tuning route...be prepared to spend some money and a LOT of time! The slightest angle change or bevel introduction can really change where the brass goes...

There's a LOT more people around here more knowledgable about the subject than I, though