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Thread: Colt Combat Unit 9mm: Review and Initial Impression

  1. #1
    Site Supporter Sensei's Avatar
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    Colt Combat Unit 9mm: Review and Initial Impression

    I picked-up this pistol over the weekend. Cost was $1275 + sales tax and my LGS.

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    It was field stripped and inspected. The pistol comes with a beavertail grip safety, checkered front strap, NM barrel, and Novak night sights. The fit was a bit disappointing in that the grip safety is very loose and rattles with about 0.5 mm of play at the top and 1 mm of play at the bottom. Slide to frame fit is about what I'd expect from a mid-grade 1911 in that its a fairly smooth action with a little looseness when twisted side to side; it's nothing like the solid lock-up on a gun from Wilson, Brown, or SA Custom Shop. The finish is Ionbond which has a reputation for decent durability but most of my experience is with Black T and Wilson Armor-Tuff. The gun is supplied with 2 10-round Colt magazines that do not have baseplates.

    The trigger breaks at 5 lbs on my meter with no grit and a decent reset.

    I greased the rails and wear points with TW-25B before reassembling the pistol and heading out to the range.

    The order of fire on my first trip was as follows:

    1) 50 rounds of Federal 147 grain AE
    2) 50 rounds of Federal 124 grain subsonic
    2) 40 rounds of Spear 147 grain GDHP

    Accuracy was very good with the extreme spread of 10 rounds of 147 grain AE at 15 yards measuring 2.6 inches when fired off-hand.

    The gun had 1 FTE where the spent casing was oriented horizontally between the barrel hood and slide at approximately round 25 with the AE. There was 1 FTF with the Federal subsonic load. All loads exhibited erratic ejection with a BTF about every magazine. Sometime spent casings would also be thrown forward. One casing, a subsonic load that was the last in the magazine, just barely rolled off the slide.

    Next, I performed a 10-8 Extractor Test whereby single rounds are fired without a magazine inserted. The 10-8 protocol calls for 8 round to be fired two handed and 8 more with strong hand only. All rounds should eject between 2 and 5 o'clock.

    For those unfamiliar with it, the idea behind this test is the 1911's internal extractor relies on spring tension that is highly variable depending on a number of factors including materials, wear, and the skill/attention of the armor assembling the gun. Failure suggest loose tension and an extractor that is only partially functioning.

    This pistol failed spectacularly and would not eject a spent casing when the magazine was removed. I stopped after 3 attempts - all of which resulted in the same horizontal FTE with the round wedged between the barrel and slide.

    Bottom line, this sample of 1 is unreliable and exhibits signs of poor extractor tuning. The beavertail safety, while loose, is probably considered to be within spec for a mid-grade production gun. I will be contacting Colt tomorrow to get the extractor fixed, and I'll update the thread once the pistol is back.
    Last edited by Sensei; 06-26-2017 at 01:03 AM.
    I like my rifles like my women - short, light, fast, brown, and suppressed.

  2. #2
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    It will be awhile. I broke the slide stop pin on my Wiley Clapp Government in August 2016. Sent the gun back the beginning of September, got it back the end of January 2017.

  3. #3
    Member busykngt's Avatar
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    Colt Combat Unit 9mm: Review and Initial Impression

    [QUOTE=Sensei;618929]...the grip safety is very loose and rattles...
    --
    Yep, proof positive ya have a genuine production COLT 1911! (Least there be any doubt [emoji1])
    --
    What we need is more unemployed politicians.
    Last edited by busykngt; 06-26-2017 at 06:30 AM.

  4. #4
    THE THIRST MUTILATOR Nephrology's Avatar
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    Bummer. I love the idea of buying a 9mm 1911 but have avoided them so far in favor of plastic handguns whose function I felt I could trust a little more out of the box...

  5. #5
    For all the talk of Colt doing its best work in years, the extraction issues seem rampant, particularly in the 9mm models. I really want a stainless Competition model in 9mm and I know some folks on this board are having good luck with them but on the 1911 forum, bad extractors seem to be the norm.

  6. #6
    Site Supporter farscott's Avatar
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    I just fit a Wilson extractor in my 9x19 Competition (same slide as the CCU). A little bit less expensive than shipping the pistol to Colt and a heck of lot faster and easier. http://shopwilsoncombat.com/Extracto...tinfo/415-S80/

  7. #7
    Site Supporter rdtompki's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nephrology View Post
    Bummer. I love the idea of buying a 9mm 1911 but have avoided them so far in favor of plastic handguns whose function I felt I could trust a little more out of the box...
    We have at least 80K rounds combined through our two SA 9mm 1911s (used for competition). they have been flawless with only a cracked firing pin stop between the two. The stock triggers are a bit variable (we have several), but I wouldn't hesitate to use one of these for self defense.

  8. #8
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    The play in the slide is something I wouldn't worry about too much as it is pretty common with Colts and should not affect accuracy or reliability. I have not personally experienced the sloppy grip safety fit with my guns, but I've read other reports of the same. Since the CCU is one of Colt's flagship models they should be expected to fit the grip safety properly.

    The extractor tension issue is aggravating. Should be easy to remedy, but shouldn't require fixing when it leaves the factory.

    Good luck and I hope you soon have your CCU functioning 100%. Please keep us updated -- this is a model I have considered purchasing for myself.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by farscott View Post
    I just fit a Wilson extractor in my 9x19 Competition (same slide as the CCU). A little bit less expensive than shipping the pistol to Colt and a heck of lot faster and easier. http://shopwilsoncombat.com/Extracto...tinfo/415-S80/
    This is the best solution. Recent Colts have been notorious for shipping with extractors that have zero tension on them whatsoever. My opinion is that it should basically be expected at this point that a new colt will need a little trigger work and extractor tensioning, just like knowing you're gonna have to spring for real sights when you buy a new glock. "Should" it be that way? No, of course not. But what are you expecting by shipping it back to Colt? They're gong to pull a new extractor out of the bin, throw it in, say that its "in spec" and then ship it back to you six months later. There isn't even a custom shop over there anymore that you can request take a look at your gun. The colt extractors are solid in terms of dimension and metallurgy, they just need proper tensioning, you don't even really need to buy a wilson part.

  10. #10
    $1200 plus and you have to replace/retune the extractor. Jesus, I'm getting old cause for that kind of cash I'd expect the thing to function out of the box.

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