100th Anniversary Photo Gallery of the Model 1911 Pistol on Gunchicks.com!

Girl with tattoos and gun wearing cutoff camo top, black panties and combat boots.

In the late 1800's, on more than one occasion, the United States military found themselves engaged in combat with opponents at close range, and found that their recently downsized sidearms (.38 caliber revolvers) were inadequate to stop their enemies in an effective and timely manner. Imagine how disheartening it can be to shoot a machete wielding warrior three times and then discover that he isn't going to fall over dead until AFTER he has hacked you up into little bits.

By "downsized" we mean that since politics is one of the constants in the universe, the large caliber revolvers used previously were replaced with smaller, lighter and cheaper revolvers. Starting in 1872, the US Army was using a larger revolver which chambered a cartridge known most commonly today as the "45 Long Colt". Prior to that, all the way back to the early to mid 1800's, service revolvers were just as large and made very effective weapons for their day.

The problem in the late 1800's wasn't entirely with the revolver but rather with the size of the bullet. The smaller bullet simply didn't hit the target as hard as would a bigger bullet. Keep in mind that this was a time before the "Magnum" was invented. Today, a magnum revolver simply makes the bullet go a lot faster to make up for the bullet's lack of mass. Such is the case with a .357 Magnum revolver. The actual .357 bullet is virtually the same physical size as the .38 caliber revolver ammo from the late 1880, but it uses a lot more gunpowder in the cartridge to increase the bullet's velocity and then the laws of physics take over. The energy transferred to the target is a combination of the size of the bullet and the speed it is traveling.

The other limitation of revolvers has always been that you typically have to begin a somewhat cumbersome reloading process after only 5 or 6 shots. Battlefield machine guns of the late 1800's had begun to use an system where the next bullet you wanted to shoot would "automatically" be chambered into the breech. Early attempts to make an "autoloader" style handgun (or "semi-auto" as we would say today) were basically chopped down machine guns which were bulky and impractical to carry around all day as a sidearm.

John Moses Browning, a Mormon living in Utah, was among those who were trying to design a better autoloader style sidearm. Browning came up with both a truly revolutionary pistol design, and a new style of cartridge which was so far ahead of it's time, that now, over 100 years later, his design is not only still being used, but the Model 1911 pistol design is still being cloned and copied by many different manufacturers around the world.

(Continued below.)

The US Army adopted this pistol, designed by John M. Browning, in the year 1911 as their standard service pistol and that is where the name comes from. John M. Browning designed many other firearms too. Back then, for each firearm design he produced, he would need to find a company who was willing to buy the design from him so that the firearm could then be manufactured and marketed. Colt bought the design for the pistol and the caliber of ammunition which was designed to be used in this pistol because known as ".45 ACP" which means, .45 caliber, Automatic Colt Pistol. It has been quite common for more than one company to have the ability to manufacture items procured via government contract and so that is probably why there are so many different manufactures of the model 1911 pistol design that we see today. Eventually, John M. Browning went on to found his own company which remains in business today and also manufactures a model 1911 design pistol.

TV & MOVIES: It would be impossible to list all the places you might have seen a model 1911 design pistol. The pistol you see in this Gunchicks.com photo gallery is branded under the name CITADEL and is manufactured by a company called Howa. If you've ever seen the movie "Pulp Fiction", you may remember the two characters "Jules Winfield" and "Vincent Vega" as portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta. Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules, can be seen packing a nickel plated Model 1911 design pistol, but it was made by a company called STAR, chambered for the 9mm parabellum cartridge and given the "Model B" designation. John Travolta's character Vincent, can also be seen packing a nickel plated Model 1911 design pistol, but his was made by the company called Auto Ordnance and given the "Model 1911A1" designation.

The John M. Browning model 1911 design pistol has evolved slightly over the past 100 years but the revolutionary core design concept is present within every clone ever made to this day. The model 1911 pistol has often been referred to as the greatest handgun ever made. Among the top reasons why this pistol has such mass appeal includes, stopping power, comfortable fit in the hand, manageable recoil, thin design making it easier to carry than a large revolver, easier to reload than a revolver, accuracy, durability and it just plain looks really cool! We have only scratched the surface of the extraordinary history of this outstanding pistol. If you would like to learn more about the model 1911 design pistol, please click on these other web site links provided at the bottom of the page (which are not affiliated with our associated with Gunchicks.com in any way) to get more details.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1911_pistol

www.browning.com

www.imfdb.org/wiki/Pulp_Fiction#Auto_Ordnance_1911A1

www.auto-ordnance.com

www.kimberamerica.com/1911

www.smith-wesson.com

www.hatfieldsgunsmithing.com

www.coltsmfg.com

Click here to return to Gunchicks.com main page

© Copyright 2000-2012 GUNCHICKS.COM™ - All rights reserved.

NOTHING on this web site is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN. [17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(2)]

EVERYTHING on this site is protected by United States copyright law and is intended solely for the private use of the Gunchicks.com™ viewing audience. This pertains to Gunchicks.com™ exclusive content (words, pictures, graphics) as well as content provided by third party providers or visitor submitted content. "Hot Linking" our photos or publicly re-posting our photos elsewhere without permission is strictly prohibited.

However, saving our photos to your computer for your own personal viewing and telling your friends about this web site is encouraged.