Author Topic: Series 70 1911  (Read 2549 times)

Offline Tascosa Joe

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Series 70 1911
« on: December 23, 2011, 10:45:22 PM »
I was looking at a Series 70 today.  The slide was Marked  Mark IV/Series 70.  Is this an old series 70 or the new series coming from Colt now?
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Offline Mako

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Re: Series 70 1911
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2011, 11:07:11 PM »
I was looking at a Series 70 today.  The slide was Marked  Mark IV/Series 70.  Is this an old series 70 or the new series coming from Colt now?

Joe,
Probably a new one.  They are marking them with what appear to be identical markings.  The way to tell externally is the front and rear sights.  The old pistols have the smaller ones.  Internally they don't have the collet bushing (which is a good thing) and they have several of the parts the '80s have like the firing pins, extractors, grip safeties have the cuts in them the 80s do for the firing pin blocks.  They won't have any effect on function.  The ramp on the frame and barrel is better, but more radical than I like.  They are even making the slide stop relief like the original through the series '70.

The original new grips were the ones we sold Colt but I think they have a new supplier now.  The original '70 grips were not rosewood and had a gold Colt medallion in them.

So look at the sights if they look like the old 1911A1 style then it is original.  If you could remove the bushing it would also tell you.

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Mako
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Offline rickk

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Re: Series 70 1911
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2011, 09:18:48 AM »
The most notable difference between the series 70 and the newer (series 80 and series 1991) is the firing pin block that was added when the series 80 was introduced. If you remove the firing pin you will see a U-shaped notch cut about half way through it.

You don't have to take the gun apart to see if it has the firing pin lock though...

On a series 80 and later, if you put the safety on and try (with say a a ball point pen) pushing on the back of the firing pin to try to move it forward you will find out that it will not move.

The term "MARK IV" refers to the installation of the collet bushing. At first they called the series 80's "MK IV Series 80" because they also had the collet bushing that was introduced in the series 70.  After a few years they stopped adding the MK IV and just called it "Series 80".

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Re: Series 70 1911
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