"Lightweight" Commanders: A Little Personal History

I have been enamored with 1911s ever since I handled a Colt 1991 at a Denver gun store back in the '90s.

Credit: NorthwestFirearms.com

I handled a Glock 17 at the same time, and I hated it.

Credit: ReducerRecoil.com

My love shifted to the Colt Commander after a few years. And I'm talking about the original Commander which was later referred to as the "Lightweight" Commander, when Colt felt fit to introduce the all-steel Combat Commander.

There's of course a little back story that is slightly apocryphal, disjointed, and of course morphs over time. 

Let's see here!

I always like handguns. I starting getting Guns & Ammo magazine when I was in junior high. I thought the Ruger No. 1 was really cool for some reason, but it was definitely the handguns that drew my attention. And holy crap! I just scanned the entire Guns & Ammo homepage, and low and behold there were no handguns.

I remember looking through Gun Digest and the Shooter's Bible (back when they were both exclusively giant tomes listing all the guns that the manufacturers were will to pay to have listed in the annuals plus articles covering "new" developments and historical perspectives.). I was often drawn to the 1911 derivatives - and the ones that most often attracted me were the Colt Officer ACP models.

Credit: Colt, Defender (Series 80), current rendition of the Officer ACP

Accelerate a few years forward, and the darlings of the gun press circa 2000 were .45 ACP guns. .40 S&W was the new it caliber. But the gun press and industry experts were still enamored with the .45. Any gun manufacturer that upsized their .40-caliber and 9-mm guns to .45 ACP were on good terms with the experts.

The Para Ordinance Warthog was a perfect example of .45 ACP being the end all be all. The Warthog gave you 10 rounds of the big, slow-moving bullet from a small, heavy, thick, 1911-style gun.

Col. Jeff Cooper (Ret.) was a respected gunfighting expert. His gun of choice - even after promoting the 10 mm Bren 10 - 

Credit: IMFDB.org, Gunsite Edition

was the Colt Commander. I think it was the Combat Commander, but I am not totally sure.

Credit: Colt.com, Combat Commander (Series 80)

A Little History: Colt Commander

For those unfamiliar with the story, the Colt Commander was introduced in 1949 or 1950 - depending on whom is telling the story. The original Commander was lightweight. It did not take on the "Lightweight" name until the all-steel Combat Commander was introduced in 1970. But the most startling fact to some is that the original aluminum-framed Commander that was introduced in 1950 (or '49) was a 9mm gun!

Back To Recent History

For many, many years, .45-ACP ammunition was the darling of the handgun industry. Every manufacturer eventually introduced a version of new guns in .45, and the industry press almost always chose a cartridge that started with a 4 and ended with a 5.

Their dirty little secret was that, yes, the bee's knees was the .45 ACP, but most of them were secretly always carrying J-frame sized .38s.  

Back To Me

And really thinking back to that gun store visit, I remembered something. After that visit to the gun store where I handled the Colt 1991, I really wanted the Combat Commander version of that gun - or the Springlied Armory version.

GunAuction.com

I guess that I was concerned about the massive recoil of the .45 ACP from a lightweight package. That was before I bought a snubnose .357.

NEXT: "Lightweight" Commanders: Love of the .45 and .45 Deception!