Model guns made in Japan (4)

Model guns of Colt .45 – two versions made by Marushin

Two versions of the Colt.45 by Marushin

Colt Government M1911A1 by Marushin

In the 1980s Marushin manufactured two versions of the Colt. 45: one was the regular M1911A1 model which is same as the one made by MGC introduced in my earlier blog. The other is Colt .45 the ‘Colt’s Combat Commander’ model. The only different between these two guns are the length of the slide: The Commander model has a shorter slide. As indicated in Marushin’a instruction manual (取扱い説明書) the material used for the model is shock resistant ABS (耐衝撃ABS製). ABS is Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. It looks like plastic.

The firing-pin and the extractor look real

The focus of Marushi in making these two models is more on the appearance rather than on the smooth firing of the gun. I say this because the cartridge of Marushin’s Colt .45 cannot be extract smoothly when a shot is fired. Yet this deficiency is compensated by the authentic look of the model. For example, in the design of the magazine locking system. Like the real gun, the locking system uses a spring. Also, the cartridge extracting system looks real from the outside although it is not a full-length extractor (legend no. 6: extractor extension). The same is also true regarding the firing pin (legend no. 60: firing pin). From the outside of the gun, you can see a firing pin while in fact it is only a fraction of the normal length.

A drawing on the gun's parts with a legend

This model gun can be field stripped by pushing the ring (legend 11: barrel pushing) to the left and then pressing down the round button (legend 16: plug). Another great feature of the gun is its grip safety catch (no. 31: grip safety), it is perfectly made and can function perfectly. Thank to this grip, this pistol can be fired only when properly held in the hand of the user. This is important because this can avoid accidental firing.  Such a safety design can only be found in Colt .45 pistols.  I think it was one of the selling points of the Colt.45 pistol and enabled it to get the production contract from the US military in the early 20^th century.

Steps to dis-assemble the Colt.45 pistol

My conclusion is that the Colt .45 M1911A1 model gun made by Marushin is done perfectly. Another plus of this model is the fact that it is not more expansive than the M1911A1 made by MGC.