

For more information, visit http://www.colt.com/Catalog/Pistols/Colt-Combat-Unit-Rail-Gun.

To purchase on GunsAmerica.com, click this link: https://www.gunsamerica.com/Search.aspx?T=colt%20combat%20unit%209mm.

Back when I was getting my passion for handguns started, and Ronald Reagan was President of these United States, Colt had been making their iconic 1911 pistols for nearly three-quarters of a century. In those days if you walked into a gun store and asked for a “1911” you would likely have received little more than funny looks, or perhaps a response of “a what?” Prior to the centennial celebration of the beloved John Moses Browning handgun, its first year of adoption by the U.S. Military was not how the gun was known to many. No, back then it was simply known as “the Colt Government model”, or often just “the Colt automatic”. Let that sink in for a moment. Colt had the level of brand recognition that made its name synonymous with a type of product.

That sort of cultural icon status is the very pinnacle of success for any company. Colt hopes to regain its former glory in similar fashion – by showing the world what it can do. The Combat Unit in 9mm is part of that effort. The evaluation copy of the Combat Unit came to me chambered in 9mm. It is also offered in the traditional .45 ACP. What you get from 9mm is an extra round of capacity from a standard sized magazine, and less recoil. Much less recoil in fact, because shooting 9mm in a 40-ounce handgun almost feels like it should have an orange muzzle. Add in the inherent ergonomics of the 1911 and the brilliant extras added by Colt and it’s downright fun.

Colt started by making this a tactical variant, which essentially means that it has a section of 1913 Picatinny rail on the dustcover. This rail allows the user to mount laser sighting aids, flashlights, flux-capacitors and the like. The tactical feel of the pistol continues rearward as you find very nicely cut 25 lines per inch checkering on the front strap of the frame.

Just aft of that is a top quality set of G10 grips made by VZ for Colt. The grips are aggressive in both tactile and visual ways, and in my opinion perfect for this pistol. The 25 lpi checkering continues on the mainspring cover, offering a secure hold for any bare or gloved hand. That mainspring cover is straight, just the way that the good Lord and John Browning agreed it should be. The integrated grip safety has a nicely shaped beavertail that sweeps up high for maximum grip depth, and a memory bump to ensure good positive engagement.

The controls on the Combat Unit are all high quality and function nicely. The standard width safety gives nice, crisp feedback when engaging and disengaging. I like that in a safety. Magazine release has a stiff and smooth press and drops the mags clean every time. The slide stop/release is nicely recessed into the frame of the handgun, a trend I’ve noticed on tactical variants lately and one of which I heartily approve. It just seems to feel better for a thumbs-forward grip, even if it’s all in my head. The trigger guard of the Combat Unit is quite noteworthy. It is nicely undercut to help keep that grip up high, and the front of the guard has a beveled flatness where, if you learned to shoot by watching fashionable 1980s cop shows on TV, you can put your finger. The sights on the Colt Combat Unit are genuine Novak’s. The rear is a blacked out low-profile sight with the trademark Novak wedge shape and anti-snag edges. The front sight is a night sight – a fairly low standard blade with a Tritium dot surrounded by a white ring. The hammer spur is combat style and skeletonized, and the front of the slide has cocking serrations that match the rear and are nicely functional. And finally, the magazine well is slightly beveled, but neither extended nor flared.

SHOOTING THE COMBAT UNIT

Even among 1911 pistols there are differences. Sometimes the differences are large, and sometimes small, but to the pistol shooter it is easy to feel those differences, however subtle. Some pistols just feel better in the hand, whether it be the grips, the checkering, the weight, or some combination thereof. The Colt Combat Unit nestled into my right hand like an old friend and felt at once comfortable, stable, and ready to shoot. Leveling the sights on target for the first time was a clear and focused picture, due to the highly visible front “dot” inside the blackout rear notch. It’s a very nice sight picture and good for both fast acquisition and careful aim. The undercut trigger guard and uplifted beavertail put my hand high up into the gun. The trigger pull has about 1/32” prep or “take-up” before you meet the wall of resistance. From there the break is crisp and clean at just under 5 lbs. with no over-travel. The muzzle lift is minimal, due to a number of factors including 9mm ammo, high grip, substantial weight, and dual recoil springs. That’s right – there’s a term you don’t hear often when discussing a 1911, but a key element of the gun’s design includes two nested recoil springs over a mil-spec short guide rod. This provides additional dampening of the recoil impulse, and Colt tells us that it will also increase spring life.

The Combat Unit is as fun to shoot as I expected it to be. The combination of the crisp trigger with short reset and the slight muzzle lift make this a fun double and triple-tap gun. It is also nicely accurate and produced good groups with casual off-hand shooting at 10 yards. I stretched the shots out to 25 yards for more serious evaluation and used five different popular loads while resting my grip on a bag.

The Colt Combat Unit didn’t like everything I fed it. Hollow point bullets gave it some trouble, most notably the SIG Sauer Elite Performance V-Crown 124 grain. Nearly every round would catch on the seam between frame and barrel ramp, due to the very large “mouth” of the bullet design. Speer Gold Dot also had similar problems to a lesser extent. Determined to learn the go/no-go tolerance of the pistol, I went ammo shopping and came back to the range with Hornady American Gunner ammo. It is a jacketed hollow point that has a much smaller mouth than many, and to my pleasure fired every round without any malfunctions. I shared these results with Colt, along with my layman’s diagnosis that the lack of a full feed ramp on the barrel was causing some ammunition to catch at the seam and bind. Colt disagreed with my assessment, but also agreed that some pistols just don’t like some ammo. On that point we are in sync. I also found that ammunition such as Hornady Critical Defense performs perfectly in the Combat Unit (it has a polymer filler in the hollow point cavity to prevent plugging in pre-target material – but also provides a semi-round nose property).

The only other anomaly encountered was the intermittent, but frequent, ejected case to the forehead. This seemed to occur across a variety of ammunition brands and loads, but was more prevalent with lower pressure rounds. While cleaning the pistol between range sessions, I inspected the ejector and noticed that it has a distinct curve toward the ejection port. Now, that could very well be how it is designed – or it could be bent. Colt indicates that the extractor should be checked after about 5,000 rounds and possibly adjusted. Regarding the ejector, Colt mentioned that this has been observed in their 9mm guns before and can depend on the magazine being used, and if they are really slammed up into place with the slide locked back. As my test sample had been used before, this might have been the case.

My personal conclusion is that if you obtain the Combat Unit with the plan to use it as your defense gun, buy several brands and types of ammo and find the ones that are 100% reliable in the gun. This is not profound advice, nor is it limited to this pistol – I would recommend that for any firearm that you plan to depend on, because ultimately I agree with Colt – some guns just don’t like some ammo.

One of the subtle advantages of a rail equipped 1911 is that the extra squared-off dust cover that accommodates the accessory rail also “packs out” the side of the frame just in front of the slide stop/release pin. While it might be a small detail, I find that it makes for a much more comfortable “thumbs forward” grip. This allows me to get my shooting grip locked in a few milliseconds faster, because I’m not searching for a spot for my thumb as I often do when shooting conventional 1911s.

JUST MY OPINION

The Colt Combat Unit is a very well designed and nicely made 1911 pistol. Chambered in 9mm, it offers the shooter a less expensive, less recoiling handgun that has all the bells and whistles of the modern tactical sidearm. Fit and finish is high quality, from the custom G10 grips to the black finish. Colt doesn’t specify the exact type of finish used, but in addition to a beautiful aesthetic, it also appears to be very durable. I like to see an extended mag-well on a gun that considers itself “tactical”, but that is a personal preference. In every other way, Colt has nailed it when it comes to the components and controls selected. The dual recoil spring assembly is a nice touch, and does seem to offer a noticeable benefit. The pistol field strips simply and easily, thanks to the short GI guide rod and a barrel bushing that can be turned by hand. The two problems encountered with the pistol were the feeding and ejecting issues. The ejection, I am convinced, is due to a damaged part. The feeding problems with hollow point ammunition is a bigger consideration. I was able to find ammo that it seems to like, but if one were to employ this pistol for defense of self and home, I would urge – strongly – that exhaustive testing be done with ammunition until you know you have a reliable combination. It’s a very nice pistol – but make sure it works reliably with the ammo you have.

For more information, visit http://www.colt.com/Catalog/Pistols/Colt-Combat-Unit-Rail-Gun.

To purchase on GunsAmerica.com, click this link: https://www.gunsamerica.com/Search.aspx?T=colt%20combat%20unit%209mm.