American Handgunner July/August 1979

1. Slide2. Rear Sight3. Extractor4. Firing Pin Spring5. Firing Pin6. Firing Pin Stop7. Magazine Catch Lock8. Magazine Catch Spring9. Magazine Catch10. Slide Stop Plunger11. Plunger Spring12. Safety Lock Plunger13. Grip Plate14. Trigger15. Mainspring Cap16. Mainspring17. Mainspring Housing Pin Retainer18. Mainspring Housing19. Mainspring Cap Pin20. Sear Spring21. Magazine22. Mainspring Housing Pin23. Left Hand Stock24. Stock Screw25. Stock Screw Bushing26. Safety Lock27. Hammer Pin28. Sear Pin29. Slide Stop30. Frame (Receiver)31. Recoil Spring Guide32. Inner Recoil Spring33. Outer Recoil Spring34. Recoil Spring Cap35. Barrel36. Barrel Link Pin37. Barrel Link38. Disconnector39. Sear40. Hammer41. Hammer Strut42. Hammer Strut Pin43. Recoil Spring Guide Screw21ditions. As a matter of fact, I have personallyblocked the grip safety in thedisengaged position on some of my ownG. M. pistols, and I've also done it byrequest for a number of associates. I havequite a few photos showing.45 autos beingcarried by professional law officers withthe grip safety locked out. Their reasoning-andmine-is simply that under conditionsof stress or violent activity, onemight grasp the gun for firing in such a positionthat the grip safety wasn't fully depressed.Should that happen, the guncouldn't be fired, and the results might befatal to the carrier. Also, it was essential inthe development of the Detonics .45 to retaina heavy hammer blow to insure functionalreliability; and, this meant retainingvirtually the full-length mainspring whilesubstantially shortening the butt. The onlyplace where space could be borrowed tokeep the long mainspring was from thegrip safety. This reduced the space for thegrip safety to less than that needed to accommodatea fully functional unit, withthe result that the original Colt/Browningsafety was converted to a simple fillerblock. Ifone wants more evidence that thegrip safety is not all that it's cracked up tobe,just look around and you'll see that nota single modern big-bore autoloader developedsince 1930 is equipped with it.Frankly, it is the shortening of the buttmore than the shortening of the slide andbarrel that makes the Detonics .45 moreconcealable than any other auto of likecaliber. Unless the gun is being carried bya fairly slender individual in a horizontalshoulder holster, an extra inch of barreldoesn't really present any real concealmentproblems.However, it is in the shortening of thebarrel and the slide that most problemsare encountered in retaining adequatefunctional reliability in the basic G.M. design.The problem arises from the simplefact that the space available-that is,length-to accommodate a recoil spring islimited to the distance between the slide/stop pin and the muzzle when the slide isfully rearward. As the barrel and slide areshortened from the original five-inchlength, recoil-spring space is reduced andthus spring design and force become morecritical. As a practical matter, the ColtCommander represents the shortest barrelone may use with a conventional recoilspring and still maintain full reliabilityand adequate spring life. Upon casual observationit may appear that there's plentyofspring room, but when the slide is in fullrecoil, this space measures only 1.66inches long in the G.M.Detonics has done an excellent job insolving this problem while still achieving abarrel length ofonly 3.49 inches. The solutionhas been in the use of dual recoilsprings, one inside the other, with theouter spring of .045-inch wire and .430­inch outside diameter. The inner spring issubstantially smaller in both wire diame-(Continued on page 64)34 AMERICAN HANDGUNNER . JULY / AUGUST 1979