COLT ACE, SERVICE ACE CONVERSIONSColt Ace Olympic. By Rick Breneman. Some of the more interesting Colt products, both from the collectors and shooters perspective, are those in the Ace line of. Government Model. Included in this group are the original Ace pistol of the early 3. Service Model Ace introduced just before WWII, and the. Conversion Unit, which allowed the owner of a Government Model to practice with cheap. The first Ace was a conventional blow back operated semi automatic that outwardly resembled the gun adopted by Uncle Sam in 1. Other modifications included a 14 shorter slide and barrel, a unique rim fire firing pin and stop, ejector, and a stack of shock absorbing washers under the barrel. These washers limited slide travel, necessitating relocation of the slide stop notch to suit the new. Atop the slide sat the adjustable Ace sight, also unique to this model. This sight was developed at the behest of the U. Colt 1911 Serial Number Search' title='Colt 1911 Serial Number Search' />Colt Commercial Production Govt. Free Building Firearms By Harold Hoffman Pdf Programs. Model 1912 to 1981. Model 1911 Serial Numbers Date Number Made. SN C1 to C1899 1912 1899 SN C1900 to C5399. The Marine Corps stays Old Corps as Devil Dogs look to Colt for their new M45 CQBP. Check out our Colt M45A1 CQBP Marine Pistol review. Colt Model 1911A1 U. S. Army. 45 ACP CSR Inspected Serial Number 718092. Model of 1911 ProductionTop of Page Click on image Year Serial Number Range Manufactured by Special Notes Quantity 1912 1500 Colt 500 5011000. S. Army, which was helping in the development of the Ace, and upon whose approval Colt depended for the promise of volume sales. Reports on the gun, both contemporary and modern, are a mixed bag. Colt Model of 1911 U. S. Army Serial Number 1062 Issued to Capt. G. F. Perkins 1912 Production Colt Model of 1911 U. S. Army Serial Number 2362 1912 Production Colt. Aerobiz Supersonic Pc. By Rick Breneman. Some of the more interesting Colt products, both from the collectors and shooters perspective, are those in the Ace line of. Colt, colt 1911 forum, colt firearms, colt firearms forum, colt forjms, colt forjums, colt forujms, colt forum, colt forum revolvers, colt forum. Walt Rauchs review and rating of the Taurus 1911 pistol chambered in 9mm, including a range report, photos, specs and user ratings. Plus info on the rest of. Browse all new and used Colt Pistols 1911 Pre45 for sale and buy with confidence from Guns International. Underworld Inc Illegal Hand Made Colt 1911 Pistols Ghost Gun. The pistol was beautifully fitted and finished in the manner of all pre war Colts and accuracy, from what amounted to a fixed barrel pistol, was excellent. Of course, the Ace had the familiar feel of the. Long Rifle cartridge. With Colts own sleek, handy Woodsman on the market, the Aces popularity was never great, with either the commercial or military contingent but the gun remained in production for about ten years. Still, there was interest in a gun with the handling characteristics of the G. I. 4. 5, but with the economy of rim fire ammunition. In the days before hand loading was widespread and commercially reloaded ammo was available, the cost savings to the dedicated shooter was considerable. There was evidence, though that the rim fire ammo of the day was a contributor to the Aces reliability shortcomings, the pressures generated not being as consistent as todays uniformly excellent products. Colt went back to the drawing board, to find a better way to adapt the small cartridge to the big pistol. If the pistol couldnt be made to act small, maybe the cartridge could be made to act big. Enter David Marshall Carbine Williams, whose expertise in perfecting the short stroke gas piston system would earn him his nickname after his design was incorporated into the mechanism of the wildly successful Ml Carbine. A variation of Williams principle, in which a separate floating chamber was itself the piston, allowed the recoil energy of the. Although this new Ace would still have many unique parts, it was very much more like the service pistol than the original one, so it would be called the Service Model Ace. It not only looked and operated almost identically to the. Colt to tout it as an ideal companion to their new National Match. The Service Ace even included the new Stevens pattern target sight as offered on the center fire pistol. The development of the Service Ace, with its fewer unique parts, allowed Colt to market a conversion kit of components that permitted someone already in possession of a Colt Government Model, National Match, or Super Match to swap the slide, barrel, spring and magazine for those in the kit, and have a. Conceptually, this was an even better idea than the Ace, as the. Conversion Unit allowed retention of the all important feel of the trigger of the parent arm. And since economy was the whole point of the exercise in the first place, having to buy only half a gun was an added attraction. The same idea, in reverse, did not work out so well, as the. Conversion was a short lived offering from Colt In what has always seemed a confusing circumstance, Colt chose to name the Conversions in what would seem to be a counter intuitive manner the one converting the. Conversion. If you take the meaning to be a. A few years after the introduction of the Service Ace and Conversion Units, the world was plunged into war, and all of Colts Aces were drafted into military service for the duration. In 1. 94. 9 the original Ace and Service Ace were no longer available, the last pistols having been assembled from parts produced during the war. The. 2. 2. 4. 5 Conversion Unit however, was reintroduced to the commercial market, in slightly simplified form, and sporting a new rear sight the Coltmaster. At that time, Colt ceased the serial numbering of the units, continuing to sell and catalog them throughout the 1. In the late 1. 97. Colt reintroduced the Service Ace pistol, updated with, you guessed it, a new rear sight. The Accro was pressed into service pinned, actually. Coltmaster in 1. 95. Although there were detail changes made throughout the production runs of all of these models, I emphasize the rear sights as an aid to identifying the era in which a given pistol or conversion was built. Its possible to date pieces by checking serial numbers against various lists intended for just that purpose, but if the subject is an unserialed conversion, or just a rough estimate of age is desired is it pre or post war, then the rear sight tells a lot. The Ace sight was fitted exclusively to the original Ace pistol, from 1. It was screw adjustable for windage and elevation, and was only slightly bulkier than the fixed sights available today on Colts service pistols. The production runs of the Ace and Service Ace overlapped for about four years, the latter pistol being commercially offered initially in 1. By this time, Colt had adopted the Stevens sight for its other target arms, so the same sight went on the Service Ace, and the Conversion Unit when it was introduced in 1. This sight featured a shield type rear blade, presenting a flat, square surface, angled to prevent glare. Its chief improvement over the Ace sight was the slight lengthening of the sight radius that it allowed. When the Conversion Unit was reintroduced after the war, it was equipped with the then new Coltmaster sight, which was also on Colts other adjustable sighted models, from the Match Target Woodsman to the Officers Model Special. The Coltmaster was similar to the Stevens in general configuration, but featured a single, spring loaded adjusting screw for elevation, and one for deflection, dispensing with the locking screws of the earlier design. The blade showed the notch set into an angled, horseshoe shaped cut out in a rounded, oppositely angled surface the whole sight picture looking very much like that of the modern, highly touted Novak fixed sight. In 1. 95. 5 the Accro replaced the Coltmaster throughout Colts line. Whereas the earlier sights had all been set into transverse dovetails, the Accro was held in a lengthwise slot, in a rib raised above the slide. When the Service Ace was reintroduced after a 2. Accro was, and still is, the standard on most Colt models. This sight features a thin blade, set into a heavy body containing the adjusting mechanism, similar to that of the old Micro and Ruger sights. A shooter who teams his modern Ace or Conversion Unit with a Gold Cup National Match might want to switch the Accro for the Colt Elliason sight which is a drop in modification, and commonizes the sight pictures. All of the Aces and conversions were finished in the blue of the day, with the pre war models in overall polished finish, and the later models done in the polished flatssandblasted rounds, which is still in use at Colt.