Originally Posted By: Or
That brings back a funny memory from childhood.
In the late 70s or very early 80s, my uncle had one of those in white. Pretty sure it was a '64. It was strictly a clunker car he used when he didn't want to dirty his nice car(s) - he always had good stuff. Nice MGs, a Jag e-type, BMW 6, etc.
One time we used it as well as our '73 Chevy Vega to tow our motorcycles out to a place the mc club owned for races; we went there to ride and camp all the time, race weekend or not. At some point after riding, we were sitting around resting, cooling off, etc. My dad had bought a new/used Colt Series '70 and wanted to shoot it, so he set up some cans a ways away on the dirt track to pop at. Of course, smacking a soda can with .45 Auto at any reasonable distance is not easy, especially a new gun. He missed about four times.
My uncle, who was always quite competitive (he was an Air Force pilot a while, for example), taunted him. He said,
You couldn't hit the broad side of a.... of a... FORD! - the first thing his eyes fell on. The car was sitting behind us with the passenger side front door open facing away from us. What compelled him to taunt my dad with that particular substitute for the proverbial "barn," I have no idea.
My dad pivoted cleanly on the balls of his feet, and emptied the rest of magazine into the open door, inside to outside. Three nice big holes in the sheet metal, petalling outward.
"Yes," he said. "I can."
My uncle had to drive that thing around for another year or two until he got rid of it with three bullet holes in the passenger side door. I have no idea how he explained it when he sold it, but I'm sure he made up a really good story...
As a corollary, I've always been gobsmacked by Colt .45 autos. The first handgun I ever bought after I turned 21 was a Government model clone. I've probably had 30 or more different ones over the years. The Series '70 is by far my favorite variant. I even tracked down not one but TWO of the original 1,000 stealth prototypes Colt made between January and June of 1970. This is one of them. It looks like a typical post WWII Government Model, but inside it has the belled barrel and "Accurizer" collet bushing. It also came with all the original paperwork and magazines as it left the factory in June, 1970. The s/n makes it one of the last 100 pre-Series '70 guns made, which makes it interesting to me though maybe not to all gun enthusiasts, of course:
1911s are the Hand gun to love.