Colt Model 1911

The standard American officers' sidearm in the Great War was the Colt Model 1911, a seven-shot .45 caliber pistol designed specifically for stopping power. The U.S. Army campaign against the Moros in the Philippines had established that .38 revolvers were inadequate to fell a charging enemy in the heat of battle. An Ordnance Board headed by Col. John T. Thomson (inventor of the Thomson machine-gun) concluded that the Army needed a pistol firing the larger, more effective .45 slug.

When the Army announced it wanted a heavier handgun John Browning, employed by Colt, redesigned an automatic pistol he had been working on to accommodate a .45 cartridge (with a 230 grain bullet), also of his own design

A torture test was conducted on March 3,1911. Each pistol fired 6000 rounds. One hundred shots would be fired and the pistol allowed to cool for 5 minutes. After every 1000 rounds, the pistol would be cleaned and oiled. After firing those 6000 rounds, the pistol would be tested with deformed cartridges, some seated too deeply, some not seated enough, etc. The gun would then be rusted in acid or submerged in sand and mud and more tests conducted.

Browning's pistols easily passed the test. The test firing of 6000 cartridges continuously was a record broken only in 1917 when Browning's recoil-operated machine gun fired 40,000 rounds. On March 29th, 1911, the pistol was selected as the official sidearm of the Armed Forces of U.S.A., and named Model 1911.