Quote Originally Posted by edbear2 View Post



It's easy to get confused but the bare bones are they are all basically the same gun from start to finish, and as the years went by they made longer and shorter ones, fiddled with the sights and triggers, and made them gradually simpler and cheaper to make

The later guns had a seperate trigger and sear compared to the early guns where the trigger acted directly on the piston rod, which may be a selling point, but the early guns are nicer IMHO with hand cut chequering and nice little touches like keeper screws / metal buttplates.

Your whole post was well written and informative Ed but I would add that the most obvious changes made were to the cocking lever locking system and for the layman, make it reasonably easy to tie the guns age to an era of production. A spring locking catch = pre late 1911, a side lever release button = 1911-1919 and an end release button put the gun between the wars. not infallible , but a general, easy to recognise guide