Colt Combat Unit, Who Has One?

Not Happy With Trigger On Mine.

What's your trigger like?

Mine has a lot of gritty take up and seems heavier than it should be.

I have two other 1911s, including a new Gold Cup Trophy.
I anticipated that the CCU trigger would be more like the Gold Cup
which is very good.

I'm going to put some rounds through it after I clean it out really well.

I don't want to hassle with sending it back to them so I'll probably install
some Cylinder and Slide parts myself.

It's already been back to Colt for a finish blem that was fixed and I complained about the trigger as well
but it came back in the same condition.

Is the trigger on the CCU set up this way for duty use?

Tell me about yours please.

I have one, I put the cylinder and slide parts polished them up and installed them.   I also got a ceramic stone made to fit the trigger bar channels in the receiver and smoothed those out.
The improvement is noticeable.

Thanks I'm probably going to have to do that.

I emailed Colt about it just a few minutes ago but I really don't want to hassle with sending back a second time.

Says in the name combat unit, that means combat trigger, and it's series 80.
Colt is an old school thinking company, you want a nice trigger they make 70 gold cups instead.
Thier combat guns have looser fits and heavier triggers.

Well thanks that's good to know.

I really didn't expect the same trigger quality as my Gold Cup but thought it would be better than this.

I had an XSE I bought about 7 years ago that had a much better trigger than this CCU.

Well, I emailed the Colt customer service rep who was working with me.

He followed up with the "gunsmith" who worked on my CCU and he said
"he didn't find anything wrong with the trigger".

I've had a Taurus 1911 that had a better trigger than this!
Although over all the Taurus was a massive POS.

There is enough I like about this CCU that I'm going to keep it and
change the trigger components myself.

I plan on ordering the Cylinder and Slide Series 80 trigger improvement
kit and a new trigger.

My Gold Cup Trophy is a great, but I doubt I'll ever buy another new Colt after this experience
with the CCU.

My Colt CCO CCU 9mm has a trigger that breaks cleanly around 4 pounds and it is very accurate. I would buy another CCU in a heartbeat.  

Why exactly, wouldn’t you shitcan the series 80 parts, install some spacers to take their place and then install a set of Harrison True Radius parts.

Got the trigger in still waiting on C&S parts

If you don't know yet. C&S is closing door and there are extremely large amount of parts orders they are working through since the news announced. The company will fulfill your order, but it will take time to digest.

No worries it's already on the way to me

This is my Series 80 Colt with all of the dreaded Series 80 parts intact.



It has an Ed Brown(IIRC?) hammer, a Videki Trigger and I don't recall what sear, maybe the original Colt with a "light" trigger clean-up.

Colt Series80 1911A1 Stainless Steel With Lyman Digital Gauge

Single Action/Slow Deliberate PullAverage of 5 Pulls       Average
4lb .4oz / 4lb 14.1oz / 5lb 1oz / 4lb 13.4oz / 4lb 5.9oz = 4lb 10oz
4lb 11.5oz / 4lb 1.7oz / 4lb 7.5oz / 3lb 13.3oz / 4lb 6.7oz = 4lb 5oz
3lb 1.8oz / 3lb 13.8oz / 4lb 9.5oz / 3lb 13.2oz / 3lb 13oz = 3lb 13.4oz

Single Action/Fast or Quick  Pull Average of 5 pulls        Average
2lb .2oz / 2lb 3.4oz / 2lb 7oz / 2lb 9.4oz / 2lb 7.8oz = 2lb 5.6oz
1lb 14.6oz / 2lb 5.1oz / 1lb 13.8oz / 2lb5.7oz / 1lb 14.7oz = 2lb 1.2oz
2lb 3.5oz / 2lb 3.4oz / 1lb 9.9oz / 2lb 2.1oz / 2lb 8.1oz = 2lb 2.2oz

The trigger is crisp and I have owned many Series 70 and pre-70 Colts and 2 Series 70 Gold Cups.

Come to think about it my SIG Tacops also has a dreaded Series 80 trigger safety.



SIG 1911 TAC-OPS
Single Action/Slow Deliberate PullAverage of 5 Pulls            Average
2lb 5.1oz / 1lb 8.2oz / 2lb 2.5oz / 1lb 15.4oz / 1lb 13.7oz = 1lb 15.4oz
1lb 12.8oz / 1lb 5.3oz / 2lb 1.1oz / 2lb .3oz / 2lb 5oz = 1lb 14.5oz
2lb 7.6oz / 2lb 5.3oz / 2lb 7.3oz / 2lb 7.6oz / 2lb 2.9oz = 2lb 6.2oz

Single Action/Fast or Quick  Pull Average of 5 pulls             Average
1lb 5.8oz /1lb 6oz / 1lb 4.9oz / 1lb 7.1oz / 1lb 6.6oz = 1lb 6.1oz
2lb 6.1oz / 1lb 13.6oz / 1lb 6.6oz / 1lb 12.7oz / 1lb 15.5oz = 1lb 14.1oz
1lb 12.8oz / 1lb 15.2oz / 1lb 10.7oz / 1lb 14oz / 1lb 10.8oz = 1lb 12.7oz

Define "Colt Combat Unit" ?

Early one, recent one? What model?

I have an early CCU Railgun, got it right after they announced Combat Units, when they were first coming out with the M45A1 frame...serial number is sub-500. I've got plenty of other Colts, both S70 and S80. My CCU has no real appreciable creep, trigger breaks crisply, right around 4lb give or take. It's a gun I can give to people who think they know that S80s are crap and S70s are the best, and when they say it's a great trigger that's as good as any of their other "S70s" (which they don't actually have; they've got guns without firing pin safeties, but not S70s), I take delight in flipping it over and opening the slide and showing them the S80 guts.

Did you try detail stripping it, and getting rid of all of the preservative that Colt likes slathering all over (and inside)? Especially the firing pin safety plunger in the slide, and making sure there's no grit on the sear spring? More than once I've torn down a new Colt and got a q-tip full of goo wiping out the recess in the slide where the plunger and spring went. That area should be dry, as should the spring and plunger.

Other than that, don't know what to tell you...I can honestly say I've never gotten a Colt with what I'd consider a bad trigger. Not a commercial one, anyway; have a couple GI mixmasters with some pretty bad triggers, but they're also not Colts, and were undoubtedly assembled by 19 year olds bored out of their skulls in an assembly line of a GI refurb, so...

It's a late model CCU, was built in September of 2022.

The new parts didn't really help except the trigger pull is a bit lighter.
Had to use the Colt sear spring so there would be a tactile reset.
C&S spring was just too light.

There is still some kind of fitment issue or binding involving the grip safety.
Frame was decently clean but I degreased it before installing new parts.

Slide was not goopy.

My son is going to take a look at it later and see what he thinks.

It may go to a local smith who speaks 1911, if I can find one.

Ok, but which CCU

There's a railgun, a gov't model, and a CCO, all are Combat Units.

Not that it should really matter between them, but my understanding was that the rail guns got extra attention before leaving the factory...no idea if the others do, or if that's even true anymore.

If you have another 80 series somewhere, try swapping the parts into that, see if the grit follows the parts? It might be something like the trigger track in the frame has a piece of grit or a burr in it...

The factory grip safeties aren't the greatest if I'm honest. They tend to be a little undersize (so they plop in easier I guess) and can rattle around...the first thing I usually do with a new Colt these days is tweak the right most leg of the sear spring to apply a little more pressure against the grip safety; that tends to stop it from rattling and making noise.

Dunno what to tell you; between the Combat Units and the Combat Elites, they're Colts almost-perfect fighting guns straight from the factory...checkering, night sights, beavertail, etc. It might even be worth dunking the whole lower in an ultrasonic bath after detail stripping; there's really not a whole lot of moving parts and for them to be gritty makes me think that they didn't blast out everything from the frame. Maybe there's a catch on the back of the trigger bow, or the bottom side of the disconnector? Maybe some flashing that wasn't ground off or something? Maybe some dirt in the S80 lever track in the frame? I'm kind of just guessing here since I don't know how far down you've taken the frame. I'm assuming you detail stripped it entirely and went over everything looking for burrs and etc, but not everyone is comfortable detail stripping an 80 series...

Good luck, hopefully it's something small. You might try removing the trigger from the frame and running a q-tip on the inside trigger tracks; see if there's any burrs that yank the cotton. Same around where the S80 levers would be on the inside of the frame...

It's a Rail Gun and yes I completely stripped and cleaned frame.

My son and I are going to take it apart again tonight and take another look at it.
Going to focus on clearance between grip safety and rear of trigger bow when grip safety is depressed.

It's fixed.

My genius gun mechanic son figured it out quickly.

Grip safety "tab" was not completely clearing the back of the trigger bow when the safety was depressed.

A little bit of file work and putting it back together a couple times to check the fit was all it needed.
He also perfectly set the over travel adjustment on the Harrison flat face trigger.
We left the Cylinder & Slide series 80 parts in place but used the Colt sear spring because
the reset was better.

Maybe the grip safety casting was never properly trimmed prior to finishing.

Also it was obviously never fitted to this pistol when it was assembled initially.

Also it was never actually inspected by the gunsmith at Colt when I sent it in, or he would have
figured it out.  

It's going to be a great 1911 now and I'm also a super proud dad too !!

@RogerRoger

Great news!

Yeah - Colt first used the S&A grip safety then quickly set about making their own copy...which was a copy set at %95 - it's shrunk enough in most dimensions to just drop on a frame without any work to it. Hence why from a distance it looks like someone fit a grip safety to it...then you get within 5 feet of it and go "oh."

Usually the "issue" with the grip safety is the sear spring leg that contacts it isn't bent far enough, so the grip safety just rattles about, under no spring tension until you start pressing it in...having it not clear the trigger bar is a new one on me! I'll keep an eye out for that one

I shot it yesterday and it works great.
No problems with grip safety, it was a good fix.

Shot some S&B FMJ and some 230 gr. HSTs.
No malfunctions.

Trigger is still a little heavier than I like but I'm spoiled
by my Gold Cup and my old Series 80 Limited 10 race gun.

Reset is positive and I like that.
Probably don't want that light of a trigger in
a duty type 1911 anyhow.

More shooting is required.

Glad you got it working.
Mine is great!!
Attached File

The trigger on my new Commander is absolute dogsh_t.  It's consistently over 6.5 lbs.  My Tisas had a nicer factory trigger pull, even before I improved it.  Now, someone might chime in and say it's within spec, as if that matters, and even if it is I don't care.  It's a pretty bad pull weight for a single action 1911 trigger especially one with the name Colt attached to it.  

I'll be detailing stripping this one to check for the grip safety drag problem, so thanks for that info.  

Check for any burrs in the trigger bow channels too.

Mine had some slight burrs that I cleaned up with a file while we had it apart.

Thanks, did that, as well as a light polish job on the trigger bow, disconnector, and sear spring along with a deep clean of the entire gun and deleting the Series 80 parts.  Maybe I didn't need to delete the Series 80 parts but that initial trigger pull kind of pissed me off.  The pull went from 6.5 to 4.75, so it's a significant improvement and I'm calling it good enough.

I added Cylinder and Slide Series 80 parts in mine but used the Colt sear spring because I liked the reset better.

Follow up:

I still have not changed out the rest of the stock trigger bits with Cylinder & Slide parts.

However, the stock trigger seems to be getting better the more I shoot it.
It's decent enough that I may not do anything else too it except keep shooting it.

That makes me think the bow channel in the frame wasn't looked at by the assembler at Colt. It wouldn't hurt to check for rough machine marks in there.

You say that kind of like it's a bad thing but Colt Sear springs are known as one of the best available and from what I understand, most good gunsmiths do not replace them, even when doing a full custom trigger job.

Glad your son got it worked out for you

I wish Colt would produce more of these - they're available and then gone for what seems like years.

I guess I should snag one of their 1911 Classic Pistols before they dry up like all of their other 1911s that seem to come and go.

I did check the trigger bow channel and there were some rough spots.

Tried to smooth them out as best as I could with a small file.