A Rare Find: Series 80 Colt Mk 4 Goldcup National Match Custom

You never know what you'll find in the used section of your local gun store, and a few weeks ago this rang true when I found an interesting vintage 80 series Colt 1911.

I bought this piece used from a Cabelas that is roughly an hour and a half from home and known to me for having some neat and interesting pieces for sale as used guns, the day I saw this Colt was no exception. It immediately caught my eye due to the matched single port compensator on the end of the barrel, something that is rarely seen on 1911's especially those chambered in .45 ACP. The gun’s look harkened back to the matching Colts that Frank Castle uses in the 2004 Punisher film, a personal favorite of mine due to nostalgia and watching it frequently when I was younger. In addition to the compensator it has a Pachmayr thumb shield, flared magwell, Kart aftermarket barrel, and an enlarged magazine release.

I believe that it is highly likely that this was someone's custom built competition gun, however, a hunch is all I'll have for why this particular firearm is set up in this manner. Having said that this was a gun built for competition, I think this was most likely an iron sights open gun in either IPSC, USPSA, or Steel Challenge. All of which were popular in the late 90’s and 2000’s and still are today. 

In the late 90’s and throughout the 2000’s the community around shooting competitions was incredibly small, and even today it remains rather tight knit. Think of all the people in the US that own firearms, a small number of them go to the range regularly, an even smaller number have taken more than one class, and an even smaller number of those have taken part in an organized competition of any sort. Keeping in mind that in today's age we have the internet to assist us with finding and preparing for a match, in the early years it was mainly word of mouth and poster boards at your local gun shop or shooting range. I have hopes, they are not very high, that someone from that community will see this article and have some more information on this pistol and who the previous owner was.

This particular series 80 came off of the assembly line in 1986, four years after the introduction of the generation 1 Glock 17, and well into the height of the 1911's reign as the prefered handgun in the US. The main design changes from the previous 70 series to the 80 series are the addition of a firing pin safety, the use of a standard barrel bushing instead of a collet bushing, as well as a smaller grip safety. Having an MSRP of $1500 the gun itself would be considered an investment today, even more so when it was new in the 80s.

Having made a range trip this past weekend to test out the pistol I can confirm that the compensator is most definitely working as intended. Both the compensator's port shape as well as the additional weight on the end of the firearm work together to keep the gun much flatter than a standard 1911 is capable of. I believe that this is a custom compensator due to the typical style that has been available containing two or three ports, in contrast to this one's single port. The Kart aftermarket barrel showed up out at the range as well, proving that this is still an accurate gun, more than likely even more accurate than the Goldcup National Match has historically been from the factory, but without a factory barrel I cannot say. 

Other than the compensator the main other modification that stands out is the Pachmayr thumb shield on the left side of the slide. This is a very common addition to performance pistols that are specially tuned to function with low velocity or low recoil ammunition. With it in place it prevents your strong side thumb from riding along the slide and causing excess friction which could then cause the lower recoil velocity to not fully cycle the firearm. A more modern iteration of this concept is the “gas pedal” on today's open competition and race guns, however it is now commonly installed for the support hand thumb to be rested on and used to gain more leverage to keep the firearm flatter during recoil and follow up shots. After testing I can say that the thumb-shield did its intended job and kept my thumb off of the slide, however, depending on the individual user's hand size and grip this could be a non issue. Although with this part being $20 new it is a rather inexpensive assurance of performance. 

Lastly the enlarged magazine release and the flared magwell make speed reloads buttery smooth and fast. The magwell seems to be a common upgrade to the series 80's that people wanted to use in competitions. 

Ultimately, I purchased the firearm because it looks rad and is of a vintage that typically does not modify their firearms, we all have seen the memes about fudds and their guns. However, after handling it and looking into why it is set up this particular way I would very much like to get out and shoot a competition with it myself. I Hope that me using factory power .45 ACP ball rounds will continue to cycle the firearm reliably without causing excess damage if it has been specially tuned for a certain load. It is a joy to shoot and I will continue to take it out on range trips as the weather warms up, and am looking for a competition or two to use it in and revive its legacy as a competition gun.