Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

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The competition of the Savage was a good thing. During the field tests, which ran from 1907 into 1911, the Savage was good enough to show that the original 1905 Colt design could use substantial improvement. Browning, 52 years old at the beginning of the tests, worked with Colt, making changes to the design as the continuing testing indicated they were needed. The result of the changes was an increasingly superior Colt pistol.

The final test was a 6000-round endurance test, held during March 1911. Pistols would cool after every 100 shots, and would be inspected, cleaned and oiled every 1000 shots. Both pistols fired over 1000 rounds without problems, but as the shooting continued, the Savage developed problems with malfunctions, and parts defects appeared. The refined Colt fired shot after shot, 100 after 100, 1000 after 1000, until the full 6000 rounds were completed without a stoppage or parts problem.

The tests were a milestone in the development of the semiautomatic pistol. The end result of four years of extensive testing was the most reliable large-caliber pistol in the world. The final report on the Colt stressed “its marked superiority…to any other known pistol.”