Early 1911 Commercial Grips

[shooterm1]

was there ever a Colt factory - hard rubber grip - offered as an option for the early 1911 Commercial pistols?

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[2777]

Not that I know of.The hard rubber would be prone to chipping,especialy around the plunger tube. Bob

[shooterm1]

That's odd, because I cant think of one other Colt pistol or revolver from that era that wasn't equipped with the hard rubber grips at some point.

[Rob Greer]

The Colt 1900 had a smooth wood (walnut?) stock. The 1902 was the first Colt automatic model to have plastic stocks. (I have seen some 1902's with wood stocks, but not often and I don't know if those were original.) Then the 1903 and 1908 also had plastic stocks. (These may have both had walnut stocks as optional... maybe I'm only thinking of the military variant(?) Most often these models are found with plastic stocks.) The 1905 to the best of my knowledge did not have plastic stocks offered... every example I have ever seen had/ has wood stocks. I have been collecting for over 10 years now (not long by most standards) and have never seen seen a commercial 1911 with plastic stocks... until Colt's was using leftover military WWII inventory.

I suspect the early plastic stocks were simply more prone to cracking and other damage being attached to a .45 caliber pistol than the walnut stocks.