In our February print issue’s “From The National Firearms Museum” spread, featuring two .45-caliber semi-automatic handguns, the text used was intended to run with a photo of a different pair of interesting pistols. Here are the correct photo and correct text—together at last.
The final shots fired between Colt and Savage in the U.S. service pistol trials began at 10 a.m. on March 11, 1911. Colt serial no. 5 pistol and Savage serial no. 4 pistol went to the firing line, and 6,000 rounds later, the Colt had survived virtually unscathed. Not so for the Savage, which had to have several components replaced. After more than a decade of testing and evaluation, the Colt automatic pistol—caliber .45, model of 1911—had won. This image marks the first time that these two pistols have been together since that last day of competition more than 100 years ago.
NRA’s National Firearms Museum is now showcasing “America’s Pistol,” an exceptional collection of trials pistols, on loan from the National Park Service’s Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Massachusetts. These national treasures, on exhibit at the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Va., until mid-March, allow serious arms enthusiasts and historians to view the actual handguns tested and evaluated as the nation’s military pondered the decision to select a new semi-automatic service sidearm. The Savage pistol shown here was donated to the National Firearms Museum collection by Taz and Bailey Brower.
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