Arms, Armor and Militaria

.45 ACP. 3.5" barrel length. SN: CR15452. Matte stainless steel finish overall mounting Pachmayr black rubber wraparound grips and featuring a Pachmayr checkered rubber lined backstrap and no iron sights. Short recoil operated single action autoloading pistol fed by detachable single stack magazines. Left slide is engraved DETONICS .45/MK VII, while the address mark to the right frame reads DETONICS .45/SEATTLE, WA. Item mounts a brightly polished barrel and vertically serrated trigger. Additionally mounts an ambidexterous safety lever struck A.D. SWENSON/FALL BROOK. CALIF. Item comes in a vinyl soft case with gold DETONICS lettering printed to exterior.

In the early 1970s, when no such thing a Colt 1911 "officers" model existed, the only way to get a hideout sized 1911 was to have one "chopped and channeled" by a custom pistolsmith. Enter the Detonics company of Bellvue, later Seattle, WA that brought the compact concealment 1911 into its own and made it reliable as well. The guns featured shortened frames, slides and barrels to enhance concealability and the custom upgrades demanded by people like law enforcement officers who relied upon their firearms to to keep them alive. After filing for bankruptcy in the early 1980s, the firm was purchased and reborn under new ownership and continued to produce guns into the late 1980s. This is one of the latter day Detonics pistols, with the classic DETONICS 45 slide mark on the left, over Mk VII. The lower right of the frame has the model, location and serial number, as was standard on the mid to late 1980s production guns. Some of the special features of the Combat Master include the tapered, cone-muzzle bushingless barrel that would become a standard feature on later compact 1911s, a full-length recoil guide rod, a short spur hammer, a pinned in place extended beavertail grip safety and a specially contoured top rear to the slide that allowed for easy thumb cocking of a pistol carried in "Condition 2". This machining also pushed the rear sight of the standard production pistols forward about 1.25" from the usual location, which provided a better sight picture. The Mark VII pistols were produced without sights and with the matte stainless steel finish. Detonics would become a serious innovator in the production of stainless steel pistols. The pistol is accompanied by a single Detonics marked magazine. The Detonics came into its own as a pop culture firearm when it was used during seasons 1-3 of Miami Vice as Detective "Sonny" Crocket's back up gun, worn in an ankle holster. {MODERN}