10mm is the Best Millimeter: the Colt Delta Elite
Semiauto Pistols
•
9m 29s
Colt introduced the Delta Elite in 1987 to take advantage of the hype and publicity surrounding the 10mm Auto cartridge in the Bren Ten pistol. When the Bren Ten became such an ignominious failure, it left Colt in an excellent position as one of the first companies to actually have a viable offering in the caliber. However, the gun never sold particularly well despite its cult following, and it was removed form production in 1996 because of poor sales. It was reintroduced by Coly in 2009 with a few incremental improvements, and remains available today.
Mechanically, the Delta Elite is basically identical to the standard Series 80 1911. It has a polymer guide rod and recoil buffer, along with a set of dual nested recoil springs to handle the more powerful cartridge. It was a reasonable reliably and durable pistol in stock form with stock ammunition, but suffered from reputation problems because of owners who enthusiastically tried to load and shoot the most powerful ammunition they could find, in pursuit of maximum power.
Up Next in Semiauto Pistols
-
Olympic OA96 Pistol: A Loophole in th...
In 1993, Olympic Arms introduced an AR-15 with a side folding stock, as well as a stockless - and buffer-tube-less - pistol version. They did this by relocating the recoil spring of the AR to a tube running above the barrel and receiver. It was a clever modification (although the execution left s...
-
Colt Checks out the Spanish Wondernin...
Star entered the Wondernine era in 1978 with their Model 28 pistol, a double action 9mm offering with 15-round magazines. It was one of the entrants in the first round of US military XM-9 trials, but unfortunately for Star was beat out by the Beretta 92. Star took feedback on its gun from the com...
-
Unique L-35 Lahti Target Pistol with ...
The Lahti L-35 pistol was adopted by the Finnish military with the intention of it replacing the Luger, although production was never great enough to accomplish that goal. Early in its production, a couple of special target models were made for field shooting use, and this is one of them (serial ...
