IZinterrogator
New member
I just can't figure it out. The hard part of a CCW to conceal is the grip, not the barrel. With a good IWB, the barrel disappears. Yet in the 1911 CCW arena, Commander-size weapons (4.25" barrel with full-size grip) and Officers' models (3.5" with compact grip) are the norm and few Concealed Carry Officer models (4.25" barrel with compact grip) are available. The CCO models are also usually priced much more than their Commander and Officer counterparts. In the DA/SA arena, Sig discontinued the P245 (3.9" barrel with compact grip) in favor of the P220 Carry (3.9" barrel with full-size grip). Am I missing something here? An old poll I saw on packing.org this morning showed most CCW holders there carried on their belt in some fashion that held the gun vertically (either IWB or OWB), which necessitates a shorter grip to hide under a cover garment. I carry a Colt Gunsite CCO 1911 daily that regularly hides under only a T-shirt due to the short grip. Anything longer in the grip department would cause me to rethink my CCW wardrobe. So why don't gun manufacturers make more CCO-sized weapons? The current ones are expensive because they have come standard with all the bells and whistles, the previous model Colt CCO was discontinued, and other gun makers are either lengthing the grip (Sig) or the grip shrinks in proportion with the barrel (Glock, XD). Would a Glock 19 barrel on a Glock 26 frame be too much to ask? Or a 4" barrel on an XD subcompact frame? I've seen the Glock 19/26 model in a gun mag article. It was a custom job by a gunsmith that could be easily done at the factory in the first place.
Personally, I think the P245 and the original Colt CCO were killed because they were virtually unknown. I never saw any ads for them in the gun magazines and I only saw two articles on the CCO and none on the P245. They could have gotten a lot of sales if they had pushed their attributes towards the CCW holder crowd. As it was, the first time I heard of the P245 was when I saw one at a local gun shop after returning from Iraq. I picked it up on the spot because of its barrel to grip ratio. No one else was buying because they had never heard of them in ads and the gun shop dealers weren't pushing them, instead concentrating on selling the flavor of the week. My first Colt CCO sat on the shelf at another local gun shop for a year before I had saved up enough to go buy it. Why weren't these weapons pushed more by their companies?
Personally, I think the P245 and the original Colt CCO were killed because they were virtually unknown. I never saw any ads for them in the gun magazines and I only saw two articles on the CCO and none on the P245. They could have gotten a lot of sales if they had pushed their attributes towards the CCW holder crowd. As it was, the first time I heard of the P245 was when I saw one at a local gun shop after returning from Iraq. I picked it up on the spot because of its barrel to grip ratio. No one else was buying because they had never heard of them in ads and the gun shop dealers weren't pushing them, instead concentrating on selling the flavor of the week. My first Colt CCO sat on the shelf at another local gun shop for a year before I had saved up enough to go buy it. Why weren't these weapons pushed more by their companies?
