Colt Tries DA/SA: The Colt Double Eagle (in 10mm) 

Ian disassembles 1,000 year old guns down to the last screw, but the Double Eagle... “I’m going to only take off the side grips to show you the flying paper clips, and hopefully I can put it back together” what a terrible design.

"Those are in fact eagles, not elephants"

Alternate title: "Lets talk about Colt Double Elephant in the Room."

"But I wanted a Deagle." "I did get you a Deagle."

_Colt: Minimal effort for minimal results™_

This is now the Colt Double Elephant in my mind.

Introducing the All New Colt "Double Albatross"! For when you're trying to fail twice as hard.

Looks like beretta 92 and a 1911 had a kid they dont talk about.

Colt's attempts to keep up with what everyone else did twenty years prior could be an entire playlist.

Me: "Why is he ragging on this thing so much? It looks pretty great!" Ian: *removes grip panels* Me: "Oooooh... well, damn."

So basically it’s the “New Coke” of the 1911 world lol.

Friend of mine owns an All American 2000. He tried trading it at a gun show a few years ago and couldn’t get squat for it.

As the British would say, "bit of a bodge".

I remember I used to have a BB gun version of this when I was a kid. The decocking lever acted as a really bad safety that just made the trigger harder to pull.

Maybe they should've named it the Half Ass instead of the Double Eagle, it pretty much sums up the design anyway lol.

Double seagulls on the side mean this is meant for the landfill.

That is a design that should have never left the designer's drawing board. Those springs were a total joke

Speaking of 10mm FBI trial guns, I'd love it if you could somehow track down the Thompson SMG in 10mm that the FBI tried. And take it to the range.

I bet the Elbonian military would love these!

I carried a MKII series 90 Double Eagle in .45 for a few years. It was a awesome weapon. Tack driver as well.

Let's be honest... the "next evolution" of the 1911 was the FN Hi Power, and later the CZ75/95. Colt failed to innovate much through the 20th century and it really hurt them later, and currently. Love the video Ian. The weird guns are always my favorite.

When you're comparing a Colt gun to a Llama Omni...ouch

"those are in fact eagles, not elephants." Thanks now I can't unsee that.

It's probably just me, but I've always liked the look of the Double Eagle.

I imagine some “manufacturer” from Khyber Pass watching Ian and cringing as he takes off the grips and those poor bits and springs falling out.

Well take down is easy. All you have to do is take off the grip frames, The gun does the rest of the work.

I like the way it looks, probably because it is literally a 1911 with a different handle

Bless you for showing what’s going on below the grips!

I had one of them, 0069. A piece shit. Only gun I ever had that failed completely. A spring actually rusted and broke.

Engineering has three angles: cheap, fast and good. And you can go after only two of them. The 'suits' left the good on the wayside as a roadkill.

I appreciate the fair and balanced treatment you give to the subjects you cover. Few things are either perfect or terrible, so it's nice to hear both sides from one source.

The DA/SA is the safest and most accurate style of pistol. Things went backward when the Glock 17 superseded the Beretta 92FS as the tactical sidearm.

Isn't weird that any firearm that Colt is famous for making is made better by other manufacturers

" The Colt is not as good as the S&W but more expensive." Well that is about as close as you can get to a universal truth!

I actually own one of those. It's worse than you describe. Can O' snakes not springs. The DA is long and heavy for a gorilla. I'm spitting distance from RIA, if you're in area want a shooting video of it PM me.

hey look, it's the official Carrington Institute sidearm

So the simple philosophy of "if it isn't broken don't fix it" killed this pistol then.

Both birds on slide have a T and look like a Thanksgiving bird . The Colt Double Turkey ? Yes .

Paper clips used in the mechanism, this sounds like an ideal gun for the Elbonian armed forces

Ian, I have a Double Eagle in 45 ACP, Officers model. I quite enjoy this pistol and it’s been very reliable. Thank you for your videos.

I own one, bought double eagle officer model, 2 years ago and think it’s not that bad. It’s part of my Colt collection ( 1903 .32 , 1911 series 70 .38 super, Pre- series 70 lightweight Commander .45 , Double Eagle series 90 .45)

Glad for you to talk about this! I've been curious about this firearm for a while.

Oh hey, I believe this is what the Falcon 2 from Perfect Dark was based on. While the FBI wasn't too impressed with this gun, it seems the Carrington Institute went all in and made it their agents' standard-issue sidearm. I can only imagine how disgruntled the agents must be, after seeing that partial disassembly. No wonder Jonathan used a Colt Python instead, lol

I've seen exactly one Double Eagle. The guy who had it collected odd and rare pistols. He specifically pointed out what a pain it was to disassemble, while he had a Papa Nambu spread out in front of him. He did say it was pretty good to shoot. He likes 10mm.

Those eagles look like they're high as balls, and have just discovered salt and vineger chips

I remember these. I didn't care for the feel of it. Thanks Ian. Another great evaluation. God bless all here.

I worked, for years, with a fellow LEO that owned two DA semi-auto pistols that were "big" for about thirty minutes historically speaking. The first that he purchased, and carried on duty, was a S&W in .45ACP and the second was a Colt's Double Eagle also in .45ACP (our department standard caliber at the time). Of the two pistols the Colt's was retired from daily carry in, if memory serves me, in 2000 while the S&W became his daily carry until his retirement in 2016 and remains his daily carry to this day while the Colt's is only taken out and fired now and then.

I wouldn’t take comments as complaints... we all appreciate the content and work you put into your content... anyone truly complaining doesn’t appreciate the love of firearms... from a fellow illinoisian I appreciate you!

Wow, what a way to end my birthday, Watching my favorite RU-vidr. Thanks Ian!

Thank you , Ian .

I own several Sig Sauer pistols and the basics of the trigger and decocker are remarkably similar.

These are actually really enjoyable to shoot.

I once modified one of these for a customer put a match grade barrel and bushing in then he wanted a Beavertail grip safety like a standard 1911 well you can imagine that wasn't really possible. In the end we settled on a Smith &Alexander magazine well extension, cut the plastic back strap to fit and everything worked great if memory serves me correctly I stoned and polished all the metal surfaces in the trigger mechanism and smoothed out the double action pull immensely and single action was super crisp. Wished I would have bought the gun after all that work she was a tack driver!

The Double Eagle was the single most accurate factory 1911 or variant I have fired. And the trigger was as good as a Beretta 92.

Intersting video. You are an articulate speaker.

Bought one brand new in .45 in the 90’s. Granted it’s a little weird but it’s accurate, has a smooth action and I’ve never had any problems in roughly 5000 rounds.

The slide guide thing tapering down and the trigger guard really make this funky lookin

I’ll take a Colt 1911 Defender over the Double Eagle because it’s basically the same stainless look, but simpler and cuter, and it’s released in 2000, so just in time for the millennium.

Ian: "I'm gonna leave that alone." Me: COWARD!!!

Sig really was the leader in DA/SA back then with their 226/228. S&W tried everything to copy but when I saw him remove that grip panel, that is identical to a 226 design

I’ve seen a lot of 1911 spin-offs that didn’t go well. You’d think colt would learn

For those who find the little "paperclip" wire springs disconcerting, have a look under the grip panels of an older SIG P226. The SIG P226 is one of the best double action autos ever made and it had an almost identical setup.

"In case you don't get it theirs two eagles" I spit out my coffee

And yet I still want it

I'll give Colt credit, they never gave up.

I'm a huge fan of the classic stylings of the 1911, and I love the look of the Double Eagle. I've never had the chance to shoot one, but would love to get one. The 1911 has always felt really nice in my hand. It just fits my hands nicely. So I think a Double Eagle would be a comfortable gun for me.

I was in the market for a .45 double action pistol back when the Double Eagle was introduced. I read a number of magazine reviews that described various problems it had, and went with a Smith & Wesson 4566 instead. I never regretted it. The Double Eagle became well known for having a whole slew of issues afflicting it.

thank you

Very unique Colt DA/SA 10mm firearm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am surprised Colt survived the 90’s they made kinds of blunders then that caused them to lose customers

They had some QC issues. My brother had a .45acp version. He sold it when it literally fell apart when he was shooting it. The firing pin retainer came out and jammed everything up. It could not get through more than a couple mags of ammo before some stoppage. I rarely use the term "junk" when describing a firearm, but a few examples were junk.

I have a first gen of this firearm (.45 version). Still oddly enjoy it.

I bought my Colt 1991A1 from the USMC and loved it. Great accuracy no problems feeding no jamming problems. I saw the Colt double Eagle at a gun show! I looked at it the former Marine let me break it down along with the grips! I said NOPE!!!! I sold my Sheriff buddy from college my Colt 1991A1 cause he didn't have a backup! I had and used my Smith and Wesson 4006 in Security when others used the same weapon in the 9mm. That 40 was a great gun in the 40 but had bad groupings with the 4 inch barrel. I tried all kinds of ammo. I eat the paper away with my Colt 1991A1. I sold it to another cop buddy of mine and got me a SIG Sauer P220 45 ACP And ate the paper away again. I carried that weapon through out my law enforcement and security Career. I just bought 6 years ago the new Sig Sauer P320 45 ACP. And that weapon I ate away the paper also. My Glock 40 and HP Browning 40 cal was good but a bitch to break down that dam action rod spring. It almost put my eye out! Took that back to the gun store. My HK Mark 4 45 ACP was great to that ate the paper away. I didn't care for the Beretta a fellow co worker had it in 40 cal. A former Marine to. I had to teach him how to shoot it. Not as accurate as Colt Sig HK and Glock! These are the best Weapons ever. 40 cal and 45 good cal. I would love to get a 10 mm in Glock in the 20. 15 rounds of 185 grain semi jacket hollow points trucking at 1300 feet per second OH YAA!

Ah, the IRL Falcon 2 from Perfect Dark 64. Would be awesome to have in a stainless steel/polished nickel and suppressed.

Hi ian and thanks for the videos

I recently saw one of these in .38 Super.

To be fair, it's contemporaries the P220 and frame-decocker S&Ws (1026/1076 and 4526/4576) also have pretty fragile looking springs hanging off the frame when you remove the grips. I've never heard of a P220 failing in the same way though. The frame-decocker S&Ws DID run into issues since while they were DA/SA from the start their frame decockers were kind of a bolted on afterthought that could cause problems as well, which was part of the demise of the FBI 1076s. S&W did fix those issues but ultimately quietly discontinued their frame decocker guns a few years after their introduction.

Ian always has the best things to say.

"We have deagle at home." Deagle at home.

The pistol is very accurate!

Pretty iconic gun

Kid: Mom I want a deagle Mom:We have a deagle at home deagle at home:

I've been into this darling and was a whole "stay still till needed" butt one of my favs encore...

Law enforcement legend has it that the motivator for adopting double action auto loaders in stead of the then US prevalent single action (ie 1911 style) was that the population was used to seeing police with a revolver, (hammer down) and that an officer carrying a 1911 style gun, cocked and locked, was viewed as "Gung ho" and ready to shoot someone.

Love me some DA/SA pistols. Carry one every Day.

Putting all that crap on the outside is such a kludge that I couldn't see any military or police service being happy about that.

Got to shoot a 45 DE last week, Decocker was very stiff. the owner never used that feature. He bought it 35 years ago, never took it apart either.

Until I saw that thumbnail, i thought this is going to be some tacticool double barreled desert eagle

Colt is like bob dylan there are lots hits but at the same many releases left the fans asking wtf?

*Picked up a Falcon 2*

Surely, part of the appeal of the 1911 is its long and distinguished military service? No army is ever going to buy something that has those little pieces of bent wire powering parts of the action where mud and dust can easily get to them. Even Elbonia would turn that down!

I SOOOO wanted the Officer’s Model of this 10mm. I think I might put that on my list of things to look for in upcoming Morphy’s or RIAC Auctions... That and a 1st Release Detonics Combat Master to replace the one my wife stole.

that's a cool looking pistol

Ian's extra snarky today, I like it!

This looks like a home garage design. It is hard to believe this is a factory made item.

"Guys, what if we put on the market what is basically a sloppy prototype? That can't possibly go wrong, right?"

Have you done the Seecamp double action pistols yet??? Those are some really interesting forgotten weapons. They worked and worked well too! I still occasionally carry a Seecamp 32. I think they were also the first ones to make a double action 1911. Its a really interesting story especially LW Seecamps WW2 experience and the company is still around making very good quality handguns.

So many of my cheap childhood spring loaded airsoft (back then softair) guns had that double eagle on it. It was used like a brand, sometimes also STAR thrown in. Somewhere is a Double Eagle Mac-10 and a SSP stored away in a box.

My cousin had one of these and I have always kicked myself for not buying it from him when he wanted to sell it. He just couldn't handle the full house 10mm rounds and I loved how this handled and shot.

From an armorer perspective it looks preferable than a 3rd gen smith, even accounting for the spring gymnastics