Why this is, I have no idea. It simply is ....

A modified 1911 & a Colt Officer's ACP

"With so many light years to go"

What you are looking at might be described as evolution in action. The pistol on the top is a modified model  of 1911 which, as the number indicates, came into use 110 years ago. Actually, the pistol originated in the late 1890s, was revised here and there and improved, and formally was adopted by the U.S. Army in March 1911. It reigned as our military sidearm until October 1986.

Special operations groups continued to use the 1911 until 2016, but dropped them then except for Marine Corps Recon battalions which still have the 1911 stockpiled. Some die-hards undoubtedly will carry them forever. A civilian variation became available no later than 1913, and a number of police officers carry them when allowed.

The slide on this particular pistol is a Colt with a Colt barrel and other internal parts. It dates to the 1960s and I obtained it in 2013. The frame is an Auto Ordnance. It came with who knows what for internal parts. It also dates to the 1960s and I obtained it in 2014. I swapped out the parts from the frame for some I prefer and think are of better quality.

All-in-all, that makes it a very modified 1911 ....

In an evolutionary sense, the lower pistol is a Colt Officer's ACP. It was introduced in 1985 and is a smaller variation of the full-size 1911. This particular one is vintage 1987, which I obtained "unfired" for a "pretty penny" in 2014. Other than the grips, it is a full-blood Colt through and through.

I designated the pistol with the mountain lion grips a one-of-a-kind commemorative a year ago when one of the big cats was captured on a trail camera about 40 yards from the Dakota house. I later acquired the eagle grips on the officer's model to spiff it up a bit. Although I shoot reasonably well with these grips, I do most of my firing using Hogue rubber grips with palm swells.

Both handguns are in .45 caliber and each has had a few hundred rounds put through it during the past few weeks. For some of us, there is nothing like trigger-time and burning ammo to relax/unwind/feel alive/put life into perspective/regain self-confidence and, most simply, to feel good about ourselves ....

Why this is, I have no idea. It simply is ....

"Lewis is still a good shot, and it is still a pleasure to watch him. 'I think my release is passing over into Zen,' he said once. 'Those gooks are right. You shouldn't fight it. Better to cooperate with it. Then it'll take you there; take the arrow there.'"

Novelist, poet, teacher James Dickey put those words into the mouth of Ed Gentry in "Deliverance," a story of four middle-aged men on a three-day canoe trip down a soon-to-be-forever-lost river. He was, of course, talking about archery.

Being an avid "old-school" archer, I can appreciate the notion of perceptually traveling with an arrow to a target. I also can identify with the concept in the sense of traveling as a bullet from a firearm to a target. With a bit of "perceptual tinkering," I even can place myself on the tip of the projectile.

With apologies to the Beach Boys: Fun fun fun unless big daddy takes the pistols away ....