Colt M1911 machine pistols

Posted March 29, 2010 in NFA / Suppressors / Class III, Pistols by Steve Johnson with 40 Comments
Tags: 1911, Colt, handguns, machine gun, machine guns, pistol

Back in the 1930s Colt developed a few experimental fully automatic M1911 pistols. It is hard to believe that anyone thought that a .45 ACP machine pistol was a practical idea!

Note the Thompson Submachine Gun forgrip

The most famous fully automatic 1911 would have been John Dillinger’s which was chambered in .38 Super. His was a standard 1911 which he had modified so that it would be fully automatic.

Dillinger’s full-auto converted .38 Super. UPDATE: Some commenters have questioned if this photo is in fact of Dillinger’s gun.

More full auto .45′s over at Casatic.

Steve Johnson

I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!