Today we are accustomed to seeing sub-compact 3.5″ 1911 pistols for sale from a whole bunch of manufacturers – but this was not always the case. Making a really small 1911 actually run reliably is not a trivial proposition, as the slide velocity and spring force become very touchy, and small changes can have major repercussions. The first company to get the kinks out of the mechanism and bring an effective pistol to market was Detonics. Their MkI has a number of interesting features that were quite novel at the time.
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