Several friends have asked me to find out why Colt no longer makes the CCO, which stands for Concealed Carry Officer's Model. I have to wonder if any readers are also interested. This little 1911 variant is one of the slickest 1911 iterations I have ever seen. Colt made a number of them in the 90s, then followed up with a short run of Gunsite CCOs. They were very popular and are approaching cult favorite status. Basically, this gun was an Officer's ACP frame with a Commander slide fitted thereto. This gave the gun the length of a Commander and the height of a Defender.
The resulting pistol had a 4 1/4-inch barrel for performance and sight radius advantages, but a receiver that took a short 6-round magazine. The shorter butt was much easier to hide than a long one and the top end had all of the advantages of a Commander, particularly in the reliability sense. The Gunsite pistols were much preferred by concealed carry handgunners and bring top dollar in the secondary market.
Making one of these pistols is simply choosing the right parts. Colt currently makes everything required to assemble a CCO, so I am puzzled that they have not done so. If you want to write with your concerns about the availability of such a gun, write to me care of this blog. I will get your feelings to the right folks at Colt.
