Colt Mustang Pocketlite 380 ACP

The Colt Mustang Pocketlite. Lets Check It Out. (Watch Here)

 

Colt has been making .380 pistols since the early 1900s, and then in the late 80s they came out with a series of Colt .380s, and this is one of those. This is one of the, in fact, this is the Colt pocket light. This was actually introduced in 1992, because when they quit making these in the early 90s, the value on these really shot up.

But Colt decided to reintroduce their Mustang. The Colt pocket light, just like this. In fact, there are just very few differences, but we’re going to talk about the Colt pocket light, and we’re going to talk about a few of the differences with the new pocket light that’s available now.

You can still find these old ones on the market. Also considering that this is the .380 Colt automatic pistol caliber. God made man, Sam Colt made him equal.

Six in the magazine, one in the chamber. They do only come with one magazine, the traditional ones, but the new Colts have two magazines. They’re stainless steel.

The slide is stainless. The frame is aluminum alloy. A lot of these little small pocket pistols that are introduced in .380 are polymer framed, and they’re super thin, and to be honest with you, they can be a bear to shoot.

They’re just not a lot of fun at the range. They’re real thin, great for concealed carry, but really difficult to get those second, third shots off accurately. One of the things about the Colt is the grips are just a little thicker and fuller, and I love the way this gun shoots.

The recoil is not bad at all, and one of the things about this is it is not a blowback design. Most of your polymer .380s, in fact all that I know of, are just a standard blowback, and that means the recoil forces the slide back, and then it just ejects the round, the empty casing, and then comes back into battery. This is a lock breach system, very similar to the government models.

There are some internal differences, but pretty much the feel, all the controls are the same with your 1911s. There’s no grip safety, but there’s definitely a small beaver tail that’s built into the frame. Plus, you can really get your hand way up on this pistol.

With the commander style hammer, you’re coming into the beaver tail, so there’s not really a danger of hammer bite, and your bore axis is pretty low with the pistol. The grips are a nice polycarbonate with the rampant Colt logo. You have a very positive safety here, and then you have your slide release and your mag release.

The mag slips in easily, and comes out easily. It has a rounded trigger guard, so it just keeps it nice, and the lines are very smooth on the pistol. Now one of the main differences between the new and the old Colt pocket lights is that even though this is stainless, it’s a cast stainless.

The new have a CNC lay, they’re forged from one bar stock of stainless steel, and also the barrel. These slides are cast. There were a few issues with them, but I have had, like I’ve said, I’ve had this since 1992, and I have never had any functioning or reliability issues with this pistol, ever.

I really love it. One of the things though that I did find was the safety. When firing the gun, once you depress the safety, if you leave your hand right here with your thumb under the safety, sometimes the safety will actuate, and then you’re going, okay, what’s going on? One of the things that I figured out really quick was when I grabbed this pistol, click the safety off, just hold it down.

This also gives you a little better gripping surface when firing the pistol, especially with multiple shots. The sights themselves are just a dovetailed blue sight on the back, and then at the front, just a small ramp. Here’s a good picture of the sight itself.

It’s really easy to point, and these are really accurate. One of the things I really like about these sights is it’s very reminiscent of the early government 45s, the way the sight picture is. For me, being a 45 shooter, most of my life, this really just feels at home.

I had no trouble finding my sights right away with these sight systems, and really, because it is a concealed carry pistol, I mean, obviously, pocket light just refers to it being in a pocket. These sights need to be snag-free, and yet, it’s a lot better than many of the small polymer frame pistols that you’re seeing now. It’s 13 and a half ounces unloaded, so it’s really light, really handy in your pocket.

One of the things about the grip, and you’ll see that it is a fairly short grip, and I can get two fingers solid around the bottom. With a magazine, I can kind of catch my pinky on the bottom. There’s no checkering on the front or the back strap, but the aluminum finish, and it’s a brushed finish, there’s a little bit of grip to the pistol.

No, it’s not quite as good as it would be if it was checkered, but to be honest with you, I really like the way this feels, and it really stays in place in your hand. One of the things I really love, though, about this pistol for concealed carry is that it’s really nice, and it actually feels your hand a lot better than those super thin polymer micro pistols. You get a really comfortable feel.

You can really follow up with second shots, and plus, it’s a lot of fun out at the range. More fun at the range translates into better shooting, better accuracy, and more confidence with your pistol. Now we’re smoking.

One thing I really like, too, about this pistol is there’s no magazine disconnect. There’s no grip safety. On the old Colt 1911s, you have your grip safety.

This allows you to shoot and to function the pistol even without the magazine, which I really like. The thickness of the slide is 11 sixteenths of an inch, so it is really nice and thin. Now this is a totally single action pistol, just like all of your 1911s, so when you pull the trigger, it does not actuate the hammer in any way, so you need to pull the hammer back.

You can keep it cocked and locked. I wouldn’t really recommend that because this safety can come uncocked very easily, and without a grip safety, you really are going to be taking some chances, but it does have a half-cock feature, so you can disengage the safety, bring it down very carefully, lift it, and then you’re going to have a block in case the gun is dropped. So if you need to take a shot, you can pull it out, pull the hammer back, and then fire the weapon, and that’s really the way I carry this pistol.

Of course, if you choose not to keep one in the chamber, it’s really easy to go ahead and cock the pistol and be ready to fire. Now with the old Colt, you do have a plastic trigger. The new ones have an aluminum trigger, and all the parts of the old will interchange with the new.

So if you want to put one of the new aluminum triggers, you can do that. Any of the other parts, including the magazine, are interchangeable with this pistol. And that was purposely done by Colt to make sure that this remains a viable option and you can get replacement parts.

Now of course, just the fact that it’s a Colt, you know the price isn’t going to be cheap. These run $599, manufacturer suggested retail. And this is for the new pistol.

Before they came out with the new one, many of these were running in the $800 mark. Now the only model they’ve introduced so far is the pocket light, but this is the smallest, most compact. And a lot of the reasons why this came back because of the concealed carry all across the country, this just makes an excellent concealed carry option.

The Colt Mustang in .380 ACP, a vintage piece, but still relevant today and an excellent concealed carry option.

 

Be strong, Be of good courage. God bless America. Long live the Republic.

 

-Don