Colt MK IV/Series 80 Mustang Plus II .380

oscarflytyer

oscarflytyer

Well-Known Member
Colt MK IV/Series 80 Mustang Plus II .380

Have an opp to pick one up from a buddy. DOM 1992. Stainless. One mag (far as I know now).

This is the 7 (+1?) gun/longer grip. I have always wanted a Mustang. This one is supposed to be somewhat rare/collector interest, but for me would be a carry/shooter. And sure I can get it right. Only thing I am seeing in my research is that it might have reliability issues. IMHO - that just means get the right bullet for it - no big deal.

With all that, anyone have any glaring reason NOT to pick it up, and/or to carry it? Thanx
 
I owned that exact model and I'm glad I don't own it anymore.

There's nothing rare or collectable about it, at least not enough to consider it valuable. Any rarity (if you could call it that) would merely be a function of the gun not selling well back in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

As a small single action auto, it doesn’t offer much. There’s a manual safety that’s very small and there is an internal passive firing pin safety but no grip safety. As a pistol carried for self-defense, it would need to be carried “cocked & locked” and that small safety lever is a bit of an impediment to getting to gun into action.

It is a locked breach design, which is a bit unusual for a .380 Auto, and probably unnecessary. I don’t recall the pistol being particularly accurate.

Mine was acceptably reliable with ammo it liked but outside of FMJ, you really had to find something it liked. The Mustang Plus 2 was a combination of the 380 Government Model grip frame with a short Mustang slide on it (Think Walther PPK/S).

The gun is solid but in today’s world of 9mm pistols, about the same size, WITH DA triggers, the Mustang doesn’t really stand out.
 
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My wife had the Coltguard finish Govt .380.
I had to trim the front wall of both magazines to get it to feed hp bullets.
It wasn’t that accurate with normal ammo, but wierdly shot better with 124 gr cast bullets loaded with a Lee Loader.
She finally traded it for a S&W Chiefs Special .38, then traded that for a Shield 9 mm- and she’s happy!
I cleaned a couple of Mustang .380s for a friend and was shocked to discover large casting flaws on the hidden side of the barrel breech!
BOTH pistols.
Not a fan of them myself.
 
The Colt 380 Government Model became the basis for multiple variants of the series which included the Mustang, Mustang Plus II and different finishes and materials. I would need to pull a book down to get the exact dates for each model, but they were made from the early 1980’s to the late 1990’s. Colt’s quality control during these years wasn’t known for its consistency.

In the 1980’s, the 380 Auto cartridge was a hot seller across the board and I’m sure Colt was attempting to get into that market. Some people will look at those Colt models and see a reduced size 1911 but other than outward appearance, the series shares little with a 1911. Mechanically there are numerous departures from the 1911 pattern.

In the late 1980’s if you wanted a small double action 380 pistol, you were looking at a Walther or a SIG if you had the money. Or something like a Bersa, Astra or double action AMT Backup on a tighter budget. If you wanted a single action pistol in 380 Auto, your options got a little wider with guns like the Colt Government 380, Colt Mustang, AMT Backup (single action), Bersa or one of the Spanish makers like Astra or Llama. If you wanted to go old school, there were (and still are) excellent guns such as the Beretta 1934, Colt 1903 and the original Remington model 51.

In today’s world we have an enormous selection of small, concealable pistols with double action capability that are chambered in cartridges more powerful than the 380 Auto. But prior to the introduction of the Kahr K9 series in the md 1990’s, the 380 Auto was the king of that market segment.
 
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I had a brief dalliance with a Colt Government Model 380 in the 1980s. It ran all right with FMJs and W-W Silvertips. Its one annoyance was the spring loaded ejector--you had to pet it down to replace the slide after cleaning, and if you overdid the push-down it was an iron-clad bee-otch to reset the critter. It and its female owner/operator's departures went largely unmourned.

Beretta and SIG 380s are better sidearms. Walthers could be fussy feeders. Our Admin Suits carried 380s with some frequency. One must be careful with 380 ACP pistols......they can raise quite a welt, which can re-motivate an attacker into completing the course of conduct upon you that he was contemplating prior to your attempted annoyance with the 380.
 
CZ, your comments always ring true and sometimes make me laugh. That one scored on all fronts.

The Interarms era Walthers were definitely interesting. If you got a good one, it would run flawlessly and they were very accurate. If you got a bad one, both functioning and accuracy were problematic. I don’t know if it was a factor of guns made on a Monday or Friday or if it was just luck of the draw. I saw good and bad examples, couldn’t predict a thing until you shot it a lot.

The SIG P230 and later P232 pistols were slightly larger than a PPK, which made them easier to shoot but slightly more difficult to hide in deep concealment (but not by much). The SIG’s functioned and shot magnificently. And the heel magazine release was a plus for a back-up gun where that one magazine REALLY needed to always be securely locked in place.

The Beretta models 84 & 85 (double stack and single stack respectively) are sort of large guns compared to other pistols chambered for 380 Auto, but they run perfectly, all the time, every time. If you could tolerate the larger overall size, the Beretta 380’s would never let you down. Of course, as CZ93X62 points out, the 380 Auto cartridge can be rather annoying to your attacker. If I was going to carry a pistol the size of a Beretta 84, I would step up to a more effective cartridge.

The older Beretta model 1934 was an all steel, single action pistol. They are solid and reliable pistols, but the safety can be a bit slow to operate, and they are strictly single action platforms.

If I HAD to use the 380 Auto cartridge, my first choice would be the SIG P230. My second choice would be a Walther that was proven to function reliably. If it had to be both open carry, and 380 Auto (I can’t really imagine what those circumstances might be) the Beretta 84 would combine flawless functioning, with good accuracy and high capacity. After that the list would get into the single action designs like the Beretta 1934, Colt 1903, FN 1910, etc.
 
oscarflytyer said:
Colt MK IV/Series 80 Mustang Plus II .380...
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Dang, man! I have avoided this thread because I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Should have at least looked.

Back in 84(?), a dear friend who mentored me at the Arsenal picked one up. He had fits with it and brought it to me to check out. I couldn't figure out what was actually wrong with it, but failures to feed/chamber were frequent and erratic. Never put a full mag through it without one or several hiccups.

He sent it back to Colt twice and they were rather rude about it, plus it did not seem that they had even looked at it or fired it.

He struggled with that thing for about a year, so I took him to Larry's and got him set up with a 4", stainless Security Six for something like $200. Problem solved.

As far as I know, he never bothered trying to sell it and he passed about two years ago, so that very one could be circulating in the used gun market locally still. I THINK his 380 was nickled, but maybe it was stainless. I don't know what options they offered at the time. The gun was cute as a bug and compact, which made it that much less capable at it's only practical use - as a percussion tool.
 
Jeff H said:
He sent it back to Colt twice and they were rather rude about it, plus it did not seem that they had even looked at it or fired it.
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That was not unusual for Colt in that era.

A friend related a story about a former co-worker that had purchased a 3rd gen Colt SAA.

The gun broke and he sent it back to Colt. They informed him that the 3rd Generation SAA revolvers were, “not intended to be shot”! I guess Colt sold them as really expensive ornamental display pieces????

And people wonder why Colt went through multiple bankruptcies.
 
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Only 380 I ever owned,or shot for that matter,is my bersa thunder.
Over 1000 rds fired threw that with lee 105swc,and lyman 358242,,,and have never had a malfunction.
And,it shoots 3 inch groups at 25 yards!!!
But,the little cuss scrapes the bark off the back of my thumb,,,after about 30 rounds,so I dont shoot it much,,,carry it concealed,nice and lite.
 
I AM THRILLED at all the responses! ALL of you saved me a ~$700 mistake! THANX!

OTH - same buddy also has a 1992 Colt King Cobra (not for me - I have a Ruger BH and Smith Highway Patrolman <as well as a Smith 38/44>), and the flashy Colt Snake guns aren't for me.

Having said that, I know where it (King Cobra) is, if anyone is interested. Can also send you a pic.

ps: I have a Beretta 82 BB .380, with 5-6 mags. I HATE the 92, but really like the 82. And I use the 82 as an EDC a lot during the Summer/warmer months. AI compared the 82 and the Mustang, and the 82 won hands down. Another reason I passed on the Mustang.)
 
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