Colt Defender [HD] Cleaning & Features

In this video, we'll be showing you how to field strip and clean the Colt Defender Series 90, as well as go over some features and details about the firearm. The Colt Defender hit the market in 2000, and they've become quite popular because of their 1911 styling and compact size while delivering the power of the .45 ACP round.

The Defender does comes in 9mm as well. The Colt Defender features low-mounted Novak sights, with a stainless steel slide and aluminum alloy frame. It has a standard slide lock/release and manual thumb safety, as well as a scalloped ejection port. The extended beavertail prevents slide bite and is attached to the grip safety.

The backstop safety has a slight ridge to make sure that it is fully depressed to fire the gun. The magazine holds 7 rounds, plus one in the chamber. This is a rugged, well-built firearms that serves its purpose of a powerful concealed carry firearm well.

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Here's a full transcript of the video if you'd prefer to read about the Colt Defender and how to clean it.

Today we’re going to be showing you how to fieldstrip and properly clean the Colt Defender Series 90. This is an extremely popular firearm that debuted in 2000. It comes in two different calibers: .45 ACP and 9mm. People love that it’s a compact 1911 that still packs the punch of a .45. Now we’re going to take it apart and clean it.

We want to make sure that this firearm is clear before we start working with it. So I’m going to eject the magazine first to make sure that there are no rounds in the magazine and then go ahead and get my slide catch so I can make sure there are no rounds in the chamber.

The Colt Defender doesn’t take down like traditional 1911’s. The Defenders have a different way because you don’t have a barrel bushing or a spring plunge, but you still have your slide catch. The slide catch is just a little notch and then there’s another little half-moon tip right there just behind the slide catch that you need to line up with the back of your slide catch right here.

That will allow you to then push through from the other side on the retention pin, which is part of the slide catch, and you’ll be able to then take your slide off. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to take my thumb and I’m going to brace the back of the handle. Then I’m going to take my fingers and I’m going to squeeze.

Now use your other hand to guide that little half-moon notch to the back and then push through from the other side and lift out. Then you can just set that off to the side. That’ll allow you to then take your frame and your slide apart. Now we’re going to work mainly on the slide, and I’m going to take the recoil spring off.

It is doubled so one part comes apart and the other will stay on. You don’t really want to take this apart too much again it’s just a hassle. Then you have your recoil spring plunger so take that out, it’s just below the barrel. Then with your barrel you want to take your barrel lug and you want to lay it down, push and it will come out the front of the slide.

You definitely want to get some cleaner in this barrel. I can tell you right now there is quite a bit of residue in there so what I use here to get that clean is Hoppes gun cleaner. It’s the Hoppes Elite Gun Cleaner, which does do a great job of taking off that excess carbon or the powder fouling and then also any kind of lead, copper, or anything like that but it does great.

Then I’ll run a patch through a lead just like this one and then swap out the barrel but what I’m going to do that is a whole lot easier is wrap my brush with cleaning pad. This is simple and it works. I always go in through the backside of the barrel or the bore side because what I don’t want to do is end up scratching or nicking my crown.

The crown is where the end of your rifling is towards the muzzle and what its going to do is disrupt your accuracy and then that’s just no fun not being accurate. So if you take your barrel out you definitely want to go in through the backside.

What I’m going to do so is wrap my brush in my cleaning swab then going to spray it a little bit with this gun cleaner and then just going to give the barrel on good go through. There’s still cleaner on this and as you can see some of that powder has already started to come off. I’m going to clean the feed ramp that’s on the back of the barrel and also near my lug.

Next I’m going to work on the slide. How I do that is usually with just a nylon brush. I have these gun cleaning brushes but you can even us a toothbrush. I’m going to scrub all the areas that look a little discolored even my slide rails. That’s a point of friction and you don’t want anything getting stuck in there and then disabling the slide.

Make sure you get underneath the bolt face because this is where a lot of gases will get released. It’s going to get dirty and you just want to make sure that you get it all out of there. When it comes to cleaning your bolt face, which is right where your firing pin hole is, you also want to scrub this area.

What I do for the bolt face is I just turn it upside down that way I don’t get anything inside the firing pin system. I just give this a little scrub and we just want that film to get on there of the gun cleaner that way you can start lifting up anything that too stuck on the metal.

After that’s done we want to address our frame. This is an alloy frame but that powder can still stick to it. So I’m going to take a little bit more of my gun cleaner and I’m going to go in all the areas where there’s going to be gas that gets released. As you can see on the top here there’s a little bit of discoloration so I’m going to go ahead and scrub there.

There’s the extension to the feed ramp you also want to get that. Again you want your rounds to go on to the battery correctly. Scrub the hammer, again anywhere where dirt can hide. Make sure to get inside your mag well because that’s important especially up towards where your trigger is and also getting your frame rails. This is a point of friction and you don’t want to have any kind of powder or anything gunking that up.

Now I can look and I can see different places where there’s a little bit of discoloration on the trigger and this probably is not powder fouling but its probably dirt. I’m also going to check underneath my hammer. As you can see there’s quite a bit of gunk and I’m just taking that gun cleaner and getting on a little film on the hammer that way you can start lifting it off.

While that’s sitting I just want to address something and I try to do it in every single one of my videos but a lot of a part that people tend to not clean is your magazine. It is just as important. You don’t have to clean it as often as you would your firearm but it is good to give it a once-over every couple months. 

I just wanted to show you real quick how to take the Colt Defender magazine apart. You want to take a punch and there’s this little pin right here and you just depress that and when you do that you can start moving your baseplate forward. There’s a little buffer pad right there and of course that holds onto the spring when you’re taking this off. You want to keep your thumb over that because your spring is going to start coming out.

Now I’m not going to go through the whole process of cleaning this it’s just like cleaning your pistol. You want to make sure that you scrub inside and then scrub down the screen spring even the follow. Again all kinds of dirt and stuff that can get in there then you want to wipe it all down. I’m going to use gun cleaner because I don’t really use oil and I would advise against oil as it tends to attract dirt and that excess powder so the next time you go to clean your gun you’re going to have to clean it even more.

The only time I use a little bit of oil is just time I use a little bit of oil is just to address the slide rails. Just going to get some of that gun cleaner on there. Scrub it down again any kind of metal part. I want to get this on there even your recoil spring bushing and all this stuff is subject to that gas blowback. Just make sure you give it a once-over and make sure it’s clean.

Now that we’ve done that were going to go back to where we started with the barrel and were going to start wiping it down and getting all the crud that easily gun clean has been breaking down. So I’m going to take my brush and go through it a couple times just enough to make sure I lift all that stuff off the rifling and of course going in through the back. I don’t want to disrupt that crown.

Now that it’s all scrubbed out were going to take another one with our cleaning pads and give that a run through. If you don’t clean your gun very often after shooting you might have to repeat these steps. If you clean your gun almost each time that you go to the range you’re only going to come out with a little bit of this. Just make sure that it is clean and as in looking down the barrel it looks like were pretty clean.

There’s gun cleaner and other aspects of the barrel on a barrel lug and on that feed ramp and just wipe it down. Then go with your barrel now and with the same cloth there’s not really too much powder residue on this and I’m going to start wiping down my slide in the areas that I can at least get with this cloth. Anywhere that you put that gun cleaner you want to make sure that you clean off. 

You may want to use Q-tips to get a little bit more into those slide grooves. Make sure that I’m picking up all that powder fouling so you can see there’s quite a bit in there. Any barrel grooves that are in the slide and also underneath right next to the bolt face. That way I can just make sure that I get all those little crevices. You don’t want to leave any of that stuff in your gun.

I’m just wiping down the bolt face around my extractor, and then I’ll give it another once-over making sure that everything is clean and wiped down and you’re done with your slide. Take all the other parts that I wiped down with gun cleaner and make sure those get cleaned off. Something I do for the spring is I’ll fold it in half, set the pad down on the spring and then just start turning the spring.

As you can see it starting to come out towards the other end of my fingers and that just makes sure that it gets all around it. You can see there’s a little bit on there and these are places that are good to clean. Make sure we get our recoil spring bushing.

We did put a bunch of cleaner on the slide so were going to make sure that we wipe all this down. Again I’m going to try and get anywhere I can with one of these pads and then the rest I’ll get with one of those Q-tips.

Wherever you put the cleaner you want to make sure that you address it. Something else you can do if you clean your mag well go ahead and take if you have one of these leads, and put a patch thought it even take little forceps and you can grab onto one of these and clean it our and again I just want to make sure that we wipe it al down.

Take one of my Q-tips again in anywhere it was just hard for me to get with that cloth. Make sure you got a little bit behind the trigger and also your mainspring housing which you can see in the mag well when you look down it. It’s a good idea to use the Q-tips so you have a little bit of length to get into those harder to reach spots on your frame, especially if you don’t want to do a full takedown of your firearm. 

Everything is wiped down and ready to put back together. So first what I’m going to do is take my barrel and make sure that my barrel lug is down and I’m just going to put it right into the front of the slide make sure that it goes all the way back and then of course flip that barrel lug back to the upright position.

Here is where it gets a little tricky, especially if you haven’t done any kind of work to your firearm. So make sure you put your spring bushing in there. Now when it comes to this rod, it’s the backing on it that goes onto the barrel lug. It is quite thin and also when you put it in it moves. You might have trouble putting this gun back together.

What we’re going to do is same way and this end with the spring that’s not locked down like this one, this is what goes in first. So go ahead and put that on and then if you can see this groove in this plate, that’s gong to go on top of the barrel, then start your spring and bring that barrel down.

The lug is now leaning to the right. But that barrel lug doesn’t seat to where you can actually put your extractor pin back in so you have to start to reconnect my slide and make sure that this is up. Sometimes you might have to push on that spring and then bring it back. Now looking through that takedown pinhole you’re going to see that barrel lug and I’m just going to kind of wiggle it and I can only see maybe a quarter of it.

I usually take a punch and insert that hole so you have something to guide that pin. That way when I start to push this pin in I can move that punch forward just slightly and of course you’re going to have to wiggle it. It is quite difficult.

They do make replacement parts for these and the replacement spring and spring housing is a lot easier to deal with. Now take the slide back a little bit to take that little hook that’s on the edge of the extractor and put it below the detent pin. Make sure that you get it to where that little half-moon crescent is again. Make sure that you line up that little circle with the edge of your extractor.

Now were going to go over some additional details about the Colt Defender. This firearm features low mounted Novak sights and these are metal sights with standard three white dot sights. Of course you can get aftermarket sights for these and even though they’re low mounted they do stick up quite a bit.

The slide is stainless steel and this one has a stainless finish on it and the barrel is also made from stainless steel. The ejection port is scalloped to make sure that the brass casings are properly ejected from the chamber.

Moving down into the frame, it is all aluminum and this one comes in a grey matte finish. You’ve also got some slide serrations here to help you rack the slide. Over on the other side of the firearm you have your slide catch/release and then here is your extended thumb safety, which is very easy to operate.

There’s an extended beaver tail to help prevent any slide bite and you’ve actually got a little bit of a ridge right here which helps make sure that this the grip safety is disengaged to fire the pistol. The trigger pull on this is pretty minimal and the trigger doesn’t have far to go.

Moving down into the grips you’ve got Hogue rubber grips on this model. Of course as with any 1911 you can change these out to your liking. Moving down into the magazine you’ve got a standard single stack magazine for those .45 ACP rounds. This one holds seven plus one in the chamber. If you want to carry eight, this firearm also comes in nine millimeter.

This is a great firearm for concealed carry or home defense that was made by Colt. They know how to make a great product and this is a heavy hitter. That’s it for today and until next time keep calm and return fire.