Howdy
I have heard nothing about the new Comabtmasters being series70 or 80. The Series reference is actually a Colt term. It refers to a modification made in the early 1980s (I think) to the Colt 1911. A S80 Colt 1911 has an extra safety that will not allow the firing pin to contact the primer unless the trigger is pulled. in other words if you drop the gun and the sear nose breaks off she SHOULDN'T go BANG. The S80's had some issues when the triggers were tuned up, mainly that it was much more difficult to get a good trigger pull due to the extra "stuff" that was haveing to move everytime you pulled the trigger. Long story short, most people deactivated/removed the offending parts and some of us even learned to do a good trigger job with them intact(liability and such). ALL the combat/score/service masters were of the basic 1911 type action and function method. I would not be surprised if the new guns did not have some new safety features due to the sue happy nature of the world.
I have a Servicemaster(commander size) and 2 different Scoremasters(Gov model size). I also about 15 other 1911 type guns from different makers.(myself included) NONE of them even come close to the quality and function of the Detonics products. In my oppinion you would VERY hard pressed to find as good a gun as a used Scoremaster with out spending twice the money. I am talking about only the Seattle guns. the New Detonics stuf is another story. As to features, most of the "features" you see on the new guns were pioneered by Detonics.
I have a Scoremaster and a combatmaster in .451 mag. The Combatmaster is pretty rare so I don't think you would want to go shopping for one. The Scoremasters are more common. The round was developed for the bigger guns but the public wanted it in the small guns also. Sid Woodcock told it best, he told me that after shooting a 451combatmaster 30 or so rnds the normal person would start to experience some jams. Give your wrist about a thirty minute break and then the gun will function again! The recoil of a Combatmaster is NOT anything like a typical 1911 .45. Due to the super fast cycle time of the slide your hand/body/mind doesn't really have time to register the kick. I had a Combatmaster in 38super that I thought kicked worse than the 451. Anyways the .451 is pretty much like all the other "new" 45 supers out there. The 451 do show up now and again on gunbroker. Detonics USA may make the 451 again as it seems that the public is wanting that type of gun.
I have never seen or talked to anyone that has seen an Escort. Could be a lost gun by now????
The Detonics guns come apart in the same manner if not easier than the standard 1911. The springs are very simple.
I don't post pictures because I a computer dummy, All of my best computer work was done using the 1000 monkeys method, if ya know what I mean!
L8r
Conley Janssen
USMC 87-93