Your favorite 1911

[mikegideon]

Would that be jacked-up AR uppers?

Cold

[sigmtnman]

Cold

and not so quiet.

[Caster]

Would that be jacked-up AR uppers?

Cold

and not so quiet.

Truth is truth. Crow is dish best served cold.

[quietguy]

and not so quiet.

One has to break out of their comfort zone every now and then.

[Caster]

One has to break out of their comfort zone every now and then.

Once upon a time, there was a young Caster who owned several 1911s and loved them and was quite comfortable with them. A negligent discharge awoke him from his slumber. A Colt that would fire when the magazine was inserted was enough to entice the young man to seek his protection elsewhere. He found a world of plastic fantastic and much to his dismay he discovered how inept his shooting skills had been all along. His inability to accurately and quickly engage range targets were not a function of his inability or lack of skill but a direct result of improperly fitted equipment.

I have this thing that once a gun fails me, I banish it for life. Many times with all it's constituents. I had a Garand explode in my face once. I guess it makes me a heathen that I don't like them either.

Edited September 26, 2012 by Caster

[charlessummers]

I've heard no one say anything good, bad, or ugly about the $400.00 Rock Island Arsonal. I'm thinking that I may look at one of these, but then again... I'd hate to buy it, then realize that I should have bought the SR1911.

There does seem to be mixed reviews on the Ruger though... everyone that has the RIA seems to be happy. What say you? (I hate that phrase, lol)

[mikegideon]

I've heard no one say anything good, bad, or ugly about the $400.00 Rock Island Arsonal. I'm thinking that I may look at one of these, but then again... I'd hate to buy it, then realize that I should have bought the SR1911.

There does seem to be mixed reviews on the Ruger though... everyone that has the RIA seems to be happy. What say you? (I hate that phrase, lol)

If you're gonna look at RIA, you need to take a look at American Classic too. D&T carries them. Great pistols for the money.

[charlessummers]

I may be in that area this weekend. I'll check them out. Thanks!

[quietguy]

You may want to check out Bellshire Hardware. They usually have a great selection of Rock Island's.

[Moped]

I have a Springfield Loaded 1911A1 in Stainless, that has been an awesome pistol for me! It's accurate and as reliable as my GLOCK 17 has been. I doubt I ever get rid of it. Don't think you can go wrong with a Springfield.

[mikegideon]

You may want to check out Bellshire Hardware. They usually have a great selection of Rock Island's.

I was in there today to buy a post hole digger. Barely got out of there unscathed . Turned into a 30 minute gun conversation, even though I avoided the counter.

[charlessummers]

You may want to check out Bellshire Hardware. They usually have a great selection of Rock Island's.

Where is Bellshire Hardware?

[hipower]

Just a bit South(?) of Old Hickory Blvd/ Dickerson Foad intersection.

[BigK]

I'm wanting a full size 1911, in .45 acp and there are MANY choices!

If you were in the marlet to buy one, what would you choose and why? I'm personally leaning toward either the Ruger or the Remington. Ruger, because I like Ruger for their reliability, and Remington because I've actually held it and, well... that's all it took. I know I need to go out there are see which one I like and hold and shoot as many as I can, but like I said... there are many choices. I'd just like to get a concensus as to what you like so I can narrow them down a little.

Uses would be of course, shooting outside, in the range, and whatever. I'm not planning on carrying it right now, as I've got more than a few carry weapons.

I think anyone looking for a 1911 is pretty lucky to have so many choices in so many price ranges and most seem to be pretty good. The only one I've owne is my current one, a Ruger SR1911, so I'm no 1911 expert. I've seen a lot of shows and read a lot of articles about them in the past year (100th anniversary and all), though.

Something that I keep hearing over and over is how the cheap ones and the old ones that have loose tolerances are more reliable, but the tighter ones that are typically hand-fitted are much much more accurate. I can't confirm this, so I'd love to hear someone with experience with both ends of the price tag range about this.

Where is Bellshire Hardware?

It's just south of Old Hickory Blvd on Dickerson Pike. Good fella and great prices. Last time I was there he had nearly half a dozen very fairly priced RIAs and ATIs.

3837 Dickerson Pike, Nashville, TN 37207

[RichardR]

I think anyone looking for a 1911 is pretty lucky to have so many choices in so many price ranges and most seem to be pretty good. The only one I've owne is my current one, a Ruger SR1911, so I'm no 1911 expert. I've seen a lot of shows and read a lot of articles about them in the past year (100th anniversary and all), though.

Something that I keep hearing over and over is how the cheap ones and the old ones that have loose tolerances are more reliable, but the tighter ones that are typically hand-fitted are much much more accurate. I can't confirm this, so I'd love to hear someone with experience with both ends of the price tag range about this.

It's just south of Old Hickory Blvd on Dickerson Pike. Good fella and great prices. Last time I was there he had nearly half a dozen very fairly priced RIAs and ATIs.

3837 Dickerson Pike, Nashville, TN 37207

Typically yea the looser they are the more reliable they tend to be, the tighter the fit the more accurate they tend to be, there are exceptions but that is generally the case.

My personal favorite is my Colt Combat Commander, it sounds like a rattle if you shake it but it'll run all day, all night, day after day, year after year without a single hiccup or complaint, even as loose as it is it is still considerably accurate though, which is probably why I love the dern thing so much.

[charlessummers]

Too bad they close at 5:00pm on the weekdays... that's *sort of* on my way home from work! Spent too much time taking my daughters car to the dealership to have work done to take any more time off this week. Maybe I'll sneak out there this weekend when my wife isn't looking.

[timcalhoun]

Something that I keep hearing over and over is how the cheap ones and the old ones that have loose tolerances are more reliable, but the tighter ones that are typically hand-fitted are much much more accurate. I can't confirm this, so I'd love to hear someone with experience with both ends of the price tag range about this.

I had always read that too, but knew that it was not the case. Heck Bill Wilson built his career/company on his reputation of building tight and utterly reliable guns for IPSC in the 80's. (When he was building guns that is) I started to do some research on the subject as far as the mil-spec guns and wrote this for our 1911 social group forum.

http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/50777-“jmb-designed-the-1911-to-be-loosesloppy-so-it-was-reliable/#entry792278

The truth as I see it:

A "loose" gun can be accurate and reliable or inaccurate and un reliable.....depending

A "tight" gun can be accurate and reliable or inaccurate and un reliable........depending

[McAllyn]

Something that I keep hearing over and over is how the cheap ones and the old ones that have loose tolerances are more reliable, but the tighter ones that are typically hand-fitted are much much more accurate. I can't confirm this, so I'd love to hear someone with experience with both ends of the price tag range about this.

I tend to look at like this analogy:

"A Chevy Impala is a decent car. With mild care and maintenance, it'll get you to work and back home safely every day.

Tune one to run for NASCAR, and it'll run like a scalded dog, but... you need to have a team of mechanics tuning it and performing very high maintenance to keep it running every single day."

Get a Wilson Combat, Nighthawk, Ed Brown, or super tuned monster from one of the custom builders and run that thing the way it was made to run... and you'll need to keep up a decent maintenance schedule. Start with a cheap loosey-goosey beater, and you'll get to skip a few cleanings here and there.

Mac

[timcalhoun]

Tune one to run for NASCAR, and it'll run like a scalded dog, but... you need to have a team of mechanics tuning it and performing very high maintenance to keep it running every single day."

Get a Wilson Combat, Nighthawk, Ed Brown, or super tuned monster from one of the custom builders and run that thing the way it was made to run... and you'll need to keep up a decent maintenance schedule. Start with a cheap loosey-goosey beater, and you'll get to skip a few cleanings here and there.

Mac

You know, I just can't disagree more. I have no idea what needs to be tuned all the time. If you are talking about the extractor, just get an aftec and change the springs every 4-5k and that is all you'll ever need to do.

Edited September 27, 2012 by timcalhoun

[Jonnin]

I've heard no one say anything good, bad, or ugly about the $400.00 Rock Island Arsonal. I'm thinking that I may look at one of these, but then again... I'd hate to buy it, then realize that I should have bought the SR1911.

There does seem to be mixed reviews on the Ruger though... everyone that has the RIA seems to be happy. What say you? (I hate that phrase, lol)

Well, then, I will say it. I have shot a couple and they were fine. Nothing fancy, but they worked, hit point of aim, feel well made, and can't be beaten for the price period. On top of that, you will NOT hear anything bad about them from a legit source. You might run across some snobbery but you won't hear about them failing to work or having constant problems. The ruger is throwing some competition at them, before that, they dominated the inexpensive 1911 market with a great product at a great price.

Something that I keep hearing over and over is how the cheap ones and the old ones that have loose tolerances are more reliable, but the tighter ones that are typically hand-fitted are much much more accurate. I can't confirm this, so I'd love to hear someone with experience with both ends of the price tag range about this.

I am not a 1911 expert, but some of this is who you talk to. Accurate to some 1911 shooters is less than a 2 inch group at 50 yards, sometimes closer to 1 inch! Because of the nature of the competition 1911, you will read things that are referring to these levels of accuracy, so sometimes you are hearing about a loose, inaccurate gun... that can make a 3-4 inch group at 50 yards. If it were any discussion except for a 1911 competition gun, that would be called "very accurate" by anyone here. As soon as people start talking 1911s though, the competition gold standards apply. So, some of what you hear can be ignored unless you want to compete with your pistol.

Really from rock bottom to top of the line, then, that is what you are talking, about a 50% reduction in group size at long ranges for competition shooting, when talking accuracy vs price tag. Which means that unless you are very good, at typical handgun ranges, the only difference a casual shooter will notice between a $4k competition model and a RIA will be the near perfect trigger on the high end model. The triggers on the better guns are SWEET, by the way. To notice the difference in accuracy, the shooter will need to be very good, using very good ammo (handloads tuned for the gun), and shooting at least 25 yards out.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Jonnin

[mikegideon]

You know, I just can't disagree more. I have no idea what needs to be tuned all the time. If you are talking about the extractor, just get an aftec and change the springs every 4-5k and that is all you'll ever need to do.

The aftec extractor is a cool part. I'm not sure I'm enough of a man to wear out the Ed brown extractor you put in my gun . Thanks again, BTW.

[Richard995]

The only 1911 I have ever used is the one I have and the one I used in the military.

[BigK]

Good stuff.

@ the OP, with all this info and expert opinion, I'm curious to hear what you settle on.

[gnmwilliams]

My favorite 1911 is any 1911 in my hand. But I will say that I love my SR1911.

[bucnball]

I have a Para GI Expert in stainless that I bought in a local pawn shop for $499 plus Tics/Tax that shoots tighter groups than my Colt Mk IV that has been a favorite of mine for years... Check out the used guns @ your vendors if you can...Good Luck!