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Through a lot of personal experience within the military and my experiences with gun enthusiasts in the civilian world, the 1911 is a popular weapon. I'm personally not a fan of the 1911 as I prefer a greater ammo capacity in a carry weapon (8's fine for 1 Red but what about 2 red's?) but I'd like to hear from what other people say about their 1911's. It appears to me that it has it's issues when it comes to tuning it to a reliable stage. For example, how does a 1911 production gun fare against Glocks? I know there are a lot of higher end 1911's like Les Baer, Dan Wesson etc etc that offer improved modifications but at a price tag of over 1k and beyond, is it worth the investment?
I've shot a 1000 rounds out of a Kimber .45 Tactical and have had the fortunate experience of getting my Schuetzenschnur when assigned to Army USAREUR. Maybe 2000 rounds out of an HK USP Tactical .45 and less than 1000 on a HK USP Compact Tactical .45
My experience with all three weapons was good. I never experienced any failures or malfunctions but it still leaves me with the simple question. Without spending over a grand on a pistol, are 1911's worth investing?
Even the heavily modified M1911A1's and A2's touted by the Marines in circulation back in OIF 2 and OIF 3 had serious failures. On the shooting ranges they had malfunctions every 800-1000 rounds. The 3 shop armorers would work 12 hour shifts working through II MEU's out at Al Asad (for those familiar with Iraq) to fix the malfunctions.
I'm biased in my opinion that the design has it's pro's but needs modifications to smooth out the con's.
I like weapons that have been shopped to the military as they usually have had great results when thrown into the milspec testing machine. Even when weapons fail to garner the large contracts (How many weapon systems has the US Army turned down to replace the M16 and M4?) the testing results are still valuable resources when determining the reliability and functionality of a weapon. And in many cases the reason for getting turned down has nothing to do with the weapon system itself but more so with the political mumbo jumbo and government red tape involved with changing heavily NSN'd weapon system.
So my real question is multi faceted.
1. If you choose a 1911 for home defense or carry - What manufacturer or custom do you choose? And how well does it fair under harsh conditions?
2. Under the 1000 dollar range is it even worth bothering with a 1911 production gun for the same purposes or is it a crap shoot?
Or do Glocks, HK's, Sigs, and Springfields win in that category?
I've shot a 1000 rounds out of a Kimber .45 Tactical and have had the fortunate experience of getting my Schuetzenschnur when assigned to Army USAREUR. Maybe 2000 rounds out of an HK USP Tactical .45 and less than 1000 on a HK USP Compact Tactical .45
My experience with all three weapons was good. I never experienced any failures or malfunctions but it still leaves me with the simple question. Without spending over a grand on a pistol, are 1911's worth investing?
Even the heavily modified M1911A1's and A2's touted by the Marines in circulation back in OIF 2 and OIF 3 had serious failures. On the shooting ranges they had malfunctions every 800-1000 rounds. The 3 shop armorers would work 12 hour shifts working through II MEU's out at Al Asad (for those familiar with Iraq) to fix the malfunctions.
I'm biased in my opinion that the design has it's pro's but needs modifications to smooth out the con's.
I like weapons that have been shopped to the military as they usually have had great results when thrown into the milspec testing machine. Even when weapons fail to garner the large contracts (How many weapon systems has the US Army turned down to replace the M16 and M4?) the testing results are still valuable resources when determining the reliability and functionality of a weapon. And in many cases the reason for getting turned down has nothing to do with the weapon system itself but more so with the political mumbo jumbo and government red tape involved with changing heavily NSN'd weapon system.
So my real question is multi faceted.
1. If you choose a 1911 for home defense or carry - What manufacturer or custom do you choose? And how well does it fair under harsh conditions?
2. Under the 1000 dollar range is it even worth bothering with a 1911 production gun for the same purposes or is it a crap shoot?
Or do Glocks, HK's, Sigs, and Springfields win in that category?