Our “all things 1911” guru offers sage advice for those considering this iconic handgun on a work-a-day budget
by Bob Campbell
Recently, I was asked for my opinion on the best middle-of-the-road 1911. I was standing in a reputable shop, and the answer was not difficult. The customer had seven hundred dollars to spend, and the Springfield Garrison I nodded towards was just a little over his budget. Nevertheless, he left with a blue steel, five-inch barrel version of this fine pistol.
I have had many discussions over the years concerning the 1911 and its attributes. Sure, it isn’t for everyone, but then it isn’t only for those of above average dexterity and hormones. Far from it.
Most of the great feats accomplished with the 1911 were done so by young men with minimal training. They used the 1911 in a war zone to the detriment of the enemy and without becoming a danger to themselves and those around them. The 1911 was designed to a specific set of requirements. Since takeover gangs and groups of dangerous criminals are common — not to mention dangerous animals — the 1911 is still a top choice. Safety is a concern, and the 1911’s safety features are important — even unequaled — among modern handguns. Yet these safety features do not slow the pistol’s implementation in a defensive situation.
Let’s look at a few of the reasons you should consider the 1911 and then examine some of the better class of affordable 1911 handguns on the market today.
Original 1911 Standards
The 1911 was intended to offer soldiers a means of self-defense at close range while also giving the soldier a fighting chance to 50 yards. Dealing with several assailants quickly was the goal. Original 1911s are sighted high at 25 yards but dead-on at 50 yards. Original accuracy requirements were a 5-inch group at 25 yards and a 10-inch group at 50 yards. Most were more accurate than that and modern 1911s are capable of much better accuracy.
The pistol was as reliable as a machine can be. The 1911 test of Colt factory pistols demanded an individual handgun be fired 6,000 rounds. The 1911 passed this test…unthinkable in the day. Nothing equaled the 1911 for reliability, and when pistols came along that did, none were chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge.
The pistol has sufficient wound potential to stop an adversary with one shot, more often than not. The Thompson LaGarde testing proved that. Colonel Thompson (yes, that’s the one) was a firearms expert of the type seldom seen in history and correctly concluded that only a big bore handgun would suffice for military use. The expected chore was not only to stop enemy combatants, but war horses and jaguars as encountered often enough by the US Army.
The pistol was to be carried cocked and locked with the hammer to the rear and the safety on. Chamber empty (half loaded) was for non-critical use. As the Commandant of the Marines wrote in an order in 1926, Marines should carry the pistol “fully loaded and safety on and the flap of the holster should be folded back for easy access.” When cocked and safety on, the safety blocks the disconnect. But that wasn’t enough, as the cavalry wished the pistol to be safe if dropped with the safety off. Should a trooper become injured and drop his 1911, it shouldn’t go off and kill his horse. (Interestingly, Lawrence of Arabia, while firing from a camel’s back, did manage to shoot his mount in the head. He was rendered unconscious in the fall, but it wasn’t his 1911’s fault!) Thus, a grip safety was added, which blocks the trigger. The grip safety must be pressed and the slide lock safety moved off safe to fire the 1911. Still, this doesn’t slow an accurate first shot hit at all. There is no pistol faster to an accurate first shot hit than the 1911, in my opinion. This has also been proven in competition time and again. No pistol is faster than a 1911 to reload. The US Army had the finest combat pistol in the world from 1911 to 1981, officially, and the 1911 still serves many units worldwide today.
I first read of the 1911 in children’s gun books by C B Coly before advancing to Colonel Cooper writings. I think one of the keynotes in my early education was exposure to Colonel Cooper’s modern technique and applying those lessons in training and practice. Cooper’s fame and gun culture saturation created not only a new type of training but also gave birth to a lifestyle. His political stance was never in question. He was also an intellectual fencer. Colonel Cooper was seldom without an opinion and the opportunity to publish it.
I did not adopt the 1911 for personal use because it was expected of me but because it was the best handgun available.
The pistol isn’t exactly glamorous. It is sometimes called Old Ugly. A rare species, the 1911 Gorgeous, may be had for sufficient funds.
You Get What You Pay For
The 1911 has something humans don’t have, and that is genetic privilege. The piece has an outstanding lineage.
It pays to choose a good 1911. Quite frankly, if I were to be offered a 1911 for $399 or a Glock, I would have to choose the Glock because it is reliable. A cheap 1911 is not. A cheap pistol is the result of a race to the bottom in price. Some folks don’t understand this, and I am disabused of further advice to them. (Remember…many people bought Yugos several decades ago!)
The cheap 1911 is a poor copy of the original 1911, which was made of the finest materials of the day. But there are affordable 1911s that perform well and don’t break the bank. Let’s look at a few and gauge their performance and come to understand how they work so well. Keep in mind, again, that the original 1911 was made of the finest materials at the time and assembled by trained craftsmen. Anything less requires some type of economy measure.
In personal defense, training matters. The handgun isn’t everything but then it is important. The difference between me and a victim is that I am ready for a fight and professionally trained. Conceive the training or build it around your lifestyle, but train…and choose something worth training with.
Regarding build quality, the primary difference in handguns of the same type is in how they are manufactured. A more expensive handgun should have closer tolerances. Tolerance ambiguity cannot be accepted. Specifications, dimensions, and tolerances are different things. Manufacturing drawings must be exact and CNC machinery properly set up. If some parts are outsourced and not from Wilson Combat, as an example, tolerances may meet interference from a tighter-than-projected fit.
World War Two manufacture is a great example of quality construction. All 1911s manufactured by Colt, Remington Rand, Ithaca, and others could be disassembled, put in a barrel of solvent for cleaning, and reassembled. I have seen quite a few of these mismatched shooters. Tolerances may have been looser than commercial guns, but as long as the locking lugs and barrel bushing were properly fitted, the pistol would be accurate enough.
A counter point to this type of fitting is the top end manufacturer of today. Wilson Combat and Dan Wesson are among these. These guns are held to very tight tolerances. Seldom will parts interchange between these makers. They are not MILSPEC, and you can’t put a Wilson Combat slide on a Guncrafter. The result, though, is superb accuracy, less eccentric wear, and a longer life span. By contrast, the less tight the pistol is the more subject it is to sloppy wear.
For example, some machine jobs feel fine with .005 inches (plus or minus) tolerances, but true custom design work demands shaving another decimal point or two. Parts are machined from larger parts of metal unless you use modern machine injected molding (MIM) parts made from a mix of powder and glue. MIM can be precise and works well for mass manufacture, yet I would not recommend these guns for high round count competition and tactical use.
Inexpensive guns from Rock Island Armory are much better than cheap guns of fifty years ago. About four decades ago, I helped a young fellow who worked at a municipal agency build up a 1911 for competition. His uncle had given him a Llama 1911, possibly the worst choice possible. Just the same, I helped him fit a Bar-Sto barrel and bushing and eventually we added Wilson Combat internals. There was a lot of fitting as the Llama was not MILSPEC, but the owner and I learned about fitting. The pistol actually performed well for more than 2,000 rounds in competition. After that, it was a wreck!
About the same time, I built up a Series 70 Colt — it was well used when I bought it — and I used it in pin matches with heavy loads (255 grains at 928 fps). The frame cracked in front of the slide stop pin at about 11,000 rounds. It still functioned. A Springfield Loaded with an aluminum frame went 20,000 rounds without any type of problem. A half dozen recoil springs were all that was needed — and I wore out several magazines.
In the case of the Llama, the shooter learned about shooting and building guns on the cheap. And while he never won a match, he gained a great deal of experience. When the locking lugs of the soft steel slide of the Llama finally sheared off, he bought a Springfield and kept going. We were able to fit the Bar-Sto barrel into the Springfield. After all, you fit the barrel to the gun, not the other way around. A bit of welding up of the barrel and some filing and there we were. Such things are done by folks on a tight budget.
The tighter the fit, the more reliance on the positioning of the tool. It doesn’t hurt to begin a career as a home hobbyist with a looser-fitting part. The tighter the tolerances, the more parts are scrapped by the inspector. The tighter the gun, conceivably, the greater warranty issues as firearms may not tolerate grit and powder ash as well. I am familiar with several warranty departments and folks at gun shops who have guns come back. Remember, clearance is the distance between two mating parts. Tolerance is the allowance made for departure from these clearances. The single greatest problem with warranty claims is that the firearms have not been cleaned, followed by a lack of lubrication. Few other issues are as common.
As a shooter, I realize that there are many firearms that are fine performers and about three-quarters as accurate as the high-end pistols for a lot less money. In the end, you pay a lot for every movement of that decimal point.
Affordable 1911s That Don’t Suck
I have experience with all the current crop and find some to be sorry indeed. Others are acceptable. The original 1911 was not perfect. The sights and controls were small, but this has been addressed in modern designs. Colonel Cooper posited that we need a speed safety, a good trigger, and good sights. That is all that is needed in a defensive 1911.
This general agreement on what was needed in a 1911 came to be called the “consensus gun,” or the consensus of what is needed. About the time I first read Jeff Cooper, I became acquainted with cast frame and slide components. Makers such as Essex offered these. Using GI internals, you could put together a cheap 1911 that worked well; it all depended on the skill of the builder. Some makers used Essex parts to build low-buck 1911s. Caspian frames and slides were much higher quality.
Rock Island offered a factory ready cast parts 1911 at a price less than a box of parts to be assembled. They offer the FS version with a speed safety and good sights for just a little more money. I found a new RIA GI gun for as little as $483 and the FS version for mid-$500. The Rock has earned a good reputation and remains the go-to inexpensive 1911. I have built several by adding aftermarket parts with good results. The finish isn’t something to impress visiting dignitaries, but it is serviceable. Novak-like sights offer a good sight picture, and some versions feature a fiber optic front sight. The Rock is a better gun than the Turkish pieces, in my experience, and has improved over the years. A real bargain is the occasional find of a long-slide Rock. The match target version with adjustable sights is especially attractive at less than $800.
A pistol that I like a great deal is the Remington R1 and its RS stainless version. These pistols feature high visibility sights, a good trigger action, and credible fit and finish. When found at an affordable price, they are a good choice. Unfortunately, they are out of production and asking prices are often ridiculously high. I would prefer the R1 to a Rock Island at the same price but would not pay the Springfield Garrison price for the Remington.
Similarly, it is ridiculous to pay high prices for the original Colt Series 70. It was a good gun in its day — the best at the time — but today, the modern Colt Series 70 is superior on every count. Yet the original, with its small sights and controls, brings more than a new Series 70! I would remind the reader that a used gun isn’t a collectible. A new-in-the-box unfired pistol is collectable.
The Ruger’s SR 1911 is a great 1911 on every count. The rub is the SR 1911 now brings over $1,000. A price leader is a two-tone SR 1911 version with a lightweight frame that remains a good buy at less than seven hundred dollars.
The best current example of the consensus gun is the Springfield Garrison. At less than $800, the Garrison features good sights, well designed controls, and a good trigger action. Springfield quality is apparent, and the pistol has proven reliable and accurate. The fit and finish are superior to guns in the price range and far superior to the less expensive 1911s. The gun isn’t cheap, but it is just a bit pricier than the best class of polymer frame guns and less than some models. The polymer frame guns, with their striker-fired action, simply don’t compete with the 1911 in terms of a crisp trigger and rapid engagement of the target. A straight-to-the-rear trigger compression and a low bore axis make for excellent combat ability. The Garrison simply outruns the polymer frame guns on a combat course.
The elephant in the room is the .45 versus 9mm question.
But the 1911 has “only eight rounds” in the magazine, someone says. Well, I don’t even consider the high-capacity 1911s. The good handling qualities of the slim grip 1911 mean it fits all hand sizes well. The slab slide grip of the double column magazine 1911s destroys the good handling of the classical 1911 profile. After all, how many civilian gunfights require more than three or four well-directed shots?
The .45 ACP offers excellent wound ballistics. If you believe so-called stopping power studies that are, at best, the result of revisionist history and sloppy science or, at worst, a flight of the imagination (usually a combination of these factors), then you are probably also a candidate for seances and Ponzi schemes. History and science favor the .45 ACP cartridge. If you must bow to economics and low recoil, the 1911s I favor are also available in 9mm Luger. The affordable 1911 is a great gun — better than the GI guns in terms of reliability, trigger action, sights, and finish. They are not works of art, but they will save your life. And that is all we may ask of a tool.
Beware “USED!”
Unfortunately, I must add a caution concerning pre-owned 1911 handguns. They are more likely, by a factor of ten, to have been assaulted by the gun butcher than any other handgun, although Glocks, with aftermarket triggers and poor-quality barrels, are catching up.
Not long ago, I examined a nice Remington 1911. The slide dropped and the hammer fell. A home trigger job had left almost no contact between the hammer and sear. The pistol fired under controlled conditions when I loaded it. The hammer fell with the slide!
The 1911 may be fitted with a poor-quality trigger action, a grip safety that isn’t properly set up, and is usually traded in with a defective magazine. Run, don’t walk, from a problematical used 1911. I still see the occasional Llama and original Auto Ordnance (the modern A/O company makes good guns; the West Hurley-made guns were another matter).
Even a new gun may occasionally have a safety that doesn’t properly snap into its on position. Also, it isn’t unusual for the magazine catch of a cheap gun to be improperly fitted.
In sum, good 1911s can be had without exploding your wallet, but avoid the cheap stuff and don’t even consider guns that have been tinkered with by ten-thumbed, armchair “gunsmiths.”
