Were WWII 1911s reliable?

[Averageman]

I was an Assistant Armorer for a bit in the 1980's, before we got the M9's.
The reliability/accuracy was directly related to the care they got. We had a footlocker full of parts that were "off the books". I just went out to the range with them for qualification and began tagging guns that needed work. Staking rear sights on the range, removing problem magazines things like that made a lot of difference.
The smartest thing we had going for us was a First Sergeant who liked shooting, he made sure ever Platoon had at least one Assistant Armorer. That saved a lot of down time and it also gave motivated guys a leg up when it came for promotion.
A lot of those pistols were WWII weapons, So were some of the M2's we had.

[Averageman]

I won't dispute the polymer handguns are better service pistols for the rank and file, they definitely are. Magazine capacity is a huge advantage over a single stack 1911. I own a few Glocks that I shoot regularly and I think they are fine pistols. I still shoot better El Presidente scores using a 1911 with factory 230g fmj than I do shooting a Glock 34 with reloads barely making minor power factor. I guess it's a matter of what you cut your teeth on when you started shooting semi-automatics.

Starting with 1911's made switching to a Glock a learning curve for a bit.

[theorangecat]

I grew up with a bunch of WWII and Korea vet uncles (my dad was also a Korean War vet, as was my F-I-L), and I can't recall one bad word about 1911A1 reliability. The ETO vets could have used whatever pistols the Germans had no more use for, but they considered the P.08 and P.38 to be better souvenirs than fighting handguns, and the Pacific vets apparently didn't consider any pistols they found laying around to be worth picking up. I know that two of my uncles* who were in France/Belgium/Germany from June of 1944 were careful not to have enemy weapons on them if there was any chance of being captured, and the one who was a very busy second scout in 2/47 never had the opportunity to lug around much in the line of German weapons anyway (let alone hold onto them).

(These same uncles did, however, end up using the various small .32 pistols that were floating around Europe in abundance, because they could be stowed in a pocket and were "last ditch" handguns. They carried such pistols around - mostly after V-E Day - until the PTB cracked down on the practice.)

Now the M1 Carbine and the "grease gun"… I did hear complaints about those. Surprisingly - to me anyway - two of my relatives carried a Thompson by preference, and a third would frequently substitute a Thompson for his carbine.

toc

*One of these men stayed in the Army Reserve until he retired as a LtCol in the late 1960s, and he was of the opinion that the 1911s were pretty loosely fitted as a rule. He thought that made them less accurate but more reliable, which I think was a widespread idea in those days.

toc

[CAVDOC]

All the standard 1911A1's used until the m9 replaced them were ww2 or older guns. The military did not buy any 1911A1's after 1945. Sure some special ops units or odd one off small amounts of tricked out 45's have been procured for special units or purposes, but the youngest standard issue 1911A1 was born in 1945

[T2C]

All the standard 1911A1's used until the m9 replaced them were ww2 or older guns. The military did not buy any 1911A1's after 1945. Sure some special ops units or odd one off small amounts of tricked out 45's have been procured for special units or purposes, but the youngest standard issue 1911A1 was born in 1945

That explains a few things. The first 1911 I fired at Little Creek looked like it had been fired on a daily basis since 1945.

[CAVDOC]

Also keep in mind pistols are fired very little in combat and a pistol might get carried for a year in combat and shoot less than 50 rounds in that time. Not much of a test. In over two years of deployments I shot less than 100 rounds out of my beretta including pre deployment training. When you use original design 7 round magazines in good condition and hardball ammo the design is pretty reliable. Where the 1911 starts to have problems is when shooters start tinkering try higher capacity magazines and hollow point ammo, all of which were non issues for the gi guns

[Dienekes]

My Christmas present from my folks in 1960 was a Remington Rand .45. It was a DCM gun; they paid the previous owner $25 for it. Needless to say, the best Christmas I ever had. In those days I could get a box of 50 steel cased hardball ammo for $2. Don't remember any failures with it in those long-gone days. It's still 100% stock, long retired, but I take it out once a year. I'd have no problem going to war with the old buster.

Didn't shoot my eye out, either.

[T2C]

Starting with 1911's made switching to a Glock a learning curve for a bit.

When I was first issued a LE service pistol, unfortunately it was not a Glock. It was a Model 39 Smith & Wesson. And yes it was a steep learning curve.

[JasonB1]

The Kuhnhausen books get in to this. Part of it is hollow points which the original didn't take in to consideration.

Another issue according to Kuhnhausen is that the original parts had to meet tolerances and required minimal, if any, fitting while commercial parts available at the time of publication were all over the place in terms of QC.

The books even mention service match pistols using in spec parts from the snugger ends of the tolerances instead of being a purely hand fit through out pistol.

[Nightvisionary]

I went through the Marine Corps Security Force School in 1989 not long after Col. Cooper developed the 1911 based portion of the training for the school. I put thousands of rounds through 1911A1 pistols manufactured in the 1940's. I cannot recall anything other than very infrequent issues, mainly shooter induced stovepipes, and those guns got used. Years later while attending a state law enforcement training academy a friend was using a Kimber 1911. That pistol was accurate but it gave him so many problems he almost didn't qualify. My $369 RIA 1911A1 has been pretty much dead nuts reliable just like the WW2 guns. Go figure.