What is the bare minimum acceptable 1911?

[The_War_Wagon]

Something above a Norinco, for certain!

[Pappabear]

Wilson Combat Supergrade is the acceptable minimum for confidence and carry.

Now that was funny. Thank you. If your looking at a gun that cost under $1,000 NEW, it's not good enough for HD. My first choice is the new MC Operator. Your waistline money on a $600 1911. Just buy a great plastic gun.

Best of luck.

PB

[BBossman]

The problem with "budget" 1911's is they rarely come with features the new owner thinks he needs or knows he wants. They then break out the credit card and drag the gun through the Brownells catalog with a crap magnet, "improving" the gun until it stops working, get frustrated and declare the 1911 the most unreliable POS ever.

A 1911 for personal defense is "lifestyle" , if you're not willing to spend the money, or put forth the effort in learning to lead that lifestyle, you're better served with a modern, quality semi-auto.

Thats coming from a guy with over 40 years experience owning, shooting and carrying 1911's.

[amd5007]

Look into the Springfield Loaded line. It's an excellent intro into the 1911 world. It was my first 1911 that incorporated more modern features and has been the only 1911 I've kept from that period in my life. Apart from changing out the ambi safety for a Colt extended safety, an extended mag release, G10 grips, and spring replacements, it's all stock. Since I started reloading, I've lost count of how many rounds I have through it (7/8/9? 30 Cal ammo cans of my 200 lswc loads) it has run flawlessly and has never jammed, aside from using a few questionable quality mags in my range bag.

I can attest that a Loaded with several Wilson 47 mags is all anyone needs who wants to start into the 1911 world.

[TactiCool1976]

i think it all depends on the person....... when i was shopping for a 1911, i spent a couple months looking at youtube vids and reviews on different 1911's.. and the day i went to buy a 1911, i was split between a sig scorpion carry ( original choice ) the sig nightmare carry, and Ruger 1911 and was thinking of buying something like a RIA and building it up myself.. but figured after everything, grips, night sights and stuff i am almost better off just buying one with everything on it..... so i was like F it and just bought the Sig Scorpion... and i paid close to 1100$ for it and it has run flawlessly for me!!

now my father has a taurus pt1911 that he's had for years and he can keyhole shots with that pistol all day long, and in all the times himself and me have used the taurus it has never had any issues.... and i think he paid like 600$ for his years ago.. and before the taurus my father used a Ballester Molina 1911.... which he still has......

i mean if i was talking to someone about 1911's, i'd probably tell someone to look at a Taurus 1911, then Ruger, S&W, Para, Kimber, then Sig....

but thats just me......

[Exiledviking]

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=185937

[CLHC]

Just curious here; I'm seeing lots going for the Springfield TRP and variant, any thoughts experience with the Colt XSE series?

[GunBugBit]

A Springfield TRP is a darn good option. Except, if you make it your main competition gun, which I did, you'll soon (about 5,000 rounds down the road, YMMV) see that the factory extractor is a weak point. I suggest the EGW Heavy Duty extractor, which is what replaced the factory exactor when it broke during a match. When it broke, I didn't fool around, I handed the gun to a competent 1911 gunsmith (Tim Graves) who properly fit the new extractor. I knew he puts only top-quality parts in his builds so that's why I picked him. Plus he shoots matches at my club so he was handy.

Another thing I did not like on the TRP was the two-piece MSH-magwell. Even red Loctite won't prevent the flared magwell piece from coming loose if you shoot enough. I could have had the two pieces welded together but instead I installed a S&A one-piece magwell and contoured the magwell mouth to my liking. I also wanted a ledge-style slide stop lever (went with Ed Brown but will probably use 10-8 Gen 2's in the future) and an extended mag catch button (went with Wilson).

I tried two brands of adjustable rear sights but there are few solid choices for the Novak cut. Kensight and Springfield are the ones I tried; both came apart during matches. I settled on a 10-8 fixed u-notch sight that I carefully zeroed for windage on my range-table-mounted vise. Once my zero was good, I put red Loctite on both sides of the sight base to keep it from moving. This solution is dead-solid. The front sight is a Dawson fiber optic that I installed per Dave Dawson's recommendations (he has good videos on sight installations).

I also wanted a more solid and wider-paddled ambi thumb safety setup so I went with the EGW ambi, a very solidly designed and manufactured kit. I shoot stages that require weak-hand-unsupported portions with great confidence now, knowing the connection between the safety's halves is very unlikely to break.

The competition range is a great place to shake out weak points of a gun. My TRP, for me, has become the "bare minimum acceptable." For any carry 1911, you can apply the things you learn from solidifying the competition gun to the gun you carry.

Takeaways:

If you have a high round count on your factory gun, you might want to consider getting a better extractor properly fit to the gun, unless you know for sure that your gun has a very high quality extractor.

Change your springs regularly, especially the recoil spring. I am kind of bad about that so I recently ordered a 10-pack of Wolff recoil springs and will endeavor to stay on a spring replacement schedule.

Shoot as much as you possibly can. Training classes are fine but one or two a year don't do that much for your proficiency. You have to constantly practice what you were taught. Competition and structured practice for better competition performance are perfect ways to do that. The human being is the far bigger variable than the gun in the defense equation. Most guns will serve, but can the person do his job? Don't think keeping your gun scratch-free and perfectly oiled in just the right holster is adequate.

[okie john]

Night stand, occasional carry, owb woods carry, range. Probably spend most of its time in the night stand. Which is why I'd like to stay 5-600 if not better.

I have just north of 40 years of experience with the 1911, including several years of carrying one for 16 hours a day. As a result of that, I've learned a few things:

• The 1911 is still a viable self-defense option IF you dedicate yourself to learning and mastering its peculiarities, especially the trigger system and ongoing maintenance.
• A $600 1911 is like a $600 car--it may be OK for a while, but you WILL have problems as time goes on. I'd recommend that you raise your budget to at least $1,000 and invest that money in the kind of 1911 that folks on this thread have recommended. Use that pistol to learn what you want to know about the 1911, but don't use it for serious purposes until you have a couple of thousand rounds downrange in it, and until you've taken a solid tactics class with it. At that point, you'll either be a full-on 1911 convert or you will have moved on to something else.
• Rotating between handgun types for serious use is a bad idea. It becomes a very bad idea when you include a 1911 in a mix of other non-1911 pistols. Stick to one action type for serious use. If you carry a striker-fired pistol concealed, then all of your serious handguns should be striker-fired. This is even more critical for the bedside pistol, since you'll probably go from a deep sleep to a massive adrenalin rush in a few seconds immediately before you have to use it to save your life. That's a bad time to realize that you have familiarity issues with your pistol.

Okie John

[silvabaQ]

Then I'd recommend buying a used 1911. I wouldn't personally bother with anything new in that price range as a night stand gun, which is a SD/HD pistol at that point.

This.
For something youre going to consider for defense, go with a used Colt or SA Loaded.