auto ordinance 1911 by Khar

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contender4040

New member
Any experience with the auto ord. now that it is under KHAR ARMS? Has the quality been improved?
I am thinking about a 1911 around the $500 mark. Springfield mil-spec is high on the list but Khar has a good rep as well.
AMT is out of the running and I am unsure of the quality of the various Charles D., Rock Island, and Dan Wesson imports from the Phillipines.
 
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stans

New member
As far as I know, the Dan Wessons are not made in the Phillipines. They are made from Essex components. I handled a new Auto Ordnance 1911, supposedly made under Khar management. I was not impressed. The slide to frame fit was about what you would expect from a GI surplus 1911, the barrel fit was extremely loose with a lot of vertical movement of the barrel hood when the slide was fully forward, and the finish was rough and uneven. Look very closely before buying an Auto Ordnance. The old ones ranged from barely acceptable to down right awful. I know of at least one gunsmith who refuses to work on Auto Ordnance 1911's. Just my two cents.
 
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dsk

New member
You know only ONE gunsmith who refuses to work on OA guns? Wow, they're generous in your state. I know at least three who refuse to touch them, and for good reason. My first centerfire handgun was an AO. Had I not been so young and vulnerable I might have tried filing a class-action suit against them. Maybe the new Kahr-owned guns are better, but so far I haven't heard much positive about them. So far I only know one person who bought one. The front sight had come off the gun while it was still in the box! He sent it off to be fixed, and upon getting it back he was finally able to test-fire it. He reported that the next thing it did was spontaneously release the magazine.
 
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killer45auto

New member
Do a search over on the 1911 forum and you find that almost all the smiths over their wont touch them or the DW guns either.A few just flat out called them junk !
 
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stans

New member
I said I know AT LEAST one, not just one! My first 1911 was an Auto Ord, lesson learned the hard way, many years ago. That was at a time when Petersen's Handguns magazine gave a glowing review to the Auto Ord 1911. I wonder if it was a paid review? Once I learned what a quality 1911 was all about, my opinion of the design improved and I learned to do a little gunsmithing. That is when I found out how poorly Auto Ord guns were machined. Oversize and/or out of position holes, frame rails that are not always parallel, parts don't line up correctly, and the list goes on. You can make an Auto Ord shoot, I did, as an experiment, but it took way too much time and money.
 
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longeyes

New member
Get a Colt Sistema, while you can. (Just don't buy the last one; I may want another.) At least you will get a solid, functional, "real" 1911 you can shoot and use as a foundation for future tweaks.

I bought one last fall, did some minor upgrading (beavertail, trigger, ramping and throating) at King's, and have put over a thousand rounds though it--mostly Blazers but also Golden Sabers and Hydra-Shoks--without a malf. The sights are "G.I." and that remains a last possible investment area.
 
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Meowhead

New member
Didn't Kahr Arms only recently acquire Auto Ordnance?

Even I, who never owned a .45, could spew horror stories about Auto Ordnance guns made YEARS AGO. That doesn't change the fact that I was actually rather impressed by the new 1911s - solid, well finished, tight fit of both barrel and slide. The price was certainly right.

There's another company running Auto Ordnance now.
 
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