How Reliable Is Your 1911?

[Kreyzhorse]

I've seen a lot of posts lately noting all kinds of problems with various 1911's. High end guns and low end guns from all makers and no maker seems immune. Everyone has a different opinion on what gun to buy and what gun to avoid so I thought I'd conduct an unscientific poll about the % of 1911's that work perfectly, have an occasional problem or barely function at all.

I'll start. I've got a Springfield TRP and I've put 440 rounds through it with zero FTF or FTE. I've shot Remington, Winchester, MagTech Wolf and Gold Saber Ball and Hollow Point Ammo.

 

[lafd04]

I have a used springfield mil spec not sure about round count when I got it but I've got about 500 or so rounds through it and my only issue is that the rear sight moves side to side about 1/16 of an inch. My smith and wesson 1911sc has had no issues either and that has 312 rounds so far. My dads colt combat commander (also used) has had about 100 rounds and has a replacement mag an extractor a recoil spring and a new set of grips and bushings. one side was quite lose. wouldn't get rid of any of them.

 

[Murdock]

Home made Frankenstein job

Colt/Essex .45 ACP with Colt extractor, Dwyer Group Gripper, Videki "commander" hammer and long steel trigger, Bomar rear sight melted into slide, 18-pound Wolf recoil spring, beavertail grip safety, S&A magazine well, Wilson 7- and 8-round magazines. Hand lapped barrel bushing. GI barrel and link. Throated chamber mouth, ejection port opened with rear edge beveled. Round count in excess of 30,000 (200 grain cast SWCs by many makers over a variety of powder charges, and factory 230 grain Hydrashock).

I cannot remember the last time this pistol malfunctioned. Wilson magazines solved a lot of problems.

 

[Redneckrepairs]

I only have about 700 rounds thro the used Colt XTE i picked up so far . With that being said i have had zero problems with many bullet styles and loads . I have not tried the old trick of feeding an empty case , but it would not supprise me if this pistol wouldnt do it .

 

[ShootingNut]

I Am Surprised

That spending almost a grand on a S&W 1911, that it won't eat anything you put in it. So far, very finicky as it only likes the RN rounds. Forget the SWC in any grain or OAL that I've made, again it does surprise me. For the most part, you go out and buy a $600 or less Poly .45 high capacity, and they chew up almost anything that is shoved into them.
Son has a Colt 1911 made in 66', and it will eat almost anything without any hiccups!
Regards,
SN
PS: I should add, that I'm not talking about factory ammo, but our "Quality" reloads!

 

[NGIB]

I have an RIA Compact and a Springfield GI - bought both used. I have about 250 rounds thru each with no problems at all. This is using mainly CCI aluminum and CCI brass. I've put 2 mags of Georgia-Arms Gold Dots thru each flawlessly. Haven't tried any other SD ammo as the GA Gold Dots are about all I use...

 

[Redneckrepairs]

Son has a Colt 1911 made in 66', and it will eat almost anything without any hiccups!

Therein lies the rub . The fact that it is a colt is not imho relevant what is is the fact that nowdays we have gun assemblers ( instead of gunsmiths with skills ) putting out firearms , if the parts fit the frame its good to go . There is a thing called " tolerance stack " , and it worked out well for me with my xse being both reliable and accurate , it worked out bad for you with your S&W. The random parts grabbed out of a bin happened to line up and work well in my gun , not so well in yours . Now i understand the differences in design between colt 1911s and smith 1911s and say its a wash .. what matters is that it was assembled not built .

 

[MSgt G]

Les Baer Premier II, Les Baer SRP Commanche, S&W 1911 - ALL perfect! Never any problems whatsoever. 99.8% are my reloads.

 

[RJM]

Had a used Springfield GI champion for a while that was 100% through at least 350-400 rounds. I got rid of it because of hammer bite, but also it liked to shoot brass in several different directions, never at me, but picking up brass after a good shooting day took a while.

I have a new Dan Wesson Pointman and just now got back from the range with a total of 500 rounds through it, two separate shooting sessions. Not one problem and it is freakin' freaky accurate. Brass lands to the same side of me too. If it keeps it up and I pass 750 rounds this is going to be a possible new carry gun for me, even though it is rather large.

I am seriously considering saving up for a Nighthawk T3 or Talon II, Ed Brown Executive Carry or Rock River Arms Carry, something really nice to take over the duty of my XD9mm.

 

[ShootingNut]

RedNeck

I do believe that you "Hit the Nail On The Head".
SN

 

[RJM]

Therein lies the rub . The fact that it is a colt is not imho relevant what is is the fact that nowdays we have gun assemblers ( instead of gunsmiths with skills ) putting out firearms , if the parts fit the frame its good to go . There is a thing called " tolerance stack " , and it worked out well for me with my xse being both reliable and accurate , it worked out bad for you with your S&W. The random parts grabbed out of a bin happened to line up and work well in my gun , not so well in yours . Now i understand the differences in design between colt 1911s and smith 1911s and say its a wash .. what matters is that it was assembled not built .

Seriously just wondering and not trying to start a brand war, what companies would you consider to be gunsmith builders instead of assemblers?

 

[RickB]

I have gone 440 rounds without a failure of any kind, more than twenty times.
Wouldn't failures per 1000 rounds make more sense, since someone who's never had a failure, but who's fired only a few hundred rounds, hasn't fired enough to really draw any conclusions? I have two 1911s (.45) with close to 10,000 rounds through each, and will admit that neither has gone more than about 2000 rounds without a failure of some kind. My .38 Super had two failures to feed in the first 200 rounds, but has been perfect through about 1000 rounds, since. My Delta Elite has also had two or three failures in ~1000 rounds, but the last one was years ago. Only my Commander is 100% perfect, but it's got only 200 rounds through it. If you shoot enough, you will have mechanical problems.

 

[ShootingNut]

RJM

Just my thought, "Companies" are made up of "Employees", and maybe (?) the "Assembly Gunsmith's" are becoming a lost generation.
Now, I don't have a racist's bone in my body, but I ask the question. Are the gun manufacturer's needing to hire those not up to the task, in order to turn out a product?
Regards,
SN

 

[Redneckrepairs]

RJM you asked

Seriously just wondering and not trying to start a brand war, what companies would you consider to be gunsmith builders instead of assemblers?

My answer is NONE untill you get into that semi custom level and today that is the reason you can find a wilson , brown , et. all stocked at your local shop . They do what colt did way back when , and others have done to get started , but price themselves so that they can maintain fitting at the cost of bulk sales . The 1911 is like the vw bug of California in the 60s thro the 80s . More crap to bolt up than you can shake a stick at , but most of it dont make the item run a bit better . The 1911 was built in < hold your breath here > about the year 1905 , and with changes became the warhorse we know . This is an era where machine tolerances were not what they are today , and hand fitting was normal even on mil guns . Also a user was handy enough to do simple field mods to fit the environment . Nowdays we have folk who want the gun to run and dont understand why old slabsides may require some attention when they buy it . Well unless and untill you get into handfitted or at least semi hand fitted guns its a roll of the dice and tolerances .

 

[BigJimP]

No gun is perfect - but I have a Wilson Combat 5" 1911 Protector model in 9mm ( that is about 2 years old, and I take it to the range weekly ) so I have at least 20,000 rounds thru it with no FTE / FTF issues.

I shoot my own reloads 100% of the time.

My other Wilson's are just as good - and some are coming up on 6 - 8 years old with no problems either. I can't say that of my Kimbers or Les Baer ( they were all nightmares for the first 500 - 1,000 rounds especially and they still have some FTF / FTE issues some days .)

 

[ElectricHellfire]

Seriously just wondering and not trying to start a brand war, what companies would you consider to be gunsmith builders instead of assemblers?

+1 on Ed Brown and Wilson Combat and mabey STI or Nighthawk. Not sure about the last two as I havn't actually held one.

 

[Dabull]

RIA and Taurus with 0 FTF/FTE

 

[Shane Tuttle]

+1 on Ed Brown and Wilson Combat and mabey STI or Nighthawk. Not sure about the last two as I havn't actually held one.

I'd stick Les Baer in that category, too...

The 1911 is like the vw bug of California in the 60s thro the 80s . More crap to bolt up than you can shake a stick at , but most of it dont make the item run a bit better.

Guess you haven't used a 1776 with 40mm Dellortos, Bosch 009 w/Compufire, MSD ignition and Bugpack exhaust then? Much better driveability, same longevity, better gas mileage, more power, less maintenance. But I digress...

I think there's way too many companies that jumped on the bandwagon and made so many different variances that it dirtied up the gene pool. Think about it. Look how many 1911 variants are out there that they've tried to "improve" the design. Now, look at the sheer number of 1911s out there.

One of the biggest reasons I think we see "so many problems" with them is that there's millions out there. Back in 1920, there were a handful of car wrecks, but few cars. Today, there are millions of cars out there and the accident numbers are probably in the hundreds of thousands each year. Kinda makes sense that you hear "problems" with the 1911 when numbers and different models are available...

 

[B. Lahey]

With nice ammo (Fiocchi FMJ, Federal GM 230gr FMJ, Hornady 200gr XTPs, Rem-GS, etc...), my Springfield 1911A1 is totally reliable.

It does not like WWB, but I didn't figure that was a big enough problem to drop it into the lower classification of reliability. Pretty much every firearm has a least-favorite load and the bulk-pack WWB is the bottom of the barrel. It eats everything else I have stuffed into the magazine.

 

[Taurus_9mm]

No problems at all with my Taurus PT1911.


www.taurusarmed.net