How Reliable Is Your 1911?

[Hawg]

My dad had a mint Remington Rand that never missed a beat but it only got fed hardball. I had a 70 series that fed everything. Now I've got a reworked Auto Ordnance that so far hasn't missed a beat, it will even feed empty cases.

 

[rellascout]

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

Wilson
Les Baer
Rock River,
Ed Brown
NightHawk
Novak


Going up in price does not always equal out of the box reliability. Some of these semi custom guns like are very tight and at times have teething problems.

Once those are worked out they are nice.

 

[Kermit]

I have 1000's and 1000's of reliable rounds through both my 1911s -- wouldn't have kept them if they weren't reliable

 

[IrvJr]

My 1911's have been very reliable (Colt & Kimber). I only shoot factory FMJ ammo in it. I've never tried shooting JHP or lead wadcutters or anything through them.

 

[tony pasley]

Out of my collection I have 5 that has never had a problem of any kind, 4 that had minor problems that a little work corrected. The rest are not shot enough to say because of family history makes them priceless.

 

[madmag]

I answered occasional, but really my colt 1911 is between zero & occasional. I have only one FTF & one FTE in many years of shooting it since 1966. I did have one additional problem. The trigger broke. The part that curves around the magazine stressed cracked completely in two. I replaced with an upgrade trigger, no problems since.

Had an old Remington Rand I bought used when I got out of the Army. It was the king of any semi-auto I ever owned for rounds fired and no failures. Use to buy thousand of rounds of surplus stuff and shoot all day. Never had a single failure. The pistol looked very rough. The finish was mostly gone, and the slide was real loose, but it kept on ticking. Used military ammo & GI issue mags.

 

[bclark1]

SW1911 - always fires, always ejects. That's not to say it was totally perfect, but I am 100% satisfied after the initial kinks got worked out. Mag release popped out on me early on, cost about $2 to fix on my own. And it does not like cheap mags with JHP - although it fed some of the time, the feeding was not perfect when combining Gold Dots with $8 Shooting Star mags. But, it will feed FMJ consistently with any mag, and I've never had a feed problem with any ammo using Wilson mags. I have also not tried this combo again since, perhaps a thousand rounds of "break-in" will have loosened it up a bit. Having figured those two (very minor) issues out, it's probably my favorite pistol in terms of function and accuracy, over a half-dozen other fancy tactical pistol manufacturers.

 

[XD45Compact]

I haven't had one single FTF/FTE malfunction in 1,500+ rounds in a Kimber Pro CDP II (during or after break-in) using the following ammo:

1. Winchester White Box 230 gr FMJ
2. Blazer Brass 230 gr FMJ
3. Magtech 230 gr FMJ
4. Independence 230 gr FMJ
5. Federal HST 230 gr JHP
6. Remington Golden Sabre 185 gr JHP
7. Speer Gold Dot 185 gr JHP
8. Winchester SXT 230 gr JHP

I don't even have a couple hundred rounds in a Baer Concept V....new project at work keeping me from shooting my newest addition....grrrrrr.

 

[sandbag]

I have an Argentine Modelo 27 that's reliable,same for a Taurus PT 1911,and a Kimber CDP2(which I have seen some bad writeups on)-I previously owned a Series 70 which never missed a beat,and a Series 80 Officer's Model which worked ok,but I just never shot well with it.I'm picking up an S&W 1911sc this week in spite of bad write ups in Gun Tests-their problems seemed to be concerned with the grip safety not disengaging if you use a high grip-I don't so it shouldn't make a difference.The single most reliable automatic I've ever owned is my Browning HP Mark3S-I'm mentioning it here with the 1911's because it's a Browning design and sort of a "cousin"to the 1911.

 

[madmag]

BTW, the FTE I mentioned just happened recently. I was using Independence ammo I purchased a gun show. The recoil felt reduced on the round that failed.

 

[sdj]

That spending almost a grand on a S&W 1911, that it won't eat anything you put in it.

I had one like that, too. Back to the factory, after which it came back in top shape. The extractor was replaced. SW1911, all steel, full size: I no longer have it. Could not get past the feeling that it was going to leave me in the lurch at some critical moment. Once bitten...

That said, the 1911Sc has only one FTE, and that was with some bad factory ammo: a rimless round.

Good luck.

 

[ranburr]

I've got three that are over the 50K round mark without issue. I have owned a whole lot that went over the 10K round mark without issue.

 

[longeyes]

Three 1911s here, with mixed records. My Kimber Custom II has about 5,000 rounds through it. It is probably the most accurate center-fire handgun I have; it is also the least reliable--many FTEs--and I would be less than confident carrying it into harm's way. My old Colt Sistema, which had had some tweaking, including a new barrel after the link broke, is generally a reliable pistol. It also has about 5,000+ rounds through it. Most reliable has been my S&W 1911PD, which after a few bobbles on the first trip to the range, has been flawless in operation (~1200 rounds).

 

[IdahoG36]

My stainless Wilson Combat Protector has been flawless so far. So has my stainless S&W 1911. I have owned other 1911s that have had issues, but the two I currently own are great.

Here's a pic of my Wilson.

 

[Desslock]

Caspian LaRocca. Never ever any kind of malfunction.

 

[johnbt]

1999 Kimber Stainless Gold Match with over 15,000 rounds - the last failure was on round 128 when the slide didn't quite close.

Colt WWI Repro - not all that many rounds, but no problems at all. I shoot it better than the Kimber. I like the trigger and the sights better. Just one of those things, the luck of the draw, etc.

I shoot whatever I have, ball, hp, swc, a little +P, etc. Mostly Georgia Arms stuff.

John

 

[fastbolt]

Well, while I've certainly appreciated the various expensive, hand-fitted 1911's I've handled and used over the years, I've never felt you had to spend a lot of money getting one to work reliably.

My early 70's lightweight & Combat Commanders only needed a bit of adjustment to feed most anything I wanted to shoot, even the early CCI/Speer 200gr JHP ... the old 'Flying Ashtray'. Of course, the magazines weren't as well designed for short JHP rounds back in those days.

My Officers Model did take some tweaking and new parts, including some better magazines, but then it's ran fine for several years with only recoil & magazine spring changes, and with any ammunition I've cared to use in it.

My last couple of of purchases, a Colt stainless Government XSE and a SW1911SC 5", have both been consistently reliable in feeding & functioning with any of an assortment of good quality .45 ammunition I've used in them ... but then I've only used what I've determined have been good quality magazines in them since the beginning, too.

Now, there are lots of 1911-style pistols of all sizes out there on the market. Lots. All sizes, too.

I've seen a fair number of some of the newer ones come through our range and exhibit feeding and functioning issues. Sometimes it's obviously been the shooter ... and sometimes it's apparently been related to either poor ammunition, poor magazines or poor maintenance, or some combination of those issues ... and then sometimes it's seemed to be something inherent in the pistol, itself.

The smaller the 1911 platform is reduced in size, the more 'sensitive' some of them seem to become to shooter & ammunition-related conditions, too.

Lots of folks just can't seem to resist twiddling, fiddling and 'improving' them, too.

Wanna spend $2,000 on a 1911-style gun? You can. Easy to do.

Is it necessary to do so?

I don't think so, but that's just me ...

I wouldn't own any of the 1911's I do if they weren't reliable.

 

[Moe Howard]

My current Mil-Spec has only one range trip under it, flawless so far, my previous Mil-Spec was flawless in several thousand rounds as was a RIA I had. The Springfield GI models I have had, had FTE once in a while. The Kimber Custom II was flawless in several thousand rounds, the Para Ordnance p12 was not reliable to my satisfaction and the Colt Gold Cup I had back in the 90s was the most unreliable gun I ever owned. I know not all Colts are garbage but that particular one was a dud.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

Flawless, all 3.

 

[FM12]

My new S&W sku 108284 eats not only all ammo, including 200 gr swc reloads, but also functions with cheap magazines. This gun is simply awesome. WAY more accurate than I am, as are most of my guns!

Smith and Wesson, it's what's for dinner!