Is 1911 worth the cost?

[danpaw]

I have not studied this a lot but from what reading I have done on the 1911 forums if you want a truely collectable 1911 and one that holds its value and even gains value it sounds like it needs to be a Colt. I heard there were some past quality problems that are much improved now. I have been thinking about a Defender and the reviews so far have been excellent.

[secure]

Comparing a 1911 purchase to a Glock purchase is apples and oranges. Glock is a piece of plastic that is built for reliability and durability. Its price point is great but it is not a 1911.
The 1911 is one of the widest varying guns on the market. You can spend $400 to $10k for one. There are over a dozen manufacturers and probably hundreds of variants.
I love my glocks and I love my 1911's. I owned one of the Taurus 1911's and then made the mistake of buying a Wilson. The Taurus was instantly sold due to my lack of desire to torture myself with its operation. If you get a nice 1911 you will never regret it. Buy it right and hold onto it. You will love it forever and I bet you that it wont be the only 1911 you own.

[HankB]

A good 1911 is a thing of joy - but not all 1911s work well out of the box. (I've read a disturbing number of reports of bad SIGs, and a few of bad Kimbers.)

I have a couple of 1911s and a couple of Glocks. The 1911s are more fun to shoot - especially my Les Baer - and I shoot them faster and more accurately. But they cost more.

The Glocks are completely functional tools, though my Gen 1 G17 is prone to "limp wrist syndrome" when I let a lady shoot it. On the other hand, I often carry a G26, which I haven't been able to make malfunction no matter how I hold it.

Think of a 1911 as a Lexus LS460 and a Glock as a Ford Crown Vic. Which would be more fun to drive?

[glbedd53]

My experiences seem to be so much different from a lot of yours. I'm not a Glock person at all but I shoot more accurately with my Glock 21 than any other handgun I own. That's the main reason I kept it. That and the 13+1.

[danpaw]

Limp wrist syndrome is something I saw a few times with Glocks at the ACC range when we used to shoot there, and it was not always women.

[The Annoyed Man]

I love 1911s, and between my son and I, we have 5 of them — two Kimbers, one Springfield, one Taurus, and one 1943 vintage Ithaca. I used to have another one, a Sig GSR.

My impressions...

Kimber Stainless Ultra Carry II: my most frequently carried pistol. Utterly reliable, accurate, surprisingly easy to shoot for a 3" gun. It has an absolutely superb trigger.

Kimber Pro Raptor II: my son's; it is also utterly reliable, accurate, has a superb trigger. It has a steel frame, so it is noticeably heavier than the Ultra's alloy frame, and not just because it is bigger.

Springfield Loaded Parkerized 1911-A1: it's a great pistol. Also utterly reliable and wonderfully accurate. It's a 5" (full-sized) all-steel pistol, so it weighs a fair amount, but because it is flat and narrow, it carries close to the body, and so the weight is not so bad, really. My son slicked up the trigger on it, and it might be better than the trigger on either of the Kimbers.

Taurus PT1911AR 1911-A1: other than a slide stop lever pin that broke in half during a range session (which was replaced with a spare Kimber part that dropped right in), this pistol has been as reliable as the others. It also has a very good trigger. I don't like the Heinie "straight eight" sights on it, but my son loves them, and he wears out the bullseyes with this gun.

Ithaca 1911-A1: this is a government contract pistol manufactured in 1943, and it was my father's Marine Corps sidearm in World War Two. It's a shooter. It loosey-goosey and rattles like an old jalopy, and has really crappy government issue sights... ...and it goes "Bang!" every single time you pull the trigger. It is notoriously un-fussy about ammo and will digest anything you feed it — even using the original magazines, which have never had the feed lips adjusted, and which still have the original springs in them. I don't know what all the fuss about magazines is. Just find some old ones from WW2. They'll never let you down.

Lastly... the Sig GSR Stainless Carry 1911. A piece of poo. Beautiful poo; but still poo. Absolutely the most unreliable pistol I've ever owned. Beautiful to look at, but don't waste your money. Sig 1911s have a reputation of being hit or miss on reliability. For that kind of money (pretty much the same price point as Kimber 1911s), you should get reliability. My advice is don't waste your money on a Sig 1911. Others may disagree, but my own experience mirrors all the other horror stories I've read online about being notorious for reliability issues.

Whatever happened to my Sig? I brought it back to the same store I bought it from, who took it back almost a year after I bought it (it was a used but newly factory refurbished gun when I bought it). I bought it for $699 and sold it back to them for $530. I used that $530 as a down payment on the Kimber Ultra Carry II at the top of this list, and I have never regretted that decision.

Your mileage may vary as to brand, but one thing you can count on: a properly functioning 1911 pistol is an absolute joy to shoot. It really is the perfect pistol.

[The Annoyed Man]

I do love my Kimber.... and have no idea who made what parts for it. I guess I just assumed Kimber did.

Kimber claims on their website and in their literature that they manufacture all their parts in-house and outsource nothing. My guess is that their nights-sights are at least partly sourced from Meprolight, as that appears to be what came on my UCII from the factory. But other than that, I think that claim is probably accurate.

[G.A. Heath]

A 1911 is a gun designed to be built by skilled labor. Even modern 1911s require people be seriously involved in the manufacturing process to ensure proper fit and finish in order to produce a reliable and functional firearm. Essentially when you buy a true 1911 copy you are getting a gun that is built to a set of standards, however you will find very few parts are truly a drop-in affair and will require fitting to ensure proper function. Now bear in mind that some off brand 1911 style guns look and work like a 1911 but do not use the same parts (Older Firestorm 1911s come to mind, although the newer ones are built to meet the standards). Every 1911 I own has been rock solid out of the box, like most of my firearms, but I would never trust any firearm for carry without "breaking it in" properly in order to test it for reliability. Keep in mind that with any gun, especially 1911s, proper care and maintenance is critical to ensure a properly functional, safe, and reliable firearm.

You will also find that fanboyism runs amock in the 1911 world where Kimber fans bash all others, Taurus owners will you buy one of theirs because you "Get nearly the same gun for half the price", Colt owners will demand you buy one like theirs because "any thing else is just a copy", RIA owners will tell you "For the same money buy a RIA and a case of ammo at the same time", and so on.

[duns]

The OP is asking whether a 1911 is sufficiently "better" than a Glock to justify the price difference. For a defensive handgun, I would venture to suggest that a Glock would probably meet the functional requirements as well or better than the 1911 and at a lower price. On the other hand, IMO, Glocks are ugly and boring whereas 1911's are beautiful and interesting. I don't have a Glock but I do have a Walther P99C which is very similar to a Glock G26 (the 9mm "baby" Glock). I bought the Walther as an IWB carry gun. I also have a snubby revolver for pocket carry and a Beretta 92FS that I chose as a home defense weapon (big, easy to shoot accurately, very reliable 9mm, and also historic as the sidearm of the US military since the mid 80's). I love all three guns in their different roles. However, I just added a Colt 1911 (Series 70 Reissue) Government Model to my collection. I bought it for its looks and history, in other words just for fun. I've fired 250 rounds through it so far and found it to be reliable out of the box and easy to shoot accurately despite its primitive sights. It has a fabulous trigger. It's the sweetest of my four guns to shoot (isn't that amazing for a design that was developed in the first decade of the 20th century?). I'm thinking that it would serve home defense purposes just as well as my 92FS. I would not envisage trying to carry it concealed. It was a mere $843 from budsgunshop.com. In summary, if you go for a 1911, I think that you will not necessarily get anything functionally better than a Glock but you may get a great deal more pleasure from it than you would from a Glock.

[OldCannon]

Get a 1911 and a Glock.

The 1911 is what you show to your friends.

The Glock is what you show to your enemies.

[gigag04]

I do love my Kimber.... and have no idea who made what parts for it. I guess I just assumed Kimber did.

Kimber claims on their website and in their literature that they manufacture all their parts in-house and outsource nothing. My guess is that their nights-sights are at least partly sourced from Meprolight, as that appears to be what came on my UCII from the factory. But other than that, I think that claim is probably accurate.

Kimber owns Meprolight as of 2008 ish...maybe earlier.

[Big Ben]

Kimber Pro Raptor II: my son's; it is also utterly reliable, accurate, has a superb trigger. It has a steel frame, so it is noticeably heavier than the Ultra's alloy frame, and not just because it is bigger.

The Stainless Pro Raptor 2 is the model I have been looking at. Very nice looking gun. I have heard rumors that the alluminum frames that come on the carry models wont quite stand the test of time like the steel frames would. Does anyone know if this is the case?

Get a 1911 and a Glock.

The 1911 is what you show to your friends.

The Glock is what you show to your enemies.

I like you thinking.

[ericlw]

i think its funny someone would compare the accuracy of a glock over a 1911. every glock ive tried are loose as a goose and about as accurate.

[Pete92FS]

You don't need to start off with a $1000.00 + 1911. Try something like Para GI Expert. It's a full size 1911 that goes for around a $600.00 - cheaper if you can find one at Academy. Once you you try one they tend to multply.

[glbedd53]

I can't explain it. Glocks have a reputation for reliability(at least now) and not accuracy. Not mine. Accuracy is great. Reliability, not so much. But it is an older one. It is reliable now but it gave me fits until it made 2 trips to Georgia. Maybe they loosened them up a little to get better reliability.