1911 help needed.....

Dan Wesson AFAIK are made in the USA. Not Kansas but maybe New York. but finding one for $800 is impossible

$800 or less and American....Kimber (maybe) and Para

For the love of God don't get a Ruger

I appreciate the info.

In all honesty I'll probably spend more, but I can dream can't I ;)

:D:D
 
Actually I had thought about doing that recently! Just too afraid to do it myself because it isn't quite as easy replacing sights, or mag catches, or slide releases. Any particular brand/weight connector you would recommend?
Its just as easy to replace the lighter connector as a slide release, just one more pin to push out. Really easy. Well worth it too thats the first thing I do on a new glock I usually replace a couple of springs at the same time. I usually get 2 to 2 and a half inch groups at 15 yards.

For a 1911 I've used spring fields quite a bit in competition enough so that I've rebuilt one 3 times. Parts wear out on a race gun.
 
Tiger just brought out a commander size 1911 it ticks all the boxes you listed. It looks like a great gun don't know what the reviews have said about it but I know ruger makes a quality product.
 
Yes it is striker-fired, buuuuuut it's a Glock. Battle tested, battle proven. They are just great guns and go bang every time. Ugly as hell I must admit, but I don't want a pretty gun, just functional:D
 
Yes it is striker-fired, buuuuuut it's a Glock. Battle tested, battle proven. They are just great guns and go bang every time. Ugly as hell I must admit, but I don't want a pretty gun, just functional:D

How many world wars have they been through? Oh yeah, that's right.

And I call BS on going bang every time
 
Most of the guns you guys are naming aren't US made. That was in the criteria. I don't know where Dan Wessons are made now but they are CZ owned which isn't American. Don't get me started on Glocks.

The majority of CZ firearms are made in the U.S. Kansas City, KS to be exact. I live in Kansas City area so it is cool to own a gun that was made very close to me. They have a top notch product and CZ USA is the part of CZ that manufactures in the U.S. Quite a bit are made in the U.S. most of the ones you see except for the surplus military ones. Just correcting you not trying to be rude.
 
I'm assuming he means made by an American company. I second the "don't buy Ruger".

Have you had problems with the Ruger or just do not like the company? I do not car for their SR polymer framed pistols, but I think their 1911s are great for the money and have not had problems with one. I just would like to know if you have had bad experience?
 
Never had an ounce of trouble out of either of my Ruger SR1911s. Great gun at a great price point.

Garth
 
1911=super tight tolerances=zero room for error
Glock=loose tolerances and simple design=consistent reliability

It has taken 100 years to perfect the 1911 platform, as for Glocks, less than 20. I'm done.
 
The sad thing about Ruger is watching a company that used to be just DRENCHED in its own reputation for durability, putting out inferior products since Bill Ruger (the quality-control king) died. Don't get me wrong, I disagreed with a lot of Bill Ruger's opinions (people don't "need" carry-sized handguns, people don't "need" high capacity magazines, etc.) and from what I understand he wasn't an especially nice person to work for, but while he was alive, Ruger firearms WORKED. This same gun shop I mentioned (I am not saying the name because I feel I shouldn't advertise for them here) is the #2 Ruger dealer in the country, behind Walmart. They have annual Ruger promotions--month long sales where it's not uncommon for them to sell 1000+ guns in their first weekend, thirty salesmen at the counter and a two hour wait to get one of them. The number of guns they're having to send back now (again, inside info from the gunsmiths there) because of factory defects is just appalling, but it's indicative of the entire gun industry at the moment. Marlin rifles with gaps in their wood-metal joints that you can see all the way through, more and more plastic parts on Remington rifles and shotguns, (actually, pretty much anything the "Freedom Group" gains control of will experience tremendous profit margin increases by reducing quality control), and don't get me started on Kimber and Sig Sauer in the last few years---two years behind on their existing orders, and yet continuing to introduce new products at every shot show, further increasing wait times and failing to fill existing orders. Smith and Wesson, Springfield Armory, Thompson Center, and Caracal USA have all issued massive recalls on various firearms, basically telling consumers, "For the love of God, PLEASE stop shooting these guns and send them back!" Why? They don't put the work in, they don't test adequately, they rush things to market and then let the consumers discover what in the hell is wrong with them.

We are, right now, experiencing a glorious time to be knife enthusiasts---manufacturers are listening to customers, vacuous descriptions (i.e. "surgical steel") are largely falling by the wayside and we're being told straight up what the materials being used are. There seems to be a race going on, though a fairly friendly one, to see who can build the best knife for the money, or the best knife period. Unfortunately, the competition in the gun world is to see how little work they can put in.
 
1911=super tight tolerances=zero room for error
Glock=loose tolerances and simple design=consistent reliability

It has taken 100 years to perfect the 1911 platform, as for Glocks, less than 20. I'm done.

how many generations of glock has there been in 20 years?

And the 1911 as made in 1911 is pretty damn close to the ones now. A1 cuts on the frame, that's about the most that's changed.

Full length guide rods? Not needed.
Beavertail safety? Not needed
Firing pin blocks? Really not needed but safety feature

The original 1911s were loose, for the reason they were a combat pistol not a target pistol.

How about the Hi Power? How many real improvements have been made on that pistol?

Let's wait 80 years and see what Glocks are then. They might have made an "improvement" and put a 20 piece guide rod for all we know.



As for Ruger 1911s, we come to the issue of Ruger making parts and throwing them together. No fitting, no nothing. Sometimes that method works okay and the pistol works. Other times, surfaces don't lock together right, sometimes the barrel links are too long or short, the barrel bushing have to tightness, etc. Ruger knows how to throw a 1911 together, not build one.
 
Good points there M67!! Unfortunately I don't see much change or development coming for Glock ever:thumbdn: They isn't much room for improvement from a reliability standpoint, and if you change anything else, then it just isn't a Glock anymore. I for one refuse to buy a Gen 4, as I think they are worse than the Gen 3s! As for 1911's, I am actually excited to see what kinds of new developments they will have to offer. I don't know if anyone else makes one, but RRA is coming out with a polymer 1911 soon :eek: Even I think that is a sin... LOL
 
1911=super tight tolerances=zero room for error
Glock=loose tolerances and simple design=consistent reliability

It has taken 100 years to perfect the 1911 platform, as for Glocks, less than 20. I'm done.

A rather severe oversimplification. 1911s had absolutely nothing but a stellar reputation for reliability until a few decades ago, at which time a few things emerged:
1) The military's horrible maintenance (refusing to keep track of spring changes, mixing and matching parts as guns wore out) had left them with a lot of very bruised and bloodied pistols, which were falling apart, and did not AT ALL represent what the factories had sent out originally.

2) A new generation of pistoleers who'd never been in a single gunfight, but sure read a lot of magazines, determined that you needed your auto to run hollowpoints, something the 1911 was not originally designed to do, and needed some tweaking to get there.

3) Colt, under their dozenth (or so) group of owners, had largely started riding their legendary name and not caring what they put their name on as long as they could get money for it. Their tolerances loosened, their QC went to hell (oops! forgot to heat treat those parts...) and suddenly a platform which had worked for 3/4 of a century began to have trouble. In stepped Kimber, undercutting their price and exceeding The Pony's quality, and the race was on! 1911s were hot again! So everybody started making them, and it has taken some growing pains for all of these outfits to figure out how to make it run right with +P/standard ammo, 185-230 grain bullets, twenty different shapes of hollowpoints, etc. All things which, again, the original pistol was not designed to contend with.

Glock has done well, no doubt about it. Of course, their ergonomics are...interesting for lots of shooters, and they are some of the biggest jerks on the planet to deal with if you ever dare to have a problem with your gun, but there's no doubt about it: after Browning invented the tilting breech semi-automatic fired via striker, and with the benefit of modern materials and manufacturing techniques, the Austrians did a darn fine job. :)
 
Good points there M67!! Unfortunately I don't see much change or development coming for Glock ever:thumbdn: They isn't much room for improvement from a reliability standpoint, and if you change anything else, then it just isn't a Glock anymore.

But who says the gun industry makes sense? A lot of "improvements" made on firearms were the results of "fixing" a "problem" that never existed. It comes down to well we can do it so might as well do it. Like Kimber and their God awful external extractors and their polymer Custom. Or Glock and their 2 piece guide rod.

1911s were completely reliable, but people just got tinkering with them and one thing led to another, etc.

And I agree with the above modern Colt rant :thumbup:
 
But who says the gun industry makes sense? A lot of "improvements" made on firearms were the results of "fixing" a "problem" that never existed. It comes down to well we can do it so might as well do it. Like Kimber and their God awful external extractors and their polymer Custom. Or Glock and their 2 piece guide rod.

1911s were completely reliable, but people just got tinkering with them and one thing led to another, etc.

And I agree with the above modern Colt rant :thumbup:

You got that right, and it is extremely frustrating! Don't fix what ain't broken right? But as you said with 1911s, you get someone some free time and the ability to tinker, and Lord knows what they will come up with! It has gotten that way with AR-15s too, some crazy looking and fancy guns out there. To the point where they lose their practicality. Sometimes good, sometimes......not so much. But hey, whatever floats people's boat:cool:
 
You got that right, and it is extremely frustrating! Don't fix what ain't broken right? But as you said with 1911s, you get someone some free time and the ability to tinker, and Lord knows what they will come up with! It has gotten that way with AR-15s too, some crazy looking and fancy guns out there. To the point where they lose their practicality. Sometimes good, sometimes......not so much. But hey, whatever floats people's boat:cool:

That's how you get $2,000 custom Glocks as well. Hell, those damn finger ridges on all of the newer gens need the belt grinder treatment
 
I have the 5" SR1911 that I almost shoot daily and its been nothing but 100% reliable after aprox 1yr/1k rds. Great pistol thats also easy to shoot accurate. Great value for what you get.

I also have the SW E series SC Commander with the super light Scandium frame. Top shelf components with mid range price(typically goes for $1180ish). Black Melonite treated stainless slide, night sights, beavertail, ambi safetly, bob'd gripframe, grooved gripframe straps and slide, precision trigger. Match recessed barrel, fish scale front/rr slide serrations.

5", 4.25" and 3.5". Plus the Colt Mustang .380.




Also love my Glocks. Its ok to have both:rolleyes: 26 and 17.


Fwiw, if your like me and like the 1911 grip angle better then the Luger-ish style Glock angle, this Grip Force adapter does the trick. Love it.
 
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That's how you get $2,000 custom Glocks as well. Hell, those damn finger ridges on all of the newer gens need the belt grinder treatment

Oh come on you don't like those?:D just kidding. Man some of those high dollar highly customized race Glocks look sweeeeeeet. But spending that much money on a Glock kinda defeats the point of buying a Glock. If I am going to spend that much money on a handgun it would definitely be on a Dan Wesson or Nighthawk 1911. Maybe one day I will hit the lottery:rolleyes:
 
Eric I have a S&W SC I havnt had any issues with it but I havn't pushed it really hard either. I am really lusting after one of the E-Series 1911 with the Bobbed frame like Kducky brother has. That said you might want to check out the STI Spartan series. I have never owned one but I have heard good things in general about STI
http://www.stiguns.com/the-sti-spartan-iv/
 
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