[Ghostrider_23]

How are TODAYS compact 1911's?????

Are they relieable to carry???

Are they safe to carry???

Who is making a good 1911 and which model????

[Walkalong]

You need a multiple selection allowable poll. I cant pick just one of those. Kimber is fine Springfield is fine. Others are fine as well.

[10-Ring]

I don't have enough experience w/ the smaller 1911s so in this case, I'd vote HK ;)

[oregonshooter]

How compact are you talking?

I don't like anything smaller than Commander length, but I have seen the Kimbers do well under 4.25"

Out of the box I would buy Kimber, but then again, I don't buy out of the box. :)

[ceg35173]

I have a Colt Defender which is a great weapon.

[The Real Hawkeye]

I have four that have been 100% reliable out of the box. One's a Colt Series 70 (the modern version), one's a Smith & Wesson, and the other two are Springfield Armories. Actually, one of the Springfield Armories needed to be sent back to the factory right after I bought it, but that was about ten years ago, and it hasn't failed once since I got it back. They fixed it right. I would depend 100% on any of those guns working when needed. All, except for the S&W happen to be full sized all steel 1911s. The S&W is a Scandium Commander.

I've owned four compact 1911s (two from Kimber, one from Colt and one from Wilson), and every one of them had at least one major problem that prevented me from trusting it as a carry gun. They are all gone now.

[GreenFurniture]

For compact I would either get a Kimber or a Colt.

Springfield makes good Gov't. models, but have never seemed to get it all together in the smaller pistols or the high cap model 1911s.

[BullfrogKen]

Sure. How compact? I like the Commander length as well. Springfield makes a pretty good product. Colt's been really paying attention lately and making good guns, too.


Spend good money on a good gun, and yes, you'll have a reliable, safe 1911. If I had to get one today, I'd just go buy a Colt LW Commander. But, I'm not you, and you're going to have to figure out what you want, and what you like, and make that decision yourself.

And, if you learn to shoot it, I bet that you'll probably find yourself really into 1911's enough to have a couple iterations of them in a few years. And what you thought you liked today won't be what you have in a few years. That's just how these things work. Its part of the learning process.

[bear71]

Hey Ken,

I have a buddy that served as an armorer for the 10th Mountain Div, he says if your going with the 1911 platform go with a 5" because the .45 ACP doesn't perform well in a 4" in barrel in a 1911 style gun. Any truth to this, the SIGS, HKs and XDs seem to do pretty well in 4 inch barrels.

Additionally, I've been thinking about a second 1911 to compliment my Kimber Classic Stainless, to me the full size 1911 grip is perfectly suited to my medium hands. The grip on the smaller 4" 1911 feels a little short to me for comfort, do other people find this to be true as well?

Are 4" 1911s made with the full grip for 7+1?

[jac714]

Both my 4" and 3" Kimbers function and shoot great.

They are ammo eating machines, reliable and accurate.

The 4" has over 1500 rounds since June, the 3" has about 500 in the same time frame, zero malfunctions attributable to the gun, one due to a magazine follower problem.

Get one, shoot it alot to ensure reliability and find the ammo it likes.

Good luck.

[HSMITH]

It is my opinion that anything smaller than a Commander is a crap shoot. Some work great, some don't, and they will ALL fit into both categories at some point if you shoot them a lot.

Bear71, 45 out of a 4" barrel performs great, not much difference at all from a 5" gun. If you buy a Commander sized gun and you get a full grip frame with a shorter slide on it. The shorter guns are the ones with the shorter grip frame.

[BullfrogKen]

bear71 said: Hey Ken,

I have a buddy that served as an armorer for the 10th Mountain Div, he says if your going with the 1911 platform go with a 5" because the .45 ACP doesn't perform well in a 4" in barrel in a 1911 style gun.

No. Military armorers don't have experience working on many guns outside what Uncle Sam has paid to train them to work on. But, since lots of folks who don't have military experience tend to give undue amounts of weight to a serviceman's opinion, rumors like that abound.

bear71 said: Are 4" 1911s made with the full grip for 7+1?

The Colt Commander is in fact a full size, Government type (not exact, but close enough for instructional purposes only - ;) military reference) with a 4 1/4" slide.

[bear71]

Thanks Ken!

Sounds to me like the Commander is exactly what I'm looking for, a little shorter in the slide with the comfort of the length of a normal grip (almost by a hair) with a 7 round magazine capacity.

I'm assuming Commander is a Colt name like Camaro is to Chevrolet, does Springfield Armory or Kimber have a different title for a similarly styled pistol or is Commander universal.

Forgive the laymen type questions but in researching 1911's I, frankly, skipped all the smaller models for fear of catching a bug I couldn't shake. I keep telling myself, just one more would be OK. This, of course, is prescribed ignorance on my part for financial protection. Shaking the ignorance costs and I still like a steak every now and then.

[BullfrogKen]

The differences between the Government model and a Colt Commander (yeah, they kinda coined the term) are in the length of internal measurements, nothing you'd notice. The height of the grip is the same. Same magazines, grips, everything from say . . . the trigger back.

Kimber has a 4" length model. Not the same as a Commander. Different springs and such. Same grip. Springfield has a copy, too. I've simply stuck with the Colt, and really not paid too much attention to the "me, too" of Kimber and Springfield.

[1911Tuner]

The 1911 was designed as a 5-inch gun, and that platform provides the best chance of out-of-box reliability.

BUT...

It's been my experience that Colt Commanders and Combat Commanders are
reliable. Of course, you can find exceptions to that, but the same can be said of 5-inch models...just not as often. The good news is that any issues that they have are usually simple to correct...just sometimes not quite as simple as a given problem in a 5-inch gun.

When you get below Commander-length...4.25 inches...it gets a little more "Iffy" and the solutions to any problems can be real hair-pullers. This isn't to suggest that there are NO variants in the Officer's Model/Defender class that aren't good...just that a greater percentage of them give problems
as compared to their larger counterparts.

Ultra-compact 1911 variants can be likened to a little poem that I've heard...author unknown:

"There was a little girl, who had a curl in the middle of her forehead...
And when she was good, she was very good...but when she was bad...she was horrid."

[tegemu]

About 75% of the time I carry a proven Kimber Ultra Carry II and the other 25% I carry a Bobtailed Smith & Wesson Scandium Commander. The Commander is my all time favorite handgun but it doesn't fit in my pocket like the UC II does.