Opinions on Les Bear 1911s?

You can't go wrong with a Wilson, Brown or Baer. I have a Wilson & just bought Brown. The Baers are tight & accurate, you also get a fancy cardboard box instead of a pistol rug :lol:

Buy it if you don't like it send to me I have a birthday coming up. and will take it

the only downside to the Baer is that you don't get a proper case with it :shrugs: I don't know why they do that but apparently it's tradition. That said you absolutely can't go wrong with a Baer or, for that matter, any of the high-end 1911 makers: Wilson Combat and Nighthawk to name a couple.

My 5" Thunder Ranch is a fantastic pistol and if that Baer you've been looking at is unfired the first time you handle it you'll understand why everyone pays a premium for a "custom" 1911; the slide to frame fit is like a single piece of steel.

Buy it and shoot it. If at that point you dont like it, I would gladly take it off your hands. Hell I would even give you one of my stainless Colt's just to make you feel better.

Seriously I have never shot one and only held a couple, but they are works of art. If they shoot half as good as they look you wont regret buying one. One day I will own one, 4" blued with the full dust cover.

I put off buying a higher end 1911 for nearly 30 years. I never could understand all the hoopla, I thought I could make a Kimber, Colt, Norinco, etc. into a gun just as good as the expensive ones, with only a little money.

WRONG. Now I see the light. Les Baers (and Wilson's, & Ed Brown's, etc.) are on a completely different level, in fact, they don't even "feel" like a traditional 1911. I promise.

Ditto to all of the afore mentioned. Any Les Baer, Wilson or Brown is at the top of the 1911 food chain. Good luck on your purchase.

Proud Owner of a Les Baer Concept 2

Seems like Baers, Wilsons and Browns are all of similar quality. Whenever I need some money I think about selling my Kobra Carry until I shoot it again. Just very crisp and the good quality is evident. If I continue to consolidate it'll likely end up with my Brown, a Ruger SP101 and NAA PUG (plus my CZ 452 Scout, Armalite M4'gery and Remington 870, of course).

They're even better than KIMBERS!!!

I think they're a great gun, even better if you can get a great deal on one.

BTW if they're out of your budget you may want to look at the Dan Wesson's. I hear great things about them, quality parts and a quality build, for the price.

I've owned Baers, Wilsons, and Browns. They are all far better than Kimbers, Springfields, or Colts.

The only complaint about the Baers is the barrel bushings are T-I-G-H-T.

I still had to use a wrench on mine to take it down after 5k rounds.

What is the recommended "break-in" on a Les Baer in terms of rds?
Or, is it "combat-street ready" from the git-go"?
I assume most purchaser's use them for competition or no?

Mad Magyar,

I can only vouch for my LB, but it has been 100% since day one, but we're talking about 400 rounds total so far.

I prefer my Wilson's but I have one Baer and I can not complain I was gonna buy a Brown but went with a new CZ Dan Wesson and am very impressed with it would highly recommend.

I've got a TRS and a PII. Both are tight and will run anything I put in the mag. I would shoot at least 500 rounds through it to break it in. Baer hard fits his guns so they do need to be broken in or as some like to say "smoothed in". My TRS had a few failures in the first 100 rounds but my PII has never skipped a beet .

Les Baer recommends a minimum of 500 rounds for break-in.

HIGHLY recommended. I owned a Dan Wesson PM7, Springfield TRP, and Colt Gold Trophy before buying my Les Baer TRS.
There IS NO comparison! The production guns simply can't compare with the build quality and reliability of a handmade, hand-fitted gun.
(I'd also add the Springfield Custom shop and Nighthawk into the mix with Baer, Brown, and Wilson.)

I think the five-inch Baer 1911s are great guns, but the three 4.25" Baers I have owned have needed a bit tweaking to be right. Basically, a Baer 4.25" frame, Comanche or Stinger, uses the same slide stop pin hole to spring guide seat dimension as a Government Model. That is different than the original Colt Commander, which uses a longer distance than the Government Model. This translates into some Baer pistols not reliably (or at all) slingshotting. Some people have found than an alternate slide stop resolves the issue, and others do what I have done: machine the frame to bring the dimension under discussion into specification for a Commander.

Sounds like it's just very tight. These things are tight, tight when new! While no doubt they're reliable if your wanting one for carry you may want to look at one a little looser like a Dan Wesson CBOB or even the Ed Brown Kobra carry. Brown's are known to be accurate but looser than the Baer's.

LB creates fine 1911s, I have a Concept II that is just a joy to shoot.

longhorngunman said:

These things are tight, tight when new!

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No doubt. I never knew a 1911 could be so tight!! Mine was very difficult to initiate slide movement. I didn't even think it would function, but it did.

Unbelieveable.

Originally Posted by longhorngunman
These things are tight, tight when new!

Click to expand...

+1 on being tight. The tolerances are too tight in my opinion. Having used some LB parts in a frame I assembled it seems everything they make is substantially oversized and requires more fitting than similar Ed Brown, Nighthawk, or Wilson parts I've used.

I shoot 4 to 6 IDPA and USPSA matches per month and RO some stages. We have a few regular shooters that run Les Baer's. Beautiful pistols, but all three shooters have had runs of FTRB problems in matches. More so than some less expensive 1911s like Dan Wessons and STIs which are more prevalent and largely problem free in matches. My own theory/opinion is that they are too tight which allows the slide to be fouled too easily/early.

One of those shooters has 5000+ rounds through his now and says he finally feels that it's "broken in" and running better.

Only an opinion based on a first hand view of others Baer's. I've never owned one.

Yep, have a TRS. Runs great and you can tell how tightly fit the thing is. As far as 1911s go, I also have a Springfield loaded, Kimber and a Dan Wesson Bobtail. Of all the above, the LB is the finer pistol, but a high second would be the DW. It is fit and finished mucho better than the Kimber and the Springfield. As others have mentioned, if you are looking for bang for buck, DW would be hard to beat I am impressed considering the relative cost of the Kimber in comparison.

Going back to the Les Baer, the only thing that I had to do to it is get better grips for my smallish hands. Those laser engraved grips on the TRS are too slick for my liking and don't give me as much purchase as I would like.