1911 Confusion

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

MI2600

Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
891
Location
Western Michigan
Although I carried one in the service, I am totally confused about what a 1911 is. I perused a recent thread about "showing your 1911s" and there must have been a bzillion different handguns, all called 1911s. In addition, I've seen 1911 "A1", "R1", etc, etc.

What constitutes a gun being a "1911"?
 
That is a good thread.

Common usage of the term 1911 really refers to a 1911 style/type platform as opposed to the original 1911...adopted by the military in 1911 or even the 1911A1 that was adopted in 1924 (R1 is a marketing designation belonging to Remington)

Most people really aren't referring to either the 1911 or the 1911A1, when they say 1911

479px-M1911_and_M1911A1_pistols.jpg
 
Basically any gun even remotely based on the M1911A1 you carried is nowadays referred to as a "1911". There's a lot of variety on the market nowadays.
 
MI2600 said:
What constitutes a gun being a "1911"?
Click to expand...

This is how I explained it to my wife, who asked a similar question. Glocks are only made by Glock. But all Glock models have a basic design: trigger pull, that ugly as sin look, U-shaped sights etc. Now looking at the 1911 they all have similar features such as single action triggers, very thin slides compared to most polymer or striker guns, rounded trigger guards. Across companies you can find many similarities among 1911s. And the best part about that is you can have a 1911 from PARA and probably 90% of the time it will accept magazines and other parts from another 1911 style, even from another company.
 
If you can detail strip a commercial colt from the 20s, you can detail strip an STI 2011, so the 2011 is still a 1911 IMO.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top