Ah Crap, 1911

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Richard G

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I want to buy a no frills 1911 workhorse, and was looking foreward to buying one from Springfield. Then I found out they have those stupid safety locks in the grip.

Who else makes em at "normal" prices. 1911s are so overpriced its stupid. I refuse to pay $2 grand for a pistol.
 
You can replace the ILS for about $10-$20 with a regular mainspring housing you know.

Greg
 
Or, and I know this is a stretch, unlock it and put the key away. I have yet to hear of a verified case of an internal lock malfunctioning.

Barring that, look for a used Springfield that is old enough not to have the lock.
 
hey Richard G
ive been looking to buy a 1911 for a while myself, and it seemes to me that all of the new 1911 models are made with the safety locks in the grips.
on the sprinfield armory website they have a "GI .45" wich is made to resemble the 1911s that were used in combat. these 1911 are all under 600$ and have different styles (full size, compact ,etc)

http://www.springfield-armory.com/prod-pstl-1911-GI.shtml
thats the link to look at the "GI" 1911. i dont have 1 but looking at the website they look pretty good, seem to be no frills and are at a reasonable price.
good luck finding 1
 
Like others have said, the ILS is just a different mainspring housing and cap. It's easily replaced, but I haven't heard of a single case of it unintentionally locking.
 
The ILS may not malfunction guys but it's the priciple of the thing. Myself I won't buy a handgun that caters to the libs and lawyers. It's 100% bologna.
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BFD! How do you plan on running a multi-million dollar company without "catering to the libs and lawyers?" The ILS is a simple system that doesn't have to be used and can easily and cheaply be removed (I find it MUCH less offensive than Colt's Series 80). Would you rather lose your company over a BS lawsuit and be able to say "well at least I didn't add a locking system that can easily be removed or left unused to cater to the evil libs and lawyers."

It amazes me that so many people will complain indefinitely about anything more than a switch or beavertail safety, but Glocks catch so much heat because if you pull the trigger they fire. Do people get insulted by the fact that a lot of guns come with cable locks nowadays too? What about carrying cases? What if they have ::GASP:: combination locks!? After all, you can't have a company including anything with a gun that, if used, might keep you from getting to your gun as fast as possible? :rolleyes:

note: I'm not advocating laws requiring the above "safety" features and would be completely aganst them. I just think it's a little absurd to whine every time a company adds a feature, especially one like ILS, to try to avoid litigation.
 
Well Nico apparently I'm not alone in my feelings about lawyer locks. The person that started this thread doesn't want a lock either. This is my personal judgement. I will not buy a handgun with a lock on it. When enough of us refuse to do so then the companies installing them might actually stand up and fight instead of "managing risk". Which is all they're doing. That doesn't do a thing to protect them it just makes them more vulnerable to more stupid lawyer bs in the future. Yes complaining and protesting DOES work if enough people join in. Rant off.
 
Richard, don't let the ILS veer you away from a good 1911. Get that Springfield GI, and swap in a new mainspring housing. It takes 5 minutes.
 
Ah Bufford,

S&W's pistol has a firing pin safety. S&W and catering to Liberals and Lawyers are kind of hand in hand. May need to rethink that line in the sand you drew.
 
My "line" is just fine where it is. I don't mind firing pin safteys as long as I can't see em and they don't cause harm to the gun. A saftey is one thing, a lock is another. Drilling holes in the side of a perfectly good firearm is ludicrous. I didn't say I wouldn't buy from the company that uses locks, I said I wouldn't buy a gun with a lock. Major difference. I'd love to buy a NM M1A Springer. I wouldn't buy there pistol even if it didn't have a lock as I don't care for their slide serrations but that's just my personal tastes. I own several Smiths. 1911s and pre lock revolvers also. I will however NEVER buy a gun with an integral lock period, and niether should anyone else. No rethinking neccesary. Thanks. $.02
 
Again, the lock is only integral to the removable mainspring housing, so there is no hole in the side of the frame. This ILS is less intrusive to the function of the pistol than a firing pin safety. Also, Springfield Armory uses at least 3 different types of slide serrations.
 
My Springer WWII is a sweet shooter, and if you didn't read the manual, you wouldn't know the ILS is even there. The internal locks, are all due to our litigious society. You can blame the lawyers, their class action law suits, the gun grabbers, the media, and the nit wit gun owners that leave weapons lying around. But I wouldn't blame the companies. I'm sure they don't want to spend the money developing, and fabricating these "safety systems". They are trying to cover their a$$e$, to protect their company, it's assets, and in the long run their employees. It's your money though.

Good Shootin'
 
My Dan Wesson Pointman Major has no stupid locks, doesn't have the Series 80 firing pin device (or similar), shoots great, is dead reliable, looks great, and was less than $700.

PLEASE, CZ, don't screw this up! (I don't know anything about CZ, but they'd be hard-pressed to improve things.)
 
Black Majik got it right. Also, I just bought a new plain jane Smith 1911 (just had to try one)...if it has a lock I haven't found it yet. Little over $600 and functioned perfectily out of the box with SWC reloads...same as I use in my Colts and Nork.
 
The Smith is too pricey, although I've heard they're good. How about a CZ97B
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OTOH, the ILS mainspring housing is no problem to change. I swapped the arched one on my Springfield Milspec for a flat one, got all the parts from Brownells.
 
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I know that they are getting pricey, but the Kimbers give you the most bang for the buck...all the bells and whistles of a custom at half the price...
 
I know that they are getting pricey, but the Kimbers give you the most bang for the buck...all the bells and whistles of a custom at half the price...
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there are a lot of Springfield Loaded (which run about $100-200 less than comparable Kimbers) and Kimber Series II owners who would beg to differ ;)

Bufford, I know you're not alone. That's what my post is about. And the fact that you have less of a problem with the Series 80 FP safety than with the ILS tells me you haven't done a lot of research into the systems. ILS is nothing more than a mainspring housing. If you change the MSH, you'd never know the gun had it. Series 80 type guns use a slide that is machined differently than non FP safety guns, and getting rid of it is more difficult and expensive than getting rid of the ILS.

The sad truth is if you buy new guns today, you WILL have to deal with lawyer safeties. From looking at the different systems, Springfield seems to have made a conscious effort to make their lawyer safeties as non-intrusive and removable as possible. ILS is one example, as is their version of a FP safety. Instead of making any permanent changes to the gun, all they use is a titanium (light) firing pin and a heavy fp spring, which are both easily replaced with common 1911 parts.

IMO, it's absurd and hipocritical to complain about lawyer safeties in a Springfield, and then turn around and buy a S&W.
 
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