Best value in 1911?

[Northslope Nimrod]

What is the best 1911 for the money? I definately can't spend $800 or the like. What are your suggestions and why? Any opinions on Charles Daly? Felt some tonight.....liked them. They felt much better than the Springfield Mil Specs.......Smooth slide and trigger. They also looked better. Opinion on Dan Wesson? Or should I stick with Kimber, Colt or Springfield?

 

[JimJD]

Funny You should mention C.D. 1911's...

First off, I want to say I do not own a C.D. pistol of any kind.
I have heard some good, and some bad about their 1911's.

But I do want to mention what I saw at the range today. A fellow shooter was using a C.D. 1911, it appeared to be a commander type(The EMS model?). He had at least twenty fail to fires. After that, I stopped counting. This is with Him also having His friends trying it out. Ammo used was WWB bulk packs, CCI blazer, and PMC. All was ball type ammo.
I heard His friends exclaim many times over: "What's wrong with this thing?", "what the Hell!?", etc.
When it did fire, most of the spent brass was not ejecting to the right. Most of it was coming back at the shooter(s). I saw one case hit a shooter in the forehead. Hmmm... I wonder if that's an extractor issue.

Maybe it was a lemon. Maybe it was the result of some bad cleaning practices. Maybe a parts failure. I really don't know why that particular pistol was acting the way it was. I do believe that the pistol is suffering from some type of problem that is not of the norm for C.D.'s products.
Too bad, it looked like a nice pistol.

 

[rbernie]

I think that it's safe to say that the Springfield's will be of better materials and be better made (forged frame vs. cast frame) than the Armscor/Charles Daly/Rock Island Armory. Since the Springfield MilSpec is $100 more than the base Chuckie, it should be.

I had a Armscor Officer's model size pistol for a while - it was reliable with FMJ but would not feed even Golden Sabres reliably. I know of many folks who like the Dalys/RIAs, but if you think that you're gonna put a lot of rounds thru the pistol or want to spiff it up down the road - I'd start with the Springfield.

The Dan Wesson's seem to be hit-or-miss. They use a lot of MIM parts inside, but they seem to be sourced from a decent set of suppliers. (Rumor had it that Chip McCormick supplied a lot of their MIM components for a while). I have a Pointman Minor, and it's been flawless for more than 8000 rounds now. It cost me about the same as a Springfield MilSpec - I consider it to be one of my better purchases. My replacing over time the few MIM parts that could be most suspect (slidestop, for example) still proved a lot less expensive than buying a MilSpec and slowly getting it fixed up over time (beavertail grip safety, better sights, etc.). If I could find another Wesson, I'd likely buy it in a heartbeat. Of course, if I could find a decent used NRM Colt, I'd buy that over the Wesson any day of the week.

Just as a thought - earlier this week I picked up a used Springfield 5". This particular unit was evidently one of their last made-in-the-USA units, and has lots of real steel innards. It's largely in the same configuration as the newer MilSpec units, but with one big difference - it cost me $325. The moral of this story is that you may be better off trying to cherry-pick a good used 1911 rather than buying a new one if you're really on a tight budget and *IF* you take the time to really shop around.

 

[Brass Balls]

I think that the Kimber TLE and TLE/RL are great values in lower priced 1911s.

 

[ranburr]

I own Colts, Kimbers, Springfields, Paras and more. The best 1911 I own is from Dan Wesson. Contrary to a previous post, all of my internals are Ed Brown parts. MY pistol is new, so maybe the old ones did use MIM parts. Not mine. The fit, finish, accuracy, and reliability are phenominal right out of the box. 100% accurate and not a single machine mark inside or out, not even under the mainspring housting. This is eesentially a custom quality piece at factory prices ($785.00 for my PT-CBOCB). If you want a base gun to build on, I cannot think of anything better than a base line Springer, I have seen them as low as $395.00.

ranburr

 

[nero45acp]

Colt NRM 1991


nero

 

[Roadkill]

I paid $325 for an Auto Ordnance 1911A1, it is my backwater/kayak/canoe gun, by no means is it up to the quality of my others but it so far has been 100% reliable with several types of hardball and lead round nose, I reload for all my guns and this one has been no problem at all. The front sights have a bad rep for coming off and mine did too, I just put another one on and its stayed so far. Its also US made and surprisingly accurate.

rk

 

[wally]

Search the forum for Charles Daly. I've a couple of threads describing the initial problems with mine and how its held up for 4000 rounds.

Basically I liked it enough that I picked up an Armscor45 (the supplier for Charles Daly & RIA). It lacked the initial out of the box problems my CD EMS had and has worked 100% so far on 150 rounds of Wolf 230gr FMJ. Haven't had time to shoot it much yet, but for $330 its pretty amazing deal if it holds up as well as the CD has. This gun compares in features to the Springfield "Loaded" models ($600+) not the GI. Trigger on it and my CD compare favorably with my Kimbers. Only thing I don't like on it are the front slide serations (useless cosmetic doodad that I won't pay extra to get them, nor wll I pay extra to not get them) and the extened slide stop which I'll either replace or cut down to normal length.

Definitely look for new production, like anything else, it takes some time for them to get it right. People buy a CD, Armscor, RIA etc. for $300-400, have some minor problems and they post everywhere that they are all junk guns. Spend $900+ on a SIG GSR that doesn't work and they'll post its a fine gun after a few minor problems were fixed. There is no shortage of problem guns coming from Springfield or Kimber either. My first Colt was not reliable out of the box either, the second and third were, haven't bought a Colt in nearly 20 years so can't comment on what they are shipping now. Used guns are always a crap shoot, from my perspective I'd never sell a working gun so I assume a used gun gave its previous owner problems -- often it was limp wristing

As to failure to fire, assuming the feeding was solid, Check for a loose firing pin retainer, had this problem out of the box with my Springfield. Or there could be crud in the firing pin channel.

Got my CD and Armscor from A&J Guns out of Dallas, TX if you want a source for known current production at good prices.

--wally.

 

[1911WB]

CD quality

I had a CD 5" 1911 a few years back, and it was terrible. I can deal with a pistol that has either FTF's or FTE's , but the CD had both. If I would have known more then about extractor replacement/tweaking, etc. I would have worked with the pistol; instead I got rid of it. I stick with Colt & SA mostly now.

 

[wwhitby]

I bought a new Charles Daly Commander size back in June 2002 after doing a good bit of research on them. I bought a CD because I could not afford any of the other .45s and my Colt M1991A1 was too big for me to carry.

First thing I did was replace the stock magazines, because I had read they were "junque", with GI magazines and then Chip McCormicks. For grins, I did shoot my CD once with the stock magazines, and they had numerous failure to feeds. For the record, I never had a failure to feed with GI or McCormick magazines.

It did shoot fine with various brands of ball ammo, but with Hydra Shock 230gr JHPs, it did have failure to extracts. The extractor would not hold a loaded round in place (after removing the slide.) Comparing the extractor with the extractor in my Colt M1991A1, I noticed the extractor needed to be adjusted. I adjusted it, and the FTE's stopped.

The only other things I've done have been to replace the firing pin spring with a heavier one. The feedramp was already polished when I got the pistol, so I touch it up from time to time.

This pistol is one of the most accurate i've owned, and as a friend states about his "its boringly accurate." A co-worker of mine has one as well. Both of them are newer production, and both are reliable.

FWIW, I did hear that quite a few of the early ones had problems. The later production models are much better.

Warren

 

[Black Majik]

NRM Colt Government.

 

[deputy tom]

I've owned just about every mfg. 1911 on the market.I did have a CD and traded it in for a Colt's 1991-A1 after reading horror stories on another forum.Mine worked fine but that's another story.If you are on a limited budget,I would suggest a used 1911 in good comdition.My first choice would be a SA loaded,secondly a Colt's 1991-A1.You're looking at approx. $450.00.tom.

 

[1911Tuner]

Best Value

At the present, given your budget limits...my nod goes to the Springfield
standard Mil-Spec or the GI Mil-Spec. I've been pretty well impressed by
the recent offerings comin' outta Geneseo, and though some do have
the recurring extractor problems also noted...the issues are pretty easy to correct.

Stepping up the scale in the price a little...the NRM Colt is pretty tough to beat, but they seem to have developed some problems recently in their
previously reliable Series 80 safety systems. The slide to frame fit on the newer Colts could also be better but not really a major concern. If Springfield
continues on its current trend and doesn't fall into the "Numbers before Quality" syndrome, I predict some anxious moments in Colt's board room
by end year 2005.

Cheers!