RA40
Member
Nice group tarosean.
As far as 1911s and JHP ammo, the 1911 was not designed to reliably feed JHP ammo. Some do some don't, it's a roll of the dice.
When you see the custom 1911s out there in the $2000, $4000 price range, you have to wonder why, unless you consider them show to be pieces. They don't work any better!
I found second-hand M45A1 for $1300. It is my first 1911. Not a bad handgun. If you're patient something good will eventually turn up.Earlier this year I gave the 1911 another try, and ended up bringing home a Springfield Loaded SS. I've always liked the 1911, but some experiences from a couple decades ago turned me away for a long time. Coming of age in the 1990s, I just couldn't find an affordable 1911 that fed the various JHP defensive ammo. In fact lot of available handguns wouldn't. I went total Glock for about 15 years. The Glocks were the first for me that just worked... in the same sense as a terribly homely yet totally trustworthy wife does.
So, at any rate, I bring this sexy Springfield home, and it works really well... Flawless reliability. Granted, I have a firmer grip, better technique and better maintenance habits at this stage of my life, but the 1911 is now what I'd consider "duty reliable".
Which has brought me to looking at more duty oriented 1911, ones with light rails and high end hand fitted components. I only live once, so why spend the last half of a law enforcement career toting a homely Glock? I want to carry something classy.
So I start looking at $1000-2000 priced 1911s. It seems nearly every 1911 in this price range is overly cheesy, with different colored coatings, snake scales, fish gills, big letters TRP, TLE, CQB, TACTICAL, WARRIOR, SPARTAN, SCORPION, etc.
It's like the same people who put dragon stickers, Cessna wings, ground effects, and neon lights on Honda Civics, are now designing 1911s.
Though it appears like Ed Brown and Dan Wesson tend to stay a bit more conservative, and their handguns look classy (to me).
I think I finally settled on a Dan Wesson Specialist stainless for a duty gun, assuming it appears well built and proves reliable once I try it. It fits all my criteria, without getting too gaudy or exceeding my pricing ceiling (sorry Ed).
I recognize that my personal taste is obviously not the popular flavor (given the prevalence of dura/cera-Kotex & fish gills). For those of you with the special color coatings and uniquely shaped cocking serrations, was it a love at first sight thing, or an acquired taste?
I'm just wondering whether if in future years I'll find myself lusting after something previously dismissed as gaudy, or if I've permanently crossed over into the "music is too loud" stage of my life.
Has anyone learned to love a gun that wears too much lipstick? ;-)