least expensive American-made 1911?

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Halo

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Looking over my collection, it occurred to me that my own country is woefully underrepresented. My only American-made pistol is a Browning Buckmark. I figured to remedy this, what more quintessentially American pistol could I get than a 1911?

I have to admit though, the 1911 world confuses me with such a huge variation in manufacturers, styles, mods, and so on. Is there such a thing as a relatively inexpensive (< $800) American-made 1911 these days? I don't want anything fancy, just something like military issue. I have nothing against the foreign ones, like the Brazilian Springfields, I just sort of want something native-born - you know...Mom, apple pie, and John Browning. :)
 
May be hard to define "American made" - sort of like cars any more. Is a Chevy "American made" - even if it may have more foreign manufactured parts than my Toyota? I think people gave up on that one a while ago, and now refer to "American badged" cars - meaning a car that is produced by a company that was a big name in the US in the '50s. Unless they are looking form handouts from the feds - then they are all as American as Apple pie. :)

Do you mean where the steel is produced? Where the frame is cast/forged? Where the frame and parts are machined? Where the gun is assembled? The brand on the gun?

I think Ruger casts a lot of frames in the US for other manufacturers - I don't know if they do 1911 frames for anyone. I think that some of the custom shops claim to be "American Made" - but I don't know how much of the process happens in the US.

A number of people have suggested Colt. I would have guesses that Colt - like most of the other manufacturers - uses frames cast/machined somewhere else (by Imbel?) to save money. But I don't know that to be the case.

Mike
 
I got an Kahr Auto Ordinance GI 1911 a couple months ago for 400 and to me and my more gun saavy buddy it is a well made gun. We took it apart and smoothed it out some and even there the machining was pretty darn good. It definitely goes bang.

AFAIK it is all american made although in some of my research the frame and slide may come in raw from a company in spain and they finish it in New York.

can't get any less expensive and still claim the made in U.S.A. than AO.
 
AFAIK it is all american made although in some of my research the frame and slide may come in raw from a company in spain and they finish it in New York.
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I suspected that all of the people making 1911s do this, and call it "American made". Does anyone know for sure about Colt? Where their low-end frames and slides made?

Mike
 
Thanks for the responses. By American-made I would mean ideally something forged/cast and assembled here, though as RPCVYemen mentioned above it's hard to really know if there's such a thing as 100% American anymore. I'll check out all these suggestions.

edit to add -- I really like the look of that Auto-Ordnance pistol! Nice and plain. I'll have to see if I can find one locally to look at.
 
I can tell you 100% that Kimber 1911's are all made completely in the U.S.

In fact, the only part of any Kimber firearm that is not made in the U.S. is the wooden stocks on some of their rifles. Some of them are made from wood that isn't abundant in the U.S. so the stock is cut and shaped out of the country and shipped to Yonkers for finishing.
 
I can tell you 100% that Kimber 1911's are all made completely in the U.S.
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Do they do their own casting/forging, or have another company do it for them? Does Ruger do theirs?

Mike
 
What about STI?
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Phillipines
I would have guesses that Colt - like most of the other manufacturers - uses frames cast/machined somewhere else (by Imbel?) to save money.
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Nope, in house USA made.


Colt, Kimber, Smith and Wesson are the most affordable ones. Others are high-dollar, like Wilson, Brown, Baer.
 
Many of the 1911s made by SA are all done here, but they retail for about 1K for the Operator and TRP models. SAs loaded model is made here except for the forging of the frame which is made in Brazil, but the rest is made here as is the machining of the frames IIRC

Kimber, Smith and Wesson and Colt are all that come to mind for 100% american made though besides higher end guns
 
Colt and Kimber are pretty much the extent of it for actually made in the USA. Colt has owned all its production facilities for generations. Kimber started its 1911 production by making no more than the slide and frame. It has grown, but the basis of Kimber's 1911 line has been making slides and frames. (Even though poly-framed Kimbers have imported frames.

SA, don't count on it. SA doesn't actually make anything. Every part is contracted out to the lowest bidder.

I'm not going to bother checking every part and its origin for 1911s, but I'd be willing to bet there is not a single 1911 on the market today that is 100 percent U.S. made.

If I owned the company I can guarantee you it would not have a 100 percent U.S. made 1911. It would kill any price point advantage you could hope to overcome with patriotism.
 
I don't believe Colt produces their own forgings, they buy them.

There aren't many companies that actually run a foundry to my knowledge, S&W does, STI I think. Anyone else?

Kimber, I read, uses barstock.
 
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