Really simple 1911 question

[boredelmo]

1911's come in:

Full-size, Commander sized, Officer's size, and the ultra compact's right?


If I have an Officer sized 1911, what size grips would I need to purchase when the options are "Full or Compact"?

 

[scubie02]

compact. The commander's/champions have full sized grips, officers have compact grips.

 

[bannockburn]

The full size (Government and Commander ), use the original full size M1911 frame, which holds a 7 rd. magazine. The Officers or compact size model was chopped on both ends, slide and frame, and have a 6 rd. magazine.

 

[boredelmo]

thanks, I just wasn't sure officer and compact were the same thing.

 

[Tom Fury]

Ummm, They're not...

Has more to do with barrel/slide length:

True (Colt) Commander: 4.25 (Also CCO, Para P-13).

Compact 4.0 (Springfield Champion, Kimber Compact Carry). (Full or OM size frames in this class)

True (Colt) OM 3.5.

and then theres' the less than 3.5 crowd (Kimber and Springfield Ultra and Micro compact, Detonics comes in here too I think, Colt New Agent and Defender), at less than an OM. (Detonics anyway, with shorter than OM barrel/slide AND frame with 6 rd mag).

Colt is rated as "true", because they did it first on production gun and thus defined it. Short guns before that I believe were the armory produced General Officers' model (4" I believe, like a Champion) or custom pieces (Svenson for instance used to chop the GM to 4" I believe).

Cheers, TF

 

[Tom Fury]

Really its' about mag capacity

Best way to tell if you need full size or COMPACT/OM grips is mag capacity;
7/8 rds is full size (full size mag=full size grip).
6/7 rds is OM or some compacts (short mag=short grip).

Having made more confusing, hope I simplified.

As a reward for bearing with me, Go look at Esmeralda grips. (That search will get you there).

Cheers, TF

 

[Walkalong]

The 3" guns & the Officers Models ( 3 1/2" ) all have the shorter grips. Almost all 4" and up guns have the bigger (standard) grips, but some of them go by "compact" and have the short grip to go with the longer barrel.

Best way to tell if you need full size or COMPACT/OM grips is mag capacity;
7/8 rds is full size (full size mag=full size grip).
6/7 rds is OM or some compacts (short mag=short grip).

Yep

 

[Rustynuts]

I like my VZ grips on my compact 1911 (3") I also had some Chip McCormick slim carry grips which I like (Rosewood). I use 7-rd Wilson or Cobra mags in mine.



Here's a pic of a 1911 with standard grips compared to my XD SubC with a double stack mag. You can see why it's worth getting slim carry grips. The standards are about the same width as a double stack mag with its greatly increased capacity.