Nightcrawler
Member
Looking through my Gun 2004 Buyer's Guide, I count...and remember, they don't list the subvariants of each model, just the basic lines from each company...I count no less than 68 pistols that are based on or are clones of the M1911.
Of those, I think two or three have polymer frames. A small few are double-stacks. One is a long slide. Many are compacts. Three or four are "basic" models with spur hammers and no beavertails (odd, consdiering the other configuration is much more common now). Made by companies from Armscor to Wilson Combat.
I'm willing to bet many of these are built by gunsmiths at small companies from parts made by other companies (I mean, there's no way a small custom house has the materials to manufacture their own frames and slides.)
Interesting that the design remains so popular even after so many years. (Though Ruger and S&W remain the top US handgun producers.) I guess what works still works.
Though, I find many of these pistols ugly looking, but that's my opinion.
From looking at the pictures, the only shape difference between the now popular "beavertail" and the once-popular old style grip safety on my Colt is that the beavertail sweeps up at the end and the grips safety doesn't. They both have the same contour with the frame, and when depressed, the grip safety's rear face is level with the edges of the frame.
Maybe it's just the way I hold it, but when I compared the two in a gunstore I didn't find the Springfield "loaded" any more comfortable than the "Mil-Spec". (Less comfortable, actually; the Loaded's extended saftey bothered my trigger finger when depressed and the grips were ridiculously sharply checkered.)
*shrug* I guess I've got funny hands. (Good thing I'm left handed; when holding a pistol right handed I can never reach the magazine release with my right thumb without shifting the pistol in my hand. However, the long DA trigger pull and wide grip of the CZ-97 isn't the least bit uncomfortable for me.)
Anyways, though, if you like 1911 style pistols, these are good times to live in. You've certainly got your options!
Oh, the STI, the Strayer-Voit, and the RRA with the intergral optic rail all the way down the top of the slide get points for the ugliest 1911s, in my opinion. The "CQB SPEC-OPS 1911" gets points for going way overboard with the cocking serrations (I half expect to see a model with them all the way down the slide one of these days). The High-Standard gets points for managing to make their pistols look cheap and chinsy in a small black and white photograph. The Llama gets points for the dumbest company name. The Mateba 1911 gets the "for crying out loud, is everyone making a 1911 now?" award. Para ordnance gets points for having exceptionally ugly slide serrations (the slide is stainless, the serrations are black).
Just my opinion, of course.
Of those, I think two or three have polymer frames. A small few are double-stacks. One is a long slide. Many are compacts. Three or four are "basic" models with spur hammers and no beavertails (odd, consdiering the other configuration is much more common now). Made by companies from Armscor to Wilson Combat.
I'm willing to bet many of these are built by gunsmiths at small companies from parts made by other companies (I mean, there's no way a small custom house has the materials to manufacture their own frames and slides.)
Interesting that the design remains so popular even after so many years. (Though Ruger and S&W remain the top US handgun producers.) I guess what works still works.
Though, I find many of these pistols ugly looking, but that's my opinion.
From looking at the pictures, the only shape difference between the now popular "beavertail" and the once-popular old style grip safety on my Colt is that the beavertail sweeps up at the end and the grips safety doesn't. They both have the same contour with the frame, and when depressed, the grip safety's rear face is level with the edges of the frame.
Maybe it's just the way I hold it, but when I compared the two in a gunstore I didn't find the Springfield "loaded" any more comfortable than the "Mil-Spec". (Less comfortable, actually; the Loaded's extended saftey bothered my trigger finger when depressed and the grips were ridiculously sharply checkered.)
*shrug* I guess I've got funny hands. (Good thing I'm left handed; when holding a pistol right handed I can never reach the magazine release with my right thumb without shifting the pistol in my hand. However, the long DA trigger pull and wide grip of the CZ-97 isn't the least bit uncomfortable for me.)
Anyways, though, if you like 1911 style pistols, these are good times to live in. You've certainly got your options!
Oh, the STI, the Strayer-Voit, and the RRA with the intergral optic rail all the way down the top of the slide get points for the ugliest 1911s, in my opinion. The "CQB SPEC-OPS 1911" gets points for going way overboard with the cocking serrations (I half expect to see a model with them all the way down the slide one of these days). The High-Standard gets points for managing to make their pistols look cheap and chinsy in a small black and white photograph. The Llama gets points for the dumbest company name. The Mateba 1911 gets the "for crying out loud, is everyone making a 1911 now?" award. Para ordnance gets points for having exceptionally ugly slide serrations (the slide is stainless, the serrations are black).
Just my opinion, of course.
)
