The Lure Of the 1911; A Second Look

[CZF]

A friend of mine commented on the abundance of 1911 articles in the
gun mags. He told me that 10 years ago.. you couldn't give a Colt
.45 away. Nowdays, they seem to be THE gun to have.

I told him that with over 20 years of police and private citizen use
of the 9mm. There is a feeling that with standard loads the 9mm
is a feeble stopper. This is particular to 9mm Hardball, and not
the +P or +P+ loads that use HP bullets.

For MILITARY use when you are restricted to Ball ammo.
The grand old 1911 and it's 230 gr payload seems to be the
ideal pistol. Old Slabsides points well and has
a short trigger that is light and crisp.

Not the BEst gun for a beginner: Due to it's manual of arms,
Cocked N Locked carry can be kind of scary for some...
but under controlled conditions like the Range..new shooters do well with it. Same can be said with the BHP and CZ75B, among other Single action autos.

Simple and Accurate. The 1911 has both good and bad qualities.
Having carrried a Combat Commander for years. I found it to
be most reliable with ball ammo. Use of HP ammo requiring
some Colts and other to be throated.

Something you don't have to do with a SIG or Glock in most
cases.

Whether you choose a 1911 for the platform or caliber.
The gun has an ALL AMERICAN flag waving appeal.

Like the CZ75 , the 1911 is a combat and police proven design that
only get better as the years pass by.

 

[Dot_mdb]

>>Like the CZ75 , the 1911 is a combat and police proven design that
only get better as the years pass by.<<

If a 1911 is a 1911 design why does it get better as the years pass by?

I own a Series 70. I've owned it for 27 years. I agree that the 1911 is a fine design. But is it possible that with over 90+ years of innovation and new designs in semi-auto handguns that not one of those designs is equal to or better than the much loved old Colt?

Bill

 

[garrettwc]

If a 1911 is a 1911 design why does it get better as the years pass by?

I own a Series 70. I've owned it for 27 years. I agree that the 1911 is a fine design. But is it possible that with over 90+ years of innovation and new designs in semi-auto handguns that not one of those designs is equal to or better than the much loved old Colt?

Sometimes you just get lucky and it's right the first time. Then everything that comes after that is just improvements to the building process.

The small block Chevy is another example. The core design has not changed since the 50's. But the building process has improved to the point you have 800hp engines turning 10,000 RPM in Nascar.

You are correct there have been innovations and new designs in the last 90 years. And some of them are darn good. And whether we like to admit it or not some of them are the equal of the Colt.

To rephrase your question, how is it with 90+ years of innovation, the 1911 has still managed to stay at or near the top of the heap?

 

[middy]

Is a new-fangled pointy Ibanez a better guitar than a Fender Stratocaster or a Gibson Les Paul?

Is Windows Server 2003 better than Unix?

Is a Timex better than a Rolex? (OK that's not fair )

Some designs are timeless, you can't always improve things.

Sure, the 1911 design isn't perfect, but it's great at what it does.

 

[PCRCCW]

As a lover of all things "guns", I can attest to the 1911's appeal. Yes some will say its not safe, its over the hill, its design is antiquated and so on.

What other gun has stayed the same for as long as it has? Why has it taken off as a Custom/Semi Custom/Race/Competition gun format?

All valid questions and IMO, not valid at the same time. I love a gun that runs like it should, I can modify and change with my skills, tear down to every nut and bolt and put togethor without an armorers course.

I grew to love my 1911's because I knew every part, how they worked and so on.
A deeper understanding of how the gun worked left me with a greater love for it...........sick/twisted but true.

I love my CZ's and other guns ALOT! No one will deny that fact but I dont have the same intimate understanding of them that I did with my 1911's either.

That is my appeal to them at least in the most part.................Shoot well.

 

[45auto]

Unlike many "devices" we buy today, i.e. electronics, computers, autos, etc, etc, there really hasn't been that much "innovation" in the pistol business IMHO.

Aside from the use of plastics, it appears most modern designs are modifications from the "old days". Glock is probably the most innovative "new" pistol...designed 20 years ago.

 

[Jim Watson]

30

 

[45 Fu]

I have owned and carried three Glocks (17,22,23) over the last ten years. They are great pistols and reliable as claimed. However, I was raised on the 1911 and, no mater what comes along, I always find myself returning to the 1911. My current carry weapon is a Kimber Custom II. Out of the box this pistol has everything (reliability, good trigger, accuracy) that I need and used to have done on a new 1911 by a 'smith.

I have found, for me, that whatever another pistol can do the 1911 just does better. It may not carry the same amount of ammo as other pistols, but that is easily dealt with by practice. It's hard to argue with a man that hits. Would I carry another Glock, a Sig, Beretta, etc.? Sure. Each are fine weapons. But none of them have the package offered by the 1911 - quick response, reliability, accuracy, power, strength, and safety.

The design may not have changed much, but the production 1911s out there today (even the "mil-spec" guns) are much beter than what used to be cranked out.

 

[Black Snowman]

Production is the primary inovation in firearms. Titanium, aluminum alloys, scandium alloys, new varieties of steel, MIM, CNC machining, plastics, tritium, lithium batteries, and advances in lens making have all had an effect in firearms greater than any inovation in the cartridges themselves.

Bullet design has come a long way with new processes for producing jacketted munitions in an attempt to find the "ultimate" configuration for any particular use not to mention frangible and other entirely new matierials and processes for making bullets.

These have been incrimental improvements and we still have percusion ignited powder driving a projectile from a metalic cartrige. Tried and abandoned for mainstream small arms have been such inovations as liquid propellants, electric ignition, caseless munitions, and oodles and gobs of even more obscure experiments.

But the basics are still pretty much the same as the were in the late 1800s. I don't think we'll see any major changes in firarms technology unless massive amounds of portable energy come available in something other than chemical form and I don't see that happening for quite some time.