What 1911 is the best under $2,000?

Which 1911 ranks the best?

  • Smith & Wesson

    Votes: 6 8.3%

  • Springfield Armory

    Votes: 14 19.4%

  • Kimber

    Votes: 14 19.4%

  • Dan Wesson

    Votes: 10 13.9%

  • Para Ordnance

    Votes: 5 6.9%

  • Auto Ordnance

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Les Baer Custom

    Votes: 22 30.6%

  • Charles Daly

    Votes: 1 1.4%

  • Colt

    Votes: 10 13.9%
  • Total voters
    72
  • Poll closed .
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R

rec999allis

Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2005
Messages
57
Location
South Milwaukee, Wisconsin
I'm new to the 1911 world and I am still trying to figuer out what my first one is going to be. I would like to know from the people that own them what one ranks the best. I no everyone has thier own opinon but I am going to look at which one gets the most votes. The ones I have to choose from are- Smith & Wesson-Springfield Amory-Para Ordnance-Kimber-Dan Wesson-Charles Daly Auto Ordnance-and Colt. The price for any one of these has to be under $2,000 and I am looking to buy new. And if someone thinks there is something better then the ones stated above please let me know.:)
 
For $2000 I would buy a Springfield WWII and send it off to a good custom smith .
 
I can only speak for Kimber because thats the only one I have shot. And that's only the Series I Kimbers. I have a Series I Kimber Classic Gold Match .45 ACP which has been ultra reliable, accurate and pretty:p for the 4 years (about) of which I have owned it!

JMHO. Many great ones out there.
 
The “best” is very subjective.

I bought a Les Baer Concept V through Sporting Arms and took delivery last July (waited 16 weeks). I added some features; serrated top of slide, serrated rear of slide, tritium night sights, checkered under the trigger guard. The bill came to a little under what you’re willing to spend. I guess I ended up spending the “savings” on Tripp Cobra Mags.

The gun is tight, but IMHO not too tight, and it is very accurate. I’ve got 4800 rounds now, and I’m more impressed with it after every range trip. A couple sessions were 400+ rounds and my “super tight” pistol has refused to fail. 99% of my shooting has been with 200 cast SWCs handloaded at 830 FPS.

Overall, I’m pretty impressed with it. I even enjoyed the dreaded “break in” period, although I did have some initial problems with my Wilson 47Ds.

Possibly not “the best”, but IMHO worth consideration.

Chuck
 
For that price - I would buy either a WIlson, or spend $100 more and buy a Nighthawk
 
Well I just found out tonight that my price range is going to change. It looks like I am in the spending area of under $1,000. I also want to get a semi -auto rifle before the end of the year. The only way I can do that with my gun budget is cut do the price of the 1911. So as far as a fully custom gun right out of the box goes, ain't going to happen:(
 
Well I just found out tonight that my price range is going to change. It looks like I am in the spending area of under $1,000. I also want to get a semi -auto rifle before the end of the year. The only way I can do that with my gun budget is cut do the price of the 1911. So as far as a fully custom gun right out of the box goes, ain't going to happen:(
 
Smiths are waaaaaaaaaaaaay under $2000. They are loaded up very well for the price. Most models under a grand for that matter.

Regards
John
 
Best .45?

I took opportunity and bought a used Springfield Compact 1911A1, discontinued in 1996. Spent money replacing rear sight (shot low), trigger (dragging), sear (some idiot used a FILE on it) and Wilson Combat hammer (I just liked it better). Dadgum thing shoots 2.5" groups at 25 yards til I warm up then smaller with my loads (5.6g AA#2 + 230 gr RNL + 185gr Golden Sabers w/6.5 gr AA#2).

What I need is a recipe for killing leading in the barrel!

Plain
 
Hmm... well, most of the semi-customs are either around $2000 or over $2000. The Wilson CQB is borderline $2000 I believe.

Ed Brown, Nighthawk and the SA Professional are all over the $2000 price mark.

My picks are:

Les Baer: Thunder Ranch, Super-Tac, Custom Carry, Premier II 1.5"

and

Rock River Arms.

The RRA guys are from Les Baer, and the Nighthawk guys are from Wilson Combat.

I love the Les Baers, and for a gun capable of shooting 1.5" in 50 yards UNDER $2000, thats a STEAL!

I sure as heck can't shoot 1.5" at 50 yards.... but if I had that gun I'd have something to work for. :)


P.S. While the Custom Shop Kimbers are nice, they aren't even in the same ballpark. Neither are the Springfield Armory's EXCEPT the Professional Model, but that's over $2000.
 
I would either go Smith and Wesson, or Colt. If you go Colt, I would try to find a Series 70.

I have had quite a few Kimbers and Springfields over the years, and cannot get good results from either. Lots of jams, failures to feed and failures to eject. My personal opinion is that the small parts used by Kimber and Springfield are not as good at the small parts used by S&W and Colt.
 
For under $!k, I would get a Smith and Wesson 1911. Look at their SW1911 DK model for around $900 (it is the cheaper of the two DK models). Comes w/ a magwell and many other nice features.
 
Kimber Custom II

I have two friends in the Marines. One just got back from Afganistan, went down and bought himself a Kimber Custom II that he plans to take to Iraq with him on his next deployment (depending if his C.O. will let him.) Marines swear by those things for a side arm. It probably isn't the best of the best, but it's food for thought. It really isn't all in the advertising.
 
Kimber Eclipse, got mine on sale out the door just under 1k. If the deadline on achieving your goal is the end of they year, you've got plenty of time to find a similar deal. Came with a beatiful finish, front strap checkering, night sites, and a very confortable manual safety that I foudn ergonomically superior to my Springfield GI model.
 
What do you intend to do with the 1911?
IIRC WI's CCW bill didn't pass (again) this year (but is expected to next yr) right?
There are any number of good choices for under $1000 so I'd say decide what you really want to use it for, what features are "a must", what size (FS or Smaller?) you want and what kinda mag capacity you would like (relates back to size) The companies you listed (for the most part) have a pretty wide selection to choose from so my best advice to you would be figure out the answers to the questions I posed, then narrow your choices down to two or three, then try and shoot those two or three and then decide which suits you best.
 
I've been giving serious thought to buying a Smith, though the Sig looks like a quality gun in the $1,000 price range, especially now that it's available without that ugly rail.
 
Now that I see your price limit has changed, I'll go with either Kimber or SA. Both make excellent guns and both have many models with many options to choose. Let us know what you'll be using it for and we can give better suggestions.

BTW, I voted Les Baer since I thought you wanted the best under 2K and some of the others weren't listed. I'd pick a Brown over them, but you didn't have it listed. Not that it matters now since you are trying to stay under 1K.
 
It would be a home defence and target shooting gun. I don't plan on using it to compete or anything. Just weekend shooting. All that really matters is that it has to be real dependable. If the unthinkable ever happend where I would need it to protect me I want to be sure it will do the job.
 
Of your choices I voted Les Baer. But for $2,000 or less I'd pick a Wilson or Ed Brown over any of the choices above. Better yet, like someone else suggested, I'd get a Springfield GI for $450 and send it to a custom smith to have one built exactly like I wanted it.
 
Voted S&W after the price range dropped to $1000. OOTB I think they have proved themselves to be reliable, and I find them - personally speaking only - more appealing than comparable SAs.

Dan Wesson (the old DW, not CZ's stripped range) has some beauts if you get a reliable one. Unfortunately I didn't so couldn't vote for them. Again big upside though.

At $1-2000 though that opens up a whole new league and you can sneak into Browns, have a lot of fun with RRA, get deep into SA's custom line, etc all for some really fine stuff in that bracket. OF course you can get fine stuff under $1000 too - just will miss out on some of the hand-finishing and custom work features is all.
 
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