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PhilOhio · 08-29-2009, 04:44 PM

Andy,

The 1911A1, in standard military configuration, is my all-time favorite pistol. If properly set up and maintained, they are extremely reliable.

BUT...

...once all the big wars passed, and as soon as every new 1911 built was no longer examined by military acceptance personnel, the problems began. And the civilian manufacturers, no longer working under government contract, began turning out garbage which is out of specs and, in many cases, cannot possibly work at all. You'd be surprised at which manufacturers are doing this.

I always have five to seven of these (which work

). In the '60s and '70s, I built a few for close professional friends in the Washington area, and some of them saw serious use. So they had to be right. But doing that was easy, because there was still a good supply of military surplus parts which had gone through the acceptance process and were within specifications. That is the key. Good frames and slides were available and still are. But for everything to go together and work, each component has to be in spec. That is just about no longer possible. So I stopped building .45s.

There is no hit-and-miss way you can be sure you will have fixed your pistol yourself, so you can depend upon it, unless you are thoroughly familiar with the design and have worked on a bunch of them.

You can use your pistol as part of the learning process, and follow some of the trouble shooting advice here. But if you want it to work right now, for serious, Policeluger's advice on seeking professional assistance is the only safe solution.

Once your 1911 is debugged, it will give long and reliable service, as long as it gets reasonably good care and good ammunition.

Oh yes, if you want to buy a rather good and inexpensive 1911 which is close to the WW-II milspec plain Jane pistol, which is going to work out-of-the-box, and which will have good parts interchangeability, take a look at the ones made in the Philippines by Armscorp. Those people have intimate, lifelong familiarity with the 1911, carbine, M-1, Thompson, and everything our guys carried over there during the war. They love it, know it, and build it right. I don't want to sound like a commercial, but it's the truth...at least in my experience. So then what happened? Dealers started boosting the retail prices on their Armscorp pistols. I believe Springfield also sells some of these under their own name.

08-29-2009, 04:44 PM	#14
PhilOhio User Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Ohio Posts: 145 Thanks: 5 Thanked 17 Times in 14 Posts	Andy, The 1911A1, in standard military configuration, is my all-time favorite pistol. If properly set up and maintained, they are extremely reliable. BUT... ...once all the big wars passed, and as soon as every new 1911 built was no longer examined by military acceptance personnel, the problems began. And the civilian manufacturers, no longer working under government contract, began turning out garbage which is out of specs and, in many cases, cannot possibly work at all. You'd be surprised at which manufacturers are doing this. I always have five to seven of these (which work ). In the '60s and '70s, I built a few for close professional friends in the Washington area, and some of them saw serious use. So they had to be right. But doing that was easy, because there was still a good supply of military surplus parts which had gone through the acceptance process and were within specifications. That is the key. Good frames and slides were available and still are. But for everything to go together and work, each component has to be in spec. That is just about no longer possible. So I stopped building .45s. There is no hit-and-miss way you can be sure you will have fixed your pistol yourself, so you can depend upon it, unless you are thoroughly familiar with the design and have worked on a bunch of them. You can use your pistol as part of the learning process, and follow some of the trouble shooting advice here. But if you want it to work right now, for serious, Policeluger's advice on seeking professional assistance is the only safe solution. Once your 1911 is debugged, it will give long and reliable service, as long as it gets reasonably good care and good ammunition. Oh yes, if you want to buy a rather good and inexpensive 1911 which is close to the WW-II milspec plain Jane pistol, which is going to work out-of-the-box, and which will have good parts interchangeability, take a look at the ones made in the Philippines by Armscorp. Those people have intimate, lifelong familiarity with the 1911, carbine, M-1, Thompson, and everything our guys carried over there during the war. They love it, know it, and build it right. I don't want to sound like a commercial, but it's the truth...at least in my experience. So then what happened? Dealers started boosting the retail prices on their Armscorp pistols. I believe Springfield also sells some of these under their own name.