Posted: 12/30/2025 8:16:59 PM EDT
I was curious about the quality of the Live Free Armory 2011s, so when this came up for sale locally, I picked it up.  As a seasoned 2011 owner, my observations are as follows.
My overall opinion of this one is that it's a notch below the quality of my Tisas DS. Fortunately, I paid a price that reflects that, so I'm happy enough with the purchase. Today I fit a Prodigy grip frame and that's a welcome upgrade IMO. It fills the gaps left by the factory grip and feels much better in the hand. The grip fit the frame with no issues, but I had to remove about 1/8" of metal off the bottom of the grip safety before I could get the MSH installed. The good news is that the grip safety now works as intended. After putting another 75 rounds through it today, I can report the polishing of the rear of the barrel surfaces has paid off and it fed 100%. Accuracy remains elusive, though it did put most shots into a semi-ragged hole at 15 yards. The slidestop pin measures .196, so I think a larger diameter pin may help iron some of this slop out.  
|
|
Quoted: Thank you for the write up. It sounds like LFA got to the sub-$1K price point by only doing a cursory final QC. The parts are there. But a check to see if the fitting was optimized, is not. Yes, the quality of fit and finish and attention to detail needs to be improved, if mine is a typical example. Parts-wise, the 3D printed grip is probably my biggest complaint. To their credit, it doesn't "feel" 3D printed, but the poor fit and relative slickness is a letdown. I don't want to be able to see the trigger bow through the grip. |
|
Slight update: I've been installing a MJD Villain Killmonger grip on another Apollo 11. It wasn't a perfect fit; the grip needed some material removal where the frame tangs bottom out on the grip, but I'd bet that much fitting wouldn't be required on more "traditional" 2011 frames. It's some kind of carbon fiber / kevlar / polymer material that feels a lot like G10. It's right up there with the most aggressive grips I've handled on a 2011. $375 https://mjd.solutions/shop/ols/products/mjd-villain-grip-killmonger Again the Apollo's grip safety needed considerable material removed from the bottom before it would begin to fit the grip. I'll need to blast and Cerakote the grip safety afterwards. This gun also came in with a 5.5# trigger pull and a very strong grip safety spring, I guess that's just how they send them out. 
|
|
A couple more things about the Apollo 11 - 1. I worked on another gun that had a barrel hood that was WAY too short, probably .015" between the hood and breechface. The owner had shot the gun a fair amount (probably a couple thousand rounds) and the poor fit had raised noticeable burrs on the slide lugs. Sorry I didn't take a photo at the time, but It was pretty eye-opening. I advised the owner he'd need a fresh barrel custom fit since the factory one wasn't really salvageable. 2. The grip safety on these is much longer than standard. I don't really know why they do this, but I can't see any benefit versus using standard sized grip safeties. In the photo, the Colt grip safety is the "proper" length. 
|
