I am looking into buying my first 1911 and have kinda narrowed it down to the Colt Combat Unit (or M85A1) and the Springfield TRP Operator.  Suggestions?  I know almost nothing about 1911s but I like the rail bc i will likely have a light on it.  I've heard good things about the Dan Wesson Specialist but unless there is a really convincing argument for spending the extra few hundred dollars, I'm not sure if I want to go there.  Thanks

The Dan Wesson is well worth it.

As far as the others, except for the recent Illinois law debacle, I would choose the Springfield.  My personal experience with recent Colts hasn't been stellar.

The DW Specialist is head and shoulders better than the two other guns you're considering.

I can only speak for the TRP Operator. This time last year I was completely against buying a 1911. Then, a good friend bought me a TRP Operator as a gift at the end of July 2016. I have since put about 2,500-3,000 rounds through it. The only malfunctions I've ever had has been the slide not locking back to the rear on an empty mag. The pistol is a nail driver. It's heavy, accurate, and awesome. I can run it very fast for a .45. It is now my primary duty weapon as a LEO. I know only this 1911, and I have no plans of getting to know another as long as I live. I shot it next to a $3,000 Nighthawk recently and could not tell the difference. You won't be let down if you go with a TRP Operator.

There is a good deal on one in the EE with all the goodies

How so?

Yep, don't get that either ... Mo' explaining, please.

TRP through and through. only issue I've ever had with mine was magazine related.

Interested in details as well.

haha still about a month off

Don't give SA your money, they will use the money to help pass new gun legislation.

The Dan Wesson is a better gun. I had the trp operator and while it was nice, I always hated the rear sight. I got rid of all my Springfield 1911s and have switched to Dan Wessons.

I literally know next to nothing about 1911s so can someone please provide me the details on what makes the Dan Wesson a better handgun.  Unfortunately I can't go out and shoot 5 different 1911s side by side and then keep them around for a few weeks while a break each one down to make the decision that way, so i have basically gone based on aesthetics and internet reputation (not always the best way to go) so if you think one is better than another, providing the specifics would mean a lot to me.

I shoot/carry a loaded and hated the rear sight too. So I replaced it for $40.

This right here.

You really can't go wrong with a Dan Wesson 1911. Until you jump up to a semi custom like a Wilson or similar DW is about as good as it gets.
TRP is close but still less than a DW, but screw SA after the shit they pulled.

If the guns were equal, which they aren't, it would be worth it to save up the couple of hundred extra for the DW for the sole purpose of not giving anything to Springfield Armory.

TBH, i'm more interested in the actual guns and less interested in politics.  There are a lot of politics that involve colt as well.  Most large companies colt, sw, springfield, ruger, ect have all done things in the past that may bother 2nd amendment people like us.  Honestly what SA did didn't seem all that egregious to me... IMO they deserved to be confronted but I am not willing to boycott them.

I have a non-rail TRP and it has always run 100% FWIW

I am far from a 1911 aficionado but I have a DW Specialist in 9mm and a TRP.  LOVE them both.  Can't honestly say that I've run a ton of rounds through either but have had zero issues and both are very accurate. Just so fun to shoot.   If I had to pick I would go with the DW - excellent finish and feel, all tool steel parts, and great sights. And I personally like the clean slide - SA tends to get busy on theirs imo.   DW's ledge sight is very important  to me - especially compared to the ramped TRP sight which is really annoying to me.  Finally SA is introducing a ledge rear - on the Silent Operator (which I'm considering selling the TRP and getting) as well as the new line of RO Elite.  Which, by the way you may want to consider as well.  The new features they've added make them more appealing at a lower price point.  

Between the two you list I would go with the TRP just because of my experience with it.  

Good luck!

The un-ending assault on the 2A stuff is a big deal brother, you're likely going to see more comments about SA and their betrayal, the bad press companies get from selling out our rights is deserved and lasts.
By reacting this way and treating it the way it should, it totally disincentivizes other businesses from getting cute and trying the same thing.

My understanding is that the Dan Wesson guns are made with high quality parts. Barstock, toolsteel, all the good things we like to hear. Yes, MIM parts from a good make have their place, but given a choice, my preference is for tool steel stuff.
I like the sights on the DW better, and it's a series 70 gun IIRC, I prefer that to the colt's series 80 system.
Not a fan of the TRP's locking MSH gimmick, the sights aren't my favorite.
The fitting on the DW is supposed to be pretty good too. People whose opinions I trust more or less say that in a blind-test, it basically seems like a MUCH more expensive gun.
The TRP is good, but the checkering on it is a bit too rough for my taste.

For a first 1911? I think a series 70 with a traditional bushing setup is the way to go.
That's the DW.

None of the guns you listed, the colt, the TRP (save for SA's bigly betrayal) are low quality guns.
In 1911 world, the Specialist is actually a pretty good value, if you ask me.
I'd take the colt second.
If I were forced to buy a springfield product  (I don't think that company should die, but I think it certainly needs to hurt for a while), and I HAD TO rank it, it would be third.

Between the two i would have to buy the TRP  i don't buy 80 series guns.
70 series colts i have no qualms about owning.

Sucks about SA political shit but fact is for a 70 series "traditional" 1911 not much to choose from.  SA customer service is known to be excellent lifetime.

DW i know they make some nice guns ...... their's also two recent threads on here about guns with chambers to tight and cs people telling the owners they have to use specific lube
IMO guns that cost that much shouldn't be escaping with chambers so tight they wont run.  5 year warranty original purchaser

These offer good value imo considering street price if you can live with an external extractor...

https://www.smith-wesson.com/firearms/sw1911ta-e-series

https://www.smith-wesson.com/firearms/sw1911ta-e-series-tactical-accessory-rail


The ruger railed gun is the best buy for a railed 1911 but less features and the plunger tube is part of the frame. It's the eastwing hammer of railed 1911's.

I recently decided between a CCU and TRP. I chose the CCU for a few reasons:

The Ionbond finish is nicer than the coating SA use on the TRP.
The CCU has finer front strap checkering (25 LPI)
I prefer the non-adjustable sights on the CCU, front NS with all black rear.
The CCU uses a regular bushing and standard 1911 take down.
I prefer a single side safety.
The CCU uses the beefier rail from the M45A1 (The USMC discovered frames cracking on the standard rail).
Purely aesthetically, I much prefer Colt's roll marks over the TRP's "Tactical" and "Operator"

The TRP is still a fine pistol, but it was an easy choice for me. My CCU only has about 300 rounds through it so far, and no issues.

It's the internet and a gun forum to boot. Politics are everything, what else are people gonna talk?!

Springfield makes a great duty/hard use 1911 for the money. People like Hilton Yam have been working on them for years.

So whats the problem with the adjustable sights?  No one seems to like them

I really don't like the adjustable sights on mine, front pin keeps walking out. Other than that I love the the pistol.

TRP x2

Attached File


I'd own a DW also but I prefer Springfields that my smithy does a couple extra touches to.

replace with drill rod and stake in place.

One of these days I'll get off my lazy ass and order a fixed sight from Harrison. I put a SMALL drop of locktite and it's not come out since. It doesn't get shot much anymore since I got my Les Baer.

I have a Harrison rear on the railed TRP pictured above.

Solid as a tank. Great setup with a XS 24-7 standard sized (not big dot) front tritium.

I have a colt rail gun, and a dan wesson specialist. The specialist is significantly nicer. Side fit is as tight as possible. Machining is nicer, sights are nicer, trigger is massively better. I paid 1400 otd for my specialist, it's worth the marginal cost difference.

That seems about right. Rails guns are $900

Better and more consistent slide to frame and barrel to slide fitting from gun to gun, all tool steel parts, the plunger tube is correctly staked on and the ejector is pinned (I believe Springfield is using loctite for both). Not to mention more attention  aestethic details (tool marks are nearly impossible to find) and best of all no bill board logos.  

Having owned a trp, and making custom guns myself, I am still impressed with the quality you can get from dw for their price point.

That seems about right to the price difference.

Fwiw my loaded's plunger tube is very well staked.

and Dan Wesson has their billboard as well.

I can see complaints against kimbers mim. Springfield doesn't have the chronic quality control problems.

Slide to frame fit, no argument there.

By no means am I saying Dan Wessons aren't good guns. They are very nice.

I only have limited hands on shooting with the TRP where as I sell and shoot Dan Wessons on a regular basis.

Probably my only complaint is that my co worker can't use grease on the rails. He was getting malfunctions and customer service told him to only use a certain type of oil.

If the dw 1911's are so good then why does it look like monkeys with broken hacksaw blades worked on their bbl's???

Take a good look at the finish/throating job dw does to their bbl's. Then keep posting how accurate they are. At the end of the day tool marks ='s no accuracy.

DW chamber/throats cuts look no better then what taurus puts out. SA on the other hand has mirror finish/no tooling marks in their chambers/throats. Gee, I wonder which is better for accuracy???

But look on the bright side. If you love the checkering on the outside of the the dw 1911's your bullets will also love the checkering on the inside of the dw 1911 bbl's.

I would take the Colt and drop a flat bottom firing pin stop in it.

Don't know if mine is the exception, but my 2017 specialist has a polished chamber and throat. I can see no tool marks. Tried to get a photo, but not turning out well.

Colt. Not gonna buy a springfield ever again. My milspec is fine but i dont support traitors.

???????? Proof?

I have owned 3 Dan Wessons and still own 1. I have looked at dozens more. I have owned a total of 8 Springfields, and still own 2. I have looked at many, many more. I own Baer and Colt as well.  

While my TRP Operator is still the most accurate 1911 I have ever owned, no Springfield that I have seen has ever matched Dan Wesson for quality of workmanship, not one, and I have seen some damn fine SA 1911s. And in no example of DW (or Springfield for that matter) have I ever seen anything approaching the Taurus abyss.

You've made your statement, and I would like to see the proof. I'm not saying it's not possible that you have not seen a bad DW, but please present your pics. Otherwise, you are simply expressing a strongly held opinion that SA is a better made 1911 than DW, and nothing more than an opinion.

Sure no problem.
Typical dw bbl.
dw bbl picture with chatter from piss poor cutting of the chamber

I could waste my time and post more links of people posting pics of their bbl's. But I have nothing to prove.

And yes I will stand by my statement that dw bbl's have poorly cut chambers.

A taurus bbl with an actual throat cut in it.


A springfield bbl with an actual throat cut in it


For some odd reason the dw bbl's don't have much of a throat cut in them and what little throat there is has tooling marks/chatter.

For those of you dw owners that don't have a clue as to what your looking at or what a throat is. It's that long space from the end of the chamber (Oh wait a minute you have to look at a taurus bbl to see that) that leads into long (O darn dw bbl's don't have that either) angular cuts in the rifling.

short angle cuts in the rifling ='s piss poor throat/no throat
long angle cuts in the rifling ='s a throated bbl.

That cheap taurus bbl has a better cut throat than then link to that dw valor. Who wooda thunk???

By all means please post pics of your dw bbl's and their lack of throats/piss poor throats. Without them you are nothing more than an opinion.

At the end of the day fit/finish/looking pretty is what it's all about for most people. Myself, I could care less about what a 1911 looks like. Accuracy is the name of the game & most $700 springfield ro's will outshoot 90%+ of the high $$$ shit that's out there.

I am not seeing the issue.
 
My experience has been with two CBOBs and a Valor.  Never had an accuracy or reliability issue with any of them.

Politics aside, it's hard to go wrong with the TRP Operator.  I've had one for awhile and have no regrets about buying it.  The issue with the legislation in Illinois does bother me, but in all fairness it was the actions of the firearms manufacturers trade group, not Springfield itself.  When Springfield says they were unaware of the trade group's actions until after the fact, I give them the benefit of doubt.  Things can change fast during the legislative process and members of trade groups are usually unaware of such changes until after the fact.  It's my understanding Springfield has canceled its membership with the group as a result.  That's good enough for me.

Not being a smart ass, but I'm sure you don't. That why you buy what you buy and can't tell the difference.

Take a whole 10 minutes out of your busy day and do a search on throated vs non-throated/under throated/tool marks & chatter and what that does in 1911 throats.

Sounds like you need to take your dw's to the range with 4 or 5 different bullet styles/ammo and put a 1" dot up @ 50ft and do 10-shot groups at it. Heck the glock guys do 1"/1 1/2" @ 25yds all day long. You should be shooting bugholes with those dw's @ 50ft seeing how you have never had accuracy issues.

Why a 1" dot?
Because the nra set acceptable accuracy standards decades ago for firearms/shooters. A .9" circle (dot) is the nra 10-ring/x-ring @ 50ft. For the $$$ they get for dw's they should run flawlessly and chew bugholes. If not you overpaid for something that makes noise when you hit the loud button.

The op asked about a colt vs springfield and the dw fanboys show up. Good!!! The pics I posted are why you don't want to over spend for a dw.

I've owned 1911's for a little while (30+ years), owned plain janes to full customs to making parts guns. 4 or 5 years ago I wanted to thin the herd and just use 1 1911 for everything. So I spent a couple months reading/asking questions/shooting different brands of 1911's. Everything kept leading back to the NM springfields. So I sold off 10+ 1911's and a couple of s&w model 41's with all the extra bbl's/sights/grips/scope mounts/etc & started fresh. Bought a springfield ro and a marvel 22lr conversion kit for the ro. Shot a little bullseye in the past with several different 1911's so when I got the new springfield ro full size 1911 chambered in 45acp I went to the range and ran 2 boxes of hardball thru it. Then came the hard part!!! THe H&G # 68 bullet and 3.6gr to 4.0gr of bullseye has always delivered acceptable accuracy. So I loaded up 10 rounds of the h&g #68/3.6gr, 3.8gr, 4.0gr of bullseye and went to the range. Took a whole 15 minutes to find an acceptable load accuracy wise for that $659 (out the door) springfield NM 1911. This is not a "cherry/hand picked" target by any means, it's the test target used that day. Nothing more than a table, chair, rolled up piece of cardboard & a towel shot 2-handed/rested with iron sights @ 50 ft.


I'm sure your dw will do the same thing.

Liked that ro in 45acp enough that a couple of years later I bought another springfield ro, this time a full length 1911 in 9mm. Another test target "not hand/cherry picked" looking for a plinking/bullseye load for the ro/9mm.


Darn price went up on the ro's, paid $699 + tax ($752) for that ro in 9mm. At the end of the day I ended up with 2 1911's that run flawlessly with everything I've bought or loaded (cast/swaged jacketed bullets/10+ different powders). They shoot bugholes in paper and cost $1411 for the pair. I have no problem bringing either of those springfields to the range and putting them up against anything out there.

Heck I bought the ro in 9mm to compete on the 50yd line. Another test target (that means not hand/cherry picked).


The fliers were from the bullets bases being swaged down when reloading them . That bullet was originally designed for the 38lc and was 1st sold by lyman (mold) in 1900. Made a custom expander & the fliers went away. A factory expander next to the longer bodied custom expander.


Anyway the ro's are box stock (no mods/bells/whistles) and the throated bbl's allow for acceptable accuracy (nra standards) with a wide range of bullet shapes/designs/ammo oal's. The trp has that same nm throated bbl as the ro's. Hence, they flat out shoot.

Attached File

Yep, can't argue with a link to a review posted 5 years ago by a guy who loved his Dan Wesson. They truly suck.

I'm not saying dw's suck. I'm saying that the springfield bbl's are made for raw accuracy.

Yes that link is old.
Yes I was the same thing in dw bbl's when I was looking to buy that SA 9mm ro last year. I looked at several different brands of 1911's
I'm sure that if I went and looked at the new dw offerings I'd still see the same thing with the quality of the chambers/throats in their bbl's today.

What I find odd is the dw fanboys cried and said prove it when I said the taurus bbl's are better made than the dw bbl's. I have yet to say any dw fanboys posting a picture of their dw bbl's????

DW FANBOYS, POST PICTURES OF YOUR DW BBL'S SO THE WORLD CAN SEE THAT TAURUS MAKES A BETTER BBL

To the op:
That SA tpr will flat out shoot. It has the NM stamping of the frame for a reason.

Excellent reasons. The CCU is the best choice.

You got me curious about my Valkyrie (9mm), so here are some pics I just took.



No real dog in the fight, as I love the 1911 platform in general, but hopefully this might help OP decide.

All I can say is that I own a Loaded Springfield in 9mm that is about 15 years old and the 9mm Valor shoots way better and doesn't feel like a rattle trap.

Maybe Springfield has upped their game, and I think the TRP is a nice pistol, but the parts quality of my Valor is still better.

That would be funny except the OP specifically asked about Dan Wesson

It was a good meme, but I did ask about Dan Wesson.  I decided to go with the TRP.  I talked to some people I know that have owned one for a long time and I haven't heard anything bad about them other than the MIM stuff and then I never had anyone say they have had those parts fail.  I also spent some time with a Colt M45 and a TRP and I preferred how the TRP felt/handled.  I wish I could afford both/all 3, but as a student, I'm already having to stretch my budget to get one.  Thanks for the input

You didn't go wrong with the TRP, while I don't have the TRP, I do have 2 CCU Colts, I bought one and I liked it so much I picked up a second one to become my new suppressor host. I don't like the adjustable sights on the railed TRP, so that ruled it out. I actually have a Springfield Professional, which I like allot, but that in a railed version, the wait was to long for me so I looked at the TRP the sights blew it. I actually like the 25 LPI grip checkering of the CCU better as well.