@Super_Trouper Awesome man! I would highly recommend a 1911 for you. I would claim it's still a viable option in today's world, but there are some caveats. I love the looks of a 1911 with an x300u. I just love it. That being said, that combo is terrible to carry IWB. Carrying with certain lights will destroy all the carryability that 1911 once had. The Inforce APL is very thin, but it’ll still add some bulk. If you keep a light off it, it won't carry much differently than a 1911 without a rail, but it will make holster selection a tad harder. I would like to have an option for OWB with an x300 personally.

I've been displeased with most Colt's I've handled. They have very wide ranging manufacturing tolerances. Some guns will fit really nice and others will be embarrassingly bad. Their QC is honestly terrible. I would recommend handing a Colt before you buy if possible. They're still awesome guns, but they seem like they cost about twice as much as I think they're worth. I still want one haha.

You can't go wrong with a 9mm, 45ACP, or even a 10mm. They're all great and most of the bugs have been figured out. Don't expect the gun to run right out of the box. There are a lot of opportunities for machining tolerances to be missed in a production gun. It might have to be sent back to get it running correctly. Buy good mags, run good ammo, clean it more often than your Glocks, and you should have a very reliable gun. If you get one with intent to carry it, go take a pistol class with it. I can't recommend that enough. I'd rather have a $2000 pistol and take a $1000 class than a $3000 pistol. It's the reason I didn't buy the Thunder Ranch Nighthawk.

If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help. I'm certainly not an expert, but I have found a few interesting things about carrying and shooting them. They're a niche carry gun. There are better carry guns out there. There are few better 'shooting' guns out there. They have some advantages over their polymer counterparts that you may find some value in, but that comes with a cost. If you're looking to reignite that shooting passion that you may be missing, a 1911 may be the perfect solution. It was for me.

Totally agree on Colt's QC being spotty, I love mine hands down but I can't explain why it came with the features it did. My thumb safety is a little tight but otherwise it's pretty perfect, I am going to strip it down to the bare frame this week and check all the surfaces for perfect smoothness.

Also agree on the light addition ruining iwb carry for a 1911, I only had one of them and it did me no good.

Did someone mention Colt's QC?

Attached File

Yikes... You should see my thread in the Beretta forum about wonky slides.

Yeah.. They managed to send my .38 Super Commander out without stamping the rampant Colt on it. It works perfectly,Just no dancing horse.

No

There's no difference in carryability

I only use a WML on my nightstand gun so I don't mind if my carry gun doesn't have a rail.

A few more parts inside the guts of Gods gun! :)

Attached File


Attached File


Smooth as butter, love my glocks but thing is special.

I have a colt combat unit in 45, the early rail gun ones that had the 3 hole trigger before the solid triggers. It’s s great pistol, very accurate, soft shooting for a 45 and it’s been reliable so far. I got it for heavy division 3gun. I’ve only ran one match with it but I’m shooting it in uspsa tomorrow. The rail gun pistols both combat units and the marsoc pistols are different specs than other 1911’s for the rail. It’s thicker so your holster choices will be specific to said gun. A light would make it a larger overall set up, but conceal-ability isn’t a 1-10 scale. It’s a yes or no question, does the clothing you’re wearing make a difference yes but if you’re carrying a full size 1911 you’re more focused on the ability to shoot not how well you can conceal it. A pocket pistol like a Glock 43 is easy to carry but how well can you shoot it?

This thread is basically my internal struggle wrapped up into 7 pages lol

I’m 32, and I go back and forth between my G19 and my 1911.

I love my 1911 and it’s been such a great shooter for probably 3 years now with no issues. I don’t know if it’s the weight or maybe just the stigma that surrounds the long term reliability of them, that I don’t carry as much as I want to.

I’m about to order a new AIWB carry holster And I’m torn to either keep carrying my Glock or switch to 100% 1911

Attached File

which one do you shoot better?

I’m 36. A millennial. Been wearing this one for 4 years and over 10k miles of road trips. Drew it on a dog charging my kids this week (didn’t need to shoot) and found it to be very comforting. Put ivories back on it and I was reminded about what a good choice this was to make



Attached File

That a 36?

PICS!
Attached File

Sorry guys. I know I promised pics several pages back. But I just now notice the “Select File” and “upload” buttons.

Alchemy Classic Carry 9mm

Attached File

No man, I am 36 years old! That’s my grandpas service revolver I finally got. No idea model yet, need to send in for a letter

5 shot or 6?

Todays actually my 36th birthday.

Thats pretty cool. If its a j frame i can send you an old shoulder holster i have no use for.

Happy birthday man!!! I have a kydex jframe iwb holster if anybody can use it as I don’t have one anymore. Lol

Dot torture will happen this week with my 45!!!

@Glck1911 dude that's a gorgeous 1911! I bet it's a shooter.

@03RN Happy Birthday man!

@steviesterno16 I can't get enough of those grips! They're perfect for that 1911.clint would approve!

@Fordtough25 Anxious to see that dot torture. I think I'll do the same tomorrow!

Happy Resurrection Day everyone!

He is RISEN indeed.

From someone that has to carry a G17 and can't carry a 1911 due to policy.....PLEASE CHOOSE THE 1911!!!!  Obviously, you need to go with the setup that works best for you.  I know for me, if the 1911 was approved tomorrow, the G17 would be in the safe.....and maybe never see the light of day unless someone else in the family wanted to use it.

@Redbeard-  Have you seen any increase in maintenance on carrying your blued gun over other handguns?  Any instances of rusting etc?  Awesome looking gun my friend.

As for the rail question.  I carry for work and carry concealed 99% of the time.  I don't even have a holster for the G17 that would allow a light on it.  What are your carry requirements, when have you NEEDED a light on the gun and is the juice worth the squeeze?

  Happy birthday!

@03RN

Happy birthday!
it’s a 5 shot. pretty sure that means j frame but not sure. It was my grandpas, he has this and a bigger 4” barrel I think 6 shot. One was his duty gun the other his concealed back up or detective gun. He wore them all the time and one was even on the cover of Time magazine when they did an article on him.

They were stolen by family off the table at his wake. Took me 10 years of convincing family that I deserved them and got them back last Christmas.

Timing is good, wear is perfect, down to steel in a few places. Those guns have a hell of a history and one day I will pass them to my sons.

I’d be honored to wear a holster from you man. I’ll PM my address, I moved to Georgia since we last talked

A weekend of Glock practice and carrying the 1911. Seems backwards right?

I’ve been listening to the Primary & Secondary podcast quite a bit lately. I listened to the episode “P&S Modcast 180 – TWO WORLD WARS!!!1!” to see if they mention anything I learned in my efforts of carrying the 1911. I have mixed feelings about the podcast. I like the idea of a forum where they truly focus on squeezing performance out of firearms and training anywhere possible. It’s a difficult thing to quantify. Although I love listening to Podcasts, they all seem to make 5min of meaningful material into a 2 hour long discussion. Regarding the podcast I think they’re right about being able to take a new shooter and hand them a 1911 and they’ll be able to shoot it better than most other pistons. I liked how Steve Fisher mentioned how much easier a 1911 was for shooting single handedly. However, They didn’t mention anything about how much harder it was to do single handed malfunction drills due to the slide release being a bit further up. Either way, it was an enjoyable podcast to listen to. This isn’t directed toward P&S, but I really wish the ‘gun culture / gun guys’ weren’t so gear crazy and were more focused on training. I love gear, but at the end of the day, it’s worthless if you don’t train and practice.

One of my LGS just got a Colt CCU 1911 in 45acp. They wanted a lot more than they’re typically going for, but I almost brought it home. It was really nice and had some of the best fit I’ve felt in a Colt. If it wasn’t for the stupid night vision I’ve been saving up for, I’d have bought it.

The Baer will just have to do in the meantime

I'd love to add a CCU to my stable as well, damn nice pistol. I'm too lost in BRD to do anything lately though, besides grabbing some more 1911 mags from the EE.

Been too busy to shoot yet but maybe later today, I think 1911's are exactly like you said. Super accurate but also much more complicated and mag changes can be more difficult without a magwell of some type.

I've listened to most of the P&S podcasts as well, enjoyed the two world wars one as well. That group is great but def long in the tooth in conversation. And they get on some high horses off and on as well, lots of great info and even more on their youtube channel. I've been listening to Jocko's podcasts for the past month, shew!!

I need to stick to ammo alone for the rest of the year, my tool box is full and happy.

@Fordtough25 I like Jocko's podcast a bunch, but Echo gets on my nerves lol. I really enjoy Andy Stumpf on Cleared Hot and the Rogan podcasts. There aren't any good dedicated gun podcasts that I've found.

This may act as a good precaution to slamming your mags home. I am usually pretty rough with them in a reload. This was a welded GI mag. It’s important to know that not all mags are created equal. 1911 mags have come a long way since then. He’s just another failure mode of the beloved 1911. I’ve done this several times to Glocks, but I was always trying to get a Glock 19 mag to seat in a Glock 17 or 34 haha.



Another Dot Torture! This one was at 3 yards. Anyone got theirs to share?

That happened to me at one of my first ipsc back in high school. It was my last mag so i dropt to my knees to single load each round to finish the stage.

I brought the rest of my mags to my metal shop the next week to reinforce the welds

I stopped using mags with welded bases years ago.

@x_red_beard_x


Try ballistic radio, been listening since he started and he’s out of the Cincinnati Ohio area.

No time to shoot yet been busy bad, soon!

And yes Echo Charles can get to me, I’m in the Vietnam sf guys interviews and he doesn’t talk until the end lol

Another weekend of hiking and working around the house. Got quite a few miles in a new spot in the Hoosier National Forest. We found some really cool caves and cliffs that are fairly rare for Indiana. GPS coordinates are 38°17'14.2"N 86°31'44.7"W. I didn’t expect to go so far so I didn’t carry a pack. I belt carried the Baer at 4 o clock without a single issue. After a couple miles I was wishing I had my pack and some water. Luckily there were lots of waterfalls and creeks that the doggie could drink from. I’m anxious to go back and camp back there.

The rest of the weekend was doing dirt work. Again, the Baer was with me the whole time. It ended up getting caked with mud and filled the holster with dirt. Took it out and it functioned just fine. It definitely felt grittier, but cycled nonetheless. This Baer is getting some good use and love. I didn’t get any pictures of the dirty 1911, I got home at dark and go some more lube on it before it started rusting. The bluing really doesn’t hold up very well against corrosion. I like the look of the ‘worn-in’ gun.

Now that it’s getting to warmer weather, the 1911 grip length really prints bad. Under a sweatshirt, untucked button up shirt, or jacket it’s fine. When I’m out working around the house I often just carry with my normal IWB at 4 o clock. Summer time always makes me go back to a short grip (hence my Glock 19 chopped down to a 26). I think a CCO 1911 would fit the bill nicely. I just really prefer carrying a full size pistol. “A gun isn’t supposed to be comfortable, it’s supposed to be comforting”.

Still debating on whether to buy another 1911 or Night Vision…

Pictures are from the hike:

Took a break from working from home, beautiful day other than the wind! Sheesh

Attached File


I really shoot this thing well if I focus, there goes a box of ammo!

@Fordtough25 Very nice shooting! That's a heck of a group. I always rush my shooting when I run through that drill. If I slow down, I can usually nail it.

Shooting fast is never a problem, it's shooting accurately that's difficult to do, especially in a pinch!

Cool spot.

Try aiwb. Easy to conceal with just a t shirt

Well, it happened. Because of this thread, I am the proud owner of a brand new Les Baer Thunder Ranch Special. Currently on its way to my FFL.

Awesome!!! Congrats man, can’t wait to see it!

@x_red_beard_x, oh I can mess it up easily as well if I rush it.  I tried to go at a normal pace. Love shooting a 45!!

@ChandlerKJ Congrats man! That's awesome. The TRS Baers are starting to get harder to find. Post pics of it when it arrives!!!

Well, I'm going to try my hand at this thing. Won a Dan Wesson Specialist Commander in 9mm for $1300 (grabbed an SP-01 while I was at it as a suppressor host :) Ordered the exact setup that I currently use for my P-01. I switched over to CZ after years of Glocks. I just love a metal gun with great ergos.

So, I'm really hoping I like this. I shoot very well with the CZ, and just want to see if 1911's can offer even more improvement. No matter what, I'll have a beautiful gun that's fun to shoot even if I don't carry it in the end.

Here's my current setup. I ordered the same one for the Dan Wesson, with the exception that I'm trying an X300U.

Try these.

So much more secure

Dcc monoblock

Thanks, @o3RN . Those look to be well-worth trying. Ordered some.

Really are. Ive shunned those plastic clips long ago. Ptd loops were ok but these are awesome.

Attached File

I’ve gotten my LW commander back and I’ve gotta tell you, the weight difference is noticeable compared to a full size government model like my Professional. I forget I have it on and have been carrying it everywhere but work.

It’s going to take awhile to wear in the IonBond.

Attached File

I've got to say that once you handle a LW Commander, it changes everything.

@03RN

36.19 oz with 8 rounds of Speer GD 230grn.

It has a EGW steel feed ramp insert installed as well. Attached File

That’s beautiful, I’d like a commander
Myself but it’s not gonna happen for awhile.

Thank you!

Great thread....

Recent training session

Attached File

I went out and ran the first 250 rds through my new Specialist Commander. That was the most fun I've EVER had shooting. I cannot believe I never tried it a 1911 before.

It had zero malfunctions itself however, one of the factory mags is a dud. It failed to lock open and needed manually stripped out every single time. I've marked it and set it aside and will see if I can get a replacement. I already had 3 Wilson ETM mags and a Metalform on the way.

Got her all cleaned up. The mechanics are so intriguing as well. I can say that I definitely have the bug.

@JPD158 At some point, I'll own a LW Colt Commander, mainly just because that's what I grew up shooting. I think LW commanders and Government railed Colts are my favorite 1911s!

@MONGO45 I dig that Nighthawk!

@phortykal Super nice commander! I like the specialists a lot. I really LOVE the new ones with the front serrations on the slide.

The full week I've switched back to carrying a Glock 17 w/ x300u and RMR. Dang I forgot how much wider it is than the Baer. Going back to Glocks has reminded me how much I liked 1911s. I think I'm just gonna keep switching back and forth for a while. When it comes to carrying a full sized pistol, it's hard to be that ol 1911!

Keep the pictures coming! Bonus points for anyone posting pictures of actual training!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Glocks are lowest-common-denominator pistols, ideal for someone to put in a holster and only maybe shoot 50 times a year. That and the price is why they are so widely used by police forces. 1911s are for people that know what they are doing. Yes you need to pay more attention to it but you get more out of it.

The 1911. The queen of battle and the king of feedway stoppages.