My dad was looking at some high capacity 1911 made by springfield.  Any one have any experience?

For a high cap 1911, it's STI/SVI.  No other choices.

/thread

Yup. The rest fail by comparison.



 

Well with information like that, there really can't be any unanswered questions at all.

Fine.  A search here or any other 1911 board will pretty much support what I've said.  The 1911 wasn't meant to be a "hi-cap" design.  The ONLY ones that have a reputation for working reliably are the SVI/STI pistols. I've owned a couple Paras in the past and I'll never own a Para again.  While SA makes a good product, I've never heard anything about their hicap pistols.  IMO anything other than a SVI/STI is a gamble.

The hi-cap SA is basically a Para Ordnance clone.   I believe all parts but the grips will interchange with Para guns.   There aren't a lot of the Springfields floating around out there.

I'd rather have the SA than a Para, because the SA has a forged slide at least.  I'm not sure about their frame.  Para has a cast frame and slide and is apparently pretty unapologetic about it.

But I'd rather have a STI than either the Para or Springfield, and I'd rather have an SV Infinity over an STI.

You can get a hi-cap from fusion.  I have a caspian arms hi-cap a smith put together bout 8 yrs ago.  It functions w/o fail.

Sometimes we're short and to the point, lacking the finer details. Usually that's because the answer is so unambiguous, that it need only be stated quickly and sometimes tersely. This is one such topic. Para is the default choice by popularity. Para would have been a good choice, if they were more interested in selling quality workmanship and material than they were flashy gimmicks, and the buyer stuck to the P-14 series. Para can still be a good choice of the buyer grabs P-14 type, then scraps every single part but the frame and rebuilds the weapon anew with competant hands and quality parts, or starts with a Para Frame Kit (so long as you don't mind a cheap ass cast frame. Their full size 14 round mags actually have proven (to me over the years) as a fairly reliable design.

But, other than a few dedicated race junkies, most informed people see the financial futility of building a silk purse out of a sow's frame and go with a much better, albeit less sexy outfit like STI.

I've cracked 2 or 3 SA high cap frames.  It is a cast frame that is a para copy.  If your going to send lots of 230 hardball down range do not buy this pistol.

I reckon I agree with this guy

Uh huh

I should note here I have a high cap polymer Kimber and it is very reliable (after some light polishing).  But I have had interest in selling it for a STI but only for the good looks of STI's and the better aftermarket support.  I have picked up a Para a few times but just never left the store with one.

My cousin had one of the Springfields.  One of the issues that I helped him with was the magazines would not fully seat when loaded to capacity.  They "acted" like they locked in but when the first round went off the mag would drop out of the pistol and hit the dirt.  We had to take the mags. apart and slighly open the holes in the sides up so the mag catch would fully engage to lock the mag in the well.

He had other problems, not as accurate (by far) than his Colt or other single stack Springfield.  Between the accuracy issue and some failure to eject issues he traded it on a ParaOrdnance P14.  He's shot and carried it so much it's starting to look like something the cat dragged in.  Finish wore off of it several spots, rust pits here and there where the finish is gone.  Had one magazine issue with it (spring failure) but he installed another spring and that took care of that.

I'm a Colt guy myself so I've no experience shooting anything else long term.

I agree, I like forged steel parts, too.  However, these days lots of stuff is cast and not even steel (aluminum or plastic) and many people swear by that stuff.

+1