I have owned and shot 1911's for years, and have not had the problems that most of you seem to have had. Perhaps, I have been blessed by the angel John Moses Browning. Most likely, I buy only those 1911's, which are made properly. I currently own nine 1911's, and they range from a Norinco to an Ed Brown Target. I have had problems with one of my 1911's, and that was an easy fix...an extractor.

I continually hear and read about the maintenance that needs to be performed on these handguns, and I just don't see it. I change out a recoil and firing pin spring peridocally, and I'm set. An extractor will go 30K, if it's any kind of extractor at all.

I have liked HK's since I bought my first P7M8. There was nothing like it. I bought two more, then I bought my favorite HK, an HK45. It is flawless in design and on the range. There are two autos I would put next to my bed. One is a 1911, and the other is an HK45.

Two months ago, I purchased two handguns. One was a Colt XSE, the other was an HK P30. Both have about 1,500 rounds through them as of this date. The P30 had at least 10 FTE for every box I shot for the first six hundred rounds. Now, it is malfunction free. My XSE has had one FTF. The round was an aluminum cased Blaser, which had a dent in its middle. It just wouldn't chamber. Imagine that.

Last week, I obtained a USB Elite in 9mm. What an accurate 9mm, it is a spectacular shooter. For the first 100 rounds or so, it would occassionally fail-to-return-to-battery. It just wouldn't go past that O-ring. I shot it Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Brass hits me on the head almost every shot, and I had a few FTE's. And this is a $1300 gun.

One of my M8's was so sluggish with the slide return that I had to send it back to the factory. It seems it came with a dented gas cylinder.

What's my take on this? Crap happens, and HK still makes a great handgun. While there are many ways to reduce problems by purchase choices, you can't eliminate them. HK still makes a great gun.

The design, not the manufacturers of the 1911 is solid. It is heavy, but I don't have to carry it on force marches, It is SAO, which cause me no grief, and it has a capicity lower than double stacks. I can stack 9 rounds in any of my 1911's, and that's only 2 less than an HK45. I can live with that too.

 

This is the simplest reason I don't own and won't own a 1911. You either a have them supper tight and then lube them to get them to run or have them loose and risk breaking something. Only the high end ones run right out of the box. I never have a had a H&K where I doubted that it would run right away.

One other thing on this super tight verus super loose slide to frame fit.
A 1911 doesn't have to be tight beyond reliability to shoot well. My Ed Brown Target, and other well made target 1911's have slack in the slide. You can move the slide laterally with your hands. Yet it will hold some incredible tight groups.

On the other hand, I don't own a single "rattle-trap" 1911, and they weren't built that way for our troops of yonder year. Any 1911's that you may have seen or have heard about that were "rattle-traps" were 1911's that were well worn, and probably had been rebuilt several tiimes. If you doubt this, ask a collector to show you one of his less well used Remington Rands.

 

The comparison of a 1911 to a ’63 Corvette is an excellent analogy. Both were great in their time and both are classics. A ’63 Corvette is beautiful and it is neat to drive one around the block but after that, I’ll take my 2008 Z06. There really is no comparison for practical purposes. We can talk all day about nostalgia and how it’s been around 100 years and copied so many times but what does that give one in a gunfight? I own many guns and not one is a 1911. I recently considered buying an Ed Brown, Nighthawk, or a Wilson but after my research, I decided against it and just bought a couple more HK’s. A 1911 doesn’t offer much, if anything, over my HK45.

I recently went to the range with a friend and his high-end 1911. I brought my HK45. I shot his 1911 and while I didn’t really notice the “great trigger” due to the fact that I had to clear multiple malfunctions. I did notice the sharp and harsh recoil compared to my HK45. Needless to say, my HK45 was flawless and was more accurate than his 1911 with either of us shooting it. After my friend shot my HK45 a few times, he just stopped and looked at it in awe in his hands, he didn’t have to say a word.

Also, I think the Mark 23 will make more of a mark on history than “a coma” as it is the only offensive pistol ever in the US military, among other accolades.

BTW, the Mk 23 is still around but not widely used in SOCOM. It is still part of the SOCOM armorers course.

 

I used to own a Taurus PT1911. It was the stainless finish with front serrations, and an ambi safety. It shot perfect right out of the box, and only cost me about $560. I couldn't believe it. Then one day I picked it up off my dresser to do some dry firing. I went to disengage the safety in order to clear the chamber, and it wouldn't budge. The safety was stuck. I finally got it to release, and when it did both thumb safeties and the grip safety fell completely out of the gun- I couldn't believe it. Thank god it didn't happen when I needed it. I think it was more the case of an improperly made 1911 from Brazil.

 

No disrespect intended, but if you want an out of the box reliable 1911, there are three:
Colt
Dan Wesson
Springfield
Stay away from any 1911 with a barrel length less than Commander size.

 

Most of the .mil guys who are believed to be carrying 1911s, aren't. Some of the units that put the 1911 on the map as "the greatest CQB/counter-terrorist pistol of all time" switched to more modern designs years ago.

edited to add: and none of them switched to the Mk23.

 

What did they switch to?

 

Glock 22 in .40CAL.