1911 vs ?the world? Why do you like it?

I pretty much saw that coming, I didn't think a 300 Norinco would really be what I want. I may just need to handle and try some then see if they're really for me and what I can afford.

I've seen too many movies, tv shows, and of course the real military history and since it still gets love years after retiring from service means it should at least be considered as a purchase some day.
 
A solid gun with a history and Canada's mag laws make it more attractive. Why have a 17 round pinned to 10 when 10 is all you can have?

I liked the 1911 before I ever touched one and once I got to handle one and shot it I loved it.

If I were to serious consider philosophy of use for my 1911 I would switch to something lighter but for pure enjoyment I gotta go with the 1911.
 
I choose the 1911 because of its proven track record. It feels the best in my hand. They are made by all of my favorite manufacturer's. There are tons of aftermarket parts that are readily available. They are out of the box accurate and reliable. You can get one from $300-$5000 depending on budget. They come in numerous calibers and different barrel lengths. I like that they are made of steel not polymer. I shoot them better than any of my other pistols. Last but not least the triggers are absolutely perfect. In case of emergency I dial 1911.


That performance is a function of the shooter not the gun. The short and crisp SA trigger along with the weight of the pistol covers up a lot of your bad form. That's why many "shooters" prefer 1911's.

Wow great thread, lots to read, and good solid opinions. I'm glad I asked, thanks for those who have posted, keep 'em coming.

I was asking so I could get a true feel of what people think of the 1911s and I think I'm seeing it now.
I'm also glad I mentioned reliability because while it may not be the top by today's standards it still does very well. I also didn't consider the customization that many of these guns go through.

I think given a chance I may hold on (try if the chance is there) and see what I think, it may not be a first gun but I need to add this to a list of 'must haves' that seem to exist in the firearms world.

Any company to stay away from (should I just start a new thread?) with the range from 300-5000 as was mentioned they can't all be the same quality. Or would a cheaper one just be a good base to start with, 5k being perfect out the box?


Right, opinions. Not empirical fact or supported claims, but personal and often pointless opinions. If you want to know why someone prefers or likes a 1911, an opinion is what you seek. If you want to know why they're grossly outdated dinosaurs and far from ideally suited for real work, its facts you're after.

TDC
 
1911

I love my 1911 because its a nostalgic, classy and fun gun to shoot. I know there are people who don't like them, so then, don't shoot one. The rest of us will happily look after them.
 
1911's are the Harley Davidson of pistols. They are classic proven and cool. Other pistols are copy cats. Honda's are great bikes but no where near as cool as a Harley. 1911 are just like Harley's when it comes to after market products. You can mod a 1911 and a Harley till you run out of money. Try and find mod parts for a glock or honda.
 
That performance is a function of the shooter not the gun. The short and crisp SA trigger along with the weight of the pistol covers up a lot of your bad form. That's why many "shooters" prefer 1911's.




Right, opinions. Not empirical fact or supported claims, but personal and often pointless opinions. If you want to know why someone prefers or likes a 1911, an opinion is what you seek. If you want to know why they're grossly outdated dinosaurs and far from ideally suited for real work, its facts you're after.

TDC
TDC Every once in awhile you make statements that defy logic. Read what you wrote and ask yourself are all Bullseye shooters using the 1911 platform using bad form? Are all IPSC Open Shooter who use the 1911 Platform all bad pistol shooters using "bad form".

Your second statement is even less logical. Two World Wars, the Korean Conflict and Vietnam and the gun is "far from ideally suited for real work"? Are you serious? Or should I ask, "How would you know?"

Takr Care

Bob
 
First off while I see the logic of your 3 points I would like to set the idea of only punching paper and recreation aside for a moment. Think about it if we all truly bought handguns for being accurate paper punchers we would probably all own .22 target pistols, adn on the flip side if we were all just out for fun to get the adreneline pumping with big booms we would probably all own large calibre revolvers and DE's. So why then are the most common handguns that CGNers own(just a educated guess from what I read), mostly medium calibre combat pistols and practical mid sized revolvers? Sure, I like most people enjoy both being accurate as well as just having fun with firearms, however, I think, like most CGNers I think that it is valuable to have the skills to, if required and legal, use a firearm(handgun specifically) in a more practical defensive situation.

Now on to why I believe the 1911 is one of the best possible choices out there in terms of handguns. I will narrow this down to automatics as revolvers are really a seperate thing. To do this I will address the three points you brought up in order to point out that what you see as disadvantages(whether or not they affect us) are not bad.

First, the size and weight factor. In terms of concealability I feel 1911s are not at a disadvantage as they are fairly thin and with shorter frames(IE commander) are pretty compact in terms of demensions. While the weight is significant, a good solid belt will be able to hide the weight of a 1911 well. In terms of the ability to carry that weight, 37-40 ounces is not all that much for most people to carry.

Second, the magazine capacity which is limited due to the single stacked design. This is a trade off but not a bad one. In fact for concealed carry in the States, single stacked pistols are becoming more and more popular because most people realize 17 rounds is probably more than you will ever use in a self defense situation. Lets actually look at the capacity of a double stacked 45 to be fair(I will not get into the calibre debate), 13 rounds in a glock 21, so just one spare mag will make that up if you need to. Really unless you are going into an actual gunfight, 8 rounds of 45ACP will do everything you need in terms of defending yourself(but I still support the freedom to have 100 round drums if you want to). Plus you can buy 10 round 1911 mags if you really want.

Finally reliability, while I would agree that a new factory glock will be more reliable than a new factory 1911, 1911s are capable of being just as reliable as glocks. A broken in, well maintained, quality 1911, is right up top with glocks and other modern designs in terms of reliability, just don't expect an out of the box norinco wiht no lube to run perfect.

For numerous other reasons as other have mentioned 1911s are still one of the most popular pistols among civilians for a reason. Unless you are going to war or raiding mexican drug cartels, a 1911 do just fine, and if you are going to war or fighting cartels, just remember, in those situations where a glock might be more advantageous than a 1911, the purpose of your pistol is to fight your way back to your rifle(or more ammo).
 
That performance is a function of the shooter not the gun. The short and crisp SA trigger along with the weight of the pistol covers up a lot of your bad form.

This is a contradictory statement.

I'm all for individual preference, the world would be a boring place if everyone had the exact same thing. However, I'm seeing some 1911 hate here, without explanation. Time and time again from this cgn member (who often has some good, solid input on various topics).
 
1911's are awesome guns. They have been around for a century for very good reason. They are classy, classic, accurate, and point very well. For myself it is really CZ and 1911's for steel guns.
I would not be too quick to rule out the Norinco as a first either, I have one and it is quite good for the money, I also own the Ruger sr1911, but can't honestly say how good.... yet. I just bought it and have not put a round through it yet. I have seen many people loving the Norinco as I have seen many loving other brands as well. Go with what you like not with what other tell you that you should like.
Btw I sell guns for a living, and many first timers even ladies gravitate toward the 1911's and the CZ`s. Just excellent guns period.
 
1911's are the Harley Davidson of pistols. They are classic proven and cool. Other pistols are copy cats. Honda's are great bikes but no where near as cool as a Harley. 1911 are just like Harley's when it comes to after market products. You can mod a 1911 and a Harley till you run out of money. Try and find mod parts for a glock or honda.

Wtf am I reading here?
 
TDC, opinions is exactly what I should be looking for. As I said on paper the 1911 is in a rather fair fight when it comes to standing against other guns in Canada.
Is it the best by fact? Meh not really, at least I don't think so, and most here who love theirs see the limits it has.
Would it be fair to say the 1911 doesn't cover bad form but that other guns allow this bad form to exist? (In some like a new shooter then yes its more likely to be bad form) Handling a steel frame gun like a 1911 or CZ gives you the weight to hold the gun in position rather than have the muzzle flip because it has none of its own weight to keep it there. Therefore the "bad form" has become the shooters responsibility to keep the gun in place. Its a trade off, neither is the right answer, the only right answer is learn to shoot what your holding.

Now that I've said that, I wonder if the 1911 is a bad first choice, choosing a light polymer gun to force a new shooter to build skill with that then work back to a gun like this that will stay put.

Either way at this point if I did get one I'd be leaving it stock for quite a while until I knew exactly what I was getting into by changing bits.

For when this gun was made and brought into military service it's incredible that this type of topic is still valid and the gun does a good job to hold its own.

Albertagunslinger, I've often wondered when watching american utubers go on about say a Glock with extended base plates and 3-4 spare mags just what they think their ccw is getting into. That's full blast firefight ammo. I can see why people argue against a revolver (6-7 ppl around my car...) your 6 round revolver better hit every target, no double tap, and make the rest run. A 10 round 1911 with 1-2 mags should be plenty for civilians.
 
I don't know :stirthepot2: I guess if it doesn't have iphone type aftermarket there's nothing available...
Me I thought glocks and hondas had many mods.
I'd rather ride something like a Harley than a goldwing but mods don't factor into my choice there.

That's my exasperation.

There are so damn many mods for a glock and a honda I couldn't hope to even know about a fraction of them.
Saying there are none blows my mind, thats like asking to go visit the twin towers as to what kind of amused shock response I had when reading that.
 
That's my exasperation.

There are so damn many mods for a glock and a honda I couldn't hope to even know about a fraction of them.
Saying there are none blows my mind, thats like asking to go visit the twin towers as to what kind of amused shock response I had when reading that.

If your a fan of Fringe you can visit the Twin Towers, tell Belly hi :owned:
Sounds like the 1911 is the lego gun but given the head start it has over Glock to say it has none is unfair.
Maybe that's a good thing, people have built unreliable Glocks due to mods, and from this thread most unreliable 1911s are either modified or under maintained, user error not the gun.

If I could hold, try and find a 1911 for under 500 it'd be in the running, if not it goes on the wish list. Best option would be a decent used 1911 (after a test hold of course) and a .22 conversion kit.
Since my interest in guns has peaked recently I've tried to take a good look at what's around/popular and why. The 1911 IMHO should at least be considered, just like a Glock, pump shotgun, .22 etc you don't have to buy it but should consider it.
 
I think 1911's and Glocks have the two biggest fan clubs

the 1911 camp love to talk about how the plastic gun blows up in your hand,

and the Glock camp love to bash the 1911 for it's unreliability.

the Glock wouldn't have so many kabooms if people would read the owners manual and stop trying to feed it lead bullets and reloads

the 1911 wouldn't be so unreliable if people would stop modifying it or changing it's original design

most Glock owners use Glock mags only. most 1911 owners have a whole mix of good and bad mags because there's so many different brands out there

there's only one company that makes a Glock.....Glock

there's dozens of companies that make the 1911, it's only a matter of time before every company has thier version of the 1911

I've seen unreliable 1911's and I've seen unreliable Glocks,

but every unreliable 1911 I've ever seen had been customized by someone that doesn't know what they're doing. either by themself on a kitchen table or by a bad gunsmith (which there are many)

the only way to end all the bashing is for Glock to make a 1911 too
 
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