Read this post from Nighthawk Custom, a company that provides customized 1911s at a price tag between $4,000 and $6,000 each:
I tried to use and carry 1911s, I really did. They are gorgeous handguns. They are also finicky out of the box. After spending a kilobuck each on four of them, I got some beautiful handguns that looked great in a holster. They were also unreliable safe queens because they couldn’t reliably digest whatever ammo I put through them.
They told me to break the pistol in for 500 rounds and that would fix it. It didn’t. I was accused of “limp wristing” by people who hadn’t even watched me shoot. I was told to change ammo, because some 1911s are finicky. I was told to lube them more, and was also told to lube them less. Other advice was change the springs, get more gunsmithing done, and tons of other things.
Even after you spend $5000 on a custom from one of these high end gunsmiths, you end up with a pistol that still doesn’t work as well as a modern handgun. I was even looking at an Ed Brown. I finally decided that, if I were going to spend thousands of dollars, I might as well get something fun that won’t be a safe queen. Here is my experience from 14 years ago:
So this past weekend, I thought that it had been awhile since I had taken the Pro Carry for a spin, so I took it to the range. I brought 100 rounds with me, and I stopped after firing only 50 rounds because I had already had about 6 failures of the pistol to go into battery. I had the gunsmith there look at it, and he told me that the recoil spring was in need of replacement. It had been replaced at the factory only about 300 rounds before. I pointed that out, and he told me that Kimber 1911s needed new springs about every 500 rounds.
The design of the 1911 is over 100 years old, and firearm technology, metallurgy, and other technologies have come a long way since then. I just can’t trust my life to a firearm that won’t go bang every time you press the trigger, and the only way to reliably get a 1911 that will do that is to spend multiple thousands of dollars, only to wind up with a handgun that is made to such tight tolerances that dropping the slide on an empty chamber will ruin it and require more money to repair.
I have bought M&Ps for less than $500 that haven’t had a single malfunction in more than 10,000 rounds. Not one of my 1911s went more than 500 rounds between malfs, and a couple of them couldn’t get through an entire 50 round box without some sort of issue. They just aren’t reliable without thousands of dollars of custom work.
Instead of spending that kind of money on a handgun because it’s accurate or because you like the trigger, spend less than $1,000 on a decent factory handgun, then spend the rest of that cash on a class, a couple of cases of ammo, and year of taking weekly trips to the range. You will find it more beneficial than buying an unreliable safe queen.
31 Comments
Craig · August 26, 2026 at 6:56 am
I have Kimber Pro Carry 2 in stainless. Well over 1000 rounds and 2 failures, both my fault. I guess I am one of the lucky few who have not had problems with my Kimber.
It's just Boris · August 26, 2026 at 7:04 am
Sorry you’ve had such bad experiences with 1911s.
Personally I like them, and enjoy working on them. I’ve also had zero failures of any kind, with any kind of ammo, with several 1911 variants including Stealth Arms Platypus (9mm), Alpha Foxtrot 1911-s15 (9mm) and a more standard Springfield Operator (.45 acp) so far at any rate.
I don’t carry them but that’s mostly due to size / weight / capacity trades, but that may change if the Alpha Foxtrot keeps chugging along.
Fred · August 26, 2026 at 3:02 pm
It ain’t the design. Go to m1911.org and read about the guns. Particularly the ‘3 point jam’ that occurs if the barrel link is the wrong length. The 1911 was designed when metal and machining was more expensive than it is now and labor was considerably cheaper. A lot of people like to swap parts to fix a problem when Rhett should be taking the time to accurately diagnose it. The auto repair industry suffers from the same problem in certain shops.
A tech doesn’t know how a system works so they throw parts at it until they find a part that makes a marginal improvement. Kind of like doctors that throw pills at a patient instead of ordering the appropriate diagnostic tests and deciphering the results.
Seriously, go to that website and learn the platform. John browning was a firearm genius. If you work on your own glocks you can work on a 1911.
TRX · August 27, 2026 at 1:40 pm
The “3 point jam” is a thing because JMB designed the gun around his own cartridge, the .38 Colt. Which in its initial loading was way hotter than .38 Super, well into .357 Magnum territory. Early magazine reviews were heavy on the “yee-HAW!”. Colt neutered the cartridge after broken guns started coming back. The old parallel-slide design wasn’t nearly as strong as the later tilting-barrel layout.
When Colt started dancing with the Army for the new pistol contract, the Army specified the .45 cartridge, which was *not* a Browning design. The .38 guns stripped cartridges right into the chamber with no tilting or bouncing. I’m not sure whether Browning or Colt’s engineers did the .45 conversion, but the centerlines came out all wrong, making the early guns very magazine-specific. Even production Army ones had hand-fitted magazines for a while.
Various fixes were made over the years, but none of them completely solved the basic geometry problem. Still, any standard Army 1911 would shoot any issue FMJ hardball, and so would almost all the 1911 copies.
The big problem is, civilian .45 ACP ammo is all over the place on bullet shape, and bullet shape is critical to the 1911’s feed path. If the ogive isn’t within a narrow range, reliability gets iffy. Conical Ninja Death Ripper yobbo ammo may hardly feed at all. If you’re shooting a USGI, Colt, or Colt-licensed 1911, it’s only guaranteed to shoot hardball. If it shoots anything else reliably, you won the lottery, but the manufacturer probably doesn’t care.
OldToolFool · August 26, 2026 at 7:40 am
Haven’t had any problems with my Springfield. If your making a gun that can’t handle the slide being dropped, you’re making a crap product. I think a lot of issues come from making these to tighter tolerances than they need to be.
FYI I’m on my 3rd ‘inauthentic behavior’ suspension this month from X. It always seems to happen when I comment on a firearm post. This time posting this seemed to be the cause. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op1167lTVmI I’m beginning to think there is stealth censorship going on.
TRX · August 27, 2026 at 2:12 pm
Elon fired Twitter’s boss censor and her crew, then hired her and a bunch of them back later. So I expect it’s “business as usual” despite Elon’s protestations.
dave in pa. · August 26, 2026 at 7:48 am
I have a old gold cup that was worked over by a smith I knew and trusted. he swapped out all of the springs in it. did a few other little things and I have not had any problem with it for the last 20 some odd years. a few years back I was looking for another 1911 to carry as I didn’t want to lose the Colt. check out both Kimbers and a couple of Rock island ones side by side.
I bought a rock Island one. slide to frame had a better fit, trigger was a bit better. although the finish was a bit “thin” the only thing I swapped out was the barrel for a ED Brown one that was on sale. it just works. and at the end of the day, that is the only thing that maters.
Springfields I do like, I carry a SA-35 these days as it holds more and is accurate as hell out to 40 yards. funny part is when I dropped off the gold cup to my friend to REFINISH it, that when he found that all of the springs where cracking. he did ask me, “what are you shooting thru this thing” and he told me it was setup for target ammo, 185 grain wadcutters. where I ran everything and anything thru it. since he upgraded the springs , I have not had any problems with it. but I used airplane grease on the slide to frame and also barrel bushing. light oil on the rest of it. I guess I am just lucky with my 1911s. God knows I don’t have any luck with much of anything else in life.
TRX · August 27, 2026 at 2:01 pm
One of RIA’s importers was active on the forums for a while. He freely admitted they built down to a price. On the other hand, their policy was to repair or replace any gun that had problems. Since they were up front about it, I felt it was fair enough. It’s not often that you get more than you paid for, after all.
Michael · August 26, 2026 at 7:48 am
If it’s too pretty to carry when trouble CHOOSES you today, it’s not useful.
If it doesn’t run reliably with the carry ammo you actually carry, it’s not useful.
If carry dirt, pocket lint and sweat makes it unreliable it’s not useful.
The safe queen doesn’t keep you safe.
Don Curton · August 26, 2026 at 10:31 am
“and he told me that Kimber 1911s needed new springs about every 500 rounds.”
Now that’s funny, earlier this morning I was reading a post on Substack and the writer stated his recoil spring was “getting weak” at 2000 rounds and needed changing. I thought that was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. I’ve been shooting since the 80’s and only once – ONCE – have I had to change a recoil spring for a pistol due to age and use. On a really old Colt 1911 that probably had 20k rounds thru it. Yet the internet of things seems to think 2000 – 3000 rounds is the limit. Holy shit! And 500 rounds? For a fucking custom gun? Uh, no. That would require changing the recoil spring almost every other range trip. (and yeah, back in the day I shot a lot – I got into reloading just to save money. I’d burn thru 500 rounds or more on an average range day.)
As for 1911’s, the original was designed for FMJ ball ammo. That’s what I use and rarely have issues. Loaded to 900 fps. I got a el cheapo Rock Island 1911 and ran 4 or 5 boxes of ball ammo thru it and no failures. Straight outta the box, no cleaning, no lube, no nothing. I firmly think all the custom stuff to make the guns “tight” really screws up the reliability.
Divemedic · August 26, 2026 at 11:12 am
That’s my point. A defense gun should be able to eat nearly any proper caliber ammo you toss at it. 1911’s aren’t like that. It takes a professional gunsmith and thousands of dollars to get a 1911 to do that. The original full-size 1911 was designed around .45 ACP 230-grain round-nose “ball” ammunition. That combination is normally the least troublesome. Reliability can vary with:
Bullet shape and cartridge overall length
Magazine feed-lip geometry and spring strength
Extractor tension
Barrel throat and feed-ramp geometry
Recoil-spring weight
Slide length and caliber
Wide-mouth hollow points, semi-wadcutters and short cartridges illustrate the issues. Springs?
One custom 1911 manufacturer, D&L Sports, specifies a conservative 1,000-round recoil-spring interval. Wilson Combat recommends replacing conventional music-wire recoil springs at approximately 3,000 rounds, and 2,000–5,000-round range for chrome-silicon round-wire and flat-wire springs. Kimber recommends new recoil spring approximately every 800 rounds for Commander sized 1911s, while full sized 1911s are recommended every 1,500–2,000 rounds.
That’s why companies like Ed Brown and others are able to sell 1911s for $4-5k. They spend hours with custom modifications to make the pistol reliable. The 1911 was a great gun for its day, but that was more than a century ago, and there are better options now. Why should I spend $5k to get a reliable 1911 when so many other companies make an equivalent product for a quarter of the price?
Gerry · August 26, 2026 at 1:06 pm
“I pointed that out, and he told me that Kimber 1911s needed new springs about every 500 rounds.
I shot my Kimber in IDPA for years and still haven’t replaced the springs. Probably have more than 6000 rounds thru it . I had a Springfield Fully Loaded 1911 that never ran more than 200 rounds without something breaking or falling off.
I had two M&P 9, one was a Pro and both never made more than 300 rounds without some sight coming loose or mag catch breaking. Traded the Pro for a Glock 17 Gen 3
My old gunsmith said do not let the slide snap on an empty chamber on any pistol. Since he was Gunsmith of the Year I tended to listen.
The issues is having enough data points to make an intelligent decision.
Steve Estrada · August 26, 2026 at 1:44 pm
Sorry you have had such issues across the board. I am a fan of the 1911, and have A Rock Island Tac 1911 that I got for about 475.00. Shoots everything, out of the box. Doesn’t matter, doesn’t care. It isn’t ‘Custom Gun’, but it has the basics that make shooting the 1911 fun and more than accurate enough for defense work.
Now, I have been shooting for over 40 years, a variety of guns. Run into some gems, run into some certifiable nightmares. I worked at King’s Gun Works, back from 1985 through 1994. It was one of THE finest 1911 custom houses at that time, On par with Wilson, Clark’s and Pahlmeyer. They made race guns, they also made defensive guns. A lot of tuning was done on many a duty gun and those things always ran with ball and Winchester Silvertips.
It was about the time of the HydraShok, with it’s sharper shape that caused some problems. But the solution that fixed that was the ramped barrel.
Now, I had a 1911 that was a Navy contract from 1918, and it ate ball and Silvertips, but not much else. I got a Springfield Armory 1911A1, and it ate everything. When they came out with the ParaOrdnance P10-45, I got one. It was real good with most hollow points, and when they came out, I got the Black Talon for it, and that was it’s carry load. Then I had a Para-Ord full size frame, so I had the ramped barrel cut into it, and generic 1911 parts around it, except the hammer, sear and trigger, which were tuned for a nice four lb pull.
Still have that piece, all these decades later. It wasn’t tightened, but it shoots very well, the trigger cannot be beat by any of my other guns, even my Shadow 2. That and my Rock Island have proven more than able to be primary defense guns. Along with my CZ Phantom, Shadow 2, P10F in .45acp.
I think we get caught up in the custom market so much, the tuners boys get things impractically tight. I like my guns to go BANG every time. I used to entertain oddballs, but now I don’t. I had a Savage 380 that always shot the first mag perfectly, but would not shoot the second mag. Got rid of it.
Maybe try a 500 dollar 1911, like the Rock Island. Try cheaper, less high octane.
TRX · August 27, 2026 at 2:10 pm
The P10s/Warthogs were sort of a crap shoot. Some guys had no trouble, and others, not even the factory was able to get to run. I collected a bunch of P10 and Warthog pieces after Remington dumped Para’s old inventory. There’s not a lot of interchangeability between them and even a compact 1911.
The first one worked flawlessly from the very first range trip. But I cheated twice: I used a 4.25″ slide instead of the 3″, and I built it in 9×19 instead of .45 ACP. The only problem with the gun so far has been a marital dispute when my wife tried to adopt it. There’s not much “slack” in the timing of a .45 feed path and a 3″ slide, and I suspect there simply wasn’t enough slack for some guns to accomodate Para’s infamously random quality control.
The other build is in .400 Cor-Bon, but I haven’t gotten around to finishing it yet.
CT Ginger · August 26, 2026 at 1:47 pm
I have two Glocks in .45 acp. I’ve had several 1911s they are very nice reproductions of 100 year-old technology. I prefer modern proven technology to quaint antiques. Neither Glock has ever been troublesome or fussy about ammo.
Ole Grump · August 26, 2026 at 2:02 pm
I am not into 1000-5000 dollar pistols, thank Artemis. The 1911 was designed for a heavy bullet moving at a rather slow velocity compared to most of today’s loadings. I believe that if you feed it what it was designed for you would be much more pleased with its performance. Just my opinion.
Divemedic · August 26, 2026 at 2:11 pm
Then how is it different from any other 45ACP handgun?
Georgiaboy61 · August 26, 2026 at 2:04 pm
Want a M1911 which is reliable out of the box? Get a Springfield Armory 1911. One late 1990s model has run for close to thirty years without any service or replacement of springs or other parts whatsoever. It was used for IPSC-style practical shooting every weekend for years. Eats everything, no problems. New this was was sub $1,000 pistol.
Rock Island Armory/Armscor of the Philippines are now the largest manufacturers of M1911 handguns in the world, and they make a very good product for the money at a fair price. They
are budget-friendly. The caveat with them is that they work best with proprietary magazines.
Why? Because they have mag extensions on them to permit an eighth round in the box.
But that caveat aside, they run just fine.
Magazines are a failure point for some 1911s, which isn’t surprising since that is true of other designs as well. Buy high-quality magazines and you should be OK.
If the high-dollar custom and semi-custom guys can’t make a pistol that runs reliably, try someone else – they’re not earning your business. You spent 3-4K on a handgun, that thing ought to not only run like a champ, it ought to wash the car and take out the trash, too!
Some 1911s like only FMJ/Ball ammo. That’s what Jeff Cooper recommended and that’s what the pistol was designed to use.
P.S. I’m a S&W fan-boy, too. For a striker-fired polymer type HG, they’ve really done a good job on their product line.
Steve the Engineer · August 26, 2026 at 3:44 pm
I too, am a “1911 guy”. Had a feed problem with a brand new gun, I will not name the manufacturer (WC). Lovely gun. But first 50 rounds of PMC ammo had multiple rounds not going into battery after a shot. Got it home, took it apart – dry as a bone. Other manufacturers of 1911s that I own when I opened the box (again, shall not name names but S&W, K from Yonkers, that Sigma company) – all had just enough good quality oil from the factory that they shot well immediately. Given those experiences, I didn’t think to disassemble and check the new gun before first trip to the range. Shame on me. Oiled it up and shoots great ever since.
I have had ocassional feed problems since – I usually load up a bunch of mags at home because I prefer to spend range time shootin and not reloading. If I had a feed issue, I would set that mag aside in a marked zip lock. When I get home – I check the mag spring and 95% of the time – the mag spring is weak.
Meanoldfart · August 26, 2026 at 3:45 pm
Back in the early ’80’s I got an AMT Hardballer (M1911A1) w/adjustable sights. I had a stainless BarSto accuracy barrel installed by a very good local gunsmith. It’s flawless as long as I stick to 230 gr. hard ball. That being said, it had no problem w/brass, steel or aluminum cased cartridges or steel jacketed bullets as long as it was FMJ. It beat the hell out of any M1911A1 I shot in or out of the Marine Corps both in terms of accuracy & reliability. It works well w/me, especially w/stainless 8-shot Wilson mags. I stick to what works for me.
Divemedic · August 26, 2026 at 4:42 pm
But you are restricted to ball?
Meanoldfart · August 26, 2026 at 5:15 pm
Pretty much, it’ll feed jacketed HP’s, but usually had a stovepipe every 100 or so rounds w/the old Speer/CCI Lawman or Federal HST “flying ashtrays.” It does shoot newer HP’s more reliably, but I stick w/ball. It’s called a Hardballer for a reason. Every time I mention it I get a chorus of “why not a Longslide!?!” I didn’t want a Longslide. Yeah, I liked Terminator as much as the next guy, but what I wanted was a good stock M1911A1.
Divemedic · August 26, 2026 at 5:50 pm
Yeah, that’s why I don’t use 1911s for EDC
Meanoldfart · August 26, 2026 at 7:04 pm
I can understand that. I stick w/it because I’ve put a crap ton of ammo through it & I trust it to shoot very reliably/accurately. It’s a reliable hog shooter, but they don’t shoot back at you.
TRX · August 27, 2026 at 2:16 pm
AMT had trouble making their new stainless GI-style guns run with common commercial ammo. But the prototypes would reliably fire GI hardball or close commercial FMJ equivalents. So Harry Sanford named it the “Hardballer” and promoted it as being designed for .45 hardball. [shrug] I guess it worked; AMT sold a lot of them.
it's just Boris · August 26, 2026 at 9:15 pm
Divemedic, honest question here: Do you know why the NH folks are recommending not repeatedly or habitually dropping the slide on an empty chamber with one of their (or, really, any) 1911s, and perceive that as a fundamental flaw? Or did it just happen to reinforce what you already think about 1911s?
Any gun – any machine, really – is going to have “dos” and “dont’s” associated with it – best practices for longevity and good operation, and actions that can damage them or make them unsafe. For a lot of rimfire firearms, for instance, dryfire on an empty chamber is a major “don’t.” I’ve also seen recommendations to not rack Glock slides excessively to avoid unnecessary wear, don’t dryfire any of them without snap caps, and so forth.
That doesn’t mean these guns are intrinsically badly designed or unreliable; it does mean that each gun design has its unique properties and features, and what’s just fine for one might be long-term damaging to another. And just like a single dry-fire on a rimfire is unlikely to cause major damage, a single empty slide drop is unlikely to cause major damage to even a highly tuned 1911 target trigger. But it’s something a conscientious owner would likely want to know about, not so?
Divemedic · August 27, 2026 at 6:01 am
Yes, that’s the entire point of the post- the 1911 platform is an incredibly complex pistol made with 100+ year old technology, which has been improved upon to the point where many other firearms are better. Yes, largely accurate—though with important nuances on modern examples and what the high prices actually buy.
The 1911 was designed around 230-grain FMJ ball ammo with a specific ogive and overall length. Its feed geometry (frame ramp + barrel throat, magazine presentation angle) is less forgiving of variations than modern designs that use a full ramped barrel and more tolerant magazine/feed systems.
– Hollow points, semi-wadcutters, truncated cones, or shorter OAL loads can nose-dive or hang up more readily than rounded FMJ. That requires extensive gunsmithing to get the pistol to function with ammo that isn’t ball
– Magazine quality, feed-lip geometry, and spring condition are frequent culprits (often estimated as the majority of feed issues). That’s why the platform needs frequent spring changes.
The platform as a whole remains more ammo- and setup-dependent than most contemporary duty pistols. Owners routinely report testing several loads and sticking with what works without failing to feed. Compacts and short-barreled versions can be pickier that full sized examples.
A pistol is just a tool, and I expect my tools to work. Every time someone mentions how a 1911 requires extensive gunsmithing to function with anything other than ball ammo, or mentions that the 1911 is a maintenance heavy boat anchor that carries a limited amount of ammo, people come to defend it, claiming not all 1911s are like that, theirs works just fine, etc. All the while ignoring that there is an entire industry dedicated to making those pistols function, all for the low, low price of $4,000. If the 1911 were such a great, reliable design, those guys wouldn’t have a job.
This is exactly why high-end custom and semi-custom 1911s command $3,000–$5,000+ (and sometimes far more). A large share of the cost is skilled hand labor: peening or fitting the slide-to-frame fit, precise barrel lockup and throat work, trigger job to a crisp light break, extractor tuning, reliability package (feed ramp polishing, magazine tuning), dehorning, checkering, premium finishes, and no-MIM tool-steel small parts. All of that money just to get a firearm that is now as reliable as a $500 modern striker fired is out of the box.
Look, if you want to own a 1911, fine. To each his own, but stop pretending like JMB wouldn’t have designed a better handgun if he had today’s technology.
Even Wilson Combat tells owners that the 1911 requires ammunition within a certain range of parameters and recommends bullets approximating the profile of 230-grain FMJ for best reliability. That is a meaningful limitation compared with service pistols expected to digest a broad selection of compliant ammunition without tuning.
A properly fitted 1911 can be extremely reliable, but obtaining that reliability across ammunition, magazines and configurations is more dependent on correct components and skilled fitting than with modern service pistols. The custom industry does not prove that every ordinary 1911 is unreliable, but it absolutely demonstrates that the platform is labor-intensive to optimize—and that “1911-compatible” parts are not necessarily plug-and-play.
It’s important to note that even top competitors like Mas Ayoob compete with a 1911, but actually carry something else. (Mas carries a Beretta 92)
The 1911 is a beautiful gun, but it just isn’t as reliable as a modern pistol. I don’t buy hammers because they are pretty. I buy tools because I need them to do a job. A well-built custom 1911 can be as reliable as any other modern handgun, but getting it there demands more knowledge, better magazines, matched springs/ammo, custom modifications, and proactive maintenance than a contemporary pistol. The premium prices reflect the labor required to dial those variables in tightly rather than pure mystique. There are better and cheaper options out there.
My sources:
American Rifleman: Tuning the 1911 for Reliability
Handguns Mag: How To Maintain 1911 Pistols: Complete Instructions
TRX · August 27, 2026 at 1:30 pm
I must have been touched by the 1911 saints, because all of mine have run flawlessly, irrespective of magazines, ammunition, or modifications. I’ve read plenty of stories from others who weren’t so lucky, though.
The common “give it 500 rounds to break it in” is bullshit. If you bought a new car, would you put up with having the brakes randomly fail to work for the first 5,000 miles? No? You’re not likely to need your brakes near as much or fast as your gun. If the product doesn’t work out-of-the-box, it’s defective, whether it’s a gun, a toaster, or a laptop computer.
The whole “boutique” mentality has people accepting poor gunsmithing because they’ve been sold on the image. Maybe their customers can show a bad guy who pretty their gun is when it fails to fire when needed.
TRX · August 27, 2026 at 1:58 pm
> Not one of my 1911s went more than 500 rounds between malfs
—
The v2.0 gun did a lot better, though a big reason for that was they stayed with a .38-ish cartridge. The Browning Hi Power was a pretty strange duck in its early days. FN dailed to get any big military orders for a long time, and in the meantime Browning passed away. His protege Didionne Saive (a worthy designer in his own right, and designer of the FAL among others) retrofitted various Browning-designed features back to the Hi Power as Colt’s patents expired. Browning had sold his patents outright, and Colt wasn’t interested in licensing them to FN, requiring some design hackery to get around patents that hadn’t expired yet.
That said, a good friend of mine said he just didn’t like the 1911 handled, and settled on the CZ-75 and variants. The full-size CZs are a bit bulky for CCW, but the compacts are smaller than many modern-designed “carry” guns.
Jonesy · August 28, 2026 at 8:26 am
Little late to the conversation here. Yes, 1911s are not for everyone. I learned to shoot on one so have stuck with them. I have 1 in every length, 3, 3.5, 4, 5, and have spent anywhere from $700 to $2k. The super tuned custom pistols are nice to be sure, but the returns for dollar spent diminish after $1500 or so. All of my current 1911s run without issue and can handle ball and HPs. I’ve had to break in a couple, and I played with recoil spring rates to get others to run well. I’ve bought and sold some that didn’t run, particularly shorter barreled models. Springs and timing just weren’t right. You have to do your homework. Use good mags.
I see a lot of folks make comments about going through XXX rounds continuously before a failure or that 1911s won’t run if you drop it in the mud/sand/dirt whatever. If those things are a concern, don’t get one. If I’m carrying one, I’m not worried about how the gun is running dirty after 500 rounds. It’s clean and lubed at round 0. Quoting Larry Vickers….”if you maintain your guns like you maintain your lawnmower, a 1911 isn’t for you”.
As with all things, it’s preference and knowing your equipment.
Divemedic · August 28, 2026 at 9:21 am
This is what I am talking about. When I bought the 1911s, I was given all sorts of advice along those lines:
they aren’t broken in yet
You lube them too much
you lube them too little
You need different ammo
you are limp-wristing
maybe these guns aren’t for you
These were quality handguns, each of them costing a kilobuck or more
If I buy a handgun, I expect it to not demand more attention than having to date the prom queen. I shouldn’t have to buy it dinner, roses, and jewelry three times a week to get anything out of it. I want the pistol that’s going to go bang every time I pull the trigger. That’s exactly why I only own the one 1911 now, and it’s a safe queen. They are pretty guns, but just aren’t reliable.
As much as I hate the Glock fanbois, they have one thing right- Glocks just run. You don’t need to pamper them, you don’t need to make sure the combo of mag and ammo are just so. You toss in some ammo and it goes bang, whether that ammo is czech, wolf, or premiumm handloads. I expect any EDC handgun to be that way, or I just won’t carry it.
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