1. I find it incredibly easy and accurate to shoot.
2. While I haven’t shot a person with it, the size of the bullet makes me feel comfortable that if I hit someone, they will stay hit.
3. If you practice enough, the safety issue is not an issue.
Oh well. Its just an opinion.
Exactly which model is that in the photo?
I also do not carry the 1911, though I love it so.
Why? I really like DA/SA, decocking levers, and 9mm magazine capacity. I carry the CZ-75B. Sometimes the S&W 4506, even though I only get the 8 round mage.
Oh, yeah, I realize the CZ does NOT have a decock.
Colt Commander XSE is my daily choice. I like it because it is a single stack and easy to carry. If I need more capacity, I’ll go for a battle rifle.
My carry gun has shot innumerable matches without failure attributable to the gun. I've weak-wristed some rounds and I have had bad magazines, but if I do my part I'm confident the gun will go bang, every time.
I use exclusively Wilson Combat magazines, having tried a bunch of others. I've had trouble with examples of nearly every other brand, including Colt factory and Chip McCormick mags. The mags I carry have been tested time and time again, and I trust them.
Part and parcel with competition is muscle memory. My swiping off the safety is unconscious and uncommanded - it goes with the draw.
The author's aversion to the 1911 safety system is the very reason I carry it - in condition 1 - as does my wife and everyone I train.
He must be talking about a GI 1911, which are notoriously inaccurate.
Get a Kimber.
I need a side scan sonar to find my 1911.
I have two 1911’s. A full size and i carry a Defender and if kept clean and use the best defensive ammo you can buy or reload, yes i would trust my life with these guns. Double stack mags may have the advantage over the single stack but nothing feels like a 1911 in your hands.
I have a Series 70 Gold Cup, tricked out for competition...but, its NOT may carry weapon.
Sig P220 Carry, SAO is my carry weapon.
Reliability, ergonomics, ease of take down, slightly smaller.
1. Fits me like a glove.
2. Goes bang EVERY time.
3. Very accurate.
4. I know it forward and backward.
5. .45 ACP.
L
My experience with a 1911 is that is is jamming the next round feed. I plan to send it back to Colt as the local smith could not resolve the issue. Does not jam every shot, but maybe once per mag.
The round misses the barrel and stops the slide.
It was reliable for years and is an older model.
KC
limited magazine capacity. Because everyone knows ninjas attack in large groups.
I have a Star .45 that is my daily carry. It has an extended magazine/grip and carries seven rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber. I have Federal Hydrashok hollow-points in it and if I ever need it I imagine one or two will do the job. Worst case I can always reload with my spare magazine.
While I hate to openly disagree with a fellow Marine, he’s mistaken. I carried an ordinary issue 1911A1 for a year and a half in Vietnam - arguably one of the dirtiest and most corrosive environments on Earth - and it always worked, hit what it was aimed at, killed what it hit.
Pistol gunfights are short ranged, quick, and brutal. Generally you have to use a pistol at the same ranges you’d normally use a knife. Carrying a 1911A1 in Condition One (round in the chamber, hammer back, safety on) is easy, safe, fast into action.
The .45 is absolutely effective and you need fewer rounds to kill something.
As far as qualifying with one at the range, if you couldn’t qualify as at least Marksman with the .45, you probably also have trouble tying your shoes and should transfer to an MOS involving offices and typing.
I’ve had Glocks, XDs, and various Rugers, but none compare to my 1911s for accuracy, comfortability of shooting, and peace of mind knowing that it will go bang when and only when I want them to.
Everybody has opinions....
I don’t like safeties either. But seems to me that learning how to keep one in the pipe at the ready would be SOP?
I’ve read of several off-duty LEO’s & CCP holders being killed because they needed either that extra second to chamber a weapon or pointed and pulled the trigger only to hear a “click” and then get blown away.