Replies

Bottom line is that they both work. And the M1911 design is the benchmark against which the Glock is measured. That the plastic fantastic may be superior in certain respects, that is to be expected due to the intervening years between the introduction of both pistols. The fact remains, the M1911 style pistol, and clones of the original, are the most produced pistols of their type in the world. And they remain in production to this day.

To be sure, there are several manufacturers of polymer framed pistols similar to Glock and they work well. However, one should take a look at the list of M1911 style pistol manufacturers and be astounded. This is not bad for a basic design that originated in 1905 and was adopted for service by the U.S. military in 1911.

The following is a list of former and current producers of M1911 style pistols:

A.J. Savage (US gov’t contract 1919, made slides only)
American Classic
American Tactical
A&R Sales
AMT
Armi Dallera Custom (ADC)
Armscor
Astra
ATI
Australian Precision Arms
Auto Ordnance
Briley
Brolin Arms
Browning (reduced-size .22 and .380 copies)
Cabot
Caspian (slides and frames only)
Charles Daly
Christensen Arms
Cimarron
Citadel
CO Arms
Colt (commercial and US/foreign gov’t contract from 1911 to present day)
Chiappa (.22LR 1911 copy)
Crown City
Cylinder & Slide
CZ USA
Dan Wesson
Detonics
Devel
Dlask Arms
D&L Sports
Double Star
Ed Brown
EMF
Essex (slides and frames only)
Federal Ordnance
Falcon
Firestorm
Freedom Arms
Fusion
Gemini Custom
Girsan
Griffon Combat
GSG (.22LR 1911 copy)
Guncrafter Industries
Gunsite
Hero Guns
High Standard
Imbel
Imperial Defense
Infinity
Inland Manufacturing
Interstate Arms (Regent)
Irwindale Arms Industries (IAI)
Israeli Arms Industries (also called IAI)
Ithaca (new business located in Sandusky, OH)
Ithaca (old NY-based company, made pistols under US gov’t contract 1943-1945)
Iver Johnson
Karl Lippard
Kimber
Kongsberg (M/1914 pistol manufactured in Norway under Colt license)
LAR
Les Baer
Llama
Lone Star
Magnum Research
Maximus Custom
Metro Arms
Mitchell
MP Express
Nighthawk
Norinco
North American Arms Co. Ltd. (US gov’t contract in 1918, ~100 pistols assembled but not delivered)
Nowlin
Para Ordnance
Pistol Dynamics
Olympic Arms
Omega Defense
Peter Stahl
Randall
Ranger
Reeder Custom
Regent
Remington Arms (current business)
Remington Rand (made pistols under US gov’t contract 1942-1945, not affiliated with Remington Arms or Remington-UMC)
Remington-UMC (US gov’t contract 1918-1919) NOTE: ~1000 replicas were made by Remington Arms and Turnbull in 2014)
Roberts Defense
Rock Island Armory
Rock River Arms
Ruger
Safari Arms
S.A.M
Salient Arms
Sarco
Schroeder Bauman
Shooters Arms (Philippines)
Sig Sauer
Singer (US gov’t contract, 500 pistols produced in 1941)
Sistema (aka D.G.F.M.-F.M.A.P.) (M1927 pistol manufactured in Argentina under Colt license)
Smith & Wesson
South Fork Arms/Perkins Custom
Springfield Armory (former military arsenal in MA, made M1911s from 1914-1917 under US gov’t contract)
Springfield Armory (commercial business established in 1974, not associated with above)
STI
SVI
Tanfoglio
Taurus
Taylor & Co.
TISAS
Turnbull Mfg.
Unertl
Union Switch & Signal (US gov’t contract, 1943)
Uselton Arms
USFA
Walther/Umarex (.22LR 1911 copy)
Wilson Combat
Vega (frames only)
Valtro
Victory Arms
Volkman