Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns What are the 1911's weakness?

The genius (intentional or not) to the flexible polymer frame, is that it, well...flexes. You have in essence, looser tolerances available during cycling, yet with a bit of memory to return the gun to a close tolerance status for firing. Hence, you have very decent accuracy, and the advantage of reliability and lighter weight.

The 1911 and its iterations, rely on looser tolerances for optimum reliability, or tighter tolerances for optimum accuracy. Still, since the main accuracy comes from the barrel to buffer and buffer to slide fits, one can have very good accuracy, with a very reasonably reliable pistol. Few come from the factory this way.

I've seldom had a "new" in the box Colt 1911 of variant, that was dead on reliable from the start, with the exception of a 1980s vintage Officer's Model that simply would not jam, even with hollow points. The rest, needed a bit of tweaking, but were made to be perfectly reliable.

So, the 1911 has weaknesses. But it's simply well worth the effort to get one to the point of total reliability. It's a personal choice. For me, I'd spend twice as much on a 1911 or a variant than I would on a Glock, not because they are more reliable or more accurate, but because they are more appealing to this old man.