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

As a relative newbie to 1911's, what are some of the trouble areas or weakness of the 1911's that I should be paying attention to?

Consensus seems to say that 1911's require more attention to maintenance, etc compare to striker fired polymer pistols. Please enlighten me.

Some background info regarding my question was due to dinner discussion with a friend who stated that his $500 Glock is more reliable than 1911's.

I was thinking if compare to similiar price point 1911's, he's probably right but once you move up to the $1,000 to $1,200 price range you would be getting a more reliable 1911 by comparison but don't have enough self knowledge to say. Only from what I've search from the internet.

Thanks for all the feedback and help!

Leo

Good for at least three pages anywhere on the 'Net...

1911's for me are like a dang cat, I love em, but have had a couple of em that hated my damn guts.

A box stock GI 1911 is designed to work in combat conditions with ball ammo. They are heavy compared to a polymer wonder auto pistol. Military issue sights are small and not easy to use for many folks. A 1911 with good sights, a throated barrel, a good trigger, and a frame and slide not overly tightened is a different animal.

One can buy a RIA 1911 for the same price as a Glock...

As to reliability...Glocks go KaBoom on a very regular basis... Unless one overloads a 1911 like in .38 Super it doesn't happen with a 1911.

As to general feeding reliability haven't had any major problems with any of my guns. There are some bullet designs that cause feeding problems in some guns but once you find a load that a 1911 likes it is no more or less reliable than a Glock...

That and a) Plastic guns have no soul b) Life is too short to go through it with an ugly gun....

Bob

A regular basis?

I don't have extensive experience with the 1911. I can say that all but 1 that I've shot (some for only a few mags) have had at least one feeding problem every time I've been around them.

I've never had a feeding problem with a Glock and I've put a lot of rounds in 10mm, 40, 45, and 9mm through a lot of different Glock platforms.

Tight 1911's need to be maintained much more. I've never had a "loose" one so they may not require as much maintenance. Glocks need to be loaded...and that's about it.

The 1911 trigger is great, the Glock can't touch it. The 1911 has character, the Glock doesn't. The Glock is reliable, the 1911 is...with the right ammo, the right mag, when clean, etc...

Magazine feed angle. Sig fixed it in the P220. The High Power fixed it as well. IMO, that is the biggest design flaw and the reason magazines are so important.

I had three at one time but now down to my original Colt I carried in SEA. The only one to give me fits was the combat commander that had inherent feed issues. Wish I still had it now for more than a few reasons.

5 or 6 pages, easy, with name calling, too.

The only real, undeniable issue with the 1911 is magazine capacity. And yeah I know there are double stack 1911's out there, but they seem to be fussy gamer guns, and they feel like a 2x4 to me.

The original mil-spec gun had tightly controlled specs, and things were carefully made. Today even the $1000 guns tend to cut corners - they might not have a hard extractor, or they are careless with bead blasting, and roughen surfaces that need to be smooth.

The closest thing to a scientific study I've seen found that high-end 1911's (Wilson and Baer) have similar failure rates to Glocks, with Colt being a little behind them. Some makes, like Kimbers, are over 40% having issues, according to the same study. H&K crushed everyone in the same survey, FWIW. It jived pretty well with my experience.

I've owned over 20 different 1911's. Some I trust implicitly, some I got rid of, and some are fun guns that have their limitations. The oldest is a 1911A1 Sistema from the '50's, that runs flawlessly with ball ammo, and wants nothing to do with hollow points. So it gets ball

Yes I have owned two Glocks. Never kB!'d one, don't ever recall any jams, don't particularly like them. Seems like the 1911's that rattle as much as Glocks tend not to jam, either, and they still shoot better

yup...regular basis.... Go look at the Glock forums...

I have been present for 5 Kabooms including one of my own. Two 19/9mms with no damage (one with reloads and one factory), one 34/9mm with no damage, one 23/.40 that cracked the frame with FACTORY ammo and 20/.45 that blew the frame.

Two of my friends with 23s have had KaBooms both cracked the frames ...

Other than a few my over zealous Super rounds have never had one in a 1911...

...is that regular enough....

Bob

Oh, I understand that this post is likely to go many pages and I've done google searches on 1911's reliable vs glock,etc.

What I like about the 'campfire and keep coming back, is that for the most part the posters here give you the straight scoop without bias. Most of the discussion very civil though spirited and lively.

What is a kaboom with no damage?

The only weakness is incredibly stupid statements such as that.

It could be someone's life work to describe the variations in quality and design across a myriad of manufacturers to describe the '1911'. Folks ignorantly cram the good and the bad, the compact and the full size, the cheap and the expensive, and all manufacturers into one pattern that to them is somehow a "1911". It's as if we could take every polymer pistol ever made anywhere and call it a "17".

Then I could ask without any remote reference to Glock, "What's more reliable, a Colt XSE or a 17?"

That's it, in a nutshell.

I have lost count of the number of different manufacturers of 1911 clones and variants. And even before the 1911 became so popular as to spawn all those versions, there were various manufacturers of 1911 parts.

There is currently only one manufacturer of Glocks.

Therefore, Glock can control the tolerances in all the parts (except for a few aftermarket makers) used to make a Glock. OTOH - with all those various makers of aftermarket 1911 parts and 1911 clones, it would be nearly impossible and highly unlikely to have all of them show working tolerances out of the box. Throw in the modifications that are so popular with end-users and the odds go even lower that they will all work initially or otherwise.

It isn't necessarily a quality of parts issue - so much as a quality of fit and adherence to original specs. The truly amazing thing is even with all that, there are $500 1911's that can and will work perfectly well - and with those that don't, it's usually just a matter of fitting a small part or two (hint - extractor, fps).

So - it could be said that the biggest drawback of the 1911 design is it's popularity.

Case web blows...magazine sometimes comes out but no other detectable damage.

Gun goes right back into service...

FreeMe,

What does "fps" stand for/mean? I seen/heard of few good tests for the 1911's extractor.

JOG, pretty good assessment. Thank you.


Leo

There's the problem with 1911's right there.
It's those little problems that drive you crazy and you have to spend too much time and money to find out what the gun likes.

I've only owned 1 Glock and 4 1911's. 9mm, 3 45acp and 1 38 Super.

None have had issues. Ever - that I remember. That is to say that any issues have been minor.

I have double digit numbers of 1911's (& 5 Glocks too ) & with the exception of the latest addition, (an off-the-shelf, untuned, untouched Ruger which has not been shot enough to demonstrate it's nature) every single last one of them shoots whatever is put into the magazines, any day, every day, all day, assuming it's a load that is strong enough to function the particular setup on that gun.

No ifs, no ands, no buts.

I'm not interested in whether the gun(s) will run 5,000 rounds between cleanings........If any of them are used in a gunfight, the round count might reach double digits, maybe. If it does, I'm going to be wishing for some kind of a long gun.

So if a 1911, (or any other carry gun) can make 100 straight rounds without a hiccup, each & every time its used, it's more than adequate for SD & carrying.

There's a difference between reliability & torture test durability between cleanings.

My 1911's that expect to get carried & potentially get used in any serious social intercourse function are kept clean.......& the ones that aren't 1911's are also kept clean.

But clean is a also a relative word.............all but super, super tight match fitted 1911's will still run with some level of contamination or dirt; granted a Glock will likely tolerate more in an absolute sense. If that spins your prop, don't talk about 1911's; just go get a Glock & live happily ever after, as you likely would not be happy with a 1911 anyway.

So, a PROPERLY built & tuned 1911 doesn't really have any "weaknesses" in that sense but lots of folks with limited experience like to discuss those "weaknesses" anyway.

My guns & their capabilities may not be representative of everyman's 1911's but they demonstrate what a 1911 is capable of being & that's all I really care about. What happens to JackSchitt with his Trimber crappily built, untuned 1911 in bumfuckedEgypt doesn't concern me or alter my thinking one IOTA.

As for the magazine capacity, a 1911 will always have more that a revolver.

MM