Y’all might’ve noticed I’ve been out of circulation for a while, but things have been busy around the old homestead, and I’m getting caught up at last.
I’ve been surfing the vast intellectual wasteland known as the Interwebz for some years now, and a very common theme I’m seeing is related to one of my favorite handguns, the venerable, much-maligned and long-suffering 1911.
“Here we go again…”
I’ve been carrying one sort of 1911 or another for more years than I care to admit. My first representative sample of the type was a brand new Norinco M1911-A1 that I got as soon as I turned 21, for the kingly sum of $289.99 plus tax. Considering how expensive and hard to find Colt 1911s were back in the early 90s, this was a real blockbuster of a deal for a kid working in a factory.
Once I got my greedy hands on it, I immediately took it to the range, where I blasted untold numbers of rounds out of it, using ammo that would now be worth five times what it cost back then. I had exactly one malfunction that I clearly recall:
I had gone to a local gun show, where I saw some super cheap 15 round single-stack 1911 magazines in a box full of random mags, and decided to try one out. I loaded this cheap, five-dollar hunk of sheet metal full of sweet brass cased .45 ACP and prepared to unleash a torrent of fire on the targets I’d set up earlier. I fired one regular capacity mag, then switched to the 15 round abomination, hit the slide release, fired two rounds, then the Norinco’s slide locked to the rear and all the remaining rounds vomited out of the open ejection port, followed by the follower and spring.
“Oof…”
I stood there for a moment or two in mild disappointment, looking down in the sand, where 13 rounds of .45 ACP glittered in the hot sun, and then I ejected the remains of the cheap 15 round magazine and threw it in the trashcan where it belonged.
Switching back to the factory Norinco magazines, I continued to shoot unimpeded for the rest of my range day, and for many others down the road until I very stupidly sold that excellent pistol some years later.
In all that time, I had shot tons of cheap, crappy and sometimes very dirty ammo through that Chinese knockoff of America’s most famous service sidearm, and never did I have any of the malfunctions and problems I constantly hear about today. Mainly because I didn’t use any more cheap, spot welded junk mags, but I digress…
I suppose I was lucky enough to snag a really good one in that particular pistol…or maybe the 1911 isn’t as bad a handgun as modern-day Internet experts make it out to be?
I believe the latter.
Since my early days as a gun collector and shooting enthusiast, I’ve owned, collected and shot a ton of different handguns, carried most everything that was commonly available, and always find myself coming back to a 1911 of some kind.
I know, I know…they’re ancient technology, obsolete, low-capacity, hard to shoot, unreliable and all that…but are they really that bad, or is the folklore stronger than the reality?
Just by way of example, A lot of guys are buying up the 1911s available through the Civilian Marksmanship Program as valuable collector pieces, and from what I’ve heard from angry veterans and other noted experts on the subject, all these pieces should be “worn out rattletraps that couldn’t hit the side of a barn.” If the popularly accepted truth was true, these pistols should be just about deadlined, worn beyond serviceable limits and unusable for any purpose other than collecting, but the ones I’ve seen personally don’t look (or shoot) like junk at all.
In fact, the ones I’ve seen look about as good as what one would find in collector firearm shops or gun show tables, and some look even better. By the glowing reports of the owners, they shoot pretty well, too, which brings me round and about to my point:
Don’t believe the hype. Given a reasonably well-made firearm in good, serviceable condition, which most (non-abused) 1911s certainly are, the average shooter should get a lifetime’s worth of trouble-free fun out of these guns.
They may not be the latest 18 round pocket rocket with flat dark earth all over them and red dots hung from one end to the other, but the 1911s I have owned and seen for sale are every bit as good as any other type or brand of pistol out there, and I don’t feel under-gunned at all when I carry mine.
Utility depends on the user’s ability to get the most out of his tools, after all, and anyone who trains regularly can truly get the most out of any handgun, even the “horrible” 1911.
I can almost hear the sneers of “okay, boomer” resounding from every corner of the web, but the fact remains that you can do pretty well with any handgun you’re familiar and comfortable with, and that you can consequently shoot well.
Many of us choose the old reliable 1911 for many reasons, nostalgia being a big part of it, but also for an unbeatable stock trigger that, with a little work, may never be equaled by that of a striker-fired polymer gun.
As always, I believe a shooter is best served by any handgun with which he or she is comfortable, and is able to shoot well without discomfort or undue amounts of effort. Whether it be a revolver, polymer framed striker or DA/SA, or even a big ol’ steel framed hunka 1911, the bottom line is, get out there, shoot with it and always be practicing like your life depends on it.
The Harmony of the Pen and the Sword 