Posted on 12/23/2010 5:29:16 AM PST by marktwain
I have said it before and I will end up saying it again: the 1911 an old design that is more trouble than it is worth. I don’t say it to be confrontational, or to draw attention to myself. I say it because I see my fellow shooters mindlessly parroting the gun equivalent of Chuck Norris Facts whenever the 1911 comes up in conversation, and I just don’t get it.
I am not surprised that the 1911 is out of place in today’s world, and you shouldn’t be surprised either. What other 100-year old design is still in daily use?
In the comment section of another blog, I summarized my skepticism of the 1911′s attributes thusly:
It’s a 100-year old design. It needs tools to disassemble. It has unreliable magazines. It is finicky about ammo. And, as a single-action pistol, it is unsafe for 95% of its users to carry.
In my original complaint, I forgot to mention the issue with slide-stop failures, and the whole internal extractor/external extractor situation. Either of which would be serious enough to kill any other design’s reputation in the shooting world.
In response to some knee-jerk defenses of the 1911 from fanboys who drank too much John M. Browning Kool-Aid, who told me how all that I needed to do was buy a bunch of aftermarket parts and send the gun to a gunsmith, I added:
Why does a reliable 1911 cost so much, and need so much gunsmithing?
To be fair, I have some of the same complaints with the Walther PPK. Which is also a very old design, one which has been eclipsed by more modern designs which can do everything it does better.
I mean, is it unreasonable to expect an affordably-priced pistol for defense to reliably feed hollowpoints out of the box? What Smith&Wesson pistol of recent manufacture won’t feed hollowpoints? What about Glock? SiG? Beretta? (I know Kahrs need to have some rounds through them before they are reliable, but it says that right in the owners manual). The shooting public would not accept an unreliable gun of a more modern design. But for some reason, the 1911 gets a pass for all of its flaws. “Just use hardball” is not a valid defense of the 1911 design, nor is it a valid strategy for selecting ammunition to defend yourself.
And God help anyone who buys a used 1911. Everyone and their brother seems to think they are qualified to take a Dremel to their 1911. Guys who can’t change their own flat tire somehow have no reservations about playing doctor on their 1911. Who knows what wacky “custom” parts have been put into the gun because someone read about it on the interweb tubes?
It was the best military sidearm of its day, and for a long time afterward. I do not dispute that. But its time has long passed. And a military sidearm is not the same thing as a handgun for personal defense.
Leave aside the lack of reliability with hollowpoints, and the other problems. The 1911 is too big to conceal. And the smaller versions are less reliable due to the shorter slide-travel and a tendency to limp-wrist the gun.
Some people protest by saying that the 1911 is the best gun for defense, because the most “realistic” shooting sports are heavily populated with 1911 users. And everyone knows that you should train like you fight, so that you will fight like you train, right? Well, that would be a more convincing argument if those “realistic” shooting sports didn’t have intricate rules that somehow disqualify most non-1911 designs. Purely by coincidence, right? Sure, they come up with semi-plausible rationales for some of those rules, but there is no way to disguise the overall bias towards the 1911.
I don’t hate 1911 fans. I merely pity them, because they are victims of marketing hype and groupthink, the lemmings of the gun world. And if someone sinks thousands of dollars into a 1911 (and isn’t using it to compete for money), well they are just gullible. Like the kind of people who pay money for tapwater in a bottle.
So what if Jeff Cooper liked the only handgun in use when he was in the military? It’s not like he had a choice of other handguns to use. And, on a related note, Jeff Cooper has a reputation that exceeds his accomplishments. The best information that I can find shows that he spent the battle of Guadalcanal as the training officer on Gen. Vandegrift’s staff. Not leading a platoon. Not on the line, pulling a trigger. And his coy evasions when asked about his real-world experience with gunfighting are revealing, if one cares to view them objectively. (If you have documentation about Cooper’s real-world experience, please drop me a line. I am happy to revise my opinion.) I have no doubt that he was qualified to teach people how to shoot on a range. Beyond that, a grain of salt is required. I prefer to get my advice on defense & gunfighting from men who have actually been there & done that; Massad Ayoob, Jim Cirillo, etc. Am I a qualifications snob? No, I am an results snob.
Ok, got it out of my system.
Except for the sinuses, the double recurved back, the appendix, the "wisdom" teeth, the nifty way a gall stone can block the duct and make the pancreas explode (far more painful than it sounds), the clever way all the utilities are in front of the retina, the way food and air paths cross creating a choke hazard, kidneys that drain from the middle instead of the bottoms giving a stagnant pool for stones to develop...
Also the Browning Auto 5 shotgun (1903). I have one from 1914 and it chugs along just fine.
Never mind S&W and Colt revolvers.
A huge number of SXS shotguns with the Anson and Deeley boxlock design from the 1880’s.
H&R single-shot shotguns haven’t changed much since the late 1800s either.
http://www.frfrogspad.com/jmb.htm
See the Gospel according to John Moses Browning. He got it right the first time. Reliabilty has suffered because to many have mucked with it. It was never intended to be a target gun, but a reliable battle weapon.
All true points, from an engineering viewpoint.
Of course, no one has built a better one yet.
Same as the 1911A1.
Yeah, and it needs to be updated badly.
HK USPs, Glocks, and Springfield Armory XDs come to mind.
That is what the little hook on the sear spring is for. At least on the original version. Kimber uses a hex key for the task. The only design flaw on my Pro Carry. Replaced it with an old school version.
You would want an FN Five seveN to go to war with?
Pray tell, why?
Yes, they are both “good enough” to serve their intended purposes. (Still, it would be nice to see IR and UV, hear like a bat, scent as well as a dog...)
That was the farm shotgun when I was a kid. That thing got knocked around for 60 years and still worked everytime. Many a dead rabbit and pheasant in the wake of that gun; lots of good eating. ;-)
Don’t much care what the experts say about it. I’ve used the 1911A1 for the past 40 years or so, and never had any sort of incident that caused me to question its design, utility, or durability. It can be field stripped in less than 30 seconds, easily cleaned, and reassembled quickly. The argument about faulty magazines has been around since the weapon was first issued. I don’t put much stock in it, and use a variety of magazines in mine, although I do like the Chip McCormick Shooting Star mags, for that extra round.
Customizing? Sure, why not? Shooters customize all manner of firearms, and the 1911 lends well to that process.
My current 1911’s are set up for my shooting needs, and they easily consume a wide variety of ammo from hardball to hollow points with no issues.
Always love reading about firearms, though...even when I don’t agree with the writer.
MarkTwain, keep up the good work. I always look forward to reading your posts.
Merry Christmas, FReepers everywhere!
LLS
I just went out shooting with my brother. He brought his model 44 and I my model 91/30.
We used up a whole spam can (440 rounds) and my shoulder wasn’t sore at all but I could not wipe the grin off my face for a couple of days.
This should be good...
In what specific areas is that weapon deficient?
Those that do not like them do not know how to shoot them... and do not know how to make them shoot.
LLS
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