A Flock of Red Herrings

Or something of the sort...I note I'm already being accused of whoring for a gun that hasn't yet been released and about which I've said nothing. Well, there you are!

I thought, however, it might be a good time to re-mention Michael's Universal Law of 1911s, to wit, when evaluating 1911s there tends to be an equivalency of quality across price levels. A $1000 1911 is pretty much the same across the various brands. Brand A might throw in a little benny here or there, but they have to take away something else to make the gun come in at a specific MSRP.

That said, in general the quality of 1911s right now tends to be across-the-board excellent, especially on the low end. I've written about the Remington R1, the Taurus PT1911, the Para GI Expert, the lowest of the low-priced Rock Island Armory, the STI Spartan and am passingly familiar with the Springfield Mil-Spec (I've had them before; the only one I have now is the base gun of a Heinie Custom). All of these guns are on the lower end of the price scale for 1911s, and I would have killed for any one of these guns back in 1978, when we were doing build-it-yourself kits with non-functional Colts.

There are indeed things I don't like about each one of those guns, but consider the price. I just got the Taurus back from Cylinder & Slide, where Bill Laughridge wanted to do a comprehensive hardness testing of the various parts (all good except for the MIM parts). Bill did some work on the Taurus to my spec, essentially fitting a new drop-in barrel and bushing, replacing the fire control system, and replacing the MIm safety and a couple of other MIM parts. The Taurus is now an excellent, not-hugely-expensive gun, semicustom gun (which is not a bad way to go with 1911s...start on an inexpensive commodity gun and build to your spec without going completely Brownell's catalog crazy).

I don't have huge feelings about which is best for frames and slides, forged, cast or CNC-machined from bar stock. If done correctly, all produce quality guns. I don't even have it in for MIM (metal injection molding) parts...I just don't think MIM is the appropriate technology for certain applications such as the thumb safety. I have seen lots of MIM'ed thumb safeties break. You want to MIM the mag release or even the hammer, cool.

On the higher dollar Colt Rail Gun I bought recently and left with Cory Trapp at the Gunsite Gunsmithy, all I said was clean up the trigger, fit Novak sights, ditch the ambi safety and the full-length guide rod and knock the sharp edges off it...not very much, and nothing that I couldn't absolutely live without.

I do think major companies have something of an advantage over smaller houses because with modern equipment they can make most,if not all, of their own small parts, which gives them direct control over the quality of those parts. When you sources parts, it is sometimes a crap shoot (I have seen this over and over again in the Real World).

The biggest issue I have on 1911s are people who insist on comparing apples to Chevy Volts...you've all read it, "I don't care what you say! My $4500 Nighthawk is better than a $389 Rock Island Armory!" Well, duh!