[FearTheCats]

kgoerz:

If you haven't sent your Kimber back to Kimber already, may I suggest what has worked for me--(1) take it up to Shooters Pawn on Bragg Boulevard this evening and have Greg the Gunsmith tension the extractor properly, and (2) get Chip McCormick mags, rip the innards out, and replace with Tripp Industries springs and followers. I have had zero failures with my Springfield TRP since doing this.

Team Sergeant:

You're right that autoloading pistols have made progress in the last 95 years. 1911s are for gun nuts only, and gun nuts who have enough money and sense to do maintenance and replace parts. I trust mine enough to carry it on duty above all other choices. Our department's standard issue is SIG P220 which is wonderful except that when somebody takes it from you, they shoot you with it if they want to (and we did have a subject take away a deputy's 220 last year, but he didn't totally want to shoot the deputy, just ran away). If somebody gets my 1911 away from me, it MIGHT take them a couple seconds to figure out the thumb safety, which MIGHT give me enough time to take countermeasures. That, and the first-shot accuracy, tip the balance for me.

My off-duty is ye olde M9, just like GI except it has night sights. It also rides on-safe. I know a lot of people hate this gun but mine has never even thought about jamming, I can hit with it, and it conceals a little more easily IWB than a 1911. Also, since I didn't sign the Hague Convention, I fill it up with 147gr hollowpoints. I shoot both a Sams M9 Brigadier and an accurized 1911 (not an A1, a 1911 made in 1918) in bullseye competition. They both have big blocky Bo-Mar match sights with sharp corners that make IWB carry painful and interfere with duty holster straps; otherwise, they're good to go.

My theory about the difference between the reputation and reality of the 1911, and it's not a new theory, is that in the World Wars, the Fedril Gummint supervised QC at all contractors and everybody made parts correctly. Nowadays, 1911s are hit-or-miss because in a capitalist world, gunmakers only have to build something that will fly off the shelves, and then function for the 200 rounds that most people shoot their guns. It's true that for many people, nothing fits their hand like a 1911 and nothing is as easy to hit with as a 1911, but unless you are prepared to take care of a temperamental design, go get something much newer and learn to hit with it.