The ROs have a pretty good reputation.
Cylinder & Slide makes a “no-bite” BHP hammer:
My grip is so high that I’d need a welded up beavertail anyway. Also, the 1911 with thin grips and a bobtail conversion is far flatter and more concealable than the BHP grip. Regardless, My 1st handgun was a BHP purchased new in 1984 when I got out of boot camp. If it was good enough for the SAS, it was good enough for me. Chuck Warner is supposed to be coming out with new HP’s with stainless slides and frames (with checkered frontstraps). I’d love to get my hands on one of those.
The Dan Wesson Guardian in 9mm is still on my short list of pistols I want. I’d go with .38 Super, but the best current gen JHP’s don’t seem to be loaded in Super from the factories. I’d also have to set up to reload another caliber at a time where I’m trying to simplify and streamline my inventory.
This one does: 
I’m really close to putting a deposit down for a semi custom 9mm 1911. It’s definitely not the plug and play solution that most modern guns are, but after shooting a 9mm Range Officer I can’t think of anything bigger than a .22 that is that easy to shoot. Support hand, strong hand, freestyle, slow fire or rapid fire, unless you completely botch the trigger press it’s hard to miss with one of those.
I don’t think it’s for everyone by any means. Spending 4x the cost of a Glock and then having to test out different mags and recoil springs to see what the gun likes even sounds a little ridiculous to me and I’m the one who wants to do this. But if I can get one that will reliably feed good self defense ammo from a 10 round mag, I’ll be a happy man, and that’s worth the extra effort to me.
Well, it is now anyway. I’ve probably cursed myself now and I’ll be back here swearing about it in a year. And if I really screw the pooch here and it bites me in a self defense situation I’ll make sure my obituary gets posted so others can learn from the error my ways.
“A pretty good rep” and A 4" 9mm 1911 for “self denfense”? No thanks
I’ve been thinking of buying a 9mm 1911, but there are other 9mm pistols I’d rather buy first.
But none of those other pistols would then be a 1911…[emoji6]
Love my collection of 1911/2011s in 9mm. A hoot to shoot and reliable.
RO’s are available in 5 and 4 inch.
What mags have you had the most success with? Out of curiosity.
Normally carry the 45. But I have carried 38 super and 9x23 in a 1911. The factory Win 124 gr Silvertip 9x23 clocks an honest 1450 FPS. And the COL is right so it runs great.
9mm in a 1911 is for cheap practice at the range IMO. Better choices out there for carry.
BTW Wilson will build you a 9/38 super “switch” gun if you like. Both 9 and 38 super barrels fitted to the same 1911. Believe it or not they do it on a gun with fixed sights and it shoots both barrels to same POA/POI. Great combo.
Bottom Line: There are better ways than 9mm to launch a .355 projectile from a 1911.
I’ve been using an STI Marauder for the past 7-8 months for ipsc and steel challenge it’s been dead nuts reliable, no joke my favorite gun to shoot. I carry a glock 19 but after shooting this and a friends Wilson Combat 9mm professional I may be a convert, he let me use his WC for a day in class roughly 500± rounds and flawless. According to him all he has done is change his recoil spring every 3-5k rounds and he hasn’t had a single hiccup. Now to be honest I live in CA so I am limited to carrying 10rds if I could I carry more BHP all the way it’s my first pistol and my favorite above all else.
If you’re going to carry 9 mm, why not a Glock 19 or HK VP9? With appropriate training, one can use a G19 as fast and as effective as a 1911 commander in 9 mm. More rounds in the magazine and lower costs.
If you live in a state with magazine capacity restrictions or have physical limitations that prevent you from shooting 45 acp, then I understand a 1911 in 9 mm for conceal carry.
I have carried a few different 1911 in 9mm. My two favorites were a SACS and a DW Custom. I had a DW guardian that was nice as well. All were very reliable with quality mags. Actually the only 9mm 1911 I had that wasn’t reliable was an STI shadow.
IMO modern self defense loadings have made .45 superflous. Might as well carry a 9mm.
Switched to a Glock 19 though. Less maintenence.
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I have two 9mm 1911s both that I carried on duty. The full size one is an STI Duty one 5.0. It is totally reliable with metal form mags, whether it be the 9 rounder that came with it or the 10 rounders that metal form makes. All other brands I have tried make the gun lock up tighter than a mormon girl on prom night. The second one I bought as a back up gun is the cheapest 9mm 1911 STI makes the Spartan 9mm. The differences are the ramped barrel on the full size. So far they have both ran completely reliable with the metal form mags, 115, 124 and 147 grain flat point target ammo. They also ran completely reliable with 147 grain federal hydra-shock tactical (my previously issued duty ammo) and 124 grain +P gold dots (current issued ammo). I shot 100 rounds of each through each pistol with no issues. I have around 1800 of the various sized practice ammo through the smaller pistol and about 2.5-3k through the full size gun.
the next step is a 2011 as much of their bad rep comes from people shooting mags tuned for competition to not lock back. I would not hesitate to go into battle with a 9mm 1911 from a reputable maker.
Also, if you don’t mind a semi custom and a bit of a wait the SACS Warren custom is just under 2k and survived a lot of torture that you can read about over at pistol-training.com…