I’m intrigued by the new 1911 line in the 2011 S&W catalog. The ‘Enhanced Series’ appears to incorporate the Performance Center extractor and a titanium firing pin, doing away with the controversial Swartz safety. I seem to recall Hilton Yam making positive remarks about the PC extractor over at 10-8. While I expect S&W will continue to use their proprietary dovetail for their Novak sights, these changes address some of the major criticisms of the S&W 1911 line (use of MIM parts notwithstanding, as they are pervasive at this price point).
I’m also surprised to see the base ‘E’ series model (which includes front strap checkering) starting at a base MSRP of $919 - which is lower than the standard S&W 1911 offerings. Wonder if that is accurate. They also have a model with rail, melonite finish and night sights. Too bad they seem to all use a full length guide rod, but that is easily corrected.
I’m not too thrilled about the oddly shaped cocking serrations, but this line may bear watching, particularly at this price point.
It is not in stock, but Bud’s is showing the new ‘E’ model stainless for $736. If that PC external extractor proves reliable, these could be a great entry level 1911.
The cover article in the latest issue (March, 2011) of Guns&Ammo covers the E-Series 1911s. While a standard “gun rag” writeup, the article has some decent pics of the new features on these pistols, the various models, a little performance data, etc.
I have owned S&W 1911s since they first hit the market and currently have six. A few exceed 10k rounds and have never had an issue. For the money anyone looking for an entry level way to get into the 1911 game just can’t go wrong with one and the lifetime warranty is pretty nice also.
I hate their looks, don’t like the sights, the checkering is horrific, and to me the grips and the fishscale serrations are :bad: …
Mechanically they are promising, Hilton Yam likes their external extractor and overall quality, and they don’t have the Swartz FP safety, so I hope someday they will make something more traditionally looking.
I had several of these back in 2005-2006, and I didn’t care for them. Two of them had incorrectly timed schwartz safeties that resulted in light primer strikes and in some cases FTFire.
Thats why S&W are now producing the Enhanced Series 1911. I have a S&W 1911 that I removed the Schwartz safety from. Gun shoots great. I’d like to upgrade to the Enhanced Series for the larger improved extractor.
Hilton Yam also commented that the 20lpi checkering was well done for a production gun. The fishscales may not be everyone’s cup"o tea, but they are very functional.
The sights do suck. I havent owned a production gun that I kept the original sights on in over 10 years, so this is really not a big deal to me. They will be immediately replaced with some Heinie “Ledge” tritium sights.
The grips are hideous. Those would go immediately as well.
The FLGR would go as well.
For the price I will definately pic one of these up. I will then send it to Miller or another local competent smith to have the S&W logo’s removed and re-Melonited, Have a Heinie magwell installed, a 10-8 mag release, along with the other listed changes and call it a day.
I don’t know why but I like the look of the railed Smith “E” series that is pictured on Hilton’s site. I am looking forward to hearing about how the “E” series holds up to Hilton beating on it. He is slated to get a demo 1911 soon and hurt its feelings…
As long as they get good reports I’ll likely buy the black TA model. I’ve heard nothing but good about the PC extractor (from people that have actually used it) and these models correct all the other negatives I’ve heard about Smith 1911s except sights. And the sights don’t bother me.
It looks like S&W has discontinued the older models in preparation for the new ‘E’ series. They were virtually absent at a recent gun show and it appears some vendors are closing out the older models. I’ve seen some surprisingly low prices on the older generation SW1911s…here’s an example (I have no affiliation with the seller).