As stated I’m new to the 1911 platform and ant to learn more. There is a ton of knowledge here on this forum so I figured this is the place to come. I just got a new S&W E series with a rail in trade from a friend of mine and I love it.
I searched here and did not come up with a lot of information regarding the S&W line of 1911’s so I figured I would let all y’all chime in and tell me about it.
It came with a Streamlight TLR-HL model and I’m looking for a holster that. Any info there would be greatly appreciated.
I had a friend suggest aromrdillo concealment but I have never heard of them before.
My first order of business is to get some ammo and mags and put it through its paces. I’m gonna go with Wilson Combat mags to start. I read flood things on here about those so that’s one less thing I need to figure out.
Any other input would be great about the S&W. I will try and get some pics up here. It’s been a while since I have posted so need to re-learn that process.
Holster? More info needed. Are you looking for outside the waistband or inside? Open carry, concealment or games? Comfort first and speedy draw, or minimized printing? Leather, kydex or hybrid?
Mags? Wilson’s are great, as are McCormack’s and Tripp’s.
Most significant, if you want to dig deep on 1911s in general and S&W’s approach to them specifically, get thee to 1911forum.com and their S&W subforum. Just like you can learn a lot on a variety of firearms at M4C but really it’s a M4 site, same for 1911 Forum.
Copy that. Thanks for the reply. I have been doing a ton of reading on the 1911 platform and the S&W model in particular.
I have read a lot of good things about the S&W and some things that I don’t understand, mostly why the controversy about the external extractor.
I face a different problem now. I got this 1911 in trade from a friend who was not using it and I traded away a Remington 700 .308 I was not using. My problem is I’m very heavily invested in the 9mm and glock platform.
I’m thinking now I may sell/trade the 1911 away for another glock. I just don’t know what to do. I’m trying to get my wife into more handgun shooting and she loves shooting my G17 and G19. I think I want to get her, her own so we can do IDPA together.
I have holsters and plenty of ammo for her to get her feet wet in the IDPA. I think this 1911, even though I love it may be used as a vessel to trade/ sell for the wife.
I recently bought my first 1911 as I wanted to another 45. As an iconic firearm, I feel like everyone should own one at least. I had previously shot cheap 1911’s that friends own and understandably, they left me underwhelmed. A couple of years back I shot a friend’s 9mm STI with tuned mags. That thing is a lot of fun to shoot. The reset on it is ridiculous. So that got me wanting a decent 1911 and I finally got around to it the other week.
However, if trading off gets the wife more into shooting, I say go for it. I would do it if that was all I needed to do to get my wife more involved. You can always pick up a 1911 later on when funds allow.
There are plenty of solid 9mm 1911 offerings out there nowadays between Colt, SA, and DW. Maybe look into one of those. I too agree that a 1911 is a must have, but once I finally get into a 9mm variant, I’d be surprised if I put 200 rounds a year through my .45.
However, if trading off gets the wife more into shooting, I say go for it. I would do it if that was all I needed to do to get my wife more involved. You can always pick up a 1911 later on when funds allow.[/QUOTE]
Well that’s kinda what I was thinking. I know that some of the fun of shooting is the “ownership” of the firearm. My wife has only shot the ones I have bought. She has said before that she wanted to have her own glock so this may be the way to make it happen.
I thought about trading this for a 1911 in 9mm but the hard part is finding someone willing to do the trade and I don’t want to come out of pocket right now because funds are a little tighter than I want. And I have no idea where to start as far as 9mm 1911’s. The only ones I have seen are way out of my budget right now.
Shooting a 1911 is not like shooting a glock. In the words of lav “it’s an enthusiasts gun”. Learn to do a complete disassembly on them. They need to be kept clean and ran wet. Keep several recoil springs on hand along with a tuned extractor. Better yet, learn to tune one yourself. I have two really good 1911s, wonder 9s and anything polymer doesn’t intrigue me at all after seeing what a good running 1911 45acp can do.
Eta, keep extra of every spring on hand, replace your recoil and firing pin springs around 2000b rounds. Buy the best mags you can. I personally won’t run anything other than the wilson lav mags.
I think that shit gets way over hyped. I have 3k through my CRG and it has yet to need any spring replacement. It runs dirty as shit too. At some point, some maintenance will be required, but many people talk like you can’t use a 1911 if you don’t know how to gunsmith it. I’ve never done anything more than field stripped mine.
If it’s an armscor, as loose as they are yeah you can probably get away with it. Something as tight as my Wilson combat, I prefer to completely disassemble it every 1000 rounds, oil everything and KNOW it’s in fighting condition. They ain’t glocks, they take a little bit of tlc.
Have you even checked to see what your current recoil spring length is as compared to a new spring? Springs are cheap insurance from beating frames and slides up. But you run it how you want, makes me no nevermind
Full tear down is worth knowin how to do, and not at all difficult.
External extractor pretty much eliminates need for spare extractor or tuning.
Modern production line guns generally run well and long out of the box. The plethora of mag choices is probably the most likely thing to make it choke, some are junk, some just don’t agree with your gun, test before you heavily invest.
Just because it’ll run doesn’t mean you aren’t needlessly battering your slide with a weakening spring it takes all of $10 to replace. Guys who know and run the 1911 extensively didn’t come up with recommended change intervals to amuse themselves.
My shooting experience goes to long before the Internet era in some serious competition areas and back in the 70’s and 80’s if a gun was running people were ( imo justifiable) reluctant to replace springs or at times even clean them. In this day and age I think the spring change and maintenance thing especially on 1911’s is way over hyped as well. A gun I would have to replace springs in almost monthly in order to trust it to be reliable no thanks. I will break down and replace a recoil spring annually on my high use guns but the effect of this is more psychological than mechanical.
I have tons of guns 60+ years old that have all original parts that are getting along just fine
Picking a quality 1911 like the CRG makes that a lot easier. Still, you’re running a steel on steel gun and the frame doesn’t flex like a polymer gun does. At 3K, recoil spring replacement just makes sense. If you run an Aimpoint Micro on your carbine and the battery will run for 5 years, are you really out all that much to replace it every year?
To the OP, external 1911 extractors are controversial for two reasons. Purists don’t like it and several early makes and models didn’t do them well. S&W did it correctly, so no worries there.
No, but I’m just saying that to a new guy reading a lot of stuff online, many people make it sound like you have to be able to do all kinds of technical shit to enjoy your 1911. My point is that a lot of that is over blown and you don’t need a 100 page manual and all sorts of tools. The recoil spring is also the easiest thing to replace on that gun so my statement was kind of encompassing it if that makes sense.
My first 1911 (i still have it) was a Smith and Wesson Doug Koenig and it has been great but I have replaced springs and cleaned it as necessary. I only use Wilson Combat mags with that being said I have great success with Colts as well with the same recipe of good mags and ammo.
