So, why a 1911?
You know, there was a time I asked that same question. I was young, and I had seen WAY too many movies where the action guys carried the hi-caps like the Beretta 92-F ( Hell, Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon 1 probably doubled their US sales numbers ). Then John McClane was shooting bad guys left in right in Die Hard.
When the FBI went to the Sig P-228 in .40cal was about the time I was old enough to buy my first handgun. The Beretta was out with their model 96, in .40 cal, at the time as well.
The .40 cal was THE hot round at the time. The supposed stopping power of the .45 AND the hi-cap ability of the 9mm. I mean, C’mon! How could all those law enforcement units, the FBI and all that hot press be wrong?!
I bought a brand new Sig P-229, in .40 cal, and I practiced with it, I carried it, I THOUGHT it was the perfect gun. That gun served me well. I never had any problems. I had a trigger job done, I added night sights, I changed out the barrel for a drop in one that was about ½” longer, Magna-ported, and tight chambered for better accuracy.
A few years later I started working with a guy, Nick B, who was a former sniper in Vietnam. The guy had actually met, face to face, Chuck Mahwhinney and Roy Chandler. I had always been interested in sniping and long range shooting, so we spent many, MANY hours talking field conditions, rounds, stalking, everything involved with “the hunt”
We used to go shooting a lot too. Pistol shooting was convenient; the town we were working in had an indoor range less than 10 minutes from the office. Twice a week we would go sometimes.
Nick used to shoot IPSC, and as such he had a nice 1911. We used to bet, tightest 3 round group, tightest full mag, headshot-hostage target at 50 feet indoors. The guy used to kick my ***. And he did it A lot.
So, one range session Nick breaks out (2) 1911’s. One was his custom and one was a standard Colt. He “made” me put 50 rounds through it, with him watching over my shoulder and showing/explaining a few things. Then he loaded two mags, one with 9 rounds for my Sig and one with 8+1 for the Colt. Then he said to shoot two targets at 15 yards. If my Sig group was tighter, he would give me $100, which he laid on the shooting table, and if the Colt group was tighter, I had to do some research on the 1911; it’s creator and give him a “book report” of what I thought of the weapon.
A few weeks later I had read all about John Browning, I had read the reports of guys like Les Baer, Dave Lauck and the fact that many, many Texas Rangers still used the weapon even though their were “allowed” to carry other, higher capacity weapons. I learned that FBI HRT Team members were each issued (2) 1911 pistols that were created for them, by the Master Armorers of the FBI when they were issued their first patch. I learned that Delta Operators also carried 1911’s – of which they had the right to choose anything they wanted. I read Eric Lee Haney’s accounts, a Plank Holder in DELTA, on how the 1911 was THE pistol to own and how no matter where he was in the world, he could tell another Operator when he met one by the callous’ they developed from years of shooting the 1911.
I ordered my first 1911 about 3 weeks after finishing Haney’s book. I have never carried another weapon since receiving my 1911.
I now have 6 of them. And I have shot, probably, close to 50 other models. I have yet, since that day of “awakening”, been able to figure out why anyone WOULDN’T love a 1911.
It is, hands down, the finest pistol design to ever grace the planet. Every modern auto loading pistol has a lineage that can be traced back to John Browning’s initial design.
If you don’t at least give yourself a chance to shoot a good one, and experience the mastery that is the 1911, then it’s something that just can’t be explained by someone on the internetz I am afraid….
JD
