Why you should own a 1911 pistol

• What is a 1911?
• History lesson that still applies.
• Reasons to NOT want a 1911.
• Weight is a bad thing, weight is a good thing.
• 1911 sizes and calibers.
• Striker-fired modern designs versus hammer-fired 1911s
• Cocked and locked.
• 9mm versus 45ACP including the over-penetration problem.
• Which round does the job - stopping an assailant.
• Final note.

First, you should know what a 1911 pistol “is,” and part of that is a little historical background. You may recall that in the Spanish-American war we took possession of the Philippen Islands. At the turn of the century there was a Philippine rebellion with Muslim rebels based in the jungles. At the time our military stationed there were armed with .38 Long Colt caliber revolvers. The rebels would get drugged up and attack our Army like crazy men (drug-crazy) and could take numerous .38 rounds before being stopped. The Army, in retrospect of course, determined the .38 was not a “man-stopping” round and sought a replacement round and sidearm that would fire it. Along came that famous firearm designer John Moses Browning (and if you didn’t know, he designed some of the longest used firearms by militaries and police forces the world over) who designed a .45ACP caliber pistol round and a semi-automatic firearm (no serious handgun is designed as an automatic as it would be completely uncontrollable). Semi-Automatic means energy from the fired round is used to load and cock the firearm in preparation for you to make the next shot. As an aside, some early Semi-Automatic firearms were labeled as “Automatic” by manufacturers – typically shotguns, meaning they automatically loaded the next round. But they are NOT true Automatics but Semi-Automatics. An Automatic (in modern parlance) means the weapon will continue to spit out bullets as long as you hold the trigger down. Semi-Automatics do everything EXCEPT fire a round. You only get ONE bullet spitting out for each time you pull the trigger. One trigger pull, one bullet. Automatics, one trigger pull and a continuous stream of bullets until the trigger is released or the magazine is empty.

Browning spent several years developing the .45ACP shooting pistol before in its final form it was adopted by our military and given the designation “1911” for the year it was accepted as our military’s sidearm. It remained our militaries firearm from 1911 until it was replaced (and some would argue foolishly replaced) by the lesser powered 9mm Beretta designated the M9 in starting in 1985. The 1911 was our sidearm for 74 years. Pretty good track record! Not only that but our Special Forces are allowed to individually chose their sidearms and many of them STILL choose the 1911 over all the other revolvers and pistols out there.

Why should you own a 1911? First, why NOT own one – the cons. It is heavy. By design it cannot be a true polymer (plastic) framed pistol, although aluminum framed 1911s have been available for many years, reducing the weight. (Note there are a couple of manufacturers who have made partial-polymer 1911s but nothing like what you typically see in smaller caliber handguns) Second, it is a large frame pistol making it harder than smaller pistols to conceal. And it shoots the .45ACP cartridge which has a greater perceived recoil than smaller rounds, and because the cartridge is so fat (slightly smaller than ½” diameter), the magazine capacity isn’t as large as, for instance, some 9mms. Last, if you want the newest design firearm this one certainly isn’t it.

So why SHOULD you own, carry, and shoot a 1911? Weight is not necessarily a bad thing in shooting. The heavier a firearm is the less the perceived recoil and the quicker you can get back on target after shooting. Competition shooters ONLY use large frame firearms regardless of the caliber they select. Heavier weight is a positive for shooting but is negative for carrying. Lugging a full sized pistol of any caliber around all day gets old quick. That being the case, are there reasons to lug that boat anchor around that make it worth the trouble?

Actually three – now five sizes of 1911s available. There is the oversized 6” barreled 1911 used for competition. There is the 5” government model the same length as used for 74 years by our military. Then there are the Commander and Officer’s 1911s that are each smaller in size and most recently several manufacturers wanting to bring the 1911 into the concealed carry market have produced what might be called a micro 1911. Not only that but there are even two manufacturers who produce “double-stack” 1911 frames that are reduced weight pistols that hold nearly twice the number of .45ACP rounds as a standard 1911. Plus, if you don’t want the .45ACP you have a wide selection of choices of calibers that have been produced in 1911 style pistols including 9mm and even .22s. Too, there are things we can do to modify your 1911, even a full-sized model, to make it easier to conceal.

And there are even better reasons to shoot and carry a 1911 than these. It is one of the only pistols that have a trigger that is pulled straight back, parallel with the slide. In other words, when you pull the trigger the whole trigger moves straight back. Most trigger systems are curved. When you pull the trigger, the trigger rotates about its pivot point and that necessarily means your finger moves down then up with the trigger as it pivots. This makes it more difficult to be consistent with your trigger pull. Further, it means the trigger pull weight is not consistent through the travel of the trigger. On the 1911 the trigger moves straight back and the pull weight is consistent throughout. Further, because of the design of the fire control mechanism creep, the take-up before the trigger starts to do anything and the overtravel, the distance the trigger travels after the shot fires, are minimal. If you’ve ever shot a Glock you know you have to pull the trigger ¾ of an inch or more before you actually engage the sear – the part that has to be released to cause the firearm to fire. Speaking of which, there are hardly Any fire control systems that are as clean and crisp to fire as a well-adjusted 1911 – and once set, it is consistent and a good gunsmith can reduce its pull weight well below anything that can be done with modern striker fired pistols. And there’s at least one more reason for owning a 1911.

Practically all the newer firearms are striker-fired firearms. They have no “hammer.” A 1911 is a hammer-fired firearm. You might not know it, but you want a hammer! Striker fired pistols are usually double-action only pistols. That means you cock the firearm by pulling the trigger, which “sets” the striker and as you continue to pull at some point, after a long pull of a heavy trigger, the spring of the striker will have been pulled back far enough such that the striker is released and the firearm fires. There are variations but this describes the bulk of the polymer firearms available these days and certainly all the new designs. Manufacturers like them because they are less expensive to make than hammer fired firearms. There are at least two advantages to hammer fired firearms (excepting concealed hammer firearms).

First, if you keep a round in the chamber of your 1911 and are not comfortable with keeping the hammer cocked and safety “on,” you can leave the round in the chamber with the hammer in the down position. Need to fire, pull the hammer back. It’s WAY easier to pull a hammer back than to pull a slide back to load a round! Second, if you pull the trigger and the 1911 doesn’t go “bang” because of bad ammo or whatever, you can always pull the hammer back and try again. With almost all striker fired firearms a second attempt isn’t possible – you must rack the slide and eject the round in order to try to fire again.

One last reason to carry the 1911. Much has been made of the ballistics of current 9mm rounds. It is true that 9mm rounds have been substantially improved over the years, and it travels about a third faster than a .45ACP. However, because the .45ACP is so much heavier than 9mm it carries more energy and deposits more energy. Also, because the diameter of the round is so much smaller than a .45ACP, 1/2 the diameter, most of the 9mm energy is wasted. Modern rounds called defensive rounds will pass right through a human being – and that presents two problems. First, let’s say you hit the assailant. Chances are extremely good the round passes through him/her. What’s behind them that is going to be hit? If you are really lucky and there are more than one assailant, you got two-for-one. If it’s a wall in your house it will pass right through (actually several) and hit whoever is on the other side – your spouse, kids, dog, cat, car, whatever. This is the over-penetration problem. Both 9mm and .45ACP will over penetrate but because the .45ACP is so much larger and travels so much slower there is less of a penetration problem with it than 9mm. Until that round hits something substantial - brick, block, a stud or two (those pieces of wood holding your walls up), it will keep traveling until it does.

Oh, and guess what? Good thing you have all those extra 9mm rounds as you may well need them. If the round passes through the person, only a small part of the energy is deposited within the assailant. We are back to the problem the Army experienced in the Philippians. You want that nearly ½ inch chunk of lead the Army use for 74 years. If you hit your assailant with that .45ACP round ALL the energy is deposited in the one assailant. They ARE going down. Either you “spray and pray” with a 9mm, necessarily having to get more than one hit in your assailant to take them down, unless you are really lucky, or you hit them one time with your .45ACP and call it a day! Even if you hit them in an arm or leg, that appendage will be broken and shattered, slowing your assailant down so much you have plenty of time to accurately place a second shot. Believe me, you NEED to stop them, and fast; and with the first shot. The FBI statistics show that an assailant 20 yards away from you will still get to you in less than 15 seconds. And a shot to the heart leaves the assailant a minimum of another 15 seconds to several minutes before they die. How fast can you get your firearm out of its holster, make it ready to fire, and get on target? How many shots do you think you can get off after doing all this before the assailant is on top of you and/or your love ones? These are the most critical reasons you WANT a 1911 – and in the round it was designed for - .45ACP. You WANT your assailant to go down with one shot and not several. You don’t want over penetration that might well cause you to inadvertently kill your neighbor’s kid - or your own.

One more thing that is tangentially related. If you can only get one firearm, make it a 1911. You can’t go wrong there. However, if you can afford at least two firearms then purchase a small framed 1911 in .45ACP for your carry firearm and a 12-gauge short barreled shotgun with a pistol grip stock for home defense. Why? It goes back to over penetration. While a 12 gage will over penetrate, it will do so less than a pistol round.