Cheaper 1911s

[alohadoug]

The sights on the AO are traditional 1911 sights (as the OP stated he was looking for) as JMB designed them. Are they modern, adjustable, three-dot? No. They're not intended to be. With a little bit of effort and practice, I find they work pretty well for me (ymmv). Just have to know what you want going in.

Aloha

 

[Knob Creek]

I shot my buddys Auto Ordnance that he got right after Sandy Hook when nothing else was on the shelf. Easily the biggest POS I have ever shot. Jams all the time and the sights are terrible.

I'm gonna go with "You and your buddy have no idea what you are doing". The gun is what it is. No night sights or combat sights. Military sights. And jamming? Usually the fault of the magazine or ammunition instead of the gun. Come see me and see how we do things up town. Take my AO 1911, my reloads and my Wilson mags and you'll wear yourself out before the gun ever jams. And by the way, its a "Big Boy Gun" no limp wrists need apply. Probably part of your problem.

 

[alohadoug]

I'm gonna go with "You and your buddy have no idea what you are doing". The gun is what it is. No night sights or combat sights. Military sights. And jamming? Usually the fault of the magazine or ammunition instead of the gun. Come see me and see how we do things up town. Take my AO 1911, my reloads and my Wilson mags and you'll wear yourself out before the gun ever jams. And by the way, its a "Big Boy Gun" no limp wrists need apply. Probably part of your problem.

Having shot with Knob Creek several times, I second his words. Hell I run mine with cheapest Springfield mags on sale from Midwayusa. Never had a problem with mine.

Now ask us about a buddy's Norinco knock-off... that's a POS.

Aloha

 

[AyeR15]

I'm gonna go with "You and your buddy have no idea what you are doing". The gun is what it is. No night sights or combat sights. Military sights. And jamming? Usually the fault of the magazine or ammunition instead of the gun. Come see me and see how we do things up town. Take my AO 1911, my reloads and my Wilson mags and you'll wear yourself out before the gun ever jams. And by the way, its a "Big Boy Gun" no limp wrists need apply. Probably part of your problem.

I believe what your sayin, but what im saying is he must have a screwed up barrel or a lemon on his hands. I have shot several 1911s with military sights and shoot them damn good too. And I sure as hell don't limp wrist. Ive been around the block a few times. He only had 2 mags so im guessing they came with the gun
I even gave him some of my tried and true reloads I make for my personal use.

 

[RoterTeufel]

I've had my AO for a year or two that I got in a trade from another NESer a ways back.
No Failures.
Trigger is a firm 7# and crisp. No perceivable take-up or creep.

ETA Oh, and their finish appears to be more "grey"

The short front sight kinda pisses me off. Its not the first gun I reach for to go shoot, but I do enjoy it quite a bit. I'm looking for a Commander and an Officer, to fill my lineup.

As original:

 

[Hikes]

I put some bright green paint on the back side of the front sight and it makes it A LOT easier to aim, especially at targets that have black bullseyes. I do not feel that it detracts from the look of the gun.

 

[Upland]

I have the AO 1911 and think its a great value. My only complaint is the mag it comes with is junk,Colt mags work fine in it.
I also got rid of the plastic grips and put on some cheap walnut double diamond grips from SARCO.

 

[Atlas]

Thats a nice deal. How many mags did the RIA come with?
i myself preferred the more WW2 GI looking AO without the big bold "Rock Island" engravings on the slide which I thought detracted from the appearance.

I agree with you about the engravings, however, I recently picked up a RIA and instead of the engraving there is just a small ink type stamp on the back of the slide.

 

[JZ1018]

If you don't want something new, how about considering an Argentine Colt Sistema. These are Colt designed and Colt tooling/machinery just made in Argentina. They are totally interchangeable with Colt parts. I really like mine a lot. Its a sweet shooter and has history without the price.

 

[Cluster F]

This thread is making me want an AO

 

[SKS Ray]

This thread is making me want an AO

This.

The dealer I was considering trading with had one on the table at the last show. If he has one at Marlboro I'll probably work a deal with him for it.

 

[Wildweasel]

I really liked my AO, Only sold it as I need quick cash.

 

[MAGG]

I have a Rock Island that has 100 rounds thru it and no issues...solid gun. I thought i was told they were made from old rail road tracks in the Phillipines.

 

[M60]

Having shot with Knob Creek several times, I second his words. Hell I run mine with cheapest Springfield mags on sale from Midwayusa. Never had a problem with mine.

Now ask us about a buddy's Norinco knock-off... that's a POS.

Aloha

This is to funny. Everybody contradicts everybody here. I have a Norinco that's runs like a Timex watch, came with three dot sights and is factory stock. I had a AO that wouldn't eat 230 gr. hardball from mags that work very well with my other 1911's. For hacking around, woods walking, range plinking and such, the Norinco has been a shining star. I like the Les Baers better though.

- - - Updated - - -

I heard the same thing just yesterday about the Norinco.

 

[browncoat]

If you don't want something new, how about considering an Argentine Colt Sistema. These are Colt designed and Colt tooling/machinery just made in Argentina. They are totally interchangeable with Colt parts. I really like mine a lot. Its a sweet shooter and has history without the price.

The sistemas seem to be more expensive now than they were even fairly recently.

 

[mark056]

This is to funny. Everybody contradicts everybody here. I have a Norinco that's runs like a Timex watch, came with three dot sights and is factory stock. I had a AO that wouldn't eat 230 gr. hardball from mags that work very well with my other 1911's. For hacking around, woods walking, range plinking and such, the Norinco has been a shining star. I like the Les Baers better though.

I'm beginning to believe that you live in some kind of parallel universe and only drop into this one from time to time. You think military sidearms are somehow important and the Army should spend a gazillion dollars on a supermaximum extra killy master blaster pistola, and you caution people 'bout lyin' to the coppers at gun shows, on a Forum that generally despises JBTs and sees any concessions to LE as a form of synchopancy. Now you have some kind of Chinese 1911 that works almost as good as a Les Baer. I'll betcha in your parallel universe NES is full of liberal democrats who live in Cambridge presided over by a Derek who is a transvestite Marxist who shoots a Daisy Red Rider BB Gun

Your post made my day, in another wise cold and uneventful one, thanks. Rep point coming.

 

[browncoat]

I'm beginning to believe that you live in some kind of parallel universe and only drop into this one from time to time. You think military sidearms are somehow important, and you caution people 'bout lyin' to the coppers at gun shows. Now you have some kind of Chinese 1911 that works almost as good as a Les Baer. I'll betcha in your parallel universe NES is full of liberal democrats who live in Cambridge presided over a Derek who is a transvestite Marxist who shoots a Daisy Red Rider BB Gun

Norinco 1911s are no joke, certainly well made, if not always well fitted. There were a bunch of custom 1911 builders who actually preferred working with them when they were common - recently came across an article about them that I can't find now.

 

[mark056]

Norinco 1911s are no joke, certainly well made, if not always well fitted. There were a bunch of custom 1911 builders who actually preferred working with them when they were common - recently came across an article about them that I can't find now.

Never said they were a joke. Hone your critical reading skills bubba. I was around when Norinco was flooding the market with lots of good cheap guns. Their M1A was pretty decent.

 

[browncoat]

Never said they were a joke. Hone your critical reading skills bubba. I was around when Norinco was flooding the market with lots of good cheap guns. Their M1A was pretty decent.

Sorry for being sleepy. Did you really need to get upset over a misread joke?

 

[M60]

I'm beginning to believe that you live in some kind of parallel universe and only drop into this one from time to time. You think military sidearms are somehow important and the Army should spend a gazillion dollars on a supermaximum extra killy master blaster pistola, and you caution people 'bout lyin' to the coppers at gun shows, on a Forum that generally despises JBTs and sees any concessions to LE as a form of synchopancy. Now you have some kind of Chinese 1911 that works almost as good as a Les Baer. I'll betcha in your parallel universe NES is full of liberal democrats who live in Cambridge presided over by a Derek who is a transvestite Marxist who shoots a Daisy Red Rider BB Gun

Your post made my day, in another wise cold and uneventful one, thanks. Rep point coming.

Geez Mark, I'll bet that you are the only person who read my comment and walked away thinking that I compared a Norinco to Les Baer. I said that I like Les Baers better. As for military sidearms are concerned, the best any of us can do is to speak from personal experience, rather than from speculation. Such is the same for me. My life experience has taught me that .45 hardball does the job. As for importance, I can only say that my sidearm was important. Hard to fault that logic for most people, but life experience is teaching me that I can always count on you to try. lol. It's ok with me if the life experience of others with military sidearms causes them to disagree. I have to disagree with you regarding the NES members though. I think that most, not the loudest, that most NES members in general don't have negative issues or thoughts regarding police and I'll bet that if asked by the police if you are carrying a firearm, you yourself would be honest in your answer. You and I will have to get together for plinking sometime. If your nice, I'll even let you test drive the Chinese 1911. lol. Now we both have to apologize to OP for temporarily hijacking his legitimate thread. OP, I applogize for responding to Mark056 on your thread.

 

[mark056]

Geez Mark, I'll bet that you are the only person who read my comment and walked away thinking that I compared a Norinco to Les Baer. I said that I like Les Baers better. As for military sidearms are concerned, the best any of us can do is to speak from personal experience, rather than from speculation. Such is the same for me. My life experience has taught me that .45 hardball does the job. As for importance, I can only say that my sidearm was important. Hard to fault that logic for most people, but life experience is teaching me that I can always count on you to try. lol. It's ok with me if the life experience of others with military sidearms causes them to disagree. I have to disagree with you regarding the NES members though. I think that most, not the loudest, that most NES members in general don't have negative issues or thoughts regarding police and I'll bet that if asked by the police if you are carrying a firearm, you yourself would be honest in your answer. You and I will have to get together for plinking sometime. If your nice, I'll even let you test drive the Chinese 1911. lol. Now we both have to apologize to OP for temporarily hijacking his legitimate thread. OP, I applogize for responding to Mark056 on your thread.

Why do you always take me so seriously ? Of course part of your charm is that you do I hereby applogize (?) to the OP and if I had a Randall, or a parts gun made by Vega, or an AMT Hardballer from the 1970's I'd give it to you free of charge so you would know what a really crappy 1911 is all about.

 

[Mike 53]

Friend at work has the Auto-Ordinance and loves it. No issues.

 

[alohadoug]

Here's another option. Doesn't get released till later in the year.
CZ 1911

Aloha

 

[cfbackrow]

here is a link for a review of most of the budget 1911s that might be helpful. I took it from the auto ord site but its from shootingtimes.com
http://www.auto-ordnance.com/Reviews/ST0214.pdf

 

[FPrice]

here is a link for a review of most of the budget 1911s that might be helpful. I took it from the auto ord site but its from shootingtimes.com
http://www.auto-ordnance.com/Reviews/ST0214.pdf

Interesting test but I do have some comments about their results.

It appears that the winner certainly performed well for everyone but was chosen because of the front sight. The second and third pistols both apparently performed equally as well "but if they had been fitted with fiber-optic front sights, they could very well have tied for first place."

The last place pistol, the ATI FX45 came closer to being the type of pistol the OP wanted while the rest were to varying degrees upgrades of the basic 1911A1. It's breakage (along with it's more basic features) certainly widened the scoring gap between it and the rest of the field. However the breakage is something which could have happened to any of them.

My experiences with my FX45 Commander, which does have a few upgraded features such as a beaver-tail grip safety and higher visibility sights, make me think that my pistol could have done a little better in the comparison.

The author certainly did a good job in gathering seven different pistols and using three different shooters to try to eliminate the individual bias of just one shooter. But having a variety of upgraded features may place more emphasis on these added refinements instead of comparing each pistol with the same basic features.

 

[rocket500]

I had a Rock Island 1911 and it made me sad, even after several trips back to the factory. Ultimately they replaced it with another pistol, which gave me an opportunity to sell the gun to someone else and still claim to be a Christian. That first gun just wouldn't run.

 

[mikelawtown]

I had a Rock Island 1911 and it made me sad, even after several trips back to the factory. Ultimately they replaced it with another pistol, which gave me an opportunity to sell the gun to someone else and still claim to be a Christian. That first gun just wouldn't run.

my R I Tactical 9mm flawless....and under 500

 

[Harpua]

I've had my AO for a year or two that I got in a trade from another NESer a ways back.
No Failures.
Trigger is a firm 7# and crisp. No perceivable take-up or creep.

ETA Oh, and their finish appears to be more "grey"

The short front sight kinda pisses me off. Its not the first gun I reach for to go shoot, but I do enjoy it quite a bit. I'm looking for a Commander and an Officer, to fill my lineup.

As original:

That was mine [sad2]

 

[boiler_eng]

my R I Tactical 9mm flawless....and under 500

Where did you pick that up?

 

[j3ff]

I have the AO 1911A1 and the Tommy Gun. No issues with either. Would buy both again without question.