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Mass resident Looking to Buy 1911
- Thread starter bigdog
- Start date
A fellow at my club showed me his basic S&W 1911 the other day. It looked pretty well finished. The match between the slide and the frame at the rear was quite good. Barrel lock was very, very solid -- not a bit of movement. And the trigger was excellent right out of the box. I'm not a fan of Novak sites, but that is both personal taste and easily fixed. I'm also not a big fan of the Swartz-style firing-pin safety used on the S&W. That said, it seemed to be a pretty nice gun.
SIGs early GSRs were a mess. I think they're better now, but I don't have any direct experience. SIG uses the Series 80 style firing pin safety, which I think is more reliable than the Swartz-style safety. The downside of the Series 80 style firing pin safety is that it is harder to get a good trigger feel. Unfortunately, SIG uses a proprietary slide profile. That makes it look more like a P-Series SIG, but it also means that it won't fit in many standard 1911 Kydex holsters.
On balance, I'd probably go with the S&W.
SIGs early GSRs were a mess. I think they're better now, but I don't have any direct experience. SIG uses the Series 80 style firing pin safety, which I think is more reliable than the Swartz-style safety. The downside of the Series 80 style firing pin safety is that it is harder to get a good trigger feel. Unfortunately, SIG uses a proprietary slide profile. That makes it look more like a P-Series SIG, but it also means that it won't fit in many standard 1911 Kydex holsters.
On balance, I'd probably go with the S&W.
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I've got a smith 1911 - between the two I'd go smith, but thats me - both are very nice pistols.
And being the 1911 platform - you can find plenty of after market parts and doo-dads to dress it out as you see fit. (you can always do away with the Swartz and series 80 safeties of you were so inclined)
And being the 1911 platform - you can find plenty of after market parts and doo-dads to dress it out as you see fit. (you can always do away with the Swartz and series 80 safeties of you were so inclined)
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I had heard that, but couldn't verify. Duly noted. That may take Sig 1911s of my list then.
Um, well, I'd say that the S&W is just as proprietary, if not more so.
The only thing on the SIG that is proprietary, as far as I know, is the slide profile, otherwise it is a standard Series 80 design, is it not? In contrast, the S&W has 1) the Swartz style firing pin safety and 2) the external extractor.
While I would still go with the S&W, don't kid yourself that it is a standard Series-70 style 1911 -- it ain't.
![[grin]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/041.gif "Grin [grin]")
45collector
NES Member
I vote...
An old Colt. I always vote that though. Frankly I'm sick of hearing myself say it.
An old Colt. I always vote that though. Frankly I'm sick of hearing myself say it.
I would opt for the S&W product - great customer service shopuld you need it. I do remember that Sig had a number of quality issues with their early 1911's and based on personnal expereince their customer service is horrible.
stoneypete
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I vote...
An old Colt. I always vote that though. Frankly I'm sick of hearing myself say it.
So am I. You keep encouraging people to buy the old Colts when I want to buy all the old Colts.
As for the OP. The two S&W 1911's I've fired were fine firearms. I won't buy one because of the external extractor, but that just a personal aesthetic 1911 thing with me.
