.45 Shopping

Ghoul,

The S&W 1911PD Scandium is the shit....Smooth like melted buttah.
A long time ago I wrote a range review of it over at OT.
It comes in full size/GI 5" and a Commander 4". The prices aren't bad at street rates and they shoot swell.
Even as it's light in weight S&W uses a recoil spring that seems to me to just soak up alot of the recoil and then the frame itself feels kind of numb upon firing. The recoil impulse is noticeably attenuated for a 1911.
The guys at S&W say that they can't keep them in stock or make enough as folks going to or coming back from and due to go back to Iraq along with contractors too have been sucking them up as fast as they can make them.
If I were to buy another 1911 the S&W PD would be strongly considered aside from a non-railed commander sized Sig GSR in Nitron.

BTW I sent my GSR off the same day as the SA for review and cleaning.
I had developed an issue where it was not absolutely consistently extracting rounds. At first once or twice in maybe a box of ammo to the point where I was noticing it and thought to myself this gun is no longer street worthy, even though I rarely carry it due to it's weight.
So anyway I send it off and it comes back last week two days after they received it. I wrote the smith a long letter explaining my records toward shooting it and attempts to diagnose the issue myself. I figured it was the extractor need tuning.
The return packing slip had the report of the assigned gunsmith, 'Al', and it stated he replaced the extractor with an "updated heavy duty" unit, the hammer was swapped out (my old one had a very slight lean where as this one is dead center, the grip safety was replaced (nothing was wrong with the old one), he replaced the recoil spring (I was planning to order a new one from Wolff), the recoil spring cap, cleaned it, relubed it, test fired it, and did all this in just one day turn around time(!).
So i open the box upon it's return and without even looking at the packing slip it immediately appeared to me to be a new gun. Super shiny and clean and smelling like TW-25 which I love. Oh, and he retightened the grip panel bushings too as one had worked it's way loose. The gun is like 5 yrs. old with alot of rounds through it, ~ 5-6K.
Sig has done me well thus far too with it's warranty which like SA is also lifetime and transferrable. I'm thinking to send the Colt off soon to have it checked as well as the ejector on it has worked itself loose to a point that I can easily wiggle it by hand and although it ejects shells fine when I manually eject a round the round drops down through the frame at the grip as opposed to throwing it up and away like it should/normal. I also plan to ask them to dove tail the front of the slide toward installing XS sights on it.
We'll see how they treat me and if they can match or even exceed that of my experiences with Sig and SA who both in my book of experiences have been top tier all around quality.

- Janq

The 1911PD line can be found here; http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/...ING&attributeValueOperator1=EQUAL&isFirearm=Y

The Sig I would entertain is the 'Revolution RCS Nitron'...

http://www.sigsauer.com/Products/ShowCatalogProductDetails.aspx?categoryid=25&productid=135

- Janq

I love my Glock 21 so much that I'm getting a second one pretty soon here. I've tried MANY .45's, but the one that suits me best is the G21, by far.

The XD-45 is a great pistol, but the grip angle sort of throws me off as I am used to the Glock grip angle and the XD has a 1911 grip. Other than that, it is almost as reliable as the Glock and has some added safety features if that's your thing.


The Sig P220 is a GREAT pistol. It's by far my favorite Sig ever made. I'd own one if I didn't have other priorities right now (like the G21 duplicate)... The downside is the capacity, and the reliability. The capacity thing is a major issue for me, might not be to you, so thats a toss up. In regards to reliability, the pistol is reliable no doubt, just not AS reliable as a Glock, and to me, when I have a pistol, it better fire every damn time I pull the trigger regardless of what the conditions are. Though I've only seen a handful of misfires from the German made P220, that handful stands out for me and leaves a bitter taste in my mouth especially if I'm going to use that pistol for combat/carry. Target shooting, it's fine.

My review of the Sig is based off two P220's that I've fired, had the same result with both pistols, however, it could have just been those two pistols, so I suggest renting one and trying for yourself.


I have nothing to add about the 1911s other than I hear great things about the full size SA pistols... I've heard nothing but bad things about the compact 1911s. This is not from personal experience, just what I've heard from friends and such who own the said pistols.

Also, like someone said, SA has KICK ASS customer service. If I got a 1911, it'd be a sprinfield arms... Was really considering getting the 1911 WWII replica that they make now... The black with wood grips. Would like to fire one, but have other priorities at the moment.