Any opinions on the XO? I'm thinking about getting a full sized 1911 to go along with the Kimber Tactical Ultra I got the other day.

I do own several 1911's but none are Sigs. I have read mixed reviews of them here as well as elseware. IMHO you are better off with other 1911 manufacturers, Colt, SA, etc. etc. Just my .02.

Damn, I know I'm showing off here, but look what I got on Sat. I pick it up in seven days.... My wife bought it for me as an early Christmas present.

http://www.kimberamerica.com/pistols/customshop/super_match_II/

quote:

Originally posted by sig45forme:
Damn, I know I'm showing off here, but look what I got on Sat. I pick it up in seven days.... My wife bought it for me as an early Christmas present.

http://www.kimberamerica.com/pistols/customshop/super_match_II/

Nice!

Sexy pistol. Congrats!

I have an XO that's been modified by Gray Guns. But here's what I have to say about Sig 1911's.

(this is a copy from another post as I get tired of typing the same thing)

I feel the Sig 1911 gives one of the best values for the money in the 1911 world. Most companies don’t offer checkered front straps at 25LPI until you get up in price range. I still think there are some issues with Sigs 1911 that needs to be addressed, but they’re getting better.

I would say if you’re looking for a 1911 to buy and take out to shoot until the day light fades the Sig 1911 is a great gun for that purpose. Even if you get a “bad one” Sig seems to be getting better about fixing the occasional bad 1911 that gets out. I will say that if you plan to buy a Sig 1911 and start modifying it, then I would probably look towards some one with a little better track record of correctly building 1911s. Springfield, Kimber, Les Baer, Wilson, Dan Wesson, S&W and other are all well known names with a good track record of dimensional soundness of their parts. Sig (and I can claim mine 1st hand) isn’t too good at getting some critical dimensions right. Even though the gun works fine, I can’t simply change out the trigger to anything I like. I can’t just buy a new MSH and use whatever I like. Why? The trigger tunnel is too big and out of square so there’s no aftermarket trigger out there that will fit my tunnel. Bruce Gray had to press in a brass plug on the top of my trigger and custom fit it all. What about the MSH? Sig wasn’t able to drill the two holes in-line so Bruce had to drill a bigger hole making them inline, and then modify the S&A MSH with an over-sized pin.

There were a few more issues but I don’t see the need to keep digging. I’ve also had a few Sig 1911s run across my hands that had certain things out of place or made incorrectly but the gun still ran 100% it would have just been difficult to change parts. I say all that to say this; if you want a gun to just shoot and be happy with the way it came then a Sig is a good gun for you considering cost VS options. If you’re looking for a 1911 to shoot for a little while then maybe send off to have a new barrel fitted or a magazine well or new trigger, you MIGHT be in for a little surprise call from the gunsmith saying XYZ part doesn’t fit or “to do this I will need to charge more because of XYZ”.

I voted Custom Gun on this because I’m VERY partial to Les Baer. I think for the money (and a PII can be had from John @ Pro Load for around 1,500.00$) you get probably the MOST 1911 for the money while being able to have some options. For example. My PII was billed at $1,527.00. That should have gotten me front and rear cocking serrations, adjustable sights in a hidden leaf cut and an ambidextrous safety. Instead, for the same price, (though I would think it should make it less, but it doesn’t work that way) I got no front serrations, blacked out non-adjustable genuine Novak sights and a single side combat safety. I also got a two piece magazine well which changes the serrated MSH to 30LPI checkered mainspring housing and the magazine well part is milled and blended into the frame and then the gun is blued to match. The magazine well is a $215.00 option from Les Baer installed, milled and blued. Shipping was $45.00 and that brought the total delivered price to $1,787.00. So for $1,800 I’ve got a gun that as far as form, fit, quality and accuracy is concerned absolutely SMOKES Sig and will give a Wilson, Nighthawk or any other VERY high end 1911 costing $1,000 more a good run for the money.

I’m not sure what the new and improved Sig 1911s are running, but I will assume they’re around $1,000.00$ or so which isn’t a bad price if you ask me. But like said before; I don’t put any trust in the dimensional soundness and therefore my ability to upgrade that gun might be limited making my future options WAY more costly. So is the Sig 1911 a good gun? Yes, I think for the money they’re a GREAT gun. But I would really be sure what I want to do with it before I drop down the money. If you don’t like the trigger or the beavertail or anything like that and you’re thinking about maybe changing them, I would probably look somewhere else in my opinion.

Hope this helps!

Hey AaronP220R have you ever shot Para 1911.

I know Todd Jarrett is their spokesman, and he can shoot a damn gun. I was think of checking them out. I want to stick up for sig, but it seem that the p series gun are what they do best.

http://www.paraord.com/product/search_resultAll.html

I'll second the Les Baer recommendation. My PII in 9 mm billed out at $1850 and came with:

Front and rear cocking serrations

30 lpi front strap checkering

Ambidextrous safety (essential as I'm left handed).

Fully adjustable rear sight

Fiber optic front sight (a $40 option)

Very nice checkered Coco Bola grips.

Trigger pull is exactly 4 pounds with no creep.

All the usual enhancements like beavertail grip safety, Commander-style hammer, lowered and flaired ejection port, etc., etc.

The fit and finish are excellent and the reliability has been first-rate. Accuracy has been 1" to 1-1/2" at 25 yards from a Ransom Rest using WWB or my arbitrary handloads with no attempt at load or accuracy development. The only down side was the 18 week delivery time.

quote:

Originally posted by sig239srt:
Hey AaronP220R have you ever shot Para 1911?

Yes, as a matter of fact I used to own a S16-40 Limited and a good friend of mine has a Warthog in .45.

I haven't shot any of the new ones but I tend to stay away from Para. The accuracy of my 16-40 was able to hold 4-5" at 25 yards out of a ransom rest if it would run. Tood Jarrett my like them, as he's paid to like them, but I don't have a high opinion of them and niether do a few well known gunsmiths i've talked to.
If you want to go further into detail shoot me an Email and i'll tell you more. But I don't care for Para.

I love my XO.

I consider it to be in the same boat as my Glock - a basic, functional tool that does what it was designed to do without a fuss.

It's never failed to go bang for me and is among the simplist of 1911's to take-down and rebuild.

It's not the prettiest gun around and it won't shoot 1" groups at 50 yards. If you want or need that, it's probably not for you.

I was in the market for a basic, reliable 1911 and found that in the XO.

quote:

Originally posted by AaronP220R:
Tood Jarrett my like them, as he's paid to like them, but I don't have a high opinion of them and niether do a few well known gunsmiths i've talked to.
But I don't care for Para.

Thanks, I had a feeling you were going to say what you did. You don't hear much about Para guns.

They offer a TON of models; probably more than ANYONE else which is awesome but other things aren't so good. If only they would work on quality and craftsmanship they would be rockin'!

I've been exceptionally pleased with my very early production XO; while it did need to go back to SIG for some apres-break-in adjustments (trigger reset/disconnector, grip safety rubbing on hammer strut), SIG completely stepped up to the plate, repairing and paying for shipping both ways, and my XO is flawlessly functioning and reliable-and extremely accurate.

Recent production XOs have a MIM disconnector, and the hammer has been changed to the non-webbed (i.e., standard GSR) type. Neither of these changes provide any operational issues in my opinion. While I've never had problems with mine, the extractors have reportedly been modified/strengthened.

At a "street price" of around $750, I still consider the XO to be one of the best 1911 values available; I recommend it highly.

Best, Jon

I have to admit that I'm a 1911 addict and have been for over 40 years.

When it comes to buying a 1911 it all comes down to how much you want to spend and what you want it for.

If you just want a gun for the range buy a good used S&W, Springfield or Colt, do a trigger job on it and put a new fiber optic front sight on it and the gun will shoot better than you.

If you don't mind spending alot of money but can't make up your mind, go to a good 1911 gunsmith and have him build you one.

There's nothing like picking out what you want to use when you build your own..

Is the only difference between the XO and the other "basic" 1911 in the SIG lineup the finish, or is there some mechanical and engineering difference?

I do not plan on CC with this gun, my Kimber Tac Ultra is filling that role. This gun will probably be for home defense and range time.

The sights are contrast 3-dot non-tritium Champion sights, not Novaks, and there may be some slight, non-operational finish or metal blemishes. The finish appears to be of the spray-on and bake variety, as opposed to Nitron. There also may be a slightly higher incidence of "parts engineering" providing slight deviations from the catalog pictures (i.e., silver skeleton hammers versus black webbed ones, silver barrel bushings vs. black, etc.) There was one special run of XO's that were silver and did not have frontstrap checkering, but to the best of my knowledge thaey were a specially contracted run provided to Bud's Gunstore only, and were catalogued as an "XO-S"

Mechanically, operationally, and parts-wise (other than as discussed above), the XOs are identical to their higher-priced GSR bretheren, which is what makes them a great deal.

Best, Jon