Am still on my 1911 quest, and its gotten very frustrating.

won't go in to that whole morass.

Am debating on waiting for the exact length barrel that I decided upon , 7 months ago.

but thought that I would , once again ask the experts.

there is a 88% chance mine will be a .45 acp.
if that has anything to do with anything.

Question:
So, what length barrel do you carry most often?

Choices:
3.5 inch
4 "
4 .25 inch
4.5 inch
5 in.
5.5 inch
6 inch
some other damn thing

Question:
cocked and locked ?

Choices:
always cocked and locked w/ 1 in the chamber
some other way
never with one in the chamber, never cocked

 

Thank you in advance for any attention you give this

First one out of the gate in your poll.

I carry a full-size 2011 (4.4" barrel...I chose 4.5" on your poll) just about all the time now. With a good AIWB holster, I've got no problems with it.

That said, it's more or less the size of a Glock 17, not a government size 1911, and it also weighs less with double the capacity.

I have also carried a full-size single stack (SIG Tacops) .40/.357 1911 with some regularity in the past. I can only manage that in a strong-side IWB or OWB holster.

Cocked and locked all the way.

You left out the popular 3" which is common to the KIMBER Ultra line of compact 1911 pistols in 9mm and 45acp. KIMBER Ultra 3", KIMBER Pro 4" and SPRINGFIELD EMP4" are my choices.

If you're not going to carry locked & cocked with one in the chamber AND practice that platform, a 1911 may not be your best choice.

I would carry that way , no problem,

Full mag and nothing in the pipe, but cocked and locked

I would never carry a gun that wasn’t condition 1 ready to go, but I respect everyone needs to do what works for them.

One thing I will mention is that since my gun is always loaded and locked, I will never own an am I safety 1911. In my early days of carrying a 1911, I found the am I safety disengaged too many dang times. It’s so scary when you unholster your gun to put it away and realize you were a hair trigger away from an ND. Never again, single sided only for me.

Dan Wesson ECO here. IWB, cocked and locked.

quote:

One thing I will mention is that since my gun is always loaded and locked, I will never own an am I safety 1911. In my early days of carrying a 1911, I found the am I safety disengaged too many dang times. It’s so scary when you unholster your gun to put it away and realize you were a hair trigger away from an ND. Never again, single sided only for me.

Exactly. This is why my P938 has a single side safety.

I never did understand why SIG sells the P238 with single side, and the P938 with ambi.

I’m no expert, but in my opinion there are only 2 options. If your only going to have one 45 make it a government. If your getting another the only option is a commander, any other length will have issues. As far as carry? The way it was designed .. cocked and locked with one in the chamber.

I have a Colt Wiley Clapp Govt. with upgraded Wilson Combat bulletproof internals, trigger and safety.

If you only have on 1911, it should be a full size gun. They’re big, but flat. Shockingly easy to conceal IWB. Love the things.

I’ve owned pretty much every size of the 1911 over the years. Never been a big fan of the Commander. Proportions just look wrong, feel weird, and saving 3/4 inch in length just isn’t that significant to me. I only own two sizes now. I currently have 3 5 inch guns and one 3 inch. My Colt Defender has been flawless from the first round fired (discounting one questionable reloaded round) and there’s something appealing in its squat ugliness. It’s like a pug. I wish it was one of the older ones without the relief cuts on the front of the slide (I’m a traditionalist) but it’s a shooter.

It’s a 1911. If you aren’t carrying it cocked and locked, you should be carrying something else.

When I feel like carrying my 1911, I rotate between my 4.25 inch 9mm or .45 cal. Cocked and Locked (round in the chamber). I am a 1911 guy. However, I have been carrying my Gen5 G19 more often lately.

Five-inch, cocked-and-locked, .45 ACP. I carry a 1911 of this form and fashion far more than anything else. I’ll typically carry anywhere from 8-16 hours per day, every day with few exceptions.

I have a couple of IWB and OWB holsters and mag pouches that I gravitate between. And, as always, a good “gunbelt.”

Ruger SR1911. 5 inch. Old school Pachmayr grip. Wilson Combat mags. Kramer Professional or Milt Sparks Summer Special.

When I carry a 1911 it’s full size and of course it’s FULLY loaded cocked and locked.
OWB Mitch Rosen holster from Dillon is excellent.

I'm lugging a 3.96" 2011 these days as an off duty gun. I carried 1911s on duty at my first police department for probably five or six of the eight years I was there. I carried a 1911 off duty at my current department for three or four years. So...I've got a little time on the platform.

The gold standard of .45 ACP 1911 reliability is a steel framed, 5", bushing barreled gun with a GI guide rod. No two ways about it. The shorter you make the gun and the more you change it the less reliable and durable it is. "Commander" length guns (4.25" thereabout) are also generally reliable anymore. Any shorter and you almost always end up with some sort of different recoil system that might be fine and might not.

Things like bull barrels and captured recoil systems and stuff are all capable of working fine, but it isn't enough that they are on the gun to determine they're good to go - they need to be tested and verified to work. I would strongly consider the reputation of the manufacturer as the first indicator of reliability in these kinds of things. We've been building steel framed, 5", bushing barreled guns for over 100 years so a lot of the teething has been long done. If you have Billy Bob Guns develop a new whiz-bang twelve stage captive recoil system, they're starting with 110 years less data.

A lot of this does not necessarily apply to 9mm guns, either. The 9mm guns seem to prefer a shorter, lighter slide. STI is not making a 5" 2011 because they can't make them reliable enough as a mass-produced item. A lot of 5" 9mm guns suffer from sluggish slide velocities that tend to induce feeding problems when the guns get dirty.

When I carried a .45 1911 as an off-duty gun, I preferred a "CCO" format gun with a 4.25" bushing barrel and a steel "Officer's" format (compact frame). This gave me a gun that had better inherent reliability (and ballistics) than a 3" or 3.5" gun, a very common (Commander) slide profile (for holster compatibility), the reliability of the bushing barrel, and a more compact frame for concealment. I dumped the 1911 as my off-duty gun because I was not comfortable with the 16 rounds (6+1 and an 8 round spare) that I could carry versus roughly double that in a compact Glock or similar pistol. The 2011 I carry today gets me 37 rounds with one spare magazine.

And on the topic of carrying the gun - it needs to be carried chambered, hammer back, and safety on. You'll see this referred to as "Condition 1" popularly. It amazes me that there are still people wringing their hands about carrying a 1911 this way. I have NEVER found my safety disengaged or hammer dropped to the half-cock notch. NEVER. If this is happening, you need a better holster (safety being disengaged) or your gun inspected for proper hammer/sear engagement.

CCO configuration has always worked best for me. Officer's grip and Commander length barrel seem to be a perfect combo. Dan Wesson CCO or Nighthawk T3. Cocked and Locked and NO Ambi Safety!

Condition 1, variety of holsters

I am stuck on Nighthawk.

Dan Wesson CCO has been my go to for the last decade. Previously carried Commander sized which has the same length barrel as the CCO but a larger grip frame. Full Government on occasion. In all cases Condition 1 as J.M. Browning intended.

When I carry a 1911 which is not often it is a Dan Wesson Classic Bobtail in .45 ACP IWB a very nice T&T Gunleather holster. I have a Kimber Aegis 9mm 1911 on order since Feb. but with NY closing everything who knows when I will be able to try it.