The only 3 inch 1911s I have ever seen run reliably were my late partners Stainless Colt Defender, which he carried and qualified with for 5 years and an original Kimber Custom Shop Ultra, owned by a friend who had an indoor range.

My partner attributed the reliability of his Defender to regular cleaning and maintenance as well as the dual captive recoil springs. Which he changed every 1500 rounds or so.

That 3 inch Kimber remains the ONLY Kimber I have ever seen run reliably. Probably because it was only fed ball out of Wilson Combat mags. Regards 18DAI

The Kimber Ultras are super reliable. They did a great job with those. The Colt Defender isn't bad either. I put 400 rounds total through both of mine yesterday without a hitch.

Out of all the 1911's I've owned, I only had one 3" version. Sig Ultra Compact 9mm.
From the get go, it had feeding problems. After I asked here on this forum what I should do, it was recommended that I shoot some heavier grain rounds through it. 115gr. did not cycle well and 124 was better but not 100%.
I went out and bought a few hundred 147gr. rounds and shot them. No problems with that. The Sig then cycled 115 but I wasn't to happy. Sold it and moved on.
My beat up Springfield 1911 full size eats everything I give it.

Thanks again for everyone’s input. I appreciate it. I get that it’s a difficult design, I also get that lemons get out no matter what. Hell, my $1300 TRP had to go back to Springfield the day after I took it to the range the first time.

I also have a Kimber Ultra that been 100% which really surprised me.

I always thought officers model would be as small as I would go and expect it to run right. Officers being shorter grip and commander length if I’m using the correct terminology.

It's funny that you ask this now. I JUST bought a Colt Defender a couple days ago and put 200 rounds through it yesterday. 100 rounds of commercial reload FMJ (accuracy was spotty, but no feed issues) 50 rounds of HST (my carry load, no issues) and 50 rounds of Critical Duty (+p recoil is noticeable). I've had no reliability issues yet, but I did have to do some minor fitting on the thumb safety. It was functional, but mushy going into Safe. A few light swipes with a file and it snicks in place like Wolverine's claws.

I probably wouldn't recommend someone go buy a 3 inch gun as their first or only 1911, but so far I absolutely love this little Defender. It's small, light, accurate (with ammo it likes), surprisingly controllable, and possesses a certain ugly charm all its own.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
I haven't read anything bad about the Colt Defender or New Agent. (The Defender has conventional sights, the New Agent just a groove in the top of the slide.)

Circa 2007 while shooting at an indoor range, the shooter next to me had a three-inch 1911 (don't know the make) that wouldn't fire two consecutive shots.

I have Colt Defender/New Agent, that I bought when they first came out years ago. I have never had a FTF or FTE. Been a great a little 1911. Unless mine is an anomaly, I don't think you can say that all 3" 1911's are a no go.

I have a Colt New Agent. Runs perfectly on all I have fed it.

I recently bought a Colt Defender. I was looking at a Springfield EMP and my pusher at the shop recommended the Defender. His claim was that they had numerous EMP's have to go back to the factory r be worked on and proprietary parts complicated the issue. So far so good with the Defender, reliability has been great with both ball and hollow points.

Prior to this I had a Kimber CDP in 3". Brand new out of the box, totally unreliable. Had my gunsmith looks at it and Kimber installed a 9mm extractor in a .45ACP gun from the factory. After swapping out the ejector it would run with ball but hollow points were hit and miss. It would not reliably feed 230 Hydrashocks which is the defensive load I've used in all of my .45's, So it got traded on something else.

quote:

Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
After swapping out the ejector it would run with ball but hollow points were hit and miss. It would not reliably feed 230 Hydrashocks which is the defensive load I've used in all of my .45's, ...

1911's, as a class, can be notoriously picky about anything other than ball ammo. I've taken to making Remington Golden Saber 185 gr. my go-to JHP round for that reason. The bullet profile very closely resembles that of ball ammo.

I purchased this early 9mm EMP and sent it to SA Custom Shop to have the front/rear strap machine checkered. At the same time, like Arc mentioned a lot of 3" designed 1911's have finicky tastes for certain ammos. I found this to also be true and while at the Custom Shop, they did some reshaping of the feed ramp that helped it digest more of a variety of 9mm ammo. I sold it to a member here that the last time I heard from him he was pleased with it. Since I do, or did a lot of my own loads, I found that with factory ammo the Fiocchi 9mm worked great, and found that in a measurement, the OAL of standard factory ammo was smaller in length than other brands. So I started reloading all my 9mm for the EMP at that specific length and it ate everything without exception without so much as a hick up. The unfortunate thing is that being an early adopter of the EMP, I was too enamored by an article and went out and purchased one, mostly because of s smaller concealing 1911 was a great idea. And they weren't cheap at introduction. But after returning from the Custom Shop the checkering was superb and it ran great with the feed ramp reshaping. Plus my reloads after that strictly. It was a great little 3" 1911 but Commander size 1911's worked just as well.

I have owned my Kimber Ultra CDP for many years now. The only time I had a problem was with a bad mag. I switched To Wilson Combat mags, and haven't looked back. I carried it for a number of years.