9mm 1911 at a bargain

Z

ZeroTX

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Santa just barely got his sleigh off my roof, leaving behind my new Glock 17 Gen 4 (can't wait to go shooting!), and I'm ALREADY thinking about my next pistol. The Glock is intended to replace my Beretta 92FS as primary home defense weapon (Beretta is not leaving, however), but I did recently also find a liking for the feel and function of a 1911-style pistol. Maybe two years or so ago I almost bought one, but one of my biggest hangups was that I really don't want to have to keep track of or acquire different types of pistol ammo. I know some of you relish in the variety of ammo in your safe, but for me, I just want to stock up on 9mm with just a few hot .38Spl for my carry J-frame.

That all being said, I recently noticed a greater number of factory 9mm 1911 pistols. I am a budget gun enthusiast (not a collector, not an investor), so the Taurus PT1911 9mm looks very appealing. It would be for range/target use/fun, not my main home defense, although I'm sure it could do that well also. Any thoughts on a 1911 in 9mm? Any thoughts on the Taurus? I've had a Taurus polymer gun before and it was 100% reliable for the 14 years I owned it, so I have no personal hang-up about Taurus as a brand.

Thanks for your input.
 
I own or have owned about a dozen Taurii over the years. Only one gave me trouble, and they fixed it for free.

If you want a good pistol for a bargain, you might look at the Star Super B. It is a military surlus pistol very similar to a 1911. My FiL and I each got one this year. His appeared to be NIB, and mine was barely fired. Neither of us paid over $250. I believe there are still a fair amount of them available online.

Here is mine:

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I'm personally not a fan of Taurus, but if you like em go 4 it. If it was me or my suggestion would be look at the colt 1991 9mm I think u can find it for 715.00 ish. I just picked up a colt combat commander 1991 .45 acp to my door for 725. And you can't beat a colt i.m.h.o. :) have fun and enjoy your new toys whichever way you go.
 
There -ARE- problems with Taurus. It's seems to be easily demonstrated fact that any Taurus can be quite good or quite bad, and we know for sure that their customer service is horribly slow and quite often doesn't actually fix the problem. This makes Taurus a tough nut because when you get a good one (there are MANY very, very good ones!) the experience is a joy. But making a purchase of a new Taurus is a genuine dice-roll.

In the world of "budget" 9mm chambered 1911 pistols, I think Rock Island is probably the safest bet. But while I have always enjoyed a great budget gun that brings a heap of good for a low price... if the subject of my quest was a 9mm chambered 1911, my first choice (by a long, LONG way) is going to be the Springfield Range Officer.

It's worth the price and you can pay a lot more and get less in a 9mm 1911.
 
Sevens has some good common-sense remarks about Taurus. I might comment that they got mine back to me within three weeks. My score is something like 4 excellent, 7 "okay", one needed fixing.

By "okay", I mean that they function just fine, but have mediocre trigger. For a SA pistol that might or might not matter much.
 
I had a Springfield Loaded 9mm 1911, I have an STI Trojan 9mm 1911 now. These 9mm 1911s are just a lot of fun to shoot at the range. Everybody you take to the range will enjoy shooting one of these guns.

If you can find an STI Spartan V 1911 9mm for around $600.00 I'd go with one of those.
 
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ZeroTX said:
Any thoughts on a 1911 in 9mm? Any thoughts on the Taurus?
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I own a couple of 1911s. One of them is a Colt Combat Commander in 9mm. I love it. If I were forced to sell off firearms, that's probably the last one I'd let go.

Taurus? When Taurus started making 1911s their ales pitch was that they were including $500 worth of "custom" extras on every pistol. The MSRP was $600. The only way anyone can include $500 worth of extras on something selling for $600 is to be selling a $100 something.

Personally, I wouldn't pay even $100 for a Taurus 1911. I've repaired them. Try Rock Island Armory
 
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Thanks for the tips on Rock Island Armory! I had never heard of them, but I see lots of them available in the $600 range, which is about the same as the Taurus.

Do these types of guns use standard 1911 parts (other than the 9mm components)?
 
ZeroTX said:
Do these types of guns use standard 1911 parts (other than the 9mm components)?
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Yes for the Rock Island.

No for Taurus. (Most 1911 parts will fit a Taurus, but the Taurus rental gun I repaired for the local shooting range didn't. I had a Colt part to replace the part that broke, it didn't work, the range owner called Taurus and they told him that part was proprietary to Taurus ... and they could send him one in about six weeks.) IIRC, the part was the extractor, which I think anyone would expect to have been a standard part.
 
My Taurus PT1911 worked great for me, with the only issue being a super cheap magazine that came with it as part of a Shooter's Pack. Once I threw the freebie in the trash, my FTF/FTE's went away.

Taurus catches a lot of flack on forums, some warranted (firsthand), some not (I knew a guy who had a cousin who shot a Taurus once). I never regretted my purchase, and thought it was a nice entry level 1911. Now there are so many more options available when looking for a sub $600 1911, as compared to when I bought mine. In the end it depends on what features you want, as I think all of the entry level 1911's mentioned here are solid choices.
 
At the $600 price point, get the STI Spartan. The basic frame, slide, and barrel are from the phillipines, but meet STI's standards, they then add STI parts to make a very nice gun.

The only downside, for some, would be the sights. The Spartan comes with adjustable sights only.

If I were in the market for one, I would buy it from Dawson Precision. Dave is a hard-eyed fellow who serves as a 2d Quality control step on the Spartan. No junk is coming out of his shop.
 
t the $600 price point, get the STI Spartan. The basic frame, slide, and barrel are from the phillipines, but meet STI's standards, they then add STI parts to make a very nice gun.
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The STI Spartan is discoutinued IIRC.

If it where me I would get one of the $700 Colts which I have been seeing more and more of lately. Every other gun you are considering will be worth less than you paid the second you sign your 4473. The Colt will hold its value better than the others. It might go up as Colt gets healthier and stops low balling their guns.

IMHO Colts right now are as cheap as they have been in 10 years and their guns are higher quality than in the past due to their new CNC equipment.
 
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The STI Spartan is discoutinued IIRC.
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You are correct, the Spartan is discontinued and may be pretty hard to find. It was made by Armscor out of the Phillipines.

For the price range the OP is looking at, the RIA would be the option I would choose. Personally, I would go a little more and look at the SA Range Officer.

I have owned one for over a year, and have run close to 3000 rounds through it without any issues.
 
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while i cant speak for the 9mm, my father has a RIA 1911 in 45ACP and hasnt had a bit of trouble out of it. It has never malfunctioned in a couple thousand rounds, most of it being tulammo steel case. might pick one up myself come tax return time
 
I get the feeling that most don't realize just how much of a gun you get for the money when you buy a Range Officer. Bullseye shooters are buying these guns exclusively for a starting place for competition guns. While I don't care for the bland finish, these guns are a fantastic deal for the price.
 
I also would skip the Taurus and go with the Springfield and that is what I did. I wanted a 1911 9mm just like my father has but did not want to try to find a nice older Colt Commander 70series like his, so I fould an old Springfield Armory that was in great shape. It was just what I wanted. If a nice used Springfield was out of my range then i would get a Rock Island, the reviews on them have been pretty good. I always have fun with my Springer at the range.
 
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