The post about 1911 inaccuracy reminded me of a personal experience many years ago...
I was attending one of the original SOT courses taught by former 5th SFG(A) Project Blue Light Operators. All the students were young Rangers or SFers and had brought their issue 1911A1s from home station. These were classic parkerized G.I. pistols... worn, loose, fixed sights, absolutely no custom features. Most of the pistols were older than the troops carrying them by at least 20 years and a couple of wars. The chief marksmanship instructor (a senior Master Sgt and former Camp Perry competitor with the Army Pistol Team) brought up all the same old concerns about "Old Slabsides" (i.e., loose, shot out, terrible sights, incapable of any decent accuracy). He then asked us if we thought that the condition of our pistols would handicap our bullseye or combat firing drills. We unanimously agreed that we would be lucky to hit anything with our old clapped out pieces. He then selected (at random) a pistol straight out of a young Ranger Bn E-5´s holster. After clearing the weapon, he shook it. It rattled nicely. He observed that the pistol did indeed look pretty beat. He then loaded a 7 round magazine, placed the weapon UPSIDE DOWN in his weak hand, using his little finger to engage the trigger, and fired at standard 25 yard pistol bullseye target. Afew seconds later, there was a 7-round, 2" group clustered in the 10X ring (from 25 Yards). He cleared the pistol, handed it back to its chagrined owner, and addressed our rather silent and open mouthed class. "Well..." he said. "I guess if ya can´t hit the targets during this course, it won´t because of your .45". The point was well taken. We learned to assimilate and apply marksmanship fundamentals prior to progressing to the sexy combat firing drills...and we never doubted our 1911A1s again. By the way, all students learned to engage multiple targets out to 25 yards with consistent doubletap headshots using our WWII/Korean War era 1911s. The point of this shooting was to prove that we could do so, not that doubletap head shots were necessarily the best technique with an 8-round capacity weapon. In any event, I have never met an inaccurate 1911A1. The stock pistol is capable of out of the box acceptable combat accuracy (2"-4" groups). The ergonomics are superb. It fits my hand like no other pistol. I shoot it well. The SA trigger pull is consistent and enhances accuracy and speed. It is reliable, simple to field strip, and repairable by the user (in the unlikely event something breaks). The .45 ACP round is ballistically more accurate than the 9mm and provides better stopping power when comparing both rounds in their full metal jacket incarnations. It is not a weapon for the novice (todays DAs are "safer" for the occasional shooter) but, it is a weapon that an expert can wring maximum performance out of. With modern defensive ammo, sights, triggers, customization, etc., the 1911A1 (in its many versions) competes on equal or better footing with any combat handgun (or centerfire competition weapon) out there. I say this as an avowed fan of Glocks, SIGs, and other modern pistols. A "stock" Milspec 1911A1 (such as an out-of-the-box Springfield) provides the shooter with an awsomely lethal and bombproof handgun. And, oh by the way...it conceals better than any other large frame pistol and better than a lot of mid-sized ones (try concealed carry with an M9)
, Art