All posts tagged elite tactical magazines

The 1911 is a better gun

I started out with a Colt 1991A1 over 20yrs ago and at the time I thought I was getting a second rate 1911 but it was a good price so I got it.  I fell in love with the gun immediately and It just fit my hand that the first time I shot it I thought I was missing paper and it turned out I was shooting out the center of the target.   After shooting the gun for 3 range sessions I started having problems.   I had a good relationship with my gun  shop and when I went back in I talked to him.  He told me I should be using more than 1 magazine with the gun and talked about magazine rotation.  Then I picked up a few more Colt 1911 magazines and after a few range sessions the gun started closing on an empty chamber.

This whole issue was apparently very common with 1911s and many of the GI magazines were actually meant to be thrown away on a battlefield and not re-used.  I tried the quick fixes but they didn’t hold up, I later found out about Wilson Combat Magazines and now the Wilson Combat ETM magazines are my primary 1911 magazines.  Barrel designs and more durable parts have made the 1911 a superior firearm than it’s original GI version.   Although the guns are still pretty heavy compared to composite materials, many people still find the 1911 guns to be the most comfortable 45acp to shoot.

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Quit screwing around with your 1911s and they’ll work

There is no other firearm that I see so much tinkering with than the 1911, and no matter how much money you spend on one, you can still mess it up.   I absolutely do not believe that higher end 1911’s are tougher and more reliable than a loose fitting GI Mil-spec gun.    If you want that competition shooting gun, then shoot it in a competition, but if you want reliability, keep it simple and stop screwing around with it.   I have putt thousands of rounds through my GI 1911 guns and almost always use ball ammunition.  I’m messed around with semi-wad cutters for target shooting and got my guns to feed with them, so I know it’s possible to shoot something other than ball.

The gun magazines you use for your 1911 are the difference in running a reliable firearm.   From my experience GI 1911 magazines are meant to be used a few times and tossed on the ground.   They are not worth replacing gun springs on like Wilson Combat magazines.   The magazine bodies on many 1911s get dented and don’t hold up and will eventually just jam up the follower when it is working it’s way up.    The Wilson Combat Elite Tactical magazines or ETM, is a minor improvement for a few bucks more.   The magazine body is a little thicker with changes to the placement of the ammunition level window.   There are also numbers from 1-10 on the bottom of the magazine so you can just take a hi-lighted marker and number the mags with one stroke without damaging them.

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Bring out the 45acp’s for the Zombie Shoot

This weekend will be the 2nd Contagion Zombie shoot at the New Holland rifle and pistol club.   It often amazes me at the selection of firearms that you see at these events and one of the most common things I do see is an increase in the number of 45acp guns.   Shooting steel with 9mm guns can be a lower knock down rate.  It’s kind of funny how people say the energy is the same form a 124gr Nato round vs a 45acp, but when it comes to hitting steel, they are not the same.   The 45acp especially the 1911, Sig 220, Springfield XD and Glock 21 are the most common and every once in awhile we do see a few H&K firearms.

When it comes to shooting a 45acp,  I personally think American Eagle ball ammo is probable the best round to carry, even though some may say that HP ammunition has improved so much that it’s a better option.   I have never felt like carrying ball ammunition in Wilson Combat Magazines meant that I was going to be punching holes through every wall in the house because from my experience the 45acp does not penetrate as much as the 9mm ball ammunition.  There are so many 1911 guns out there that I could not say that the 1911 is a dated firearm that can not handle various types of ammunition, but you do have to be careful about the GI versions of the gun and hollow point ammunition.

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Has anyone made plans for a Mapgul pistol mag?

I’ve been getting good at sensing changes in the gun industry and I think we’re on the precipice right now.   Synthetic stocks are far superior to what was out a decade ago and machining has improvement so well on the AR15 design that even the direct impingement guns are superior to what was out a decade ago.   I think  if you have the money to spend, you can get a good DI gun that is as reliable as a piston gun.   On the discussion of rifle magazines, once you get to the point that you can drive your car over a magazine and then still reliable shoot it in your gun, you have arrived at the top of the mountain.

I think Glock magazines are pretty tough, but I’ve never seen somebody drive over one with a car and still have it run.  If anyone has seen a pistol magazine as tough as the Magpul Pmags let me know? Wilson combat magazines are the most reliable gun magazines, but I don’t think any 1911 magazine would hold up to a 200lb person standing on it let alone a 2 ton truck.   Maybe we don’t need gun magazines to be this tough, but I sure think that if we can improve the light bulb, we can improve the handgun or pistol magazines.

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Gunsmithing and 1911 reliability

My first 1911 was a Seriea 80 which has a firing pin plunger, but in my opinion that was a good thing to add to the design and IMHO does not take away from the novelty of the firearm.   I have heard from so many of my friends that Kimber makes the best 1911s, but I still have yet to understand why I should bother spending over $1000 on  a firearm when I already own two 1911 handguns that cost me less than $400 each.   Springfield Armory GI models are very well made and I have had zero reliablilty issues with my guns.   I have to admit that I am not one to push the limits on the types of ammo that my guns eat and I think that may be the real reason I don’t have issues with them.

When I first carried for work, I carried a Colt 1991A1 and used hollow points, but I  had an awful lot of malfunctions with the 2nd round.   Not that often, but maybe about 1 out of 75 rounds might not seat all the way and I would have a stoppage.   I was told to polish the feed ramp and I did, and the gun did run more reliabile, but then I did have maybe 1 out of 300rds jam  on me.   I took a good look at ballistics charts and realized that a 45acp FMJ does enough damage and worrying about bullet expansion with such a large caliber was kinda pointless.   I wouldn’t get too caught up in doing too many tricks to get your 1911 to run reliable.   Find the ammo that really does work, in my case, FMJ and try sticking with Wilson combat magazines or Chip McCormick.  I mostly use 8rd mags and although there are some that claim that these are not as reliable as 7rd magazines, I have had zero issues.   One thing I do not do any longer is one up the magazines.  There seems to be some magazines seating issues if I force an 8rd magazine in the guns with 1 round in the chamber.

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