[Guest]

How many of you out there have 1911's in 9mm ? How are they with respect to reliability ? Any recommendations as far as brand ? I know Kimber produces some on occasion, as does Springfield Armory.
Any drawbacks to a 9mm 1911 ?

(Can you tell I'm thinking of buying one ?

)

 

[Stephen A. Camp]

Hello.

http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/1911in9mm.htm

Best.

 

[Guest]

I don't own one, but I have shot a Colt that was reworked by Clark Custom Guns. It was absolutely amazing. I would get my sight picture and think about shooting and the round would hit the bullseye. That thing was shooter.

 

[jimhigginbotham]

The 1911 is not really a 1911 when it is rechambered for a short cartridge. Somehow the angle presented by stuff like 9mms and .40S&W is not just right.

That said it is a fairly reliable weapon. I have one (which is merely a Super .38 with a 9mm barrel installed), and I have some friends with Colts, including a rare Gold Cup conversion.

None of them are 100% reliable but they close in on being 99.5% reliable (4-5 malfuncitons in every 1000 rounds). This seems to apply whether you use the real 9mm mags (the ones with the spacer welded in) or Super .38 mags though I am sure the former are slighlty better.

They are a pleasure to shoot and will work for hunting or competition but I would want something else to stake my life on.

Good luck,
Jim

 

[Guest]

I would hope that the manufacturers would "get all the angles correct" if they were making a 9mm 1911 from the get-go as opposed to rechambering an existing 45 to a smaller caliber.

That's one of the things I'm interested in hearing about....the reliability of a new, "factory" 9mm 1911.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Keep 'em coming.

 

[newsflash]

I remember reading an article on Cylinder & Slide's website that Duane Thomas wrote, "The Officer's Parabellum". http://www.cylinder-slide.com/officerspara.shtml In the article he made mention of the fact that the Officer's model pistol was available in 9mm when first introduced. The problem being the project was fudged, the 9mm used the same feed angle as the .45. They didn't work well.

The folks at Cylinder & Slide can take a .45 frame and weld it up, then cut the correct frame ramp angle for a 9mm. Or Caspian can make a frame with the correct angle to start with!

 

[rusty]

I had two steel 9mm Commanders about 3 years apart. This was back before the net and I didn't know gunsmiths who could fix them. They wouldn't even feed ball reliably.

Had a Smith 59 that went through me, a friend, his brother, and finally a 4th guy who got it working. ( Note that the friend was told of the problems and that I didn't want to let him have a piece of junk - he just kept offering more money until I caved in. )

As for 9mm 1911's I'm sure some folks have ones that work. I beleive you. But I'd trust a Beretta 35 ( 32 acp ) over a 9mm on the 1911 platform.

 

[Guest]

Alzo,

While some folks consider it a 1911 (because of the trigger, locking, etc) and some folks don't consider it a 1911 (because of the double stack magazine), my new Para Ordnance P18 9mm has been fairly reliable thus far with Win white box ball (115 grain) (about 400 rounds)and 147 grain Gold Dot factory loads (about 100 rounds)using OEM high cap mags. Had one failure to lock the slide open and one failure to go completely into battery as I recall.

 

[Guest]

I didn't even know Para made a 9mm. Is the grip on the P18 9mm as large the grip on their double stack 45's ?

 

[johnholbrook]

This is a 9MM/Super .38 I built on a Caspian frame. I fit a used Springfield Armory Inc. 9MM and a new Colt Enhanced Super .38 barrel to the slide and the slide to the frame.

I have found that you can use the Super .38 mag with both calibers but not the other way round!

It feeds and shoots both calibers just fine,,,,,,....

 

[bompa]

Have a SS Springfield Armory job in 9mm that is about ten years old..It functions great,the only boggles I have had were with short flat point bullets..When new the accuracy was bad,the two piece factory barrel was crap,so I replaced it with a Nowlin tube and it is great..
It is reliable and accurate,what more can one ask in a pleasure piece ??

 

[Guest]

I've looked into the Para-Ordnance P18-9 mentioned above. It is looking very tempting. The grip frame on the new Para's are blockish, but not that bad at all. The trigger is all 1911 (I'd replace the factory plastic trigger with an aluminum one). If it only came with fixed sights !

 

[Guest]

Alzo Have had a Springfield 5" SS loaded ramped barrel 9mm for about 4 yrs. Works perfect. Was talked into installing a 38 Super Schunamann Match Grade Barrell. For 250 bucks, shipping, 10 buck bead blast job on slide and a little trigger work was the best investment I have ever made. Both cal. shoot very close to point of aim to point of impactwith out adjusting the sights. Have adjustable after market sights from Springfield. Most of the guys that shoot it prefer the 38 Super. It's more accurate than the 9mm due to the match grade barrel. I use it 90% of the for concealed carry. I have faith in that peice. From my experience. Smokeles

 

[erich]

I've always wanted a 9mm Commander (and you guys aren't helping ).

 

[briand]

My Colt 1991A1 Gov't size 9mm runs 100%. Jim H, I went the other direction from you and fitted a .38super barrel to mine. This conversion presented no problems either. Only thing I did was shorten that really l-o-n-g 9mm ejector enough to permit loaded .38 supers to pop out the ejection port without hanging up. Not a very scientific way to measure my whittlin' but the proof is in the shooting, which has been problem free.

 

[kcii]

I recently picked up a Kimber Tactical Pro II 9mm for my fiancee as a present for getting her CCW license. Due to the crappy weather here we have not had many chances to get out shooting but we did manage to run 100rds of AE 115gr ball through it a couple days ago. Functioning was perfect except for failing to lock the slide back (on all mags, kimber, mec-gar, metalform). A call to Dennis at Kimber has a new slide stop on the way which will hopefully cure that problem. Other than that it was a blast to shoot and my fiancee loves it.

Shawn

 

[jimhigginbotham]

As a sort of update. Since we have 9mm ammo coming out our ears, my son installed a Colt 9mm upper we had laying around on both of our Delta Elites (also we put in a 16 lb recoil spring as the springs on the Elites were a bit over much).

Neither one worked (like malfunctions in every mag - failures to eject). We discovered that both Deltas had a pretty aggressive bevel on the ejector so I figure that switching out the ejector will help some in this regard and probably will still work with the 10mm as I also have a 10mm Colt upper that I installed on a Super .38 frame that works just fine. I also have a 10mm barrel that works fine in my Giles B.E. gun converted to .38 Spl. (the rim size is the same).

Odd that I can get a .38 Special to run 100% in a 1911 but I can't make a 9mm work but then I have ran into weird stuff before. By no means do I doubt you guys are not having problems, sometimes guns are individual things (my partner has the same problems, he shot a 9mm G.M. in 3 IDPA national matches using Win. factory ammo...he has never had a match in which he did not have a malfunction yet the thing works 99.5% of the time on the range).

That does not mean I will give up, the 9mm makes a great "sub caliber training device."

Onward,
Jim