Both Peter and NJT have posts up about it, as well as links to at least one serious 1911 guru who is advocating tossing in the towel.
Still, if you're using 1911-pattern gun for home defense or carrying concealed, you probably don't need to overthink this. You're not showering the use and abuse on your heater that someone who carries it for duty use is. It's not exposed to the weather and you're probably not shooting it overly much. And chances are that you're not looking at needing to do more than shoot what's in the gun for any single situation.*
But if you're of the "prep for SHTF" crowd, those concerns may be of interest to you.
The 1911 is a fantastic pistol. John Moses Browning was a genius, he alone designed a pistol before the Great War that stood the test of time and combat. But there nothing out there in the world of design and manufacture that is immutable. Obsolescence overtakes everything, eventually.**
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* There are people who still use Single Action Army style revolvers for both uses.
** Except maybe Ma Deuce.
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3 comments:
My 1911 is old. I'm old. We'll go down together, darn it.
I view the 1911 as a piece of historical industrial art that also happens to shoot. I wouldn't consider it a serious carry weapon for professional purposes (or even a preferred self defense weapon) in today's world due to its quirks, just as I would not consider a Harley Davidson motorcycle, another piece of historical industrial art, to be my preferred motorcycle for long distance motoring (poor handling, too much vibration, too much weight, and poor riding position). On the other hand, it's always nice to have such museum pieces around just to take out on a recreational drive from time to time. There's something satisfying, somehow, about a museum piece that's still being manufactured and still performs the task for which it was manufactured, even if said museum piece has long been functionally obsolete.
But then, this is the year that I qualify for AARP membership, so I guess I qualify as a functionally obsolete museum piece too...
As someone who carried a 1911 pretty much for an entire tour in Vietnam and has kept one around for, oh crap, almost 45 years, it does what it is supposed to do. Never had any real problems. So what if it got a little discolored from rain and humidity. That just added character to the weapon. As far as a shtf scenario, being accustomed and comfortable with a weapon counts for a lot.
I'm with Murphy, I'm old, my weapons are old, but I don't want to take a round from any of them.
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