I'm looking for a medium grade 1911

[CJB]

Again... getting in late on this discussion. I see a lot of very fine choices. Springfield GI series cant be beat (except an upgrade barrel... I dont like their standard barrels).

May I suggest... you may want to just build your own.

If you call up Caspian - good folks, GREAT frames and slides, they'll sell to you direct, at better than online prices. How bout THAT! Frames through FFL of course.

Not hard to do.. some gotchas with a few things. Drop in barrel would be best. Better quality hammer/seal/disconnector would be best. In both cases, almost completely prefit, and that fit will be better than most run of the mill mid grade guns.

Thinking on it - maybe the GI series is entry grade. I dunno... I like savin' money, getting the lower price, and just put the money into stuff I want.

Just a thought or two.....

[xr1200guy]

i bought a thompson 1911tc i'm very happy with.

[7shot]

Give a look at Rock Island Armory. They have some darn nice pistols for around $450-500, very basic. I also like the Springfield GI but I haven't seen one of those for two or three years.

[les strat]

Holy thread resurrection!

[mluikey]

I absolutely love my Sig 1911. I used it in a class yesterday and shot 200 flawless rounds and hit steel at 75 yards at the amazement of my fellow classmates. I have the sig RCS C3 1911.

[brianfede]

I would look at the SA Range Officer, STI Trojan or Dan Wesson Heritage, or if you go the used route I would consider a Dan Wesson Valor, SA TRP or Les Baer Thunder Ranch. I'm sure with the holidays coming up there will be a lot of good used deals out there.

[Barth]

Alternative Combat 45

Not the crazy high priced custom blah blah blah.
$500-$1300 range.
What should I look for and avoid?
How good are Sigs in this arena?
The caliper will be .45 , though I see a lot of 9mm options out there (Probably due to ammo costs...

I know this is the wrong place and total blasphemy on several levels.
But while contemplating getting a 1911.
I ended up with a NIB Heckler and Koch HK45C for $999.
This gun is one of the softest shooting 45s I've fired.
Crazy reliable out of the box and deadly accurate.
Dollar for dollar this gun is nothing short of outstanding on every level.
As the immortal Jocko likes to say,
I'm just saying...
HK45C was adopted by the United States Naval Special Warfare Command in September 2010.

[Rufus]

A while back, I was in a gun shop looking at 1911s in 45 cal. The shop had Sigs, Dan Wessons, Smith and Wessons, Colt, etc. While the clerk and I were talking, he told me that he had just ordered an STI for himself (this store does not usually carry STIs). I live in Georgetown, TX, home of STI, so I started looking at their guns. I ended up getting an STI Trojan in 45 cal. I immediately fell in love with the gun, and like it so much that I sold my M&P 9mm to a friend and ordered another STI in 9mm. This time I ordered the Spartan, which has its frame made by Armscor in the Philippines. I found out from the guys at STI that the frame is made by Armscor, but all of the internals, hammer, slide, etc. are STI. I also live about 20 minutes from Dawson Precision, and I went over there to talk to them about the gun. They did not have any 9mms, but had the plain 45 and the tricked-out 45. You can't believe how short the trigger reset is on these guns! I ended up placing an order for the 9mm version of the STI Spartan, and I am having Dawson Precision add the same DP sight on this gun that I had put on my Trojan.

Dang, I don't know what's happened to me! I seem to be selling off some other guns and moving to 1911 platforms. I really like the feel of these guns, and they shoot great. OK, what's the point? For the amount of money that you have budgeted you can get a great gun. Look around and ask questions. My vote goes to STI, and you can get several models in your price range.