I'm a 1911 fanboy. I love them for a lot of reasons, especially Colts and Kimbers. I still occasionally CCW a Kimber Aegis II 9MM.

My experiences with 1911 pistols seem to be at odds with the experiences of others. I've had very few that were not near 100% reliable out of the box. I've carried them on duty, trained with them (including multi-day classes) and shot them recreationally(?), a lot. As a matter of fact, I've probably owned 50+ 1911 pistols and I've had two that I just couldn't get to work. On the other hand, I've probably owned 15 or 20 Glock pistols and had 1 (a fairly early G21) that would not work in cold weather.

I've heard people say you have to spend $500 or more in gunsmithing work to make a 1911 reliable. Not my experience at all. I've never needed a gunsmith to work on any 1911 (not counting the two Baers) except for staking the front night sight on to a Colt. That's it. They've always functioned as well as any other gun I've owned right out of the box...and they were more accurate than most.

Five 1911 pistols are in my safe now. Two Colts and three Kimbers. Kimbers really seem to take more than their share of hatin' from gun guys. I don't know why that is. I've heard rumors (most of which weren't true...such as their MIM parts are made in China) and horror stories. I've never seen anything of the sort myself. I sold thousands of Kimbers through my store and I NEVER had an unhappy customer or a complaint about the gun. Most Kimber customers returned to buy another...and another. I did have two Kimbers I didn't really like to shoot...but not because they didn't work. Both were SIS models, a Custom and a Pro. The finish was just too slick and I couldn't operate the gun as I'd like on the range because my hands would frequently slip off the slide while reloading, doing malfunction drills, etc. The gun functioned flawlessly other than that.

One Kimber, an early Warrior model, never malfunctioned for me over several thousand rounds (I'd guess about 7). I'd also guess that at least half of that was with Wolf ammo. It was far more accurate than I could ever shoot, too. I wound up giving that gun to my son and as I far as I know it's still 100% reliable.

MIM parts also seem to be a sore spot for a lot of people. I'm no expert on metallurgy. But I do know MIM is used in manufacturing by almost all gun makers and for many other industries. I've never had a problem with a MIM part despite all the horror stories I've heard.

I've also never experienced a significant problem with any of the numerous Commander or Officer-sized 1911 pistols I've owned from Colt, Kimber or Springfield, despite their reputation as unreliable. I had one customer who bought a Springfield Micro. Constant FTE stoppages when he fired it. I could not duplicate the problem when I fired it and I couldn't see any obvious issue with his technique. He was a highly experienced Glock shooter and could not shoot that gun. I bought it from him and carried/shot it for months without an issue.

And I just love Colt 1911 pistols. By far my favorite, admittedly for nostalgic reasons. In my opinion it is THE epitome of an American legend in terms of pistols.

Not trying to start a war with this lengthy post, just curious what your experiences have been with 1911s.