1911 VS Glock

[Love Life]

I'll try this again...in the correct forum.

This is the official 1911 VS Glock thread. This is the place to declare your side, and support it. All evidence is admissible to include: Verifiable proof, anecdotal evidence, tall tales, retelling of things you heard, etc.

So which is better?

Included is the only known photo of a 1911 Sammich with a side of Commander model:

[Tom W.]

Can't say which is "better". I had a Colt GM for 40 years and traded it for a Glock Gen 4 Mod.30 The Colt did have an easier trigger to master...

[JSnover]

Dunno. The Glock is lighter but it's bulkier. Doesn't fit my hand the way the 1911 does.

[Lefty Red]

Hmmm,

Out of the box-Glock
Tricked out-1911

Jerry

[Don Purcell]

Utilitarian verses class.

[rogerstg]

I enjoy shooting with a good trigger on a 1911 or any hammer gun more than any striker fired pistol. That doesn't mean it's better, just my preference for recreational shooting.

[aarolar]

Neither I vote M&P

[LUCKYDAWG13]

some how i can just see my son passing down my 1911 to my grand son one day long after I'm gone
not my plastic gun

[BrianL]

I had the model 30 (the cast bullet barrel is listed in S & S) and two Springfield 1911's. I tried to make the 30 my carry gun but for my 2 cents, the 1911's feel better , shoot better for a utilitarian purpose. I can hit a rabbits head every time. If the 'game' is shooting back, the Glock's firepower might give it an edge with capacity. As for concealment, it wasn't really any better than the 1911.

[Valley Forge]

I'm unqualified because I don't have an open mind. I've only shot a Glock twice and it just didn't feel right to me. I've been shooting 1911's for a long, long time and can't help but long for just one more.

[gkainz]

Every time I start to feel a little bad about badmouthing Glocks and think I need to give it another try, my hand sort of throws up just a little as I try to wrap my fingers around the Glock. So, I've promised myself to heed my dear old mother's advice of "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything."

[ejcrist]

I like my 1911's a whole lot better for a variety of reasons, but I seem to carry my Glock more often because I don't worry if it gets dinged, scratched, etc. So I vote for the 1911 but I don't have anything negative to say about Glocks since they do the job well for me.

[Comrade Mike]

Depends on what context were talking about.

[bouncer50]

The 1911 has been around for over 100 years now. Its a time tested prove it a good design. I am willing to bet it will be here for another 100 years unless they have a super type of ray-gun in the future. Time will tell about the Glocks future. A lot of guns have come and gone but the 1911 is here to stay.

[OutHuntn84]

I love my Glock. Just what I know. Everytime I pull it up Im on target. Never could get that with a 1911

[lefty o]

at the same price point, the glock is a more reliable pistol. i have more 1911's than glocks, but facts is facts, you have to pay more for a quality reliable 1911.

[Love Life]

Is the Glock not a time tested and proven design?

[bhn22]

There is no "best". Things vary in utility and ease of use from user to user. I've had nine different Glocks, now I have none. I've had five different 1911s, and now I have three.

[Love Life]

To me, the answer is both and neither. It just depends on the application.

I have owned many Glocks through the years and many 1911's. I've had one dud Glock and 1 dud 1911.

Out of the box the Glocks and 1911s shoot pretty close to each other on paper in the 45 ACP cartridge. I've never tried to "tune" a Glock for accuracy and have no idea if they will hang with a fully tuned wad gun of the 1911 variety if a Glock can be tuned to that level of accuracy.

For concealing, the 1911 pretty much wins across the size spectrum from full size to sub-compact. The Glock 26 and 19 are more concealable than the 17, but they are still very thick. The Glock 36 does well for concealing, but only has 7 rds so you might as well have a Commander model 1911. The 30S is quite good, but still lags behind the Commander model 1911 for concealing.

Reliability. As the gun gets smaller, Glocks reliability edge increases.

Bringing the ruckus. Glock wins hands down for available firepower on tap. I carry a 1911 with 2 magazines for CCW in all seasons, but when traveling or possibly having to go into bad places a Glock 21 on the duty belt with 5 magazines has the edge on a similarly decked out belt with a 1911 and 5 magazines. The numbers are undeniable.

Looks. The 1911 walks all over the Glock in the looks department.

Reliability in adverse conditions. Well, they are both reliable platforms and if you do just a smidge of weapons maintenance then both will be fine.

So is one really better than the other? Yes and no. It depends on the application.

Those are my thoughts on it.

[Bigslug]

Honestly, they are my #1 (1911) and #2 (Glock) favorites for semi autos - it's most of the other offerings I don't have much use for.

Here's my take on it for the operator:

The 1911's is the refined samurai sword for the warrior who really focuses on and trains at his craft, and learns the intricate aspects of the tools of life at the sharp end. The Glock is the crude, but effective boarding cutlass for the guy who is normally up in the rigging hanging sails, but realistically might have to chop someone up someday.

The thing I like about the Glock is that, among all the ways since the early 1930's that lawyers have come up with to hamper the accurate combat firing of pistols with devices that "idiot proof" them, the Glock probably hampers the operator the least.

From a maintenance perspective:

The 1911 was designed to be a bulletproof tank of a pistol that you can often easily fix in the middle of nowhere by adjusting the parts you have, or by finding a blacksmith to get clever and make them for you. In the days of remote deployment in a pre-internet, pre-telephone, pre-fax-ordering world, this was emphatically the kind of weapon you wanted. AND, if you don't get overly into the modern features like ambi safeties and goofy guide rods, you can take it almost all the way apart with the pistol itself providing the tools for the job.

The Glock is probably the best of the modern "planned service life" guns in that most of what can go wrong on them can be solved with a new, drop-in, no-need-to-adjust part. . . AND you can take it pretty much all the way apart in under a minute with one tool - a drift punch.

I don't think anything else comes close to these two. I'll gleefully roll with either, prefer the 1911 for myself, and the Glock if I have to take care of several hundred of them.