Over the years, I’ve acquired quite a few 1911s, many of them Springfields, and seen a lot more in my shooting classes. They seem to run like the proverbial Singer sewing machine.
Let me tell you about one specimen of one of the company’s older 1911 pistols that has been with me for a decade and a half now. Frankly, it’s an allegory for the whole Springfield 1911/1911A1 line, really.
When I wrote an article about that particular Range Officer 1911 a few years back (you can find it here), I could remember only a single malfunction in several thousand rounds with it. In fact, it’s on my hip in a Mitch Rosen holster as I write this. In a helluva lot more shooting since I wrote that article, reliability with it has been 100 percent. Remember, (like all autopistols) they need to be kept lubed. 1911s like to run wet.
Reliable Partner
My primary occupation is that of firearms and deadly force instructor. I travel a lot to do it, and my teaching gun is also my carry gun. When a student’s gun goes down on the range, if he or she doesn’t have a spare of their own the instructor can give them theirs. That has happened enough times to add considerably to my 1911’s round count.
The pistol is an all-steel 5”barreled gun, and heavy by modern standards. Nonetheless, with a good holster and belt, it’s manageable. The pistol’s slimness helps greatly in concealment, and it lends itself well to the discreet carry afforded by IWB (Inside the WaistBand) and appendix (AIWB) holsters.
Due to the design of the 1911, holstering with the thumb on hammer creates no fewer than three bulwarks against a negligent discharge: (1) the thumb safety should of course be engaged, firstly; (2) the thumb is in place to block the hammer’s fall if something inadvertently gets in the way of the trigger during holstering, and (3) this thumb placement makes sure the grip safety is in its “on safe” position.
Personal Experience
I’ve accumulated a lot of 1911 pistols over the years, some of them very high-end variations. So, why so much time with a pistol that debuted at under $900 retail? Over the years, I learned that if an instructor is demonstrating a technique with a tricked-out gun, at least some of the students will think, “Aw, he’s just shooting that good because he’s got that three-thousand dollar gun.”
The reality is, I’m trying to live up to the mantra I teach them: “Good shooting isn’t about the gun so much as it’s about the shooter, and it isn’t even about the shooter so much as it’s about consistent application of proven technique.”
While on my own time or in matches where I didn’t have to be a role model for anyone else, I might carry and shoot a more expensive or custom-grade 1911. When my favorite match, the old Second Chance Bowling Pin Shoot, was reinstated as The Pin Shoot in 2017, the gun I used in Stock Class was my TGO-II, a top-of-the-line semi-custom Springfield Armory 1911A1 .45 available several years ago.
On the flip side, for my classes I decided not to teach with a gun that cost more than the $1,000 tuition for my core 40-hour class, the MAG-40. That old Springfield Armory Range Officer came in under that mark, and I think I made a very good choice.
Real-World Use
In the photos that accompany this article, you can see the holster wear on my Range Officer that is testimony to its many years of carry and use. I wore it from classes in Anchorage, Alaska and the Firearms Academy of Seattle to north Florida, and from California to New Hampshire. It always delivered.
And it always “shot above its weight class.” An instructor has to show that he or she knows how to run more than one type of gun. I used to change guns every training tour. Laziness or something got to me and of late I’ve changed guns seasonally. First quarter is with striker-fired guns, and the second quarter is 1911 season so I can get more time with the guns I prefer to use at that favorite Pin Shoot I just mentioned.
I’m writing this on the last day of June 2024. My schedule had me on the road for about a month, from late May through the third week of June. When you are traveling by car, the fewer guns you’re responsible for, the better. I left my TGO-II at home and decided to shoot my carry/teaching Range Officer for the Stock Gun portion of the Pin Shoot this time around.
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It turned out that this old 1911 was the only gun that took me to the prize table with a top 10 finish out of 170-some competitors. Yes, I shot it better than my favorite “target pistol,” a Springfield Armory 1911-A1 .45 customized and recoil-compensated by the late, great Mike Plaxco, which had won many a match for me in the past.
Why? Partly because I had shot the Range Officer more than the target pistol. Tracking between targets for each successive shot, the recoil reduction of the compensator became virtually meaningless because there was time to recover from it during the target transition. It may even be that the greater recoil of the un-compensated .45 with potent Federal HST 230-gr. +P ammo forced me to “hold harder.” The bottom line is, that sub-thousand-dollar Springfield with its 4 lb.-plus street trigger did everything I asked it to do.
I used to shoot a couple dozen matches a year. Halfway through 2024, I had shot only three. That 1911 had figured in two of them — the Pin Shoot just mentioned and a PPC match in Pennsylvania when I was teaching there, earning me a second place and some cash against a field with a lot of customized guns in play.
My wife, a self-styled “shooter-chick” and champion shooter herself, insists that I shoot this1911 .45 better than any of my other handguns. I’m not prepared to concede on that … but I’m not prepared to argue the point, either.
And Now…
While this excellent 1911 might not be part of Springfield Armory’s current line-up anymore, they offer a whole host of new options to fit your needs. Whichever flavor you choose, my experience over the decades has been that Springfield Armory 1911s give you excellent value for the money, and offer a very high-degree of build quality.
I for one am a satisfied customer with this old 1911 Springfield. It’s certainly proven its worth over the years.
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