Hey guys, I was at my LGS last week and was looking in the case, when I saw the Smith E series 1911's on display. There was the bobtail scandium commander model, the 1911PD scandium commander, and the 5" stainless model (non-railed). I was in the market for a commander sized model, but they were just a little out of my price range right now, so I settled on the 5" and put one on layaway.

My question goes to other owners of the 5" model. How do you like yours, what ammo does yours prefer (hollow points? which brands?), and what have you done to yours since you've gotten it? I must admit that I am utterly smitten with this gun. I find it to be an extremely handsome piece, and the fit and finish is exceptional. I am new to Smith 1911's, but very familiar with the platform. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Good choice! Fantastic pistol - shoot as soft as a 9mm and very accurate.

My stainless E-series has been very reliable. When new, I had a couple of failures to feed with a full mag with various types of round-nose ammo, but haven't had any since. I've used mostly American Eagle and Winchester White Box. I have also run some Speer Gold Dot JHPs just to test function - they feed just fine.

My pistol had a bit of a loose and rattling grip safety, but this was easily corrected by increasing the tension on one of the fingers of the sear spring.

I've had your gun for a couple of years and have had absolutely no problems with it, after about 2,000 rounds. Most of this has been hardball, all makes, but I've fired a couple hundred rounds of assorted HP also, without a misfeed. I haven't made any mods to it, but I am thinking of replacing the original grips with Kim Ahrends checkered ebony.

I've had my e-series 5 inch non rail for two years now and it will eat any kind of ammo while being scary accurate. You will love your new smith. Best of luck.

I agree 100% with t-bird....

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Bob Giese

Thanks for the info, guys. I'm getting it close to being paid off and I can't stand the wait! A reloading buddy is already tooling up to create about 200 rounds for me to help with the break in.

Typically, when I get a new 1911, I get out my Brownells catalog and start looking for stuff that I want to put on my new piece, but I literally cannot find a single thing that I want to change about my new one!

Just got mine this past Friday. I love everything about it. Especially the front checkering on the grip. The grips are very well made as well. Very tight gun, and very accurate. So far I have only used federal 230 gr. Ball. I do have my carry mags loaded with Win PDX1 230gr. Haven't ran them so not sure if I will run into any hiccups. I am planning on installing g10 extended grips kit.

I did forget to mention. My 1911 did not come with the Smith logo on the left side. Or on slide at all. I actually prefer the look of the slide without any marks on it. Almost looks custom. Not sure if that will hurt the value. Which I dont care because this is a keeper forbgood!

I must say, its very striking without the logo. As you said, it appears to be a one-off or custom gun. Almost like the gun is saying, "You should know my name!"

You will really like it when you get it. i have the railed version and took it to the range today. Just its 2nd visit. Shot some Federal and some Blazer, both 230 grain, with no issues at all. Except I need more range time and hate picking up brass!

I'm really curious to see how it handles hollow points. I've had problems in the past with my other 1911's shooting 185 grain HP's. I'm guessing that it is the extreme slope of the bullet? Anyway, I'm going to do some wide and far-reaching experimentation to see if this gun will prove the typical 1911 stereotype wrong of being finicky with certain ammo. We shall see...

I don't think you'll have any problems with any kind of ammo. I have two S&W 1911s, a 5" PC gun and a 1911Sc - both feed, fire and extract Federal 185-grain hollow-point factory loads as well as handloads with 185-grain semi-wadcutters, Missouri 185-grain "Button" bullets and 200-grain semi-wadcutters. The one 45-caliber bullet I've never shot in my guns is a 230-grain round nose!

That same "will shoot anything" statement can't be made for all 1911s. A friend of mine has Rock Island that won't feed Buttons at all and is inconsistent with semi-wadcutters but my two S&Ws are totally impartial to bullet shape.

Ed

I've had mine for about a year and my experience is almost a carbon copy of your's except for the loose grip safety. Had a couple FTFeeds within the first 100 rounds but after proper lubing nary an issue. I was under lubing mine. I really haven't found any ammo it won't feed.

As stated, very accurate! Love mine.

I have two 'E' Types with no slide markings at all, one two-tone, blue over stainless, and one all stainless. Both are Talo limited special runs, and both have the same product code, 151198, the same serial prefix, UCSxxxx, and the same special grips. The two-tone gun had a limited run of 250, I believe, and the stainless gun is mirror polished on the slide and had a very limited edition run, its 1 of only 15 total. And I agree, they're very custom looking.

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"We deal in lead, friend."

I've had good luck with Springfield 1911s over the years,so when I went to the Phoenix gun show last month with a pocket full of cash I had every intention of finding the best deal on a loaded stainless to add to the collection. My plans went right out the window when I spotted a S&W 1911E in one vendors case. All the features of the loaded plus checkered front strap and main spring housing, beautiful finish,distinctive scalloped serrations, all with the feel of a quality piece. I knew I had to have it, but I tried to hide my excitement. It was priced at $899 plus tax.Chatted with the guy for a bit, he was down in the dumps about how slow the show had been for him. After verifying that it was a NIB pistol (and checking the S&W website for MSRP) l told him that for $750 total he could have one less gun to pack up and take back to his store. After he laughed at me and told me no way whipped out the cash and showed it to him. That got him to quit laughing and after a little more back and forth we shook hands at $780 including tax.

Since then I have put 500 rounds thru it with zero issues. Repeat,zero of any kind. I own several 1911s and this is the first one that came out of the box for me fully functional and reliable. I couldn't be any happier with it. Other than a set of VZ grips (Operator 2,black cherry),it's completely stock and I plan to keep it that way, if it ain't broke don't fix it!

Just purchased a SW1911TA today - railed SS model - from Buds PS. Won't see it for a few days of course but am pretty excited. I have been pouring over several models the past few days trying to decide - Combat Elite, TRP, Dan Wesson, and even the SR1911, along with a few S&W - the 108282, an older Pro Series, etc - but in the end decided to stay with the E series. While I really didn't set out on getting a railed 1911 I think it will do fine.

I will probably change the grips to something black...maybe - but little else. Maybe a standard length guide rod, that's about it I reckon.

Also on the lookout for a holster, I have a Galco slide which I'm sure will work fine for casual work, but would like to fine a nice OWB leather setup that works with the rail.

Not my pic, I'll post up some when it arrives...

Very sharp looking, I predict you'll like it it a lot.

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"We deal in lead, friend."

Excellent choice!
I've had mine for a while now and couldn't be happier with it.

I run reloads with 185+200g SWC, and occasionally 230g RN or 200g XTP, and the 'E' likes them all.

Similar to Desert6's post, I was getting ready to buy a Springfield Loaded when I encountered my 1911-E in a LGS display case. Once I handled the S&W, it didn't take me long to reconsider!

That two-tone is sweet, I really like 2T's, in fact I almost bought the Colt Combat Elite over the Smith because it was a 2T.

Well, when I put my E Series on layaway, I originally came to the gun shop with the intention of buying a used Colt Lightweight Commander that they had on lay for the same price that I would be paying for the Smith.

I couldn't get over the difference in the number of features and the difference in the fit and finish of the two guns. They felt so different. I understand that Colts are supposed to be top-shelf, but I came away thoroughly unimpressed with the it. To me, it felt and seemed more like a $600-ish gun. Other than an extended beavertail and an alloy frame, it was nothing special. The trigger was mediocre, in my opinion. It was sloppy in the frame, which is nothing like what an Series is. I used to have plain-jane Mil Spec Springfield 1911 and the triggers were comparable. I'd expect more out of a $900 gun.

My father in law and I bought a pair of these a couple of years ago. Nice guns. I immediately changed out the recoil spring to a 16# and the mainspring to a 19#. That cured all the ills of both guns and they are both 100% reliable and a pleasure to shoot. Don't know why S&W made them sprung so heavily. The heavy mainspring may have something to do with the light weight firing pin. Anyway all's good now.

Apparently 1911 grip bushings are not common stock, at least in many shops around here. Finally found some VZ ones at the 3rd LGS I went to - they are slimmer than the stock ones, but seem to work fine. I'll be adding some VZ O2's or Recons anyway most likely, so should be a non-issue. Bad part is after running errands, stopping by the gun show (which was a bust, btw - seems like they are getting smaller and smaller these days ), and time wasted chasing down the bushings - pretty much wasted my whole afternoon. So range time will have to wait until Monday.

I think it's time to put in a general spare parts order to Brownells

EDiT - lol I just realized I posted this in the wrong thread, meant to post it in my other E-Series thread .