I think Ruger's 1911 style pistols are good. Ruger casts the plunger tube as a part of the receiver, rather than staking on a plunger tube. As someone who has had a plunger tube come loose, I see this as a benefit to buying a Ruger. Ruger also uses either ramped barrels or places a titanium insert in the receiver feed ramp, depending upon caliber, so there is no gouging of the feed ramp in the receiver.
The Commander!
- Thread starter dandyrandy
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Rick_A
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The exact same. Range Officer Compact.
Rick_A
Member
Colt, Springfield Armory, Ruger, Rock Island Armory. Take your pick. Sigs are nice, too, at the 1k mark.
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dandyrandy
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I will be posting an ATI 1911 Commander that I will be upgrading here in the near future. My goal is to see if I can make a $400 dollar gun into a gun that performs like a $4000 dollar gun. I will probably use new Wilson Combat parts and possibly a new Nighthawk barrel. I can tell you right now that I probably WONT achieve $4000 dollar top shelf 1911 perfection unless I change the barrel to a match grade but it should be at the very least entertaining and nicer pistol than what I started with. Stay tuned and thanks!
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dandyrandy
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I can probably make the ATI Commander perform like a $1000 dollar gun but to make it perform any better I will need to get a match barrel and dove tail the sights to install some much better sights. The rest of it as long as the gun isnt a piece of junk should be easy to do.
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dandyrandy
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IMG_0738 by Dandy Randy, on FlickrSince I am looking into fine tuning the Commander style 1911 I wanted to give an update on one of them. Ive had my Desert Eagle for over a year now and it has performed excellent! I have to contribute the excellent quality, reliability, and accuracy to the maker. Bul LTD is an Israeli company that have been making race guns since probably the 90s. There claim to fame was the makers of the first polymer framed 1911 known as the M5 Commander. Good luck trying to find one of those! Im a big fan of Israeli made firearms seeing that the Galil, UZI, and Jericho, to name a few, are some of my favorite guns ever made. Overall Im very happy with this pistol and it came with a sweet Magnum Research knife too that you can put your own 1911 grips on!
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dandyrandy
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I also want to talk about the 4.25 inch barrel of the Commander style pistols. Im mostly going to touch on accuracy of the Commander barrels. Sometimes you see 4 inch barrels too but mostly in the Springfield Armory and Kimber variety and most of those will be bull barrels. Which leads me to my next subject.
Bull barrels??? What are they? What do they do? And do they do things better? A 1911 Bull barrel has no bushing. The fat barrel itself works as the "bushing" to lock up the gun in the front of the slide. Supposedly they claim to aid in accuracy. So far I think more or less that is a true statement. They are probably more easy to manufacture since there void of having to match up a bushing to them. Either way I like them and the only drawback I could possibly see with them is they can tend to be more difficult to take down since they are usually accompanied by a captured recoil spring that needs a special take down tool. Thats not always the case though. Some do and some dont need a tool. Overall I like them and I think they should work well for anyone. Also there maybe the possibility of more environmental contaminants to get into the pistol via the front of the gun due to and depending on the design. Depending on the application they can do things better for you. I see lots of "fancy" target guns with them so that leads me to believe they can do things better for some people.
Match grade barrels? Are they worth it?? In many ways the barrel makes or breaks a gun so when a barrel is "shot out" usually it means it has become a paper weight. I do like match grade barrels and I think there worth the extra money to buy that feature in a Commander. Ive had good luck with normal milled barrels however every match grade barrel I ever had in a gun did there part of accuracy very well as long as I did my part. Regular barrels can be hit or miss. Ive had very accurate "regular" barrels and Ive had some that cant hit the broadside of anything properly. If I was looking for one thing in a gun it would probably be the "match grade" featured barrel. Wilson Combat and Nighthawk Customs makes a very nice aftermarket match barrel.
"Regular" 4.25 bushing barrel. In my experience with the 1911 the best "regular" barrels in the accuracy department seem to mostly be of the Colt design. If you have a Colt barrel you cant go wrong and in my opinion seems to be the "best" option on the Colt 1911s. HOWEVER everything else can be upsetting on the Colt pistols. One being the multitude of machining marks I tend to see on the inside of the Colt 1911s. Dont get me started on that!
Polygonal barrels???? Umm sure lets talk about those. This refers to the grooves and lands inside the barrel and how there cut. Poly cut barrels are different than straight cut barrels. The easiest and quickest way I can explain them is a poly groove is more of a rounded hump cut instead of the traditional sharp straight cut if that makes any sense? Im not really going to go into length on them because good luck trying to find one for a 1911 however Ive had them before and they seem every bit as accurate as they claim to be.
Bull barrels??? What are they? What do they do? And do they do things better? A 1911 Bull barrel has no bushing. The fat barrel itself works as the "bushing" to lock up the gun in the front of the slide. Supposedly they claim to aid in accuracy. So far I think more or less that is a true statement. They are probably more easy to manufacture since there void of having to match up a bushing to them. Either way I like them and the only drawback I could possibly see with them is they can tend to be more difficult to take down since they are usually accompanied by a captured recoil spring that needs a special take down tool. Thats not always the case though. Some do and some dont need a tool. Overall I like them and I think they should work well for anyone. Also there maybe the possibility of more environmental contaminants to get into the pistol via the front of the gun due to and depending on the design. Depending on the application they can do things better for you. I see lots of "fancy" target guns with them so that leads me to believe they can do things better for some people.
Match grade barrels? Are they worth it?? In many ways the barrel makes or breaks a gun so when a barrel is "shot out" usually it means it has become a paper weight. I do like match grade barrels and I think there worth the extra money to buy that feature in a Commander. Ive had good luck with normal milled barrels however every match grade barrel I ever had in a gun did there part of accuracy very well as long as I did my part. Regular barrels can be hit or miss. Ive had very accurate "regular" barrels and Ive had some that cant hit the broadside of anything properly. If I was looking for one thing in a gun it would probably be the "match grade" featured barrel. Wilson Combat and Nighthawk Customs makes a very nice aftermarket match barrel.
"Regular" 4.25 bushing barrel. In my experience with the 1911 the best "regular" barrels in the accuracy department seem to mostly be of the Colt design. If you have a Colt barrel you cant go wrong and in my opinion seems to be the "best" option on the Colt 1911s. HOWEVER everything else can be upsetting on the Colt pistols. One being the multitude of machining marks I tend to see on the inside of the Colt 1911s. Dont get me started on that!
Polygonal barrels???? Umm sure lets talk about those. This refers to the grooves and lands inside the barrel and how there cut. Poly cut barrels are different than straight cut barrels. The easiest and quickest way I can explain them is a poly groove is more of a rounded hump cut instead of the traditional sharp straight cut if that makes any sense? Im not really going to go into length on them because good luck trying to find one for a 1911 however Ive had them before and they seem every bit as accurate as they claim to be.
Grayfox
US Veteran
Y'all know by now that I'm a 1911 kinda guy. 
I currently own 4 Commander sized pistols. All Colts.
A series 70 Combat Commander .45acp
A Series 80 Combat Commander .38 Super
A pre-70 1952 Commander .38 Super
And then there's this one. Its been my EDC for over 20 years.
1959 Colt Commander .45acp with some light modifications.
I own 1911s in pre-70, 70 series and 80 series configurations. Frankly, I've never found any real difference in the triggers of any of them.
I currently own 4 Commander sized pistols. All Colts. A series 70 Combat Commander .45acp
A Series 80 Combat Commander .38 Super
A pre-70 1952 Commander .38 Super
And then there's this one. Its been my EDC for over 20 years.
1959 Colt Commander .45acp with some light modifications.
I own 1911s in pre-70, 70 series and 80 series configurations. Frankly, I've never found any real difference in the triggers of any of them.
I had a Rock Island Commander .45 that was an incredible gun for the money, I paid under $350 brand new about 5 years ago, and it was excellent in about every way. It kinda bugged me that it had a spur hammer and I think Commanders should have a ring hammer like the original so I sold it. I should have kept the gun and changed the hammer and sights.
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peter-paul
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Commanders are just about perfect in size. I let my wife shoot my Dan Wesson commander in 10mm, and she did great with it!
Puller
Member
Wow, this has been a very educational thread for me. I own a couple of full size 1911's (because I was told all real American gun owners should have at least one) but I have not really been schooled on series 70 and series 80 and what is a "real" Commander and what is just a look-a-like and other tidbits that serious 1911 fans understand.
Some of the discussion here about Colt Commanders reminds me of discussion I once read about "there is no such thing as a .45 Long Colt". Who knew?
Some of the discussion here about Colt Commanders reminds me of discussion I once read about "there is no such thing as a .45 Long Colt". Who knew?
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HOUSTON RICK
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johnt671
US Veteran
I just bought an American Classic Commander slightly used. I'm going to fire it for the first time this afternoon.
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You guys are killing me.
I carried a satin nickle Combat Commander .45 on a narcotics/OC task force in the mid-80s. When I went back to my department I had to conform to the DA 9mm regs and the Commander went to buy my wife a deer rifle.
Without getting into the "collectible" market that Colts now occupy, I'd really enjoy a replacement, but with the 1911A1 grip and absent the "shark fin" grip safety. Does anybody make one these days? All I can seem to find are in the modern/flashback configuration.
I carried a satin nickle Combat Commander .45 on a narcotics/OC task force in the mid-80s. When I went back to my department I had to conform to the DA 9mm regs and the Commander went to buy my wife a deer rifle.
Without getting into the "collectible" market that Colts now occupy, I'd really enjoy a replacement, but with the 1911A1 grip and absent the "shark fin" grip safety. Does anybody make one these days? All I can seem to find are in the modern/flashback configuration.
Decades ago, Colt did mate a Officers Model slide with a Commander frame. It was called the Lieutenant Commander.
It was a concept before it's time, nobody ever heard of them. However today you have lots of the custom makers doing this exact same configuration. One of the terms I have heard for this configuration is Concealed Carry Officers or CCO.
Pig Hunter
Member
My Ruger commander LW is my EDC . No issues yet (knock on wood) and if I do my part and concentrate, so about half the time, I can hit my steel target that is about 12"x 12" shaped like a ram. This is standing 2 handed at 50 yds. First shot hit 90% of the time. I have a Colt Gov't series 70 that will feed empty brass and is far more accurate then I am. The LW Commander is a joy to carry in comparison and a bit easier to conceal IWB.
Rodan
Member
I have always loved Commanders... It was the first gun I wanted to buy for myself, and I've probably had at least a half-dozen Colts over the years, Commanders and Combat Commanders, and at least four Kimber Pros. For the first half of my career, I carried some variant of Combat Commander as my duty sidearm.
I always liked the short cycle time compared to a full-size Gov, and losing that 3/4" on the front made them easier to carry.
These days, all the Colts have passed out of my hands, and the current stable includes just two Kimbers and a Ruger (9mm).
Though I miss my Colts, the Kimber CDP Pro is my all time favorite EDC gun. It's just perfect, right out of the box. I've thought of trading the SIS a few times, but I can never make myself go through with it... you just don't see them around much, and I know it would be difficult to replace.
I'm on the hunt to put a Colt Commander back in the safe... I have a friend I sold one to almost thirty years ago that I'm working on buying back...
I always liked the short cycle time compared to a full-size Gov, and losing that 3/4" on the front made them easier to carry.
These days, all the Colts have passed out of my hands, and the current stable includes just two Kimbers and a Ruger (9mm).
Though I miss my Colts, the Kimber CDP Pro is my all time favorite EDC gun. It's just perfect, right out of the box. I've thought of trading the SIS a few times, but I can never make myself go through with it... you just don't see them around much, and I know it would be difficult to replace.
I'm on the hunt to put a Colt Commander back in the safe... I have a friend I sold one to almost thirty years ago that I'm working on buying back...
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