by 1911fan on Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:43 am
I appreciate where you are coming from.
There are several top line 1911 builders. Ed Brown, the boys at Nighthawk, Wilson, cylinder and slide, Heinie, Novaks, the boys at YoBo, and Les Baer, (I know I am missing some) They all make TOP NOTCH guns. I like Ed, and I like Charlie at C&S. They treat you like a human and do not ridicule you if you want something out of the ordinary, as long as they are comfortable with the function of your choice. Just slightly below these guys are the , STI's, Rock River and EVO gun works, All of these are really really good guns that should function like a good watch and work for a long long time.
Mind you, the prices on the above all dependent on the amount of shop time spent making them. The basic custon gun should run about 1200 to 1500 street cost, that is, a 1911A1 with a set of good fixed sights, a 4 or so pound trigger, a fitted slide and frame, and all the bits properly fitted and finished. The big jumps in costs, are when people want a stone reliable 2 pound trigger, 50 LPI checkering on the back of the slide, 40 lpi on the hammer, safety and front of trigger guard, 30 lpi on the main spring housing, the front strap and the memory pad of the grip safety, with a welded and blended mag well opening, with yada, yada, yada. If the shop charges out at 50 dollars an hour, it does not take long to add another 20 to 30 hours of work to a gun. and that adds up fast. add fancy leather and real ivory grips, and a 5000 dollar package can show up.
Perhaps the most complete show case of the art of the 1911 is the "Louder Than Words" gun porn sight. There are several builder there who have pooled to make a website. YoBo is the most prolific, but the other guys do good work and maybe less in demand.
Also, Ed Brown, Cylinder and Slide, Les Baer, and some others have pretty good websights where you see what you like from their stuff and why they do what the do.
That all said, you can get an awful lot of pistol for a $1000 or so now. Competition has driven prices down on the factory hot rod models, S&W, STI, SA and Kimber have some guns out there that give you a lot for the dollar. Kimber has had some growth issues, Springer in the custom shop guns has been pretty steady, and I am constant impressed with the accuracy of the new S&W 1911's. The Gunsite version I played with this week is one of the more accurate 1911's I have shot in a very long time. My only personal complaint on the S&W is the external extractor, but after a million of so external extractor 39 and 59 series pistols, I think they probably know what they are doing.