1911 - 9mm vs 45 ACP

I have a 9mm RO Elite Champion Target (SA and their model names...). I don't have any malfunctions to report in about 500-600 rds in about 14 months.

I bought it somewhat on a whim. I was intending to find another pistol for my wife who is a serious recreational shooter.

After years of trying double stack guns, I had her try my DW in 45. Although the recoil was intense the gun fit her hands way better.

We tried Glocks, B 92s, PX4, SR9s, Sig Pro, Hk p30. In all of these the beavertail area would hit her thumb joint and become painful after just 20-50 rds. Different hand positions, etc...nothing worked. The PX4 was the best but she struggled with the DA shot and didn't like the safety levers (even the muted LTT ones).

So I whittled it down to single stack and after the success of shooting the DW I found a 9mm RO. I traded a bunch of safe queens in on it.

It worked well right out of the box with the factory mags, eats hollow points, and with adjustable rear sight could be dialed in perfectly for my wife. She has high confidence in accuracy now.

It is the easiest racking pistol ever and has great serrations that don't hurt the hands.

It is a huge homerun for us.

Thinking about getting a basic RO in 9mm to make it a training gun.

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Originally Posted by HCM

Wilson offers 9mm and 38 Super buyers the option of a spare barrel in the other caliber.

I had Alex Hamilton convert my Colt Combat Commander from .38 Super to 9mm. AFAIK it was simply a matter of him fitting a Kart 9mm barrel.

So is it feasible to carry .38 super for increased reliability and swap out to a 9mm barrel or top end for training ? They seem to track and recoil similarly.

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Wilson and Ed Brown both have dropped the .38 Super.

I have read the 9MM extractor needs to be tuned differently than a 45 extractor on the 1911, but I'm not sure of how to do this.

When my wife and I were both shooting SA 9mm 1911s in Steel Challenge I was reloading more than 7000 rounds/month for close to two years. I'm still shooting one of the guns. In all that time we've experienced one cracked firing pin stop and one broken firing pin spring. Yes, I've replaced a few recoil and FP springs. Tripp Cobra magazines have been 100% reliable and my practice mags are so dirty I don't want anyone looking at them too closely. I replaced the sights and we had 3 lb. tool steel trigger jobs performed; the feel of these triggers hasn't changed one ounce in 50K rounds. We have always shot soft loads; it's the nature of the sport and this probably has contributed somewhat to durability. I carry HKs, but if I hadn't started EDC in California I'd probably have a lightweight commander on my hip; we have two full-steel Kimber Pro Carry in 9mm/38 Super and they are a joy to shoot; somewhat better balanced than our government 1911s IMO. YMMV.

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Originally Posted by Gary1911A1

I have read the 9MM extractor needs to be tuned differently than a 45 extractor on the 1911, but I'm not sure of how to do this.

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I believe it’s been discussed here but I don’t remember where in the thread.

Thread cleaned up. Let's keep it on topic.

I have stepped away from 9mm 1911 for duty/defensive.

its the mags that got me. I tried 10s CMC/WC which were difficult to strip rounds by hand as the slug pointed down when you pushed on the round.

CMC fully loaded were difficult to click the mag in on a in battery slide. Had to slam it in which fatigued the plastic base plates and eventually had an over insertion.

Tripps were the exact opposite.... it would spit rounds out in vertical mag holders, and strip the top round out a mag on tac mag changes.

The pistol ran fine with all mags, just the quirkiness of the mags.

9 round Metalform mags worked well but also hard to strip rounds,

so might as well carry .45.

https://i.imgur.com/S6hUrPJh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/8aMar9th.jpg