Been a quite follower of Todd for quite some time. That said, I'm also a 1911 junkie, and furthermore a Wilson and Colt disciple.
Since hearing about the Triple Nickel, I've been training/practicing to get there consistently with this gun: An early 2000's CQB purchased new.
And, yep, tightly fitted 1911s can run dirty too:
I have to say, from a content perspective, this forum and Todd's site are amazing.
Thanks Todd,
Bill
CQB is a great gun. Never owned one, but handled many.
Re TripNick: every test that requires a reload kicks my butt if I run it with a 1911. Until I started shooting double stacks, I never realized how less forgiving the 1911s are in that regard.
Never again will I run a "serious" 1911 that doesn't have a mag funnel on it.
I have "serious" 1911s with and without. The S&A is easily my favorite.
With or without, my hangup is usually a front of the well "hit." Unless I did one of those huge IPSC funnels, I doubt I'd really pick up much time.
I know a couple of very serious 1911 shooters who no longer choose to use mag "funnels" on 1911's after being in situations where mag wells were bumped and bent, preventing magazine changes. These guys don't just shoot on a one way range...
Agreed-on my Nighthawk Custom Talon II build, I specified "No magazine funnels." What Nighthawk did was to bevel all interior sides (including the inner frontstrap)-and then credited me for the magwell deletion, which I thought was a nice gesture.
Best, Jon
For me, "serious" = "competition". I can honestly say that after all the shooting I did last year with 1911s, I won't carry one.
I've got nothing but respect for your opinions, Doc, but I'll say this: I've been carrying the same Springer Pro for practically a decade now. Compared to the gun pictured by the OP, my pistol looks like it's been dragged behind a truck and then stomped into a mudhole*. Now, I don't jump out of helicopters with a knife in my teeth for a living; the harshest environment my pistol will see is the mall parking lot outside the food court entrance, and the occasional pistol class, and thus far the S&A magwell has held up just fine.Originally Posted by DocGKR
*Because I stomped it into a mudhole once to prove a point...
I wonder if anybody has had a similar problem with that take-down tool that resides in a backstrap of an M&P. I know it can be twisted sideways and block the entrance, but I am not familiar with M&Ps enough to know if this is possible during the use.
Back to 1911, I'd imagine this is a matter of personal experience and exposure. I just recently handled a replica of a working 1911 that belongs to a Sgt.-Maj. (ret.) of 1st SFOD-D. The original piece has been taken into a harm's way and used there. That pistol had, among other unusual things, a magwell on it. I know you've seen that pistol too.
Having said that, I personally prefer integral magwells like Stan Chen's Magwell Suite, for exactly the same reason.
Caleb: "Serious" = peoples lives are at stake.
YVK: Never seen it happen on the M&P, but if it did occur, it would take less than a second to fix.
Tamara: Take that same 1911 on a combat deployment while getting in and out of armored vehicles, fast-roping out of helicopers, perform VBSS while banging into steel bulkheads and passageways, roll over onto your side with 200+ lbs crushing down on the pistol butt.
Here is a comment on S&A magwells from the recently retired, combat experienced, senior SOF NCO behind the C&S Trident 1911:
"The Trident doesn't have a magwell because...I was building a couple identical Caspian 1911's for two friends and was putting S&A magwells on them both. I had them all blended into the frames and everything and was taking them out to test fire them both in the white. I shot the first gun...no problems. Dropped the mag and started with the other...Shot two rounds (that's all that was loaded) and couldn't drop the magazine. I couldn't pull, tap, or halfway hammer the mag out. WT$? I tore the gun apart around the inserted empty mag (boy, was that fun). Tried to tap the magazine out from the top of the frame. No luck. I finally figured out that the magwell had one of its sides pushed over a slight bit and had crimped on the magazine base. It was most likely from a trip to the vise at one point or another, but who knows for sure? My bad, but for grins I pinched another S&A magwell I had and could feel it move. Yikes!!! I had never realized how easy it was to move those things. I tried to imagine how I would have gotten that pistol in action if something like that had happened in the field. That kind of swore me off of them for combat use."
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