I'm old & hard to convince! If I have to work on it to make it do what it's supposed to, I won't ever have faith in it.
It will be on a shelf or sold.
I had a lure in my tackle box and a friend asked what it was.
It's a lucky 13 I tell him. Huh I've never seen one, how good is it, he asked me?
I told him I can't work it very good, so I don't fish with it.
It looks cool where did you get it? Don't know it's about 27 years old.

Truthfully, they were always somewhat a scattergun, but about the most reliable made in caliber, and tough....high pressure cartridge and stuck bolt? No problem...place butt on ground and stomp handle tough. Clean one? Whatever for?

Factory vise secured grouping standard for any sample pulled off production line was 2" at 50yds, adjustable to sights. Some would not do even that. But, compared to many AKs and SKSs, which were main competitors, and even many rack grade ARs with random lots of M193, only 1 MOA behind the AR, and tied with the ComBloc stuff. Can you hit a man in torso at 300yds accuracy.

I love mine for its Garand looks and operation, and a heck of a lot easier to drag around anywhere besides a target range. But drag, it does, only a bit better than an SKS, and for dragging a 5.56 self shucker, am getting lazy and old and the 6 lb empty CAR gets toted.

But, if ever I needed an autoloader in 5.56 which could run just fine in any environment, and no telling what that might be, or when, or if, it would ever be properly cleaned again, give me my Mini 14 and a case of ammo, every time.

I am the exact same way. If I have to work on it, only to get it to function, the trust is already gone, and it ends up going nowhere, and then sold. Which is why I do not mess with copies of 1911s or Glocks or Winchesters or Marlins or etc etc etc. No reverse engineering outfit will ever understand what decades of experience and proprietary drawings and specs will get you, nor the WHY.

But, I do not exactly consider swapping mags from the same maker to be work, not when obvious to anyone familiar with 1911s that the all-purpose supplied mag not worth beans with ball. NO gun can be designed to shoot any length, weight, velocity, shape bullet or ammo in any given cartridge. Makers must compromise somewhere. My bad luck my favorite ammo not working in the compromise magazine. I even wasted money initially ordering 4 new OEM marked mags, and they did exact same thing, not an insignificant amount of money flushed to duplicate same problem, a magazine supplier problem, and maker prospective audience problem. And they and Checkmate heard about it, too. Nothing will happen, as the mags geared towards lighter HPs, where they probably shine, and probably what most buyers run out and buy, the latest wonderbullet, and all they shoot in very limited shooting, at all.

But, same could happen with any gun, your choice of ammo a bad match to platform or magazine, and, with the 1911, you can get alternatives. See what searching for wadcutter or ball specific magazines for a Glock or Springfield XD gets you, magazines which just might feed that favorite new extra wide maw wonder bullet with mini chainsaws and half the weight of original ammo while going twice as fast.

Lofty,
When we first started looking into patrol rifles/carbines,I sent out two letters.
One to Colt and the other to Ruger at the same time. In about three days,we received a package from Ruger with 50 owner's manuals for the Mini 14 and dates for armorer's courses for the Mini-14 and other Ruger firearms.

Never heard back from Colt.....ever.

So,obviously our first patrol carbines were Mini-14s and I had one set up with a Ceiner 22lr conversion unit in our indoor range for the officers to practice with.

Never had a problem with the Mini14s....ever.

Wayne

At the time you tried to contact Colt, they could have been having another money crisis and staff turnover, or a huge contract, or who knows with those folk. A VERY small outfit unknown to most, and everything done in batches, this year it is the railed commander, and try to get ARs, parts, or a full sized 1911, good luck.

Yes, the Mini 14 is my end of the world rifle, for sure. But otherwise, the 6lb CAR or .45-70 short rifle. The Mini is sluggish with 20rd mag as mag well is balance point and very butt heavy when grabbed just fwd. Truthfully the .45-70 the favorite, but the CAR is plastic/aluminum/parkerized and shrugs off daily car bonks and chafing, and no anal wipe down required daily to prevent a rusty fingerprint. The CAR gets a drop of CLP on bolt shank, in carrier vent port, on retracted charging handle, and two on carrier exterior through port, every shooting session or 500rds, cleaned every 3000rds, and has never even slowed, much less bobbled. A sandstorm a different story entire, but a fine civvy world gun.

I love my 1911s as well, they are as reliable or more so than anything else owned, Glock included, but they often suffer same fate as the Mini 14 for same reason. Am getting older and tired of being a pack mule for things owned, a snail with its shell, and as if they own me, and can hardly wait to be shed of stuff when getting home. So, today, lighter and smaller is better, and these daily drivers not intended for passing down, but only to keep me from throwing them out the window of passing car.

I have a 90s vintage Springfield "Mil-Spec". It will take anything ".45 auto" I can fit in the factory 7rnd magazine.

Sometime in the late 90s I bought a 4-pack of Chip McCormick 8rnd magazines from SG. Two of them work great, two of them FTF consistently (100%). You can even feel a difference when you snap them into place in the mag well -- they take a bit more effort to push in the last few mm before the mag release snaps in.

I contacted CMC directly, sent them the mags, they measured and sent them back, "all good, everything measures as it should."

Still a mystery. They're tossed in a parts bin somewhere with a toetag that says "unusable."

I had several of those first milspecs, and despite cast everything and two-piece barrels, those suckers worked and worked and worked, same with much higher quality Norincos and their top drawer weapon grade steel.

Contrary to popular belief,the Norinco 1911s were a pretty good piece. Much better than what Colt was putting out at the time.

Colt is not the firearms entity that it was back in the 50s and early 60s.

Every time I pass by the old Colt Dome factory,I could just cry to see it like it is now and not what it was like so many years ago.

Wayne

Wayne, my latest gun, a stainless Series 80, I would put up against any earlier gun, and have, as for fit, function and finish. There ARE some right sloppily made guns ever since WWII, civilian guns included, but functional specs/tolerances have never changed. The stainless is about 3yrs old. 10-15yrs back, not so good (edges left razor sharp, and often a lot of slide overhang, they also did an ill.conceived attempt to copy Kimber MIM extractor about 15yrs back that was quickly seen to be a disaster), honestly depends on what time frame and crisis going on there, they are one-off hand fit/assembled and depend much on THAT guy. No assembly line. Rather like some knife companies.

About the only downgrades are the MIM safety plunger tube (which they finally figured out how to make and stake), MIM sear/disconnector (which truthfully seems to hold up as well as the old stuff), cast MSH and safeties, and MIM or cast mag release button.
Barrel still forged/machined, link, slide stop, bushing, plug, firing pin, stop, extractor, ejector, slide, hammer, frame all still made the old way.

oh, they have gone to QPR scan codes under the grip (seems the military liked that on ARs) with that requiring dot matrix to apply, and so them using same to add SN, but slide and frame other marks still roll marked.

They still use one assembler putting together one gun, who also is limited by parts supply/supplied. They had a couple of good guys running the floor there which bore much fruit , of course, currently, them now gone with current crisis, one before fruit fruited.

Late PS- regarding the Norinco steel...it has been analyzed to be of much higher grade than anything ever used in a US made firearm, more akin to a shock resistant tool steel than ordnance grade steel, and you can verify with anyone who ever tried to modify a frame or slide.

And an even later PS on Norinco...chalk it up to failing memory. When customs were first heating up, and Norincos were flowing for under $200 ea and stacks of them on gunshow dealer tables, Nowlin was a pretty hot name, and he was very picky as to what brands he would touch, with Colt and Norinco his favorites. That should give some idea as to how close most were in spec.

My first introduction to the 1911,at least where I could handle one,was in 1958 when my father purchased one,a Commercial grade 1911 for $80. brand new.

In 1970 I sent that gun to Jim Clark for one of his accuracy jobs. The cost then was $125 and the turn around was two weeks.

Times have changed.

Wayne