[Guest]

i was thinking about getting the new ECS compact 45. It can be had for under 400.00. i spoke with a fellow shooter and he cautioned against getting one. He equated it to the Kel Tec's of 45's. He said that you could see the milling marks and that they required F&B and were hit and miss in reliability. Any suggestions.

 

[Stasher1]

IMHO, there are MUCH better guns available in that price range. A Springfield WWII Mil-spec is a little less than $400, and it's a hell of a gun.

 

[Guest]

the mil-spec's look nice but I am looking for a compact style 1911. I considered the Bersa compact 45 but I wanted to try and find a 1911 first.

 

[flyandscuba]

I'm sure the prices will be high -- but for the "ultimate" 1911-style compact....it was announced at the 2004 ShotShow that the Detonics pistol will be coming back on the market.

I had one of the early ones back in the '80s....the first of the compact hi=powered pistols. Used ones run in the $500-800 range.

 

[Flyer]

I'll confess I'm a bit leery of those, myself... I haven't shot one yet, just examined one... it's not too confidence inspiring from what I've seen so far. I might be wildly off base, though. I'd have to shoot one first.
Have you taken a look at the Bersa 1911s? They make some pretty nice tiny ones that are quite reliable.
http://www.bersa-llama.com/cat_minimax_sub_compact.htm
Flyer

 

[DDGator]

I had an ECS exactly like that -- but in Stainless. Very nice looking gun.

It was not a great shooter. It had some FTF issues even with good mags. I also had to replace the slide stop with a Wilson to get it to lock open on an empty mag. I tried to make a go of getting someone to work on it -- but the local 1911 smith didn't really want to work on a CD. I eventually found a reason to get rid of it.

There is a Charles Daly forum on 1911.com.

Springfield, by the way, makes a mil-spec micro too. Prices are around $450 I think.

 

[JPN]

I have one of the early Charles Daly 1911 Government models. I bought it used, but know the two previous owners. The original owner said it needed a ramp polish, but other than that it was a perfectly good gun. The second owner had the extractor break, and he replaced it with a Wilson extractor. I noticed a small crack in the grip safety, near the pivot pin, and it has since grown in length and changed direction. There are also marks where the hammer has been hitting the grip safety. After the crack grew, I stripped the gun down to the bare frame and inspected everything. The thumb safety has some wear patterns that I didn't like (looks like the metal was too soft), but I didn't see any other problems.

It is now a project gun, waiting for me to have the time and money to completely rebuild it with higher quality parts.

A Kimber probably would have been cheaper in the long run, but that wouldn't have included gaining the experience of building a custom 1911.

 

[Stasher1]

Personally, I don't think the Series II Kimbers are any better. I've got a Series II Stainless Pro Carry and a Series I Pro CDP. THe Pro Carry is a total POS and is completely unreliable. I'm in the process of replacing all of the small parts with Wilson and Ed Brown stuff just to make it function properly.

The CDP, on the other hand, is absolutely fantastic. Completely reliable with any ammo and extremely accurate. It was built back when they actually cared about quality.

 

[DDGator]

For fairness sake, I should also mention that I bought a very lightly used Kimber Ultra Carry and the MIM thumb safety sheared off then I tried to activate it.

This could have been very bad, since it then allows the pin to fall out that holds in the grip safety, deactivating the gun.