older springfield 1911's?

goldeneagle76

I am looking into getting another Springfield 1911 but am looking at used this time (before they gave them names like mil-spec, loaded, etc). Are their any flaws or issues with the older Springfields that I should look out for? The only thing I have heard so far is that the older ones had softer/weaker extractors. Anything else?

gsmyth64

Have seen some with two piece barrels.

rufe-snow

I bought one in the late 80's, that was being blown out on discount at a large local gun shop. It had a "NM" ( New Model? ) prefix to the serial number. As it wasn't marked as being made in Brazil, I believe it was made in the U.S. Wasn't happy with the way it held up to a lot of shooting (Soft/Poor Heat Treat?) and sent it back to Springfield. They returned to me with a note saying it was "In Spec". I wound up buying a Caspian frame, that I built up using the parts from the Springfield.

perry shooter

Hello I guess older is a term with different meanings . during WW I and WW II the Government of the U.S. made pistols along with rifles at Springfield Armory. In the last 30 years all Springfield firearms have been made by a company that bought the rights to the name [:(!]They are in no way connected with the Springfield armory of the older firearms. [:(]With this said as far as I know ALL frames and slides for all Springfield pistols made in the last 30 years have been made in Brazil .They even marked the early ones NM to make people think they might be to NATION MATCH standards [V] THEY WERE NOT. At first the small parts were mostly G.I. surplus this was sort of hit or miss to quality of parts. Later they started making small parts in Brazil and at this time the parts were more miss then hit.Todays quality control seems to be better. I still think that any Springfield stands a better chance of being a better buy then the guns that are made in Asia and sold under many name including another PIRATED name of a U.S. arsenal. sorry G.I.D. as well as a name that used to be associated with Great 22 target pistols High Standard. Even Kimber fell into the trap of buying parts from Asia and turned a product that started out great into some what of a crap shoot. Go with Caspian [:)]
or better yet a series 70 colt[:D][:p]

gsmyth64

Ran into a few that had two piece barrels.

Hawk Carse

Nothing wrong with a two-piece barrel if done right. Browning pistols and Beretta shotguns seem to do ok with two piece barrels.

Perry shooter is right, there is a lot of deceptive branding going on.