Yes, it’s a Kimber Custom II. This one belongs to a college student who says he carries it because he has a “deep respect for classic pieces that incorporate leather, wood, and steel.”

You just don’t see 1911s carried as frequently anymore. They’re absolutely feasible for concealed carry, though. As with any gun you intend to carry make sure your 1911 is reliable and accurate – and take the time to train with it.

How about you guys. Any other 1911 carriers out there?

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45 COMMENTS

  3. I started carrying an A1 in 2004, I’d switch it out occasionally with the 54-1 but more often it was the 1911. As of yet I’ve not found a defensive pistol that I personally can shoot as fast and accurate as that sidearms platform. It just all comes together for me, the weight, recoil, and trigger. These heavier sidearms do benefit from a good holster for ease of carry over those lighter, yuk plastic, pistols. If a person looks at weight of the lead dumped on target 17 9 mm at 115 gr ‘s = 8 230 gr. 45’s, err I might be wrong possums are math dyslexic.

      • Depends on which bullets you use/prefer.

        .45 goes all the way down to 165g (that’s the lowest I’ve seen IIRC). 9mm goes up to 158g and IIRC there’s a company that makes subsonic 165g 9mm rounds.

    • Wish I could carry a 1911- maybe if I gain another 40 pounds or something. I tried my steel frame Colt Officer’s ACP for a couple days, also my smaller Detonics .45. Love all my 1911s to shoot but too much weight and bother to try to conceal for me. Good thing is: so far I’ve not needed my .40 Shield or Glock 43 yet. I’ now converting niow to a Sig 365- more ammo I won’t need. Hope my string of good fortune continues…

  4. I normally CC a RIA1911-A1 in a shoulder holster, however, because of the weight and bulk I usually carry in the Fall and Winter months with a jacket, sport coat, like that. Spring and Summer, I CC with a S&W SD9VE, either 3’clock or cross-over.

    Being an “old dude”, in recent months, I started CCing with a S&W-M&P .380Shield EZ, again in either 3’clock or cross-over. With a good Crossbreed Holster, hardly know it’s there.
    jarm01

  6. Um… and a deep respect for hardball, I guess. (This is where one of those lol-omg-cryin-buckets emojis would go.)

    Hey, it’s Saturday Night… so tell us why FMJ is viable for concealed carry again? Because we know y’all are out there, and we also know that most of y’all who do it are just Ultimate Cheapskates who stuff their mags with whatever is 8.99 a box. But, with all this deep respect for classic style, leather, steel, and wood… being a penny pincher wouldn’t be my first guess for this carrier. So, do tell.

    Any kind of FMJ preference? Looks like Aguila or S&B… the gold-colored jackets. Is that it? That this FMJ carries the congruent aesthetic to match your style just right?

    Be safe. Try to holler if you’re shooting in our direction, please. (moar emoji!)

    • But caliber doesn’t matter and you are unlikely to be mugged in a crowd so why are we spending money on expensive JHPs? I would be concerned more with a miss than a through and through anyway.

        • Quality jhp’s give you a bigger bullet than your caliber alone does. So you can have a bullet that’s bigger than those magical .45’s, with 50% more capacity, and less recoil for more rounds on target faster. And those smaller bullets are cheaper, so you can shoot and practice more and be better prepared for the stress of the real world. So sure, caliber matters. Just not as much as most other variables.

        • Modern 45 auto JHPs expand a third larger than similar 9mm rounds. Bigger in is always better from tissue displacement perspective.

          The entire point of the first point was to point out contradictory beliefs about relative caliber effectiveness held by the community. If caliber doesn’t matter for handgun effectiveness than it follows immediately that it doesn’t matter whether use JHP or FMJ but this short exchange shows that nobody really believes that.

    • Yeah… I ‘fess, I was just trying to flush out whether this 1911 carrier was one of those who’d make a firm declaration of “230g hardball in .45AARP has dropped thousands of commies and fascists all over the world and so it’ll be king’o’da’street no bullcrap, and PS the Beretta M9 sucks….” lol

      But then I reasoned, maybe it has to do with something else, and not the “All will fall before the Ball” crowd (hey, that’s two searchable googles on that phrase now, both by me in TTAG comments… oorah). Maybe there is some new wacky argument I haven’t heard. Why not ask…?

      In any event, when I see an “Everyday Carry” sidearm, and the magazine is carrying FMJ… questions must asked. Because there really is no good reason for it in the Year 2019 (and probably for the last two decades, really…), in my estimation. So, it’s just natural to ask and find out, “Why?”

      Points made well in the above comments, though– if modern JHP designs work in 9×19 (and improve performance over FMJ in defensive use), then it follows they will work just as well in .45ACP also… and test data do confirm this. I am willing to bet that street shootings confirm this also, since .45ACP is still a popular carry caliber.

    • Ahem. It says COLLEGE STUDENT. He probably got the gun used as a Christmas gift from his dad or grandpa, and can only afford to feed it FMJs while he stuffs his face with Maruchan ramen and chunk lite tuna.

  9. Kimber Custom Shop CDPII or Springfield XDm both in 45ACP. I rotate them out on a regular basis. I am an old school guy. I only shoot 45.

  10. A college student with Ethan Allen furniture…

    Oh, and no I don’t carry a 1911. It’s just not, IMHO, a great gun for carry in the modern world. It’s size and weight, while fantastic for .45ACP, just don’t match up with it’s ammo capacity. While other calibers may extend it’s capacity they generally don’t extend it *enough* for me in relation to the size and weight of the pistol.

    • Given the number of people who carry tiny single stacks the consensus says 6-9 rounds is just fine. The trade off in size and weight is lower recoil and longer sight radius for more accuracy on the first and follow up shots. Now maybe your situation is much more demanding, maybe facing multiple attackers who will keep coming until you or they are dead but that isn’t most people around here.

      • It’s not about what you’re facing it’s about a weight vs capability trade off. “I’d rather carry more weight for no benefit” said no one ever.

        For the 2 or more pounds you’ll carry with a 1911 the ammo capacity just isn’t there to justify that kind of weight because guns have come a long way since the 1910’s.

        I pointed out once a couple years ago that a steel frame 941 in .40 will carry 13 rounds of ammo and fully loaded weighs like an ounce or two more than a unloaded 1911 with no mag in it. Accuracy wise and follow up wise there’s no real difference between the two, at least for me. So, if I’m going to carry around that much weight why wouldn’t I carry the one that gives me some added benefit other than some sort of weird old-dude bragging rights?

        The 1911 is a cool gun. It looks nice, shoots well, has history and all that. I just don’t see it as a practical carry piece given how the world has changed since that gun was invented.

        • A Jericho 941 has a slide with of 1.31″ and 1.38″ at grips versus a 1911 with a slide width of 0.90″ and with the right slim grips a grip width of around 1.10″.

          At least for me, that is a huge difference in how the gun will hide on my person. I wish someone would make a solid polymer striker fired full size or G19 size 9mm single stack pistol that could meet the 1911s 0.90″/1.10″ numbers while holding 10+1 rounds and be suitable for hard use and high round counts.

          That said I’m right there with you on the round count, I would like more and sometimes do carry more when I can hide it.

        • A 1911 does carry slimmer than many other pistols.

          OWB is the only way I like to carry a 1991 or Beretta 92 on my belt due to length.

          I have also carried in an X15 should holster.

          I am lazier nowadays and mostly pocket carry or in my bluestone vest.

        • Caught your attention.

          Weight is not unambiguously bad. There is a tradeoff between carryabilty and recoil management and weight is your friend. No matter how well a P365 shoots for a light gun it still more recoil than a 25oz is gun. More recoil less accuracy. It’s better to be 7oz too much than 7 oz too little. Weight is over blown unless your daily on body carry is more than 10lbs I weighed my daily carry with my BHP at 4lbs 10oz. Going slightly over 5lbs is noticable with a 1911 for about 5 minutes. The variation in your daily on body carry weight is greater than 7 oz.

        • Chris:

          People make a big deal over multiple attackers. There is difference between a cartel hit team and facing Moe, Larry and Curly. Unless you are hanging with drug gangs your multiple attack scenario is going to be the latter. There is plenty of empirical data that says Moe and Larry bail when Curly takes a round. Community behavior says 6 – 9 is enough.

        • I note that you made the same point on small light weight pistols in the single stack article. Small, light weight pistols are hard to shoot and the primary reason that is true is their light weight and poor grip demonstrating again that it is better to carry too big than too small.

        • JD

          There are still a significant number of SOF guys who would disagree with you about that and unless you hang out with drug gangs or live in a third world S-hole you aren’t going to be getting into any gun battles. Your average ordinary DGU cannot be describe as the kind of gun fight of your imagination. It is going to be over before exhaust your magazine.

        • Tdiinva, I don’t know what sof guys you’re referring to, because all the ones I know of they’re mostly carrying glocks or sigs. And since you have a crystal ball, how’s about giving me the winning powerball numbers?

  11. I carry a steel frame Commander sized Ruger, every day. Loaded with a Wilson 47D it gives me 9 total rounds of Federal HST. That’s a lot more “stopping power” than all these guys carrying .380s andicro 9s with 6-8 rounds total and it’s a full size gun which is a huge advantage if you have to actually fight with it. I carry this gun IWB for 10-15 hours a day. It is on my person all day in the body shop and in the tow truck.

    I have a Glock 19 that I love and carry occasionally but it is considerably harder for me to hide under my untucked uniform shirt because of it’s thickness and blocky profile. My boss is 100% on board with employees carrying but does not want customers to see guns.

    I have tried a lot of polymer single stack 9s and .45s and none of them have been able to handle the body filler and paint dust that somehow gets into a gun even when it’s in an IWB holster. My general test is to wear a gun to work for 3 weeks, let it get real filthy and try shooting it. Despite the 1911s reputation for poor performance in dusty environments my Ruger is the only gun aside from my G19 is the only gun that hasn’t choked during that test.

    Does anyone else notice that a lot of these supposed EDC guns have no finish wear and some, like this one, are not even pictured with a holster. Also a lot of the pictured holsters look brand new as well. Not calling people liars and maybe it’s because of what I do for a living that my gear looks like it’s been through 2 world wars but I have a hard time believing people are actually carrying a lot of this shit on even a semi regular basis.

  13. When I woke up this morning it was -7 which reminded me why larger handguns are always better than subcompacts. Try handling your P365 or P938 Legion with thick gloves. To be fair handling a 1911 under these isn’t great either. That’s why I carry a polymer pistol, currently an APX, in the winter.

    • Very interesting… APX in the winter. As a fan and user of Beretta DA-SA pistols, I wanted to like the APX so much. Then I went to check it out. I actually injured my fingers fooling around with the slide, which I suddenly lost grip on several times. The super wide ridges– pillars? they cannot rightly be called “serrations”– are so slippery that they barely offer grip when dry, and I can imagine are next to impossible to cycle when oiled, wet, or sandy.

      So, how do you cope with it? The thing I thought immediately was: grip tape between the ridges. Or, possibly just an uninterrupted strip of grip tape over the ridges and valleys, even.

      Either way, it occurred to me that any pistol that had such a basic, glaring flaw was either 1) offering something so spectacular that this flaw could be overlooked, or 2) was an automatic no-go due to poor design.

      Nothing stood out to me… the APX offers nothing any number of good, top-tier polymer striker designs offer. In fact, it seems like Beretta changed traditional serrations to offer something that all the others don’t: this APX is the only pistol that offers these ridges, maybe in the entire world.

      There must be a reason? I am willing to listen. Help me out. Cheers.

      • My fingers have never slipped dry. After watching MAC claim he had an issue with gripping a wet pistol I tried to duplicate his results with wet hands then soapy hands and finally put some Rem only on my fingers. No problems with the first two and a bit of slippage with the Rem Oil. It is easy to rack slide with gloves on. So I don’t what caused your problem with it. It might be because it has a different feel than conventional aberrations and it requires a different grip. In any case, it has a much better trigger than previous generations of striker fired pistols and for me much more accurate than Springfield or Glock. I shoot as well as I do a 1911.

        • Perhaps it is the grip mechanics that make all the difference? I am a pinch and slingshot guy, grabbing the slide from the rear with my thumb and forefinger knuckle (just the way I was trained, 25+ year ago)… and it occurs to me, maybe it is a whole different feel if you overhand it? Maybe the ridges are something like finger grooves on a pistol grip, when you reach your hand over the top and press with 3-4 fingertips and your palm and thumb pressing from behind?

          I don’t know if that is the answer, but I can imagine it being so with this platform. I have tried a few times to learn the other over-the-top method, but it aggravates my tennis elbow and feels wholly unnatural. But, all said, if that pistol and system works for you and you are able to enjoy the benefits of the APX trigger while not being affected by the unique “serrations,” regardless of technique, then that is good. It’s just great that we have so many choices… we live in a fortunate era where 99.99% of shooters can find a suitable sidearm that fits their needs right out of the box… and at a reasonable price.

          I had forgotten about Tim’s “gauntlet” test you mentioned. (When I tried the APX, it was at a store, relatively dry, but maybe slightly lubed.) My home pistol is a PX4, which had its own hangups because of the rotating barrel mechanism. I always find that test very interesting…. how any firearm, basically dropped into the mud or sand in the rain (and maybe stepped on, too, in the dark for instance), can encounter repeatable malfunctions because of debris and obstructions that can work their way into the action by the function of the action itself. On the one hand, it is comforting that you can usually get a few shots off… on the other hand– do not drop your pistol in the mud!

          Be safe. Thanks for the info.

  14. I carry a Colt combat Commander in custom OWB holster with 8+1 Wilson magazines with 185 grain hollow points. I figure 17 rounds should take care of business.

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