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Old February 13, 2013, 07:05 PM   #4
BigJimP
Senior Member
 
Join Date: February 23, 2005
Posts: 13,195
Yes, in this day and age.....if you want a semi-custom gun from Wilson Combat, Ed Brown, Nighhawk or Les Baer....you're not going to find too many of them in inventory .....

While I do have a shop in my area - that will occasionally carry a gun from one or two of the above mfg's.....yes, for the most part, when you're spending $ 2,500 - $ 4,000 for one of these guns, you should custom order them thru your local dealer...partly, so you get the gun specd exactly the way you want it.
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Before you decide on a Les Baer....at least look at the offerings from Nighhawk, Ed Brown and Wilson Combat ....on their websites...or locally if you can find some.

Personally, I one one Baer ( a monolith 5"), 1 Brown (a Kobra Carry 5"), a couple of Wilsons ( 5" CQB and 5" Protector) - and no Nighthawks.... and out of the 4 mfg's .....I'd put Wilson first, Ed Brown a close 2nd...Nighthawk a distant 3rd ...and Les Baer a very distant 4th... In fact I'd be hard pressed to tell you a Baer is a better gun than what comes out of Kimbers custom shop - or even Springfields higher end models...or maybe Sig for that matter....

Baer is the cheapest of the 4 mfg's .../ and in my opinion:

a. his fit and finish is not anywhere close to what the other 3 are - his blued surfaces are especially soft and the blue is not very "deep" - so the steel underneath tends to show thru...
b. his options are not as many
c. he makes his guns too tight - unnecessarily tight and it takes way too long to break them in
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Ask around at your local range....maybe there are some guys shooting one of these 4 mfg's ....( two of my local ranges have some Nighthawks in their rental cases )...

In my area.....

http://www.djsloanandsportinc.com/
has a 5" Baer Monolith in stock.....

Adventure sports had at least one Baer and a Wilson in stock last week...
http://adventuresportsgunhq.com/

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I've been around 1911's a long time...and everybody should buy what they like - and what they can afford ( and we all have budgets - so compromise is not a bad word ) ...but I have the only Baer I'll ever buy - don't want another one / I have the only Ed Brown I'll ever buy although its a very nice gun....but hands down the best 1911's in my safe are my 2 wilson's...and while most any Wilson Combat handgun will cost you between $ 3,000 and $6,000 the $3,000 models like the full sized CQB or Protector models all have the 1" guarantee at 25 yds...and at least mine, ran 100%, right out of the box brand new....and I have over 20,000 rds now thru 1 wilson ( 10 yrs old - its my primary carry gun / a little over 40,000 thru the other one ( 7 yrs old now) as a primary range gun....

Last edited by BigJimP; February 13, 2013 at 07:15 PM.
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