1991 A1 why did it not obtain popularity?

[pelago]

I have one, it is a nice pistol. Why didn't it gain any momentum? to me it is just sort of a tricked out 1911A1 with some features to please political correct crowds. A nice pistol but just sort of non descript. I like mine shoots well, looks good.
comments

[dave]

People want the real deal??

[Emri]

At retail prices they were less pistol than you could get a Kimber for.

[emmagee1917]

A lot of people complained about them having a horrible trigger pull . I have not run into one of those , they all had excellent pulls . I bought one in '02 that someone had managed to mess up the finish on one side of . Picked it up for $435 . Never has failed me except when I reassembled wrong . I just picked up a second one a couple of weeks ago for $699 , used ( fired 21 times , new owner could not handle it ) . They are now called Govt. Model and have rosewood checkered grips , white dot sights , and a blued finish .
I have replaced the flat plastic mainspring housings with steel arched ribbed ones on both and have added Trijicon HD sights to the old one and will be adding a sightmount to the new one with a Burris Fastfire III .
Chris

[Ltdave]

... to me it is just sort of a tricked out 1911A1 with some features to please political correct crowds...

it was FAR from being "...a tricked out 1911A1..."

the came with plastic mainspring housing, plastic trigger, harsh finishes (in some cases they were okay but...), trigger pull on MOST was about 7lbs (i checked out a LOT of them when they first came out) and as was mentioned, they were more expensive than a comparable Kimber or Springfield...

i have two of the newer blued models (still marked 1991A1 on the side but are XS or XSE versions) one is a commander and they are much much better than the first released versions

[PhillipM]

My cousin bought one when they first came out. As I recall, they were a low cost alternative to a Government Model.

[Phil McGrath]

From what I remember of the Colt 1991-1911 line was that they were ruff from machining, and by ruff I mean Colt wasn't going too invest any time or effort too doll them up too make them look pretty. Of the ones I've seen the machining/tooling marks looked deep, deep enough that no amount of polishing would have helped cleaning them up. Colt not wanting too waist a pile of frames and slides put a park like finish on them and turned them loose as a working mans Colt 1911 that was affordable. The one's that I have fired were not any more or any less accurate than any of there other pretty 1911 in .45acp.

The other reason there popularity never really took off was that huge 1991 build board engraved on the slide, if the slide was left naked maybe it would have been different..



My .02