[Drake]

Originally Posted by John_234

WE can either be great or utter crap due to the high lemon rate. If you want a showpiece, they'll do fine either way. Metal is a bit cheap; they don't take dings well and scrape easily. By not taking dings well, I mean they can outright crack from things the TM, WA, and other brands would shrug off.

My experience has been the opposite: mandatory shortening of the recoil spring guide and other small modifications aside, the WEs have been functionally good (I've had three; sold the HiCapa cuz it turns out I don't like HiCapas, but I have an MEU coming) but aesthetically they're pretty crappy. With the exception of the MEU they either lack or have butt ugly markings, the grey Parkerized-wannabe color is unappealing and wears easily, and a personal pet peeve is the blatant absence of the rollover notch (flaring) on the ejection ports of the modern versions (Tactical, MEU).

The TM and WA come with plastic, so when dealing with a metal upgrade the end quality (and resistance to dings etc) really depends on the body kit you end up buying. And that being said, the base WE is still cheaper than the base TM or WA in most cases, so you could still add higher quality aftermarket body parts to it and come out ahead, price-wise.

Magazines are pretty crappy; usually leak, sometimes even out of the box and any base pads inevitably wobble. This wouldn't be a problem if their mags were compatible with other brands, but as far as I can tell the single stack mags are proprietary. Really quite sad though, because it seems that most of the other problems can be solved.

Have to agree with the mags, although I've had leaks develop on mags of just about every brand at one time or another. The fix is usually pretty simple. More annoying than leaks, IMO, is the plastic feed lip on the WE mags -- really wish they'd gone with metal like WA. Fortunately they now sell replacements.

A minor nitpick, but if you're looking for a reenacting pistol, the WE has a shiny chrome barrel never used in the original 1911s and 1911A1s.

True, but only an issue if you're looking for an era-specific 1911A1 (WW1/WW2/Vietnam etc). I noticed they did use a proper black barrel in the MEU, not sure why they aren't just dropping those into the 1911 Classic now. Again, the silver lining on the cloud is you can use aftermarket parts (as confirmed by bleaches) if you want black. I'm swapping out my chambers for other stainless ones (and maybe a matching barrel) just because I want better markings.

By fitment I think they mean how the parts interlock and tolerances.

lol ok, that's not what fitment means (Styrak, tsk tsk): the correct word is "fit."

fitment: An item of permanent furniture or equipment; A thing fitted to another in order to accomplish a specific purpose

My TM MEU has almost no rattle in it, and the all the parts fit tightly but work well. Isn't just for my sidearms either; my teammates' Hi Capa 5.1s and Sigs have similar tolerances.

I've read reviews that mentioned loose fit/tolerances on first gen WE 1911s, didn't seem as bad on mine (2nd gen), TM may be fit more snugly but my Western Arms 1911 is similarly loose as the WE. Either way, it's not some horrible wobble/rattle, at least in my two guns.

No matter what you say about the other issues, you have to admit that the WE techs do rattle horribly.

This has not been my experience. What generation gun did you witness this on?

I suppose you could solve problems in the WE with a bit of work like Drake stated, but I'd get the TM because you rarely find any problems, period.

As long as you plan on staying with plastic, then yes the TM is probably a better option. But anyone with experience installing metal kits knows once you go down that path you usually need to start changing other stuff as well, so you're back in the same place.

The MEU has lots of the nice features on modern 1911s. However, they aren't quite as skirmish friendly as the Capa series due to a pretty low gas capacity. I typically load 20 into an MEU mag instead of 28.

A double stack load on what should be a single stack mag rubs me the wrong way right off the bat, so it's not a huge issue for me. I prefer milsim and realcap loads, so my 1911 mags usually have 8 rounds (standard Wilson or Chip McCormick single stack 1911 mags as used with MEU 1911s). This also allows me the use of highflow valves, even with the limited gas reservoir.


When I get the MEU (which will be new and unmodified), I'll give it a good look over for the points you brought up; my current WEs have been tinkered with all sorts of ways and have a bunch of aftermarket parts, so my assessments may not be 100% fair when dealing with a stock gun.