I always liked the Colt 1911. In fact, I am pretty sure I am the only 3rd grader in Switzerland who ever did a class presentation on that gun, complete with an exam for my (befuddled – Hey! BeFUDDled) classmates. For well over a century now, this revolutionary design has continued to be a popular choice for many, despite many and more recent guns offerings have been crowding the class cases of gun stores. While the 1911 was originally developed for the US military, its many innovative features led to an enduring and well-earned spot at the belts of civilians for self-defense or target shooting.
Decades have passed since embryonic sights were acceptable, and the fierce competition in the handgun market has pointed a few areas where the good ol’ Gobmint model had been resting on its laurels. Sure, the single stage trigger directly descended from the Heavens, but the lock time of the old models can feel close to a percussion gun when compared to striker fired pistols. The short beaver tail did not help much preventing hammer bite, especially when shooting two-handed started to become righteously popular.
Many gun manufacturers have addressed these issues since the design fell into public domain. However, I believe that Springfield Armory’s Garrison might be the one that gives you the most value for your money.
The Garrison 45 AUTO
The Garrison is a full size, steel frame gun built upon the 1911. It keeps all the good things from the original like the single stage trigger, the left-hand twist of the barrel, the thumb and grip safety, the disconnector, short guide rod, barrel bushing and general ergonomics that that made the reputation of the 1911. Not to mention the original chambering (more on that below). However, Springfield decided to change just what needed to change to make the centenarian design a fully modern gun, without going overboard and stacking up the cost for the customer. The enhancements are subtle, yet significant.
Modern sights
Springfield did away with the old blade and notch sight on the Garrison, replacing these with an easy and fast to acquire three-dot set up, with white dots on bead blasted black steel. The front post lets enough light on both sides to allow precise accuracy work, and the rear sight offers great visual contrast with the surroundings, including the gun, if the model is in stainless like in this review.
The two rear dots are within a scallop that protects them from any glare of reflections that might disturb the shooter or produce a disruptive difference in color and contrast with the front post.
Skeletonized hammer
This enhancement is not merely aesthetic, though, for sure, it looks much more pleasant and modern than the original part. By the way of its lighter build, the Garrison’s hammer offers less initial inertial resistance upon release, significantly shortening the lock time of the gun. The serration of the head allow easy and safe manipulation whether for cocking or de-cocking.
Elongated beavertail
I rarely encountered hammer bite, but the few time a hammer or slide dug into my hands are experiences I could have done without. Thankfully, the configuration of the Garrison’s beavertail guarantees the shooter’s hands safety. The head of the cocked hammer is nestled into a recessed of the upper surface of the beavertail, preventing any snagging of fabric when the gun is carried concealed.
Thinner grips
The 1911 is a rather large gun, even for people with large mitts, a category I fall into. The 45 AUTO round is not that long, the grip houses the springworks in the backstrap, which requires a bit more room than for just the magazine. Springfield Armory went with slim grip panels, which not only significantly reduces the feeling of bulk of the original girp, but makes it much more elongated in proportions, aiding in pointability. The flatter grip aligns with the hand axis much better as the thumb closes upon it and pressed it into the palm.
Match grade barrel
While many claim that the 1911 needs just be “minute-of-bad-guy” accurate because it is a battlefield gun, Springfield was not going to have any of this. This gun was going to be darn accurate or not at all, and they made sure of it by outfitting it with a match grade cold hammer forged stainless steel barrel in the original 1:16 left twist. I always wonder why some 1911 manufacturers produce guns with wonderful triggers but less than accurate barrels, effectively negating any advantage the trigger brings in term of accuracy. Thankfully, this is nothing to worry about with the Garrison.
Magazine well bevel
To help with reloads, Springfield machines some slight bevels around the magazine well. While these are not as wide an aftermarket spring housing unit with a gaping maw, they certainly help inserting the rather blunt single stack magazines into the grip.
Loaded chamber indicator
A loaded chamber indicator cut is milled at the top of the chamber, where the breech rests against the bolt face. This allows the shooter to see if a cartridge is chambered, albeit requiring good lighting conditions (and not replacing other safety checks). This is a nice touch.
This particular gun
The gun presented here is a full size 5’’ barrel Garrison chambered in the original 45 AUTO (ACP refers to the original designation of the A.utomatic C.olt P.istol, not the cartridge). The original finish is gorgeous, with bead blasted surfaces where gripping is required, brushed sides of gun, and polished barrel and small hardware. After many trips to the range or the field, it shows scratches on the brushed surfaces, which do not bother me. Such a gun is not meant to stay locked up in a safe but be put to work.
Its trigger is a bit heavy to my taste, especially for a 1911, but breaks cleanly and predictably. It also has found its groove after thousands of rounds. The extractor protrudes sightly from the back of the slide instead fo being flush with it. This has been offending many 1911 afficionados who require a seamless fit, but does not create any kind of functional issues.
The gun came is a soft nylon pouch emblazoned with the Springfield Armory logo, a cable lock and a single 7 round flush magazine. While some may bemoan the absence of a second magazine, this helps keep the costs down for the consumer. Like many modern guns, some parts are Metal Injection Molded (MIM). Some manufacturing telltale signs will give these few parts away, but I never had any kind of issues with the results of modern made MIM process. The MIM technology has become utterly reliable both in terms of tolerances (capable of exceeding milled parts’ accuracy) and durability.
Disassembly
Being based on the original 1911 design with a barrel bushing and short spring guide, disassembly follows the manual of arms of the old war horse. Since many people may not be familiar with it and it is more involved than for a modern striker-fired pistol, let’s go over the basic field stripping of the gun.
Make sure the gun is unloaded by ejecting the magazine, and pulling the slide fully to the rear and locking it in place with the slide stop. Look into the chamber and insert your pinky into it to make sure it is empty. Check again. Once certain that the chamber is empty, release the slide stop. Depress the recoil spring plug to allow the bushing’s prong to go over the plug as your rotate the bushing clockwise until the plug is freed (note: do not put your face in front of it as the recoil spring plug will be ejected forcefully if you lose grip over it – it is a good idea to wear safety glass, as always).
Pull the recoil spring and the spring forward out of the slide. Rotate the bushing the other way (counterclockwise) until it hits the stop. It can now be pulled of the slide. Pull the slide back until the slide stop aligns with window on the left side of the slide, allowing it to be pulled out of the frame. Push the slide forward and off the rails. Remove the recoil spring guide, and flip the barrel link forward. The barrel can now be pulled out of the front of the slide. The gun is disassembled (field stripped). If you want to take it apart further, look into adequate references.
Reassembly follows the same steps in reverse. The tricky part is aligning the barrel link with the slide stop hole, a step that is unique to the design (later tilting barrel action guns did away with this).
The finish of the Garrison is easy to clean with an oiled cloth. Grime does not seem to be able to stick to it, at least on the exterior. The bead blasted interior of the slide will get a bit black, but a toothbrush and CLP will remediate that, if it bothers you.
God’s Caliber
This Garrison in chambered for the cartridge the 1911 was designed for and built around: the 45 AUTO. The 9mm Luger vs. 45 AUTO debate will continue raging for long after the internet dies, and I personally see advantages and disadvantages for both these cartridges. For all intents and purposes, let’s go over these for the 45 AUTO, since this Garrison in chambered for it.
In self-defense loads, the 45 AUTO and the 9mm Luger perform closely, owing to the fact that most ammunition manufacturers have been using the FBI testing protocol for developing their offerings (a good read about the FBI’s test can be found here: https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/understanding-the-fbi-s-ammo-testing-protocol/). Bullets showing expansion are favored, as they disrupt larger volumes of tissue than non-deforming FMJs. The 45 AUTO, with a larger diameter bullet will disrupt a larger volume of tissue than the 9mm Luger for the same amount of expansion for the same penetration depth. This advantage comes with the drawback for lower capacity, as the 45 is significantly fatter than the 9mm. When loaded with FMJs, the 45 AUTO has the upper hand as well in terms of bullet-for-bullet damage, yet again with the same impact on capacity.
My thought is that the in a full size 1911 and its single stack configuration, the 45 AUTO is the best option. The same gun will not gain appreciable capacity when chambered for the 9mm (there are many full size double stack 9mm guns to choose from if one wants such a gun).
At the range
The Garrison, without surprise, brought to the range the best an 1911 can offer, and than some more. Granted, I am a big fan of the 1911 to start with. The grip angle and general size and design of the gun agree with me particularly well. I like full size guns, and full steel frames, so I guess one can say that the Garrison started ahead in that race, being both.
Formal accuracy testing was done with the following loads: Federal Range Target Practice 230gr. FMJ, Federal American Eagle 230gr. FMJ (two lots), PMC Bronze 230gr. FMJ, Hornady Critical Duty FlexLock 220gr. +P and a batch of handloaded Hornady XTP 230gr. over some Hodgdon CFE Pistol powder following Hornady’s 11th edition reloading handbook’s recipe. The results are presented in the table below:
The Garrison is a very accurate gun. While the three-dot sights are designed for and great at quick target acquisition, I was still able to print 5-shot groups that averaged 1.73’’ center-to-center at 15 yards resting on a 4×4. The “worst” average came from the Federal American Eagle lot with silver primers but barely reached above the 2 inch mark with 2.08’’ center-to-center. The best 5-shot group average was achieved with the Federal Range Target Practice, with a wee 1.38’’ center-to-center.
All of the Federal loads came short in terms of velocity compared to their factory numbers. However, both the PMC and the Hornady clocked faster than advertised, a welcomed surprise. The Hornady Critical Duty load takes the cake with a resulting whopping 525 lbs-ft of muzzle energy. All commercial loads cycled and fired without any kind of issues, but a couple of the handloads failed to feed, an issue I attribute to their truncated profile and the length at which I loaded the cartridges, which apparently do not fully agree with the Garrison’s chamber.
Off the bench, the Garrison is a joy. The steel frame and linked barrel action work in concert to absorb the recoil impulse and turn it into a softer push rather than a slap, even with the more potent loads. The Garrison soaks up the recoil superbly, its thin grips allowing a strong hold that is facilitated with the checkered backstrap and mainspring housing. The height of the barrel axis does induce a good amount of muzzle flip, but the timing of the action pushes the rather heavy slide forward with the perfect amount of momentum to align the sights back with the target for quick follow up shots. There is something to the old 45 AUTO that is more pleasant than the other higher-pressure handgun cartridges. The subsonic speed and lower muzzle blast make for a softer (in terms of noise) experience.
The crisp trigger, long sight radius, good sight and steadying heft all help with accurate and fast dynamic shooting. Despite its full steel build and size, I never experienced any fatigue shooting the gun. In terms of reliability, the Garrison ticks like a (loud) clock. I never experienced any malfunction using commercial ammunition, even during an endurance test involving hundreds of rounds without cleaning over several range trips. The gun will run perfectly whether shooting slow strings, two- or single handed, fast paced and/or full heated to the point handling the slide was difficult.
My take
I have had my Garrison for a while and it took many trips to the range or the field. It sure shows for it, but these small marks are the reminders of the pleasure I have had shooting this gun, and bring memories of hours in nature.
I would recommend the Springfield Garrison full size stainless to anybody looking for a 1911 in 45 AUTO with features usually found in much more expensive guns. The several enhancements Springfield worked into the original design really set the Garrison apart, without hurting the wallet more than necessary. The 9mm vs. 45 debate will continue raging on, but for people looking into an accurate, handsome easy to shoot full size 1911 chambered for God’s caliber, look no further than the Garrison. Yes, there are other guns with similar or approaching features at a lower price, but I doubt they are made in America, and finished as beautifully as this gun.