The Smith & Wesson 1911 Pro Series 9mm Review

01

of 05

SW 1911 Pro Series 9mm Specifications

Below are the criteria that I considered when I examined, analyzed, shot, and reviewed the SW1911 Pro. The top two criteria are most important to me and I considered the Pro primarily for IDPA, fun range plinking, and as a home defense backup gun, not for concealed carry or other uses. Just for your information, “Pro Series” means that the parts that make up this 9mm 1911 come from the S&WPerformanceCenter and the well-known S&W Custom Shop. Assembly is done in the production facility and with the custom features results in an upgraded, better-than-production-quality (entry custom) gun at a moderate production quality price. The MSRP is $1609. for model #178047 with adjustable sights.

02

of 05

Criteria and Considerations

Here are ten of my criteria and factors I use for evaluating any handgun. My process is to assign a total possible point score of 10 points for each of my 10 criteria for a total possible score of 100 points. You can certainly add your own additional criteria or desires and subtract any of mine.

03

of 05

Initial Inspection

Up close I was impressed with the Pro’s smooth and classy silver finish and, unlike some of the other 9 mm 1911s out there, there was not a rattle or clank when I shook it. It appeared to have tight tolerances and a great fit, but I had to shoot it before any conclusions. The RoCo wood grips are beautiful and function well for me. They have a palm swell that fills the hand nicely and the texture allows for a very secure grip, even with my medium-sized sweaty hands. With the RoCo grips, the checkering on the front strap and mainspring housing, I had no trouble keeping a secure grip while drawing from my Galco holster, shooting, moving, and reloading. I really like that S&W shrunk the size of their name and logo on the left side of the slide and included the words Pro Series in cursive on the right. Elegant and not flashy and too big, like some others.

Some claim that an external extractor helps with smoother and more efficient extractions and quicker ejections. The Pro has an external extractor with a big claw for pulling spent cases from the chamber and ejecting them out of the lowered and flared ejection port. So again, let me shoot it to decide for myself.

The SW1911 Pro’s frame has many of the features that are normally seen only on custom-built pistols. Metal has been removed from under the trigger guard so you can get a high grip on the pistol and the frontstrap and mainspring housing both feature 30 lines-per-inch checkering.  For me, the frontstrap stippling is a nice plus, since it’s aggressive enough for a positive purchase, but not so rough that it hurts your hand. These contribute to the Pro’s excellent feel and handling. It comes standard with a full-length guide rod for increased reliability while its five-inch, match-grade barrel (fully ramped) has a precision-crowned muzzle for optimum accuracy. It does have a hand-polished integral feed ramp.

It has ambidextrous thumb safeties, extended slide release, magazine release button and a beavertail grip safety with a palm swell. These enhance its ergonomics and reloading speed. The beavertail palm swell improves the grip for recoil control and fast follow-up shots. The Pro has a nice, moderately-sized extended magazine well that helps funnel in the included two Wilson 10-round magazines quickly and smoothly. I can notice the difference significantly when shooting a 1911 that does not have the extended magwell. I love it. The magwell and Main Spring Housing are steel. The firing pin safety is like a blend of the Colt and Kimber-style safeties and is operated by the grip safety, like the Kimbers. I had no problems with it on the Pro.

One minor observation (that I hesitate to even mention for fear of planting an erroneous seed of concern for you) was that the trigger seemed just a little loose, but pressing it without ammo loaded did not affect the trigger press any at all and it was clean and crisp. I was anxious to see if I noticed this or any effects when I shot it at the range.

04

of 05

Range Report

After shooting and observing the SW 1911 Pro in 9mm, here’s my report. I shot it on 2 different days, with the first session shooting 100 rounds and the second session another 100 rounds. First, I want to say that what follows are just my opinions and observations. While it met and exceeded ALL of my above Criteria, you must try it for yourself. Without any doubt, it was THE smoothest and fun shooting 1911 9mm handgun I have shot, including the several I own and others I have reviewed. It is a great handgun for IDPA ESP Division competition and certainly fun plinking, even as a home defense backup.

1. Accuracy and Reliability – Score: 10

The accuracy of the Pro-9mm was excellent and effortless for me at medium distances of 7, 15, and 20 yards. Despite my less than average eyesight and average marksmanship, this senior guy was able to shoot decent groups, with the gun doing a lot of the work. I did not have to adjust the rear sight at all, out of the box. All of my groups of about 10-15 shots at each of the various distances were about 3 inches or so (with a few fliers at 20 yards) right “out of the box” drawing from my Galco holster. My close-up hits at 7 yards made a ragged 2.5″ hole, using my Modified-Isosceles Stance, a two-handed grip, and shooting mostly various 115 grain FMJ, 124 grain FMJ, and quality reloads. For a better comparison to my other 1911 reviews, I did not shoot hollow points. The trigger was not a problem whatsoever and functioned perfectly. Certainly not great marksmanship by me, but it was really enjoyable and fun to shoot the 1911 Pro. I just couldn’t believe how easy it was to make the hits, the press was short, soft, and crisp, and the recoil was very minimal for this average shooter. It seemed I just had to hold the gun and let it do its thing. Great fun!

Given my past experiences and my knowledge of 1911 9mms and extraction and feeding problems due to their short cartridges, I was certainly impressed with the Pro’s reliability. I experienced no malfunctions, stoppages, feeding problems, extraction nor ejection issues, with various ammo brands, bullet weights, and magazines. I used the 2 included Wilson Combat 10-round mags, my 2 Tripp Research Cobra 10-round mags, and my 2 Wilson ETM 10-round mags without any problem. This 1911 Pro 9 mm was not at all finicky and digested every ammo brand and even all reloads smoothly. I used Blazer Brass, Federal, Winchester White Box, Aguila, and quality reloads in 115 and 124 grain FMJ. It did not jam with the heavier 124 grain ammo and liked Federal American Eagle 124 grain. I may use a lighter recoil spring (#14) later for reload reliability, just as a preventative, but no problems with the factory spring. I did concentrate on controlling limp wristing, not riding the slide, and on a steady, firm grip with a locked wrist. It was almost too good to be true, given my previous 1911 9mm gun experiences. The Wilson mags worked really nice and probably was a significant performance factor. I may buy some less expensive Metalform 9-rounder mags with the metal follower, again just in case. But, the polymer followers did fine and are acceptable. Another significant factor is that I always thoroughly clean and lubricate new guns before shooting them. Accuracy and Reliability were BOTH excellent with this gun.

2. Trigger Press – Score: 9

The trigger press out of the box averaged about 4.6 pounds without modification for the SW1911 Pro 9mm, with 6 readings with my Lyman Electronic Trigger Pull Gauge. It was not broke in yet after only firing 200 rounds. For comparison, my other (broke-in) single-actions Sig 1911 Match Elite .45 has a 5.1 pound press; my Kimber 1911 Combat Custom .45 has a 4.8 press; my Taurus 9mm 1911 has a 4.5 (modified) press; and my Colt XSE .45 has a 4.5 press. All of these are close to my desired range of 5 pounds and under for a single-action trigger. My previous review of the Springfield Range Officer in 9mm showed the hardest and longest press of 6.1 pounds.

3. Trigger – Score: 10

The single-action trigger was crisp, smooth and excellent, with no creep, with a short travel distance and short reset, so I could get off quick follow-up shots easily. The reset was very definite and identifiable.The single-action trigger was very good and consistent shooting with pretty much the same press each time. I really enjoyed pressing it.

4. Barrel Length: Score: 10

The 5-inch barrel helped to provide stability and to reduce recoil. This was very noticeable and I had no problem at all with the recoil and it helped my accuracy. The long sight radius helped. The barrel was match grade quality.

5. Sights – Score: 9

The rear adjustable sights were fully adjustable, easy to dial in and worked fine. The black rear sights were easy to use and different than focusing on the front sight with my usual 3 white dots. I did have to work at it since I have not regularly used all black sights before. The plain black rear sight did help my visual focus speed since there are no distractions at the rear sight and this helps to drive my attention to the front sight. I did like the black rear sight and it was very wide and the front black dovetail sight is narrow, which make for a good combination for speed and accuracy. However, I was not accustomed to this Black/Black sight picture but got used to not having to use the dots. Some like the white dot or fiber optic (FO) front sight and the black rear sight. I think this would be my preference for this type of gun and its purpose, so I would probably add a FO front, to speed up my front sight access. I might put a Dawson .100″ wide fiber optic front sight on later.

6. Proper Gun Weight – Score: 10

The stainless steel Pro weighed 41 ounces and was a nice heavy gun with a long sight radius, so there was much less felt recoil and more stability than smaller and lighter-weight guns, as expected.

7. Caliber – Score: 10

The SW1911 Pro in 9mm caliber was a joy to shoot and I barely noticed the recoil because it was so light and I could hardly feel it. Of course, shooting the 9mm ammo was much less expensive and more readily available than my .45 caliber 1911s.

8. Capacity – Score: 10

I liked the 10+1 capacity of the Pro 9mm and it was better than other 1911 9mms with 8 and 9 rounds or the 7+1 of my .45s.

9. Ergonomics – Score: 10

The ergonomics of the SW1911 Pro 9 mm were excellent and I was easily able to easily and comfortably reach all controls like the thumb safety, slide lever, and magazine release. It felt like it was custom-made for my medium-sized hands, like most 1911s. I had no slide nor hammer bites and it felt very good to hold it. The grip safety was natural and comfortable to use. The slide-to-frame fit was near perfect when racking the slide back and forth with hardly any binding. It was really smooth as butter.

10. Miscellaneous – Score: 10

I easily disassembled and re-assembled it before I shot it. The hard plastic case included 2 mags, a nice barrel bushing wrench, a lock, bore flag, manual, and fired casing dated 3 weeks ago. The gun looks excellent and I liked the classy silver matte finish so much better than the visually-inferior parkerized black finish. It should wear better than the parkerized finish also. I want to stress that Smith and Wesson did NOT pay me for this review, nor did they pay for my ammo, nor give me a discount for purchase. This review represents my sincere objective evaluation of the gun. I actually purchased the gun because of its fine performance, accuracy and reliability reputation. In fact, I want to disclose that I paid market price for the gun without any concessions. This is a high-quality accurate handgun and I had to add it to my arsenal… 10.

Total Points = 98 out of 100 Possible.

05

of 05

Conclusion

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this Smith and Wesson 1911 Pro Series 9 mm pistol, especially for fun plinking and competitive shooting. It would also make a nice home-defense handgun or backup there. As always, these are just my opinions and you should try it for yourself.

I hope this review of the Smith and Wesson 1911 Pro Series 9 mm has helped you gain some information for YOUR decision. Consider that this is just my point of view with limited live-range fire and using only 200 rounds of available ammo. I recommend that you shoot any handgun yourself before you purchase it. Decide on your criteria, how you will primarily use the gun, and what’s important to you ahead of your range live-fire time. Then critically evaluate the gun YOURSELF per your criteria and purpose, with various ammo types and brands, different magazines, over an extended break-in period of about 500 rounds.

Continued success!

Photos by Author.

* This personal opinion article is meant for general information & educational purposes only and the author strongly recommends that you seek counsel from an attorney for legal advice and your own personal certified weapons trainer for proper guidance about shooting & using YOUR firearms, self-defense and concealed carry. It should not be relied upon as accurate for all shooters & the author assumes no responsibility for anyone’s use of the information and shall not be liable for any improper or incorrect use of the information or any damages or injuries incurred whatsoever.