Customer Reviews for Citadel 1911 Compact 7+1 .45 ACP 3.5"

Great gun good feel. I like the non-polymer frame.

I bought this because I wanted a 1911 for EDC and it's perfect, I never leave home without it now.

Beautiful firearm even tho the finish isnt the highest quality (but paid 400$ so cant complain one bit) put aftermarket grips on it, and takes all 1911 compact/fullsized mags (will extend out tho) and feeds every hollow point from Speer to Hornady +P and even Winchester white box hollows flawlessly, same goes for standard ball ammo. Doesn't have a whole lot of recoil considering how small it is. Does have some weight to it, so a good belt is necessary for carry. This was my CC for a lil over a year till i got a glock 27 but still alternate between them.

I love this pistol also. Ever since I sold my Colt 1911 I wanted another 1911 in 45. It feels great in my hand I love the concealable short barrel in the 1911 safeties. Unfortunately I have not been able to fire it yet but I would put full confidence in it because of the product makers

This firearm is of high quality, immense value. Shocked at the price! Worth a lot more! Flawless little thing, add custom grips and aftermarket sights and it’s perfect. You can do an optional trigger job but out of factory trigger is pretty darn good.

This is a great gun for the price. Have always wanted a 1911 style gun but could not find one in this price range. I am glad I purchased this gun. Great for personal protection.

Love it just what I was looking for

Was kinda a lil skeptic about going with this brand but turns out to be a good shooter and of course buds excellent service and fast shipping would recommend buying this one dont let the name fool ya only down side to me is the sights it come ls with which I already changed out so no problem. Great gun

I was pleasantly surprise at my Citadel purchase. When I picked up the inexpensive 1911 I expected to do a lot of modifications to it to make it usable. I have a few 1911s and most are in the high-end category. I wrongly suspected that this one would fall well short of them in general quality and looks. In fact, I had already purchased night sights, G-10 Grips and was in the process of picking out a Duracoat color for the frame and slide when the pistol arrived.
It is well balanced and feels like a 1911 when you hold it, despite its smaller size. The grips are classic double-diamond configuration with reasonable checkering. The sights? They can best be described as black and black, no dots or coloring of any kind. They’re okay but the night sights are going on. At the very least you will want to throw some white paint on the front sight. The trigger pull could be improved but it equals other 1911s that I have shot. Do not expect a crisp, no creep four pound trigger pull. The metal finish was nicer than most of the lower priced 1911s that I have shot. The pistol comes with two magazines, a plus when the price is considered. A lot of pistols ship with just one. There is also a small bottle of lubricant and the timeless trigger/action lock, packed neatly in a generic plastic pistol case. The slide to frame fit was great. I suspect a computer was involved in the machining. All moving parts function as they should. A couple of things to note, the pistol does not have a barrel bushing like most 1911s, instead it uses a tapered bull barrel. It does have a recoil guide rod busing and it is plastic. That does give me some pause and thoughts about longevity.
So, how does it shoot? Accuracy is, after all, how most of us judge our pistols. Ugly as sin works if it shoots straight. I do not count the first 50 rounds on any new pistol. Usually the gun or the shooter needs to be broken in before any real accuracy can be expected. Once I have gotten use to the gun and it gets a thorough cleaning after shooting, I expect it to hit what I aim at. I have sent untold thousands of rounds through pistol barrels and I know what to expect. This pistol is not designed to be a long-range target model. It is compact with a short grip and a shorter barrel, but it does the job. Considering it is more of a personal defense product it has good accuracy and, if the shooter does their part, it is capable of center of mass hits at reasonable distances. Sometimes shooters expect cruise missile accuracy from a bottle rocket. The Citadel is not a bottle rocket, neither is it a cruise missile! It does blow up soccer ball sized rocks well. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give it a solid 7. With just a few modifications it gets significantly better. Can you spend a little more and get better? Of course. In the world of 1911s, it is not a Colt, Springfield, Wilson Combat or more expensive or even custom model. I do not think anyone would expect it to be.

Jammed every time I tried to fire it. Armcor Customer service is the worst experience I every had. They told me to fire 500 rounds to brake it in, hard to do when it jams with every shot and they told me to buy different magazines. Why do I need to buy magazines for a new gun?

this is the second citadel 1911 i have purchased,it is a great gun for the price

I was skeptical about getting a 1911 that was so inexpensive as even the high dollar 1911s are finicky with some kinds of ammo. This is an absolute beauty. The fit and finish are spot on and I did not have any issues at the range. Beyond happy with this purchase.

I was wanting an officers 1911 or something close to it because I'm a 1911 nut! I have several lower end and higher end 1911's. I bought a full size Citadel 1911 and was super impressed on how well, and accurate it shot. The only place I could find a Citadel officers size 1911 was Bud's and the price was great! I bought it and it was shipped to my local gun store asap. As expected, the pistol was exactly what I wanted! The Citadel shot flawlessly and is very accurate. This is not my first purchase from Bud's and it won't be my last! Thanks Bud's!

Great service 1st in order. I highly recommend Bud's Gun Shop. Easy purchase and after the 1911 was sent, a complete tracking log kept me up to date on location and when to exspect. Now, if you are looking to get the bang for the bucks spent, this is a hard platform to overlook. Broke down and inspected everything I know to look for in a 1911 and may I say this example is way above the norm for what you get today from 1911 mfg's. for a as many term entry level 1911. Let me make this clear, I have owned many 1911's and this which cost about 1/2 what the next level would be, is as good if not better than 1911's @ the $800.00. The machine work is top notice and the 1911 functions perfect. Albeit not broke in yet, I was impressed none the less. The finish is smooth and uniform, do recommend as already stated, soft holster is better for this finish. The mags are top quality and feed well. If you are in the market for a compact .45, give this one a close look. I shopped and looked for weeks until I decide on this one, and I am well pleased with the choice.

Absolutely in love with this pistol. Very smooth trigger, very accurate. Hefty, but of course it is. If you’re looking for a 1911 carry, look no further.

Very solid 1911. 3.5 inch barrel allows for cc. Action is smooth, comes with extra magazine. TRIGGER IS FANTASTIC. I'm very happy with this purchase, really good value. For those who want to carry the gun it's a Blackhawk size 7 RH Nylon. The gun is heavy and I tried all the leather holsters. All were uncomfortable with the gun rubbing my side or excessive wear on the blueing. Strongly advise the Nylon Holster. Cannot find anything bad to say about this gun. Buds shipped fast even with the surge in gun sales. Super happy with this, I bought two of them. One for carry and one for collection.

I was looking for a compact 1911 and this turned out to be the one. I replaced the black sights with white dot nite sights. Also I had to soften the grip bottom back right corner because of my hand size. The gun came with 3 mags which was great. Shoots great with light recoil. Love it, tight gun. Shoots as good as my Springfield 1911 from the custom shop.

I really like this pistol. It shots well and points well. I was suprized it does not have more recoil. The weight of the pistol helps in that category of course. Chamber is tighter than my MetroArms Commander and I had to crimp my 200 grain JHP reloads to get it to feed them reliably in the Citadel, they did have a bit of an edge on them so that is on me. They would feed into my Metro however. Pistol looks good feels and shoots well. I am very happy with it.

As usual Buds shipped fast.
This is a terrific gun, excellent for carry. Mechanically it is very tight and well made.
I paid 432 for it and I think it money well spent.
I gave 4 stars because the blueing could be better. The blueing on the Citadel is more something you would expect from Taurus.
Other than the blueing it is a well made, solid piece.
I'll definitely be adding the Citadel to my carry rotation.

I ordered this on a Saturday morning, received the tracking info the following Monday, picked it up from my FFL today [Wednesday]. I cannot be happier with Buds. The day before I bought this pistol it was priced at about $490 and so imagine my shock when I logged in and saw it at $380! The finish on it is nice and dark which I'm sure will look better with it cleaned and oiled. Much to my surprise it came with two blued 7 round magazines with finger rests. I've wanted a 1911 for a while now and can't wait to break it in this coming weekend!

Okay, first of all Buds did a great job. I have a number of 1911's mostly with a 5" barrel. Wanted to try out a shorter barrel so I ordered the Citadel. Two words (Love It) Shot a buddy's polymer short barrel 45 compact and hated it. To much muzzle flip and not enough weight to balance out recoil. This little citadel seems to be the answer I was looking for. Yes it is alittle heavy just as another guy stated in his review. But I like that. Help's with recoil and muzzle flip. I wasn't a fan of the original grips that came with the gun so I replaced with wrap around Hogue grips. Yes sir Black on black all around. The sights are Novak style black out sights which are replaceable if you choose. The gun feels really good in your hand. At the range I ran American Eagle 45 230 gr FMJ. Gun operated flawlessly. If you do your part the gun will do its part. I went just to have some fun and became very impressed with this little gun. The Act Mags also operated flawlessly. You get 2 in the box. Looks like the word is getting out on the Citadel because the price is starting to go up. Get one soon.

CITIDEL is a product of LEGACY Sports Intl and A product I believe of Armscor Manufacturing. I still have this Pistol the only draw back is a little heavy for a Compact Carry 1911.Shoot very accurate at 25 yards and if you use trajectory will hit out to 50 yards on a "6 high " target. if you need to ! The custom features for the price can't be beat.I put 1000 Approximate if all ammo brand types,bullet grains and FMJ, as well as JHP including WOLF Russian Ammo. at 3,5,7 ad 10 yards with proper hand grip will not disappoint with a compact 3.8 inch barrel.

First of all, let me say that order processing and delivery from Bud's was great, as always. No issues there whatsoever. Having owned dozens of 1911s over the last 40 plus years, I bought the Citadel Compact to explicitly compare it to some higher end 1911's I already own. I was actually going to order up a Rock Island Armory gun as my test subject, but the Citadel went on sale at the same price, came with two magazines, and I thought it looked just a little bit nicer. So, it is what I bought. The pistol arrived in due time, in a Citadel black plastic box, and was covered with oil inside a plastic bag. It was not, however, "swimming" in lubricant as some have noted about RIA guns. Along with two fired cartridges, I received two magazines marked "ACT Made In Italy" but also curiously marked as "Rock Island Armory". The magazines appeared to be of good quality. Overall the fit and finish of the pistol, once cleaned up, was quite good, and a cut above that of the Rock Island branded products I have examined lately. The cocking serrations on the slide were angled rather than straight as on the equivalent RIA firearm. By the way, the pistol did not come with a manual of any kind. This is important because field stripping requires a bent paper clip and it would be nice if its use was explained to the user somewhere. Legacy Sports sent me a photocopy of a manual on request, but it was for the full-sized 1911 that does not use this paper clip method. The pre-range function check put an abrupt stop to my evaluation in that the thumb safety was improperly fit and did not function correctly. By this I mean that if you applied the thumb safety, it stuck in the "on safe" position and could not be taken off except with force applied by two people and ultimately a rubber mallet. There is absolutely no way this pistol passes any sort of final inspection at the factory, given how it was received. Fortunately, a single call to Legacy Sports, the importer, resulted in them issuing me a FedEx tag and picking the pistol up at my home. It was returned to me 12 days later, with confirmation that the gunsmiths at Armscor in Nevada had confirmed the problem and repaired it. I also noted they had polished the feed ramp while they had the gun. Nice touch. I was able to measure the trigger pull at an average weight of right at 6 pounds, but it was a very good and serviceable trigger. So, then it was off to the range where we tested the little .45 with both factory supplied magazines and three types of ammunition after giving the pistol an initial cleaning and proper lubrication. This is simply NOT a step you can skip with a 1911 if you want to be fair to the pistol. We had no failures of any kind while running Speer Lawman 230 grain TMJ, PMC 230 grain FMJ, and Remington Golden Saber 185 grain JHPs. The pistol shot groups that were the same size as those turned in by a brand new 2016 Colt LW Commander costing exactly twice as much. Pretty impressive to say the least. This is not a lightweight gun at 2 pounds, but the weight makes it easier to shoot well, and recoil was simply not an issue, similar to an all-steel Commander we had on hand. The sights were good and visible, but on dark backgrounds could use a dab of paint. Legacy Sports sells the proper night sights for this gun at $80 if you want a Tritium option. Overall, this was an impressive little pistol, except for the initial quality control issue with the safety. As a practical matter though, the supplied magazines have bumpers on them that make the pistol exactly as tall as a full size 1911 with a flush fit magazine, so you are giving up one round to no benefit really, and the pistol weighs exactly the same as an all-steel Commander. However it is a good looking, good shooting package. So much so that after testing, my assistant purchased the pistol as his very first 1911, and is completely happy with it now that he has added a bit of paint to the sights, while he waits for his night sights to get here. He has continued to shoot it, and to date has had zero malfunctions in about 500 rounds so far. This is a lot of gun for the money and I think the full-sized option is even more so. I think this would be a great gun to buy if you want to see if you like 1911s without risking a ton of money. I'd have given it 5 stars except that they shipped it with a broken safety.

Shot well out of the box... Buds was great -fast delivery and keep me updated on status of my order. This appears to be a good 1911 for the money. Recoil was much less than I anticipated. I am just getting used to a 1911 setup, so far ,whats not to like-accurate, great size and fits my hand perfectly. If it wasn't for a pit mark on the extractor I would give a 5. If you are wanting a compact 1911. Its hard to beat this weapon for the money.

I will keep my story short, here we go: I been a big fan of full size 1911 all my life and had owned several of them through the years from low ends to high dollar ones, so this wasn't my first rodeo with 1911's, however never owned a compact one, so I order this one. I was aware of all the good/bad reviews,videos and so on floating on the net. The finish on this firearm is amazing, the fit is awesome, the only thing I did was polished the feeding ramp to a mirror finish and that's it. This firearm will eat up anything you feed it. In general and to keep my story short, great entry level 1911, get one before the prices kept on going up. I like Bud's Gun Shop however, is Bud's Staff the ones making the difference they are GREAT !!!!! Keep Up The Good Work Thank You