Smith & Wesson 1911 Performance Center .45 ACP G10 Grips - 8+1 Rounds, 5" Barrel, Composite Grips, Stainless/Silver

First firearm from buds. Quick shipping, everything simple and quick like you want. Pistol has yet to see around but is a beauty. Can’t wait to feed it some rounds.

Quick shipping and gun was in stock, This pistol feels great and price was lower then most competitors....

I have a number of Smith and Wesson hand guns; pistols and revolvers and this one was my latest acquisition. I love S&W products but this one was a total disappointment. After one day of ownership it is going back to the manufacturer for three significant issues... 1- The barrel is coated black which coating started to come off as soon as the gun was handled. After one firing and subsequent cleaning the barrel is half black and half the underlying metal. 2 - Racking the gun is darn near impossible, whether it is the tolerances or the recoil spring, it takes an inordinate effort to load a round in the chamber. None of my other 1911's come close to this. 3 - the last round in the mag does not load but jams the gun. I need to turn the gun upside down and rack it to get that last round into the chamber, crazy and certainly unsafe! Once working, shooting it is great, nice feel and fairly light recoil, very accurate. Smith & Wesson stepped right up when I contacted them arranging for a return for repair. All this stuff will get repaired and I will get a fine firearm back from S&W. My major complaint is how the heck did this one get out of the factory with these issues?? This is supposed to be their top of the line Performance Center product, I expected much much better!!!

saw this pistol at a local shop and almost bought it but saw buds selling it for almost $300 less. Worth the wait and a fantastic 1911.

Impressions of new S&W Performance Center 1911.
To inform what my background is and give a better appreciation what I consider when evaluating a firearm, I am a retired design engineer, so I well understand the pressures on a company to reduce the cost of a product. I have worked both in a mass production environment and in a building a one of a kind environment; each has its own requirements. Indeed, the history of firearms development from original guns that were entirely hand built to modern mass-produced firearms is a good example of the evolution of modern manufacturing. Even today, a high grade 1911 has to have several parts hand fitted as there are many factors that contribute to tolerance variations in a mechanical device such as tool wear, tolerances of the machine tool and skill of the people building the device. I learned through experience that on a production line, the skill levels of the workers vary considerably and when I was having a device built, I was selective about which technician that I used to build a prototype. I am a lifelong shooter and gun tinkerer and conservative in my opinion of what a gun should be.
I purchased the S&W PC 1911 from Buds. As usual, Buds service was good. When I received the gun, I did an overall assessment and was pleased with the finish. The slide to frame fit was excellent with absolutely no play vertically or horizontally. The trigger pull was measured to be 4# 2 oz which is too heavy for my liking; more about that later. The gun is stainless steel with I would guess in a brushed finish. The gun is equipped with a Brinley barrel busing which uses a straight barrel, i.e. no fitting swell on the end of the barrel. I believe this is a cost cutting issue. It would be easier to fit a bushing to a straight barrel than to have a normal swell at the muzzle and then have to fit a busing to the swell as most manufacturers do. The Brinley bushing does have two clearances to cause error verses one, so it is my opinion that a regular bushing offers the most potential for accurate fitting but requires more technician time to do well. I took the pistol to the range and fired R-P 185 grain bullets through it. I did not use my Ranson rest but only a sandbag rest. The pistol functioned flawlessly. Accuracy results were not as good as I wanted, but I attribute that to the heavy trigger pull. The only real test of accuracy is with a Ranson rest, but I did shoot an old Colt gov model better that same trip. The Colt has been accurized by a military armorer and I have put a new Wilson match barrel in it. The trigger pull on the Colt is a good crisp 3 # 6oz, still heavier than I like. The slide and barrel on the S&W are serialized indicating that the barrel is fitted to that slide.
I took the pistol apart and examined everything. There are several obvious MIM parts, the sear and the magazine release. I had no way of telling, but I would assume the front sight probably is a MIM part too. The hammer is apparently cast as there are sprue marks on it. I could not tell if the disconnector was MIM. There are machine tool marks on it, so maybe it is not. Overall, the fit and finish was good on all the interior parts.
The slide has 6 lightening ports machined into it. I take this as a marketing department input to make the gun sexier; I cannot tell if it makes any difference in the function of the weapon. It does provide entry points into the interior of the weapon for dirt and grit, so if I were using the weapon in a combat environment, I definitely would not like the ports. The frame has checkering both on the front of the grip and the rear. That seems to be the fashion of the day for 1911s. I personally prefer serrations as I think a full day of shooting a pistol with checkering would get to be uncomfortable as it does dig into my hands.
I bought the S&W because of the many pistols that I have and do own, S&Ws have been the most accurate; in particular several mdl 41s and a mdl 52. Both those pistols were extremely accurate and had the best trigger pulls of any pistols that I have owned.
I did a full up trigger job on the S&W including polishing trigger bow, trigger track, sear, disconnector, slide area where the disconnector rubs, hammer, replacing the mainspring with a 15 # spring and replacing the sear spring with a Clark 4 finger spring which I then tuned. The trigger is now a nice # 3 2oz with no creep. I have not had a chance to fire the pistol yet as the weather has turned cold, so that will have to wait.
Would I buy the pistol again? Yes, I would. The pistol is well built though not up to my high expectations, but a lot less expensive than a full up custom pistol. It takes me $1800-$2000 just to buy the parts to make a custom pistol and then I have to spend hours doing it. Technician time is not cheap. I don’t know what the tech time costs but at least $50 hour, probably more. So, manufacturers have to seek ways to reduce tech time to keep costs reasonable.
One thing on the S&W that although I understand why it is there (lawyer talk) really turns me off, and that is the warning etched on the slide that the pistol will fire with the magazine not installed. I basically have a pet peeve about lawyer talk and design changes to firearms (such as safeties on a mdl 94) dictated by the legal staff. Such is our modern society.
In summary, it depends upon what your requirements are and what you like. A target shooter such as I have different requirements than a person such as a LEO. The S&W PC 1911 is a higher quality pistol than a normal production unit, but falls short of a custom pistol.

A recent purchase based a lot on the quality and accuracy potential of this pistol. A handsome gun with high end features at a fairly reasonable price. One of the first things I check is the trigger on any gun I purchase. This one was as advertised, crisp with a little take up, which is common, and breaking at 3lb 14oz. I almost always will replace some trigger parts on my 1911's to improve pull weight and crispness but I don't think I'll mess with this one. The grips look and feel good and, to me, not excessively aggressive. Have not shot a lot of rounds through it yet, but just shooting off hand with 230gr. hardball, am very pleased with the grouping out to 25 yds. Your accuracy potential will not be hampered by this gun. It can outshoot you, if you know what I mean. I felt the gun was ejecting the empties too far away and behind so have installed a slightly heavier recoil spring(20lb.) to slow the slide. Haven't shot it yet with that spring. The slide to frame fit is tight as well as the barrel and bushing. The bushing has a unique copper collar inside of it which, I presume, enhances the fit, maybe a little similar to the old S&W Model 52's. The sights are for target shooting as there is very little visible gap between front and rear alignment, however, with these old eyes, makes it a little tougher when shooting at a black target. Will be checking it out with 185gr. loads for local competitions. Finding a gun of this type where certain accuracy is guaranteed will cost you a lot more money. This one is ready to go out of the box and only the very serious competition shooter might need one with accuracy guaranteed. My gun isn't broken in yet so it can only get better. You will be pleased if you purchase this pistol.

First off, this is an awesome and beautiful gun. This gun is more accurate than its user by far. At 25 yards I can do about a 1 inch group at 25 yards and can hit a 3 inch metal gong consistently at 50 yards. It arrived in 3 days thanks to Buds fast shipping! This is a well made gun and worth the money to anyone thinking on buying it. You will not be disappointed!

I have had the smith and Wesson 1911 for a couple of months now and have shoot it some. The fit and finish of the pistol is very good over all, however it has a flaw on the front strap checkering. One line in the cut on the front strap seems to be deeper into the frame then the rest of the lines giving it a noticeable difference. The noticeable line is however about in the center of the front strap making it look like it could be intentional. The rest of the pistol is very pleasing and well made. I expected that to be the case as I also have a Smith and Wesson E series 1911. The adjustable sights are very nice, I still have not decided if I like the black on black back and front sight. All of my other 1911s are either 3 dot or dot and fiber optic. So far the black on black has not been a real problem as most of the shooting I've done to date has been with in 20 yds. The accuracy of the pistol is really amazing. From 15 yds using a rest the group is just one eaten out hole. My other 1911s can shoot almost this good, but this S&W got them beat. I think the free floating self centering bushing probably is the main reason for the superb accuracy. I also notice a lot less recoil with this 1911 compared to my other 5 inch 1911s using the same load. The outside of the barrel is coated with some king of Teflon paint (black) and does show some wear on the barrel hood and front of the muzzle where it contacts the bushing. With moving parts this has to be expected, however it is only slight wear at this time, but can only get worse as I continue to run rounds thru it. I sold a Kimber raptor stainless 4" 1911 and replaced it with this Smith. I liked the Kimber, but I can shoot this one a whole lot better then the Raptor. I have several other 1911 including S&W E Series, Para Elite, Remington Limited, Rock Island TAC and like them all, but this S&W is a real performer and it has my recommendation, as the pistol makes me a better shooter.

Beautiful firearm. Shoots like a dream. Could not be more impressed with the 1911 or Buds service. 90 day layaway makes buying high end items a breeze.

Excellent firearm! Like a finely tuned machine. Excellent, fast and smooth transaction with buds! If you're a 1911 fan, you will love this one. Racking the slide is smooth as glass!