I have purchased a bunch of them in the last few years and they are much much improved. I have heard the same thing from industry folks. Wayne Novak even recommended to me their current guns as a base for a custom project I am mulling over.

They are not a Nighthawk, Wilcon Combat, Les Baer or other high end guns, but they are darn good for the price.

Just my $0.02

Matt

Murphy, I bought a NIB Government Model .38 Super back in 2011. While not a perfect specimen, it has turned out to be an excellent gun. The most serious glitch was a slightly miscut chamber throat that produced "smiley faces" on the brass even with factory ammo. A quick trip back to the factory got it a new barrel which is perfect (and amazingly accurate). Otherwise, right out of the box the gun ran like a moonshine car - can't recall a single malf since I have had it.

The gun also has a cosmetic blemish, a wavy line in the polish on the left side slide flat. It's not a big thing to me because it resulted in me getting the gun for a very nice price and I plan to wear most of the finish off the durned old thing before I check out anyway. In truth, most Colt freaks will tell you candidly that Colt-made 1911s frequently have little cosmetic quirks like that if you look closely at them. This goes back to the beginning when guns were hand-finished. It's one of the endearing little traits that make a Colt what it is, or at least used to be before injection molding and CNC machines.

I'd buy another Colt 1911 in a minute if I need another one.

Not bad for the price, and we were quite impressed.

They've gone to MIM internal parts, but out of the box trigger pull was not bad at all.

I bought a blue Government model .45 in 2012 and a stainless Commander .45 in 2014. They are both excellent build quality and great shooters. I wouldn't hesitate one second to buy another if it suited my needs.