I’ve shot both the LFA Apollo 11 4.1” and the Springfield Prodigy 4.25” and both shoot really well to me. I have the opportunity to get either a new LFA or a used Prodigy in great shape. Need some advice on which to choose.

I have a prodigy and it's been good to go, I have no experience with the LFA guns. I googled them just now though and couldn't tell if they were optics ready. If they're not optics ready that would be a no-go for me, though it may not matter to you. I don't like the styling of the LFA guns but obviously that is subjective and you might really like them. I know Springfield is going to be around to take care of guns, not sure about LFA. So for me I would stick with springfields, but the other guns could be great as well. Maybe somebody with some personal experience with the LFA will speak up. I've not seen any of them in matches though, and I have seen several people shooting springfields

I’m not familiar with either of those but if you’re not limited to those choices you may want to look at the CZ shadow 2 variants, or the CZ TS variants.

I have not shot an LFA, but they are optics ready.

The Prodigy has been around long enough to have quite a bit of aftermarket support, so I would probably go that route. If you wanted to go ultra-budget, a Tisas Night Stalker is also a good choice in my opinion. I was recently gifted one in .45 ACP and after some work it's a good shooter and has been 100% reliable through its first 500 rounds. It's definitely a bit unfinished out of the box, but nothing a dremel can't fix.

MAC DS 9mm I’ve heard good things about. I have their 1014 Breacher (Benelli M4) and their MAC5K (MP5K) and both have been flawless.

I know when I was researching 2011’s I saw a ton of problems for the Prodigy, maybe Springfield has gotten that corrected now.

No experience or research on the LFA.

More than one old gunsmith has told me the best thing you can do to a new 1911 is shoot it a whole lot. If it fails to eject, manually eject it and run it some more. If it fails to go into battery, manually cycle it and run it some more. One old head said "If a 1911 doesn't rattle, I won't trust it." Another one said to disassemble it and wipe all the oil off of the slide and the frame. Reassemble it and shoot it 500 rounds, going through the manually cycling procedures mentioned.

What I gather, is you're basically lapping all of the sliding parts by doing that.

I'd like to hear what others here, that know 1911's well, think about all that.

https://www.kimberamerica.com/2k11-target-oi

Good reviews so far. Not budget friendly but if competing with Staccato, then maybe it’s the real deal.

Friends don't let Friends buy new Kimbers.

I don’t disagree with that comment at all. It would be nice if they got the 2011 right though. Waiting for Buzz to buy one, break it in, and sell it. 😂

Don’t buy a Kimber.

Look at these.

https://wilsoncombat.com/handguns/double-stack/sfx9.html

But I am a little biased. Love mine.

This ^^^!

I have a Prodigy and a Staccato, no issues with either one and very accurate!

Same comments on the Kimber, there’s just too many other great choices. I also pay close attention to the classifieds on here for years and what I’ve seen - two things don’t sell - Kimber 1911’s and Christensen rifles

True story

True story.

I would have to disagree with most of that stuff.

No reason for modern factory 1911 to not shoot 45 ball or smaller hollow points like an xtp right from the factory. If it doesn't, the first thing I would look at is some of the crappy magazines that some of the cheap guns come with

If your factory 1911 doesn't do that, you should just send it back and let them work on it. It's not the consumer's job to put 500 rounds of ammo through a gun to make it work.

There are a couple of caveats to that however. If you're wanting a super tight bullseye gun like a les baer, you need to expect to have to shoot 500 rounds for that gun to be lapped in properly. But that's kind of an understood thing and if you're buying that gun you should probably know it. If you're wanting any 1911 to shoot semi-wad cutters or big ashtray looking hollow points, some tuning may have to happen. But I've also seen blocks that didn't like specific kind of ammo with weird shaped bullets.

As far as the gun rattling, rattley guns do tend to be more forgiving being dirty. But sometimes shooters want a gun that shoots a better group, and will spend the money for a tighter fitted gun. They need to understand however when they buy that tight fitted gun they're going to have to keep it a little cleaner. It shouldn't be super finicky, but you can't expect to shoot it a few thousand rounds without cleaning and not have some issues

1911s in 45 tend to be less problematic than ones in 9 mm. This seems to have to do with the power of the 45, the power of the recoil spring to return it to battery in the 45, and the weight of the slide. 1911s were built around that kind of inertia and 9 mm just doesn't create as much.

I'm not a 1911 builder, I do tinker with them a little bit but not a much. But as a guy who shoots a lot of different 1911s and have a tremendous amount of rounds through them over the years, this is what I have found to be true

After the match today my prodigy has 3,440 rounds through it with no issues.

On the Kimber front, I don't see many of them at matches, but I do know two Master class shooters who have shot the hell out of them and not treated them kindly at all and they just keep on working. Maybe they have the only two like that, I don't know. Most of my 1911 tend to either be springfields or Rock Islands

I would probably go with the Prodigy

Oh yeah, Kimbers don’t run at all🤣
https://youtu.be/wvSoHFMcDi0?si=0CHTWCdJYXNsp1K5

Yep. I wouldn’t spend my money on either.

I agree. Most people go swapping parts for no good reason. For a reliable carry pistol you need to shoot it a lot before you start jacking with it.
On another note...
I have been able to disassemble half a dozen Tisas pistols. I found CNC machined parts with very good steel and tolerances. For the price, I'm impressed. I had to tweak the extractor on one that was having a few FTE problems. Another had a sharp edge on the bottom bevel of the bolt face that was scraping the brass on the next round. He had put extra power springs in his mags. A couple of strokes with a stone fixed that.
A third had swapped out his mainspring and could understand why it now jammed up on range ammo. Had to have a LONG conversation on spring to ammo relationship.

I’ve shot both, both are great. Triggers are about the same. I hated the 3d printed grip on the Apollo so I swapped it to a real dragon scale. It needs a new safety to fit but in time I’ll get it there.

Take a hard look at Cosaint out of NC. The guy that owns its used to work for Benelli and STi, and their guns are hand fitted. I have one in 45 ACP that has been in quite a few hands and none disapproved. It’s pricey compared to Springfield but a relative bargain compared to STi

I've mentioned my ParaOrdanances before. The P-10, stainless, is an original made in Canada, and the other, P-14, was made here, before they sold out to Remington. Both are .45 acp, and have never had any problems with anything I have fed them with.

I have a Para USA black ops double stack. Great gun! Not sure I would buy one made by Remington. The Para group in North Carolina were definitely making them right.

New meaning to double stack…

I've been eyeballing the prodigy lately, and just ran across this thread. From the research I've done, it looks like there were early complaints of FTE, but seems that issue was solved. Anyone have a reason why I shouldn't be eyeballing the Prodigy?

I just picked up one of the 5 inch comped Prodigys. Threw a magwell, Vortex Defender, and an 8lb recoil spring on it. Shoots ridiculously soft. Only got to put 40rds through it so far, but it ran perfectly. The 8lb spring may be a little light, but will see.