As big a fan as I am of the 1911 pistol, there are times I get tired of it. John Browning’s design is difficult to improve upon, and the patents on the pistol are long expired, so it is easier for firearms manufacturers to build a proven design than it is to design and build something new.

So when I walked through last year’s big firearms trade show and past all the 1911-style pistols, I found that most didn’t interest me. Except for the individual features on each gun (sights, safety levers, magazine wells), they were basically all the same.

But as I wandered through the Taurus booth, mostly looking at revolvers, I happened to notice a table displaying several 1911 pistols. I picked one up to check it out and noticed that the gun had all the features one would want on a fighting handgun: hard rubber grips, ambidextrous safety, high visibility sights. As a matter of fact, the sights looked like Heinie Specialty’s Straight 8 sights, which are normally found on expensive, high end handguns.

The three-hole aluminum trigger has a serrated face. It broke the scales at just under five pounds and had a snappy reset.

As I was examining the gun, Taurus’ Chuck Fretwell walked up and asked if I had any questions. I looked at him and asked, “Yeah, how much does this thing cost?” When he told me it retailed for less than $600 [Editor’s note: Current suggested list is $700, with street price less than that], that caught my attention, so I ordered up a test sample to find out if such an inexpensive gun with so much promise was any good

Taurus says its 1911 offers 19 standard features for which other manufacturers would charge more than $1,000. In addition, each gun is individually hand-assembled, hand-mated and hand-fitted.

When my test gun arrived, I took it from the box and noted that its flat black finish was not at all attractive but very business-like. To tell you the truth, an attractive bright blue finish really does not interest me on a carry gun, so the flat black color was just fine with me.

I immediately disassembled the gun with the bushing wrench that was supplied with the gun to inspect the internal components. Taurus uses a full length recoil guide rod on the pistol, and while this is one of those topics that many writers like to debate the fact is that I don’t care if it has a short or long rod—provided the gun will run. Yes, it is more difficult to field strip, but when I do this type of thing I am not in a hurry, so I don’t find this to be a big deal.

The author installed an old mag-well funnel on the gun for easier reloading, but since it didn't allow the bumpered Taurus mags to work in the gun, he removed the funnel for testing.

A close look at the parts revealed that they were of the Series 80 design, but they fit well together with just a few machine marks—nothing I thought would seriously affect the gun’s performance. Taurus claims that all “major components” are custom forged from ordnance steel, but I have no idea what they consider “major components.” The barrel is highly polished and nicely throated and the slide to frame fit quite precise.

The Taurus 1911 comes in two frame styles: traditional rounded dust cover and accessory rail.