I have owned more firearms than I could ever possibly count. I buy, sell, and buy some more. My first firearm was a Remington 870 12 gauge which I hunted pheasant, ducks, geese and deer with growing up as a teenager. When I became old enough to legally own handguns, I started with revolvers – because Dirty Harry was a revolver sort of guy. ? But it wasn’t long before I started buying semi-automatic pistols because they were easier to load than a six gun.
Naturally, this fascination with pistols took me directly down the path of 1911s. The 1911 has been around, well, since 1911. Based on the poor stopping power of the Colt M1892 revolver, the U.S. Army decided they needed a self-loading pistol in a caliber not less than .45. Enter John Browning. He would design the M1911 Colt pistol chambered in .45 Automatic Colt Pistol (ACP). Browning’s design would beat out prototypes from Savage and DWM. His pistol design would be manufactured by many different companies to supply the U.S. Army’s needs during World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. And while the U.S. Military would adopt the Beretta M9 in the mid-1980s, the 1911 is being used by Special Forces units through present day.
I have owned 1911s made by Colt, Smith & Wesson, Dan Wesson, Kimber and SIG Sauer. While I have had excellent experiences with the Kimber pistols, I prefer a stainless steel frame – not an alloy frame. I have owned several SIG Sauer 1911s and have always been very impressed with them. My most recent 1911 purchase, a couple of years ago, was the 1911 We The People. I was immediately attracted to the gun – from a cosmetic standpoint – but also because it hearkens back to an earlier time before light rails started appearing on 1911s. It is traditional.
We The People 1911
The first thing people notice about this pistol is the grips. They are made of aluminum and have raised stars to enhance your purchase on the pistol when shooting. “1776” is engraved on one side of the slide, with “We The People” engraved on the ejection port side. Lastly there are 13 stars engraved just forward of the rear sight – representing our original 13 colonies. SIG got all the cosmetic details right on this pistol – including adding a distressed finish to the slide and frame.
But don’t be fooled. This pistol is all business. It is a full sized 1911 with a 5 inch barrel. And unlike newer 1911 designs the barrel is fully supported by a heavy bushing. With its finely checkered front and rear straps it is easy to shoot with the overall pistols weight – 41.6 ounces – making follow up shots more accurate. Unlike its older cousins, SIG’s We The People sports SIGLITE tritium sights, making it something you could use for personal defense in low light conditions.
Shooting the We The People
I normally do not wait two years to write a review of pistols I use. But I must admit, I do not want everyone else to buy one of these. It is a conversation starter among friends and strangers when they see this gun. Since I bought this 1911 I have shot roughly 1,500 rounds through it. My normal break in procedure, for a new pistol, is go to the range with lots of my reloads. I will mix things up in the magazines as I load them – rotating between powder types and bullet weights. On my first outing, I shot roughly 300 rounds through the WTP of hard ball full metal jacket reloads. Of all of these rounds, I had one failure to feed – and it wasn’t the pistol’s fault. Upon examination, I found the brass was not to my normal standards and it should have never made it through my inspection before going in the ammo box.
After the 300 rounds of FMJ, I mixed some jacketed hollow points in with the FMJ reloads. I have been able to make many pistols – not just 1911s – hiccup when doing this. I experienced no problems. Not one. My last exercise with the WTP was to shoot multiple brands of JHP factory ammo through it to make sure it didn’t get indigestion from any certain hollow point. This pistol ate everything I put through it that day – with no problems.
Is the WTP accurate? First, let me offer this caveat. I am not interested in trying to see how many bullets I can put through the 10-ring on a paper target. I am interested in keeping all of my rounds in center mass- being able to have quick follow up shots and fast magazine changes. The SIG Sauer 1911 We The People overachieved – as my target above, demonstrates.
Final Thoughts
After my initial range testing with the We The People pistol, I spent a lot of time working up a good recipe for my personal protection ammo. After many chronograph sessions and lots of range time, I have settled on Starline +P brass, with 7.1 grains of Alliant Power Pistol, the WLP Winchester primer and a 230 grain Speer Gold Dot bullet (NOTE: never trust anyone else’s reload data. Work your own up. This is provided for informational purposes only). This pistol is very accurate with this dope and produces a very consistent mean velocity of around 950 feet per second.
This time of year, when I am wearing heavy clothing, I will often carry this pistol in either a Galco shoulder rig or an Alessi outside the waistband (OWB) custom holster. Both of these rigs offer plenty of support to make wearing a full sized stainless steel 1911 comfortable.
If you are in the market, for a new 1911 platform pistol, I would highly recommend SIG Sauer’s We The People. In today’s firearms market, almost any gun is hard to find. The We The People 1911 is not an exception. If you can find it, expect to pay close to $1,300 for this piece. But even at that price point, it’s a value. Please check out the photo gallery below. ?
The Grey Beard Biker™️
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@Biker4Life on Gab
