Baer 1911 Pistols

WELCOME TO THE NO BS ZONE OF TEDDY JACOBSON


This commentary is long over due and has been on my mind for a very long time. This evaluation is based on pure objectivity and its nothing personal in any way. I am going to base this on my experience of having worked on over 7000 - 1911 pistols and having done countless number of Baer pistols. I am about to discuss my findings in a condensed version. I have no personal agenda in what I am about to tell you. There is hardly a gun magazine that you can buy and look at without seeing a full page ad which advertises Baer pistols that is at least 4 or more colors with self professed experts using their name and picture to influence your purchase. What makes these people do this and claim to be experts at one thing or another is beyond me. They are either famous shooters or teach self defense with firearms or male and female shooting competitors. Here is where I separate myself from these people and their claim to fame. I work on the internals, I do not shoot many guns anymore. I can discuss every part or piece of that pistol whether it be a spring or an extractor or an ejector or a disonnector or the angles used on the sear, etc, etc, etc, etc. These people are no match for me in disecting any of the 100 handguns that I work on or at least have in the past. I take nothing away from the people in the ad but I do ask myself what did they do this for, no one does things just for the sake of doing it. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEIR AGENDA IS AND ITS NONE OF MY BUSINESS. I am here to give you my evaluation of the current Baer pistols I have seen and worked on.


I think that the finish on a Baer pistol is very nice. I think that they use a good frame and slide and I like their barrel. My praise of this product pretty much stops there. We are talking about a high dollar production pistol that is featured in almost every magazine. We see it on the cover of many gun magazines. When an advertiser spends so much money he can pick up the phone and make almost every editor jump at his or her will. Its that simple, money talks and BS walks, that phrase comes from the streets of Brooklyn, NY. I keep asking myself why I can never get a fair evaluation of a handgun in a gun magazine. I can get a fair evaluation of a camera out of a photography magazine that may still be biased but at least you get the pros and cons. In the world of guns its all positive until you buy it and learn for your self. Most, repeat most not all gun writers are not allowed to write an article allowing them to tell it like it is. NOW THIS IS MY OPINION. Why would any Magazine owner or Editor bite the hand that feeds them, its all about Willie (the actor) Suttons favorite pastime and his favorite item, "MONEY"............


I have had brand new Baer pistols in my shop many, many times and I can barely pull the slide back. Of the ones that I have had in here they are too tight. I am talking about the frame to slide fit. When we add the barrel and barrel bushing as a component its even tighter. Try taking the barrel bushing off with your fingers, not likely, try using a short bushing wrench, not easy, cause you will need a long bushing wrench like one that is made by Kings gunworks in California. This is not a good idea and we are just starting to talk about this pistol. If its so very tight a fit when the steel is cold, can you imagine what happens when it heats up and expands. RIGHT, it gets even tighter and much worse. Now you mean to tell me with all these countless "EXPERT" gun writers and Gun Editors and these people in these ads endorsing these 1911 pistols that no one seems to notice this very important problem. Surely I can not be the only one to recognize this major fault.
I may be the only one that is willing to speak about it and to give you my honest opinion. Remember I am not in bed with anyone, I still have an 89 truck with 24,000 original miles on it.


I will no longer take in any Baer pistol to refine, I have cut that nightmare out of my life forever. I have looked at some very current Baer pistols and saw how the bottom barrel lugs were cut, this was a disaster, that is one reason you can not rack the slide that easily, in my case I need a helper. I will say this very honestly, that when Steve Clark was working for Baer many years ago they were making a much better 1911 pistol. Would I purchase a current Baer 1911 pistol ?? Never...
I do think that with the quality of the frame and slide and barrel, this current Baer pistol can be fixed and made into a very good handgun. Will I ever do any more ?? NO


I have examined every single component of a Baer 1911 pistol using very high magnification and I want those to check me out. If you know how to take your pistol apart I want you to remove the sear spring and look at the very left leaf that interfaces with the sear. The sear springs I have taken out of every Baer pistol have been irregularly ground wrong and very thin, check yours out, this is critical. I used to throw these sear springs away or in my case, now, I put them aside to show people what is in a 2000 dollar production pistol.
This sear spring at least in the ones I have seen are not even good amateur work.
I am sorry Mr. Magazine owner but this is the reality world that people stake their very lives on and this is a super critical component and if it fails you are in trouble when and if you have a social encounter where bullets go both ways.
I can supply pictures of this spring if you doubt me, but the best thing you can do if you own a Baer pistol is to look at your spring, please do not take my word for it.


Now lets talk about disconnectors, Of 85% of the Baer pistols I have worked on I have replaced the disconnectors because the original was cut and contoured with a file and the angles were crooked. I throw away better disconnectors than I have seen in some Baer pistols, now I did not say all but a lot of them I must replace. I always put a good quality caliper on every disconnector. I do not buy cheap calipers and I have many. Length is the critical factor and I do not recall a problem with them being too short, it was the file work that was terrible. Please do not take my word for it, take yours out and look at it under magnification. While you have it out measure the length if you can, I do not think this is a problem. Unless of course its been worked on after you bought the gun by a hack. It should not be less than 1.295 in over all length in my opinion. In fact I prefer them on the long side.


I have never worked on any Baer pistol that was fine tuned to my standards of quality. But in giving an honest evaluation, no one would have given me a Baer pistol to work on if they were satisfied with it to begin with. I think that the accuracy has not been a major factor because in what I do all I ever cared about was 2 inch groups at rapid fire at 36 feet for a social engagement. I am not into accuracy like other people because its all BS, these guns as a general rule are more accurate than you are. The only standard I live by is "RELIABILITY" to work and feed anything.
If you teach basic handgun defense and you carry a 1911 pistol and use ball ammo because you are worried that your pistol will not be reliable with hollow points, then YOU HAVE GOT A PROBLEM. Any 1911 I have worked on and have corrected the feeding system to my standards will digest anything like a disposal.


To sum it all up, if you have a Baer pistol and you like it by all mean stay with it and enjoy it. Its a nice looking 1911 pistol and is finished well. It does not meet my standards of excellence internally for me to ever own one.
This commentary is based on my experience and if you like my evaluations and want to keep reading them please come back. If you do not like my commentaries and are unhappy please leave and we will survive very well with out an open minded person of any gender.


AUTHORS PERSONAL NOTATION:
This commentary as well as all my previous commentaries are my personal opinion and my personal viewpoint only. I am my own man and I can not be bought. IT IS WHAT IT IS. I will not ever let any wannabbee smith that thinks hes the new messiah in gunsmithing ever tell me what I can and can not say on this commentary page. This is not my old forum where other people took over and stabbed me in the back, this is my world and if you do not like it get the hell out of my life. Who died and made you the master gunsmith ?? I forgot more than you know. Yes the person I am talking about will know what I am saying.
No, you can never be my friend in this world again. The scars have not healed from the last knife in my back.


Teddy Jacobson / Pistolsmith (semi retired)
www.actionsbyt.com
281 277 4008
tjacobson@houston.rr.com
jaj45f@alltel.net
www.actionsbyt.blogspot.com/