TFB Review: Springfield Armory Garrison 9mm 1911

It's hard to come out with something that interests me in the 1911 market these days. The market has been saturated with pistols in almost every price range with a large variety of features. So how does Springfield Armory's Garrison hold up? Springfield has been making 9mm and .45 caliber 1911s for years now, with everything from top-of-the-line railed models like the TRP, Operator, and Emissary lines to more traditional pistols like the Mil Spec. The Garrison sits right in the middle of the pack with much appreciated modern features like the 3 dot Novak sights, skeletonized hammer and the extended beavertail. It does all this while keeping the lines and feel of a mil-spec 1911 versus something like the Emissary. Let's dive into the review.

The first thing I noticed when pulling the pistol out of the box was how perfectly it fit in the hand and how excellent the fit and finish were. Even after 1500 rounds of various 9mm, it still felt tight and smooth. The slide serrations, while not as aggressive as some of Springfield’s other models, are more than enough to rack the slide even when wet or oily. The slim grips let the pistol settle perfectly into my hands, while the extended beavertail meant that even on long range sessions I had zero hammer bite. The stainless two-tone finish is not only eye-catching but has also held up surprisingly well given how much abuse the pistol has been through. It has been run dry and hot, dunked into the snow, and shot in the pouring rain of the Pacific Northwest and still looks outstanding. Additionally, it's been bounced around inside a backpack in a truck bed while running the trails in rural Oregon. Despite a few scratches, the overall finish looks nearly perfect.

I brought the Garrison to several shoots with fellow TFB staff who all agreed it was a blast to shoot and incredibly accurate. Off a rest at 25 yards, the Garrison was able to put up sub-1-inch groups with good ammunition. The gun was accurate enough to ring a steel gong at 125 yards with relative ease and did very well cleaning plate racks. The soft recoil impulse combined with the gun wanting to naturally return to the initial point of aim lent itself to great accuracy while under the shot timer and double taps were incredibly easy to stack at 7 yards.

After about 900 rounds, I gave the gun a deep clean and set out to finish the remainder of the review without cleaning the gun to find its failure point. I am happy to report after an additional 500 rounds it had 0 malfunctions. I would lube the pistol every 250 rounds and keep it going. At the final round of the test, I tore the pistol down to see how dirty it had gotten and it was surprisingly clean. While definitely full of carbon and gunk, I was expecting much worse. After a quick cleaning and lubing, the gun was back to perfect condition and continued to run flawlessly.

I let fellow TFB member Hop run the pistol during one of the shoots and he was also impressed with the Garrison and how it performed. I even caught him cracking a rare smile, although I was unable to capture it on film. There is something to be said about a 1911 with iron sights in the era of polymer double stacks with optics. The Garrison is just fun to shoot and everyone I handed it to expressed similar feelings. Even novice shooters were able to pick it up and start ringing steel with ease due to the light recoil, phenomenal trigger, and crisp sights. 

For a 1911 with an MSRP of $917 and a street price of $800, the features and overall fit and finish of the gun are superb. The trigger pulls at a crisp 2-2.5 lbs with almost no creep. While the slide feels similar in smoothness to some of my pistols that cost three times as much. I carried it OWB for the review while hunting and fishing and while weighing in at a hefty 2 lbs 12 oz, it was still very comfortable. The entire pistol feels like it has been dehorned and smoothed out so that it doesn't cause any pressure points to pop up during the day. This is a gun I can carry and shoot all day long with no issues.

At the end of the day, I think for the price, the features and aesthetics of the Garrison are hard to beat. The only thing I might change on this pistol down the line for future use is an ambidextrous safety. Aside from that, the pistol really needs nothing else in my eyes. I love how the Garrison keeps the clean lines one expects from a traditional 1911 without giving up on the comforts modern variants give us. The Garrison is certainly not going to win any innovation awards, but I don't think it needs to. I carry a 2011 every day and there is something about a simple 1911 that makes me happy. I think you would be hard-pressed to find another option on the market that's as pleasant to shoot and as reliable as the Garrison. I am curious what you guys think of the Garrison, so let me know in the comments. Stay safe and I will see you next time.