Just got my Les Baer

[KYamateur]

I received my new Les Baer yesterday. It was a Concept IV with a stainless frame, blued slide, and Novak style sights. I ordered it from Hyatt's Gunshop (they were great to deal with). I have a Colt 1911 and a stainless Dan Wesson Valor that I bought used last year. The Baer came soaked in oil and had a note that said not to clean it until 200-300 rounds were fired. My initial impressions:

1) The fit and finish were not as nice as many production 1911s including my Dan Wesson. The rounded parts are the same gritty matte stainless finish that colt uses.
2) The sights didn't have any dots on them. I was a little disappointed in this.
3) It took one heck of a pull to rack the slide.

Today I grabbed 300 rounds and took off to my Dad's farm to shoot it when I got off of work. I was a little disappointed in my purchase (I had saved for quite some time to purchase this gun). However, once I got my targets set up and started shooting that all changed. I shot all of my shots from 15 yards. I am a decent shot but nothing special, but the Baer was putting the shots right on or close to the bullseye. My average groups were within 3 inches and I have never shot that well. I had 3 failures to eject out of 300 rounds, but by then the gun was throwing oil and dirt everywhere. The ejector was caked with oil and grime, and I actually expected to have more failures. The gun was the best shooting pistol I have ever fired. The only other high end guns I have ever fired are a Guncrafter, and an Ed Brown, and the Baer would outshoot them both. I know this is a limited sample but it is my experience.

When I got home I broke the gun down for cleaning. It takes some real power to get the bushing removed. After thouroughly cleaning the pistol I put it back together. Again, the bushing was difficult. When I got it on I noticed that it had rubbed the blue off of the guide rod plug. However, the pistol racked noticebly smoother after the cleaning.

I am going to hold off on my final opinion to I get some more shooting time in to make sure I don't have any reliability problems. With that said, after my first day of shooting I am very glad I purchased the gun. Cosmetically it isn't up to par with the other high end 1911s, but functionally it would be hard to beat. I'm going to order a Stainless GI guide rod plug and put a dab of finger nail polish on the front sight and I will be good to go.

 

[tarosean]

2) The sights didn't have any dots on them. I was a little disappointed in this.
3) It took one heck of a pull to rack the slide.

Practice focusing on the serrated front site. Dots really are meaningless.
Yes Baers are very tight..

I also agree that they are not the best looking or "polished". They are however, built like tanks and priced lower than the other semi-custom builders.

I own WC, LB, EB and NHC, the only thing I really didnt care for on my LB was the ambi safety (just too big). I replaced it with a WC single sided.


With that said thou... Pics or it didnt happen...

 

[KYamateur]

It happened. The dark sight is hard for me to pick up quickly for follow shots.

 

[tarosean]

Nice...

Least sites are fairly inexpensive to replace if you cannot get used to it. After shooting mine I prefer the serrated as your always focused on them.


Here is mine

 

[KYamateur]

Nice pistol. Do you have the same problem with the bushing scraping the blue off of the plug or am I just doing something wrong?

 

[tarosean]

Do you have the same problem with the bushing scraping the blue off of the plug or am I just doing something wrong?

It would be kind of hard to install it incorrectly.

I've broken two poly bushing wrenches disassembling it though.. So I know they are extremely tight.

 

[JTQ]

Here you go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJhPari7dpc

 

[Peter M. Eick]

I tend to agree that you don't get that "deep blue perfectly polished" finish on a Baer, but you do get the accuracy. All of my Baer's exceptionally accurate and very reliable. Just follow the instructions and shoot them!

 

[critter]

I REALLY like my LB. Mine got better and better up to about the 800 round mark. Now it is 100% reliable, VERY accurate and as slick as any piece of fine machinery could be. It now has over 4K rounds through it and I love every one of them.

 

[tarosean]

Here you go.

Yeah I moved to that method after the second wrench.. It's the same as some of my cone barrels so I should have thought of it earlier..:banghead:

 

[Potatohead]

I was a little disappointed in my purchase

I'll take that thing off your hands..

naw, im glad it worked out, nothing like saving up for a lemon! When i first started reading your thread, i was feeling your pain, it looked like it was headed for a crash and burn! Glad it worked out alrite!

 

[chrt396]

If Les Baer could just finish off the pistol like WC or EB, the Baer would be the one to beat! I have 2 premier II's. One is a Super Tac with a special finish on it, the other is a regular Premier II with the 1 1/2" guarantee. Both guns and their finish are wearing pooring. The Wilson and Brown that I have look the same as the day I bought them. A Bushing wrench without doubt, is needed to disassemble the Baer...and the WC and EB's bushing comes loose with little effort. Yes..my blued bushing in now stainless due to finish wearing off as well as barrel.

With all this said....the Baer just shoots! Beautifully might I add!

 

[CowboyCop]

I agree with everything you've said about the LB so far. When I got S.R.P. which I ordered to come with the 1 1/2" group, it shot like crap. I eventually moved from the 15 yard line up to the 7 yard line, and then up to the 5 yard line. I could not get a 1 1/2 group at 5 yards. I switched to one of my old favorite police guns to test my skill level to see if I'd lost my skills. With my police gun I still could product one large hole. I returned the LB to the cleaning bench and disassembled it, and found the LB barrel looked like a dirt road. It took my rarely used electrolysis machine to get the fouling out, a full days work to get the barrel cleaned. When I returned to the range to shoot the my LB I was very pleased with the accuracy. I was disappointed in LB Mfg for shipping a new gun in such a dirty condition that it would not shoot to its full potential

 

[Greg528iT]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJhPari7dpc

Wow and some people complain about stripping a FLGR pistol.

That is one tight bushing. I kept after the 600 grit emery cloth when I fitted mine. It's probably not as accurate as that one is though.

 

[Poohgyrr]

Congrats on your Baer, and like you posted, rounds on target are important. The bushing is easier to remove if you retract the slide about an 1/8" to 1/4" before rotating the bushing - just one of the things about Baers.

Again, congrats on your pistol, they are good and simply get better as the rounds go down range. Whatever Les does when building his 1911's, they simply work.

 

[gym]

Very informative thread.

 

[Rinspeed]

Baers are made for people who like to shoot first. If you want a 1911 for taking a bunch of pretty pictures of there are better choices.

 

[surjimmy]

IMHO, you have about the best 1911 out there. Mr. Baer told me not to break my weapon down and clean it until it seized up on me, then clean it. I did and it feels like it's running on ball bearings.

 

[KYamateur]

UPDATE

After 1500 rounds the Les Baer is going to have to find a new home. The pistol is scary accurate but I cannot depend on the weapon for any type of self-defense. I sent it back to the factory at 900 rounds for failure to return to battery on average every 24-25 rounds. I have fired 600 more rounds since getting it back and nothing has changed. For those that say that it needs a couple of thousand rounds to break in that is crap. For $1800-1900 the pistol should work. Paying $100 plus to send a pistol back for warranty work is also crap.

My other 1911 is a Dan Wesson Valor and it has performed remarkably well since 2010 when I bought it. I would choose it every time over the Baer. I think I may pick up a stainless Valor to go with my black one. I cannot afford Brown, Wilson, NH, GC, etc., and can't imagine them being worth twice the cost of my Valor.

I tried semi-custom, but they are just not for me.

 

[Potatohead]

Wow. Surprising and interesting.

 

[KYamateur]

On top of that everytime it jams at the range the guys ask me if I want to borrow one of their pistols since my fancy pistol won't work. I have to admit it is kind of funny if you are not the owner of the expensive pistol jamming.

 

[orionengnr]

Yours is the first experience I have read of its kind. I bought my LB used, and it was tight, but never gave any kind of functioning problem (aside from the inability to slingshot, which is somewhat common to the Commander-length Baers, and which was quickly fixed by my semi-local 1911-guru).

I have read about people returning an LB once, but never saw someone having a problem after that. Have you contacted LB about this? Has LB QC/CS gone down the tubes?
Maybe visit here:
http://forums.1911forum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34
Lots of LB owners here, but without the "attitude" you see with some brand owners. If they can help, I am betting they will.

If Les Baer could just finish off the pistol like WC or EB, the Baer would be the one to beat!

Yep, and then they would charge another $1,000...like EB/WC.
LB is the semi-custom 1911 for a small premium over the production gun price. They seem to have that segment of the market cornered.

 

[TennJed]

Wow They will not pay shipping on warranty work? I guess they figure if you can afford one you can afford to ship it back. Regardless of how much money I have that is a deal breaker for me

 

[KYamateur]

I had to pay the shipping there, they paid it back. Since I'm not an FFL shipping next day air with insurance was over $100.00. I have sent a gun back to ruger and one back to S&W and they both paid shipping both ways. Only other Customer Service I had previously used was Beretta. I bought a new shotgun and didn't close my box good on the way home and somehow lost a piston. Beretta asked me what my serial number was and mailed me a piston free of charge. I have heard people complain about Beretta, but for me they were wonderful.

 

[KYamateur]

Yours is the first experience I have read of its kind. I bought my LB used, and it was tight, but never gave any kind of functioning problem (aside from the inability to slingshot, which is somewhat common to the Commander-length Baers, and which was quickly fixed by my semi-local 1911-guru).

I have read about people returning an LB once, but never saw someone having a problem after that. Have you contacted LB about this? Has LB QC/CS gone down the tubes?
Maybe visit here:
http://forums.1911forum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34
Lots of LB owners here, but without the "attitude" you see with some brand owners. If they can help, I am betting they will.


Yep, and then they would charge another $1,000...like EB/WC.
LB is the semi-custom 1911 for a small premium over the production gun price. They seem to have that segment of the market cornered.

Maybe they could fix it again, but $100 later and after telling me nothing was wrong with it they won't get the chance. Don't get me wrong, I know many people swear by Baers, thats why I bought one. However, when purchasing guns there are so many choices these days, personal experience is my way of narrowing my selection down. Everyone I have talked to has told me to just put a few more hundred rounds through it and it will smooth out, but with ammo availability and pricing, I can't justify spending my time and money hoping it becomes reliable. I purchased it to be my primary Home Defense pistol. I have a friend who is aware of my problems and he is going to buy the gun at a greatly reduced price and try his luck with it. I was looking to improve upon my Dan Wesson but it just didn't work out.