I wanted a place to discuss my handguns and firearms in general. Everyone seemingly has lots to say about guns, so I promise you this won't be a rant blog.
I’ve been thinking on what my next handgun should be.
A listing:
Dan Wesson (CZ) DWX (full sized)
Cosaint COS21
Bul Armory Tac 5″ or Tac Pro 5″
Alpha Foxtrot Romulus 5″ or Spatha 5″
Stealth Arms Platypus
Springfield Armory 1911 DS (Prodigy) 5″
GP Arms Patriot 4.8″ or Forza 3.10″
My budget is between $1000 and $2000.
What I really want is something I don’t already have, configuration-wise. I do not have a 5″ 1911 that is chambered in 9mm. I’d prefer it to be double-stacked. I’d prefer it to not be over $2000. I do not want another cheap 2011, either – that includes any Tisas, MAC, LFA, or Witness…basically, nothing under $1000.
The Dan Wesson DWX is something that I’m curious about Dan Wesson makes great 1911s and this is apparently a blend of CZ and 1911. They’ve an MSRP of $1999 and can be found as low as $1700, so they’re within the budget. DWXs are a bit different and I love the unique guns. The con of this gun is that they are not optics-ready, which is a bit crazy considering that it costs that much and modern guns are usually cut for an optic.
I was thinking Cosaint COS21 (it’s their 5″ duty gun) but that’s rather expensive, starting at $2600! The smaller variants are $100 and $200 less (starting at $2500 for the Commander and $2400 for the Officer variants). If I’m going to spend that much money, it’ll be on a Stacatto, so scratch Cosaint off the list, simply because they assault my sensibilities. They’re probably great guns but I’ve a budget to consider.
I was also considering the new 5″ Bul Armory TAC or Tac Pro, in 5″ length. The Tac Pro is only a bit lessexpensive than the the Cosaint COS21. The Tac is $2250. Both are out of budget, sadly. As well, Bul Armory only have 1-year limited warranties on their guns, so no more Bul Armory guns for me.
I may do another Alpha Foxtrot – they’ve two new double-stacked 1911s that are in the pipeline: the Spatha and the Romulus. The Spatha appears to be a double-stacked 1911 that is solid-framed, and the Romulus appears to be a legit 2011. The con for Alpha Foxtrot is that, like Bul Armory, they only have limited 1-year warranties, but I love their guns, so I may be willing to overlook the warranty. Of the two (pictured below), the Romulus has more of my interest. Prices aren’t listed yet but I’m thinking they’ll be in the mid $1000s.
There’s the Stealth Arms Platypus. The Platypus’ pro is that it’s highly configurable. It’s cons are that it’s not really a 2011 and that most folks have them.
The Springfield Armory Prodigy is something I’ve always desired, and it has a full warranty, will take standard 2011 mags, has a very robust optics mounting system, has a great grip module, and is very flat-shooting. Yes, they initially had problems. I haven’t heard of any recent complaints, though.
The GP Arms Patriot is not new (they also have the 3.1″ Forza, which is very like the Bul Armory SAS II UL and is priced at $1590) but is very configurable. They are a tad bit pricey, though…they start at $1950.
Outside of 1911s/2011s, I’ve been curious about the Glock 43X and Glock 48. Hell, I can get both of them, in MOS configuration.
Of them all, the 5″ Prodigy is the stand-out option. I can even get the variant that has 3 mags and the HEX optic,which will certainly already have the optic mounting plate, and it will still be reasonably priced (at around $1400). Plus, I already have two Checkmate mags and a 17 round Duramag.
I’ll also keep watch on what else is released this year, as I’ve until next spring to decide.
The last time I posted about the Tisas Carry DS9, I’d only recently bought the gun.
That was back in February 2024. It is now June 2024. I’ve owned the gun right at four months and I’ve right at 1200 rounds through the gun! Yeah, it’s that much fun to shoot/own! And, of those 1200 rounds, it has only misfed one time. I was also able to shoot that same round from the gun after loading it back into the mag. It’s eaten steel cased ammo, lots of JHP, and lots of JHP that is considered good SD ammo. This may well make for a good gun for training courses. It can withstand gunk/carbon/dirt, too — I went maybe 400 rounds before I cleaned it, at one point.
Initially, I ran into an issue with the gun that I couldn’t ignore or adapt to. The gun had a trigger that was not only somewhat heavy, but it was difficult to work around. The trigger wall itself was super thick, to the point that I was pulling the gun out of target alignment when actuating it. The goal was to not modify the gun before I hit 1000 rounds. I made it to maybe 450 rounds before I decided that I had to either pay a gunsmith to make the trigger better or do it myself.
I ended up buying a 19 lb mainspring and a sear spring from EGW. The sear spring is what I thought would solve the issue. I actually pulled the OEM sear spring and looked at it. The OEM spring was bent oddly and didn’t have a lot of spring/give. It was also difficult to remove and re-install. I believe the main issue was the sear spring and I was correct – when I received the EGW sear spring, it immediately solved the issue. The new spring didn’t require any tuning, either. The trigger was a bit over 5 lb when I got the gun. By 450 rounds, it was at 4 lb 8 oz. The new sear spring didn’t change the trigger weight but did change the trigger wall. The wall was much more crisp after that upgrade.
I installed the 19 lb mainspring just to determine if I’d like the change. Initially, I didn’t like it. It made the trigger feel sloppy (added some slack). I put the OEM mainspring back into the gun. Oh – that’s also the first time I did something like that. I didn’t think I could do it without a workbench or clamp but I was able to replace it without issue. I ended up re-installing the EGW mainspring and the gun ended up wearing in – the gun’s trigger feels fantastic now.
I also did several detailed strips of the gun, just to look at the individual parts. I can verify that the gun has NO MIM parts. Not a single part is MIM. None of the parts, apart from the weird sear spring, has fitment issues. No, none are polished, but they’re standard parts and fit well enough.
After I crossed 1000 rounds, I decided to have a bit of fun with the gun. I ordered 14 lb and 12 lb flat recoil springs (from EGW). I thought they’d fit but they wouldn’t fit around the short guide rod. I ended up having to buy a full length guide rod (the requirement was I required a 1/4″ diameter rod), which came with a plug designed for use with a FLGR.
I installed the parts and was shocked again…the gun felt even better, just racking the slide. When I took it to the range, I was shooting quite a bit faster, while still being accurate. The lighter recoil spring makes the gun feel more manageable, control-wise. It seems to shoot flatter. The Prodigy comes stock with a 12-lb recoil spring and those guns shoot really well. There are more than a few videos that state the Tisas guns are over-sprung…I believe it’s true.
Another great thing about the gun is that iron sights will co-witness (1/3rd) with the optic. I’ve a Cyelee CAT that works well with this gun. This optic has been 100% dependable.
There are a few bad things about this gun, though.
The optics cut is crappy. Tisas CS is insisting that the issue isn’t that they’ve milled the optics cut wrong, but that the optics makers have milled their optics wrong. I don’t think that’s the case, as I tried two different brands (Holosun and Cyelee) and neither would fit well. I could see daylight between both optics and the slide. As well, both optics were factory zero’d to have the dot rendering generally within the center of the glass, but when I installed both, both dots were rendering super-high. I wasn’t the only person with this issue, either, and many of those folks complained that they couldn’t zero their optics because they ran out of elevation adjustment when trying to bring the dot down. I fixed my issue by using an optic ship (bought from Amazon). The shim allowed a better fit on the gun (no daylight between the optic and slide) and also allowed a lower shifting of the rendered dot. The shim doesn’t help everyone, though. Some folks stated they had to use two shims to get their optic to properly zero.
What’s funny is that Tisas keeps trying to dodge blame. Not only that, but folks keep insisting that Holosun is a cheap optic and that makes Holosun at fault. WTF. These aren’t EOTechs but they aren’t exactly cheap, either.
Tisas has a problem with milling in general. Initially, their single stacked 1911s had (and still do have) issues fitting standard 1911 sights. Part of this is because they’re avoiding licensing Novak specifications. Later on, folks started complaining that they couldn’t mount their standard-sized lights on the M1918 rail mount. Tisas stated that the rails will only mount small lights. This mainly affected their Carry line – they installed smaller rails for some reason. This issue migrated to their new line of Carry DS9s. Now there’s mounting issues with the optics and I know for a fact that it is indeed the slide milling that is the issue.
Those issues and the fact that Tisas didn’t jump to help folks means that I won’t be buying any other Tisas guns. There’s also another reason. I bought the Carry DS9 after already owning a couple of double stacked 1911s that cost over twice as much as the Tisas. Those two guns feel better and shoot better. They feel expensive. That’s not saying that someone with a DS9 won’t be able to outshoot someone with a SAS II UL. What I’m saying is that, no matter how much they make the DS9s cheaper, it’s still a cheap (as in cheaply made) gun. There are immediate and significant differences when comparing a DS9 to a SAS II UL, whether a person is just handling both or shooting both. No, most folks won’t cross-shop those two guns but I’m not the only person that has bought a DS9 after owning a Prodigy or SAS II UL or even a Staccato.
In summary, I didn’t need the DS9 and the SAS II UL almost certainly spoiled me. The DS9’s trigger will never feel like the UL’s trigger. The DS9 rattles. It has side to side play in the slide. The trigger is a bit sloppy. The DS9 right-side safety isn’t blended (it cuts my hand – my Tisas single stacked Duty 45 does the same thing and I ended up swapping in a single sided safety to save my hand). The DS9 isn’t bull-barreled. There’s the optics milling issue. That sear spring on the DS9 was shoddy. All of those 7-8 sentences I just typed is justification to stay away, in my humble opinion.
For those who don’t already own a 2011 or nicely crafted double stacked 1911, this gun is probably for you, as long as you remember that a cheaper gun is going to be built cheaper. There’s a reason why 2011s, up until recently, were priced at mid $1000. If you already own something twice the cost of a DS9 (or other variant), you’re going to be disappointed, unless you love to tinker.
So, I haven’t yet committed to yet another gun purchase, but I was bored last week and was perusing the EAA website and saw that they’re finally listing their Girsan Witness 2311 3.4″ (subcompact) on their product page. It’s sort of hidden, as you specifically have to manipulate their product menu to display it.
So, it’s using the same grip as their larger 2311s, which is interesting. It has that mullet look, which is similar to the Bul Armory SAS II UL. The MSRP of $999 is quite high, though, but all of the Girsan 2311s are at that price.
I’m interested, yeah. I was interested last year when they had it listed, but they pulled it off of their website for some reason and it’s only now showing up again.
Now, it has to get good reviews, too. The larger Girsan 2311s aren’t doing so hot since they were released, as they were either rushed to the market or they are just built like shit…the reviews of those aren’t really good.
LFA is supposedly releasing an Officer-sized 2011 too (as an Apollo). Now, those have been getting good reviews, although they have MIM (they’re working to make those guns MIM-free). I also remember TheHumbleMarksman showing, in a review, the failure of a slide release that was supposedly MIM-free, which is NOT good. I’d eventually like to see how well their 3.5″ gun does.
I asked the Tisas representative on the 1911Forum.com website if Tisas was planning to release ANY Officer-sized guns and they said, “No”. Later on, when folks were discussing it, someone said that they spoke to another Tisas rep and he/she said that it was being worked on! Now, if they can do one as a 2011, that would be awesome!
I’m sure there will be more news on this and when I see it, I’ll post an update!
Why did I opt for a budget optic, and in this discussion, what consitutes “budget”?
My Holosun 507K X2 ACSS optic was not cheap, at $300+. I don’t need another $300 optic. I needed an optic that wouldn’t break the bank while also being reliable. The CAT is $116 and has a reputation of being robust in durability, so I wanted to try it.
I also wanted to try a green optic to see if it agrees with me better than red optics.
If the optic does well for me, I’ll buy a few more, depending on if they’ll fit my guns — they don’t have many RMSc-footprinted optics. 🙁
I’ll eventually conduct a video review of the optic, so stay tuned for that.
I’ve been to the range twice with the Tisas Carry DS9.
I’ll share some information about the first range visit. I also suspected some of the things we discussed in my last post would be apparent during the first range visit.
The trigger had issues. The gun initially had a thick walled trigger. While the trigger itself wasn’t heavy, it wasn’t light either, so that’s a wash. The trigger wall was stiff, but I shot maybe 130 rounds from the gun, so the wall softened a bit. As well, the trigger is now lighter by 1 lb.
Between the trigger’s issues and the sights, I was having issues hitting where I aimed. I shot low (90 degrees low) with every shot — not low left, but directly low. I’m not sure how to use the U-notch sights, but I’m thinking they’re off by a bit, at least.
The gun didn’t hiccup at all during the first range visit. I shot a mix of ammo, some being HP, some being SD HP, and some being FMJ. The gun is flat-shooting, too.
When I got home from the first range visit, I sat while watching TV and kept racking the gun and pulling the trigger to get that thick wall to wear-in as quickly as possible.
When I went to the range next (two days later), I shot 187 rounds. Quite a bit of ammo was shot, some HP, some SD ammo, and a lot of range ammo. I had one fail to feed one one HP (I think it was Winchester range JHP). I put it back in the magazine and it feed and shot successfully.
The gun also shot a lot better, probably due to the trigger breaking in. Also, I man-handled the gun, as the first range visit, I was sloppy with gun control (recoil management and probably trigger control). My grouping were MUCH better this range visit.
I now have 317 rounds through the gun. The gun has yet to be cleaned, which says a lot, because I’ve looked in the gun and it’s pretty filthy. The rails were overly lubricated, which may have helped. I may clean it tomorrow, as I’m not intentionally trying to induce filth-related failures.
I also published a video. I’ll be producing a longer duration video soon. The short duration one below lacks some information (I had to make it fit into a 15 minute timeframe).
For some reason, I had a difficult time obtaining this gun.
First, I should’ve bought it from a different seller. The place I purchased it has a spotty customer service reputation and many folks that have purchase things from them have had bad experiences.
Second, the gun took a day to ship, as the seller created the pickup slip after the mail had been picked up for that day, so the package waited another day before USPS picked it up. USPS picked it up on Tuesday.
It was delivered to the my choice of gun store on Thursday, at 1:30 PM. The gun store sat on it until Friday (WTF). They texted me Friday morning (a bit after 10 AM) saying that the gun was ready and that I could come pick it up.
I went to pick it up at 11:30 AM. It took me 15 minutes to get there and then 15 minutes to complete the background check paperwork (I had to redo one form and redid another form two times). I gave the cashier my state ID and concealed carry license.
Now, normally, there’s maybe a 5-10 minute wait for me and then they tell me that the I passed the background check. I ended up waiting 40 minutes. I wanted to leave and thought that they’d call me when it was approved, but I didn’t want to do the paperwork over again (if I couldn’t come back until the next day) and didn’t want to be on the way home just for them to call me back in (or call me after I’ve arrived back at home). They called me just before I walked out.
WTF. It was a little bit busy, but I know damned well that I don’t have any dirt in my background. I’ve used this location two other times, and didn’t have to wait that long during those times. It was busy but it wasn’t 40 min delay busy. Either NICS had issues with their systems or maybe NICS itself was having a super busy day.
It was fucking odd waiting that long. I was running out of things to look at in the store. I almost asked what took so long, but I was so flustered, I knew I was going to pop off, so I just shut the hell up so that I could leave as quickly as possible. Also, their damned FFL transfer fee went up (it’s now $45…that’s kinda high around here). I was unaware until it was time to pay. Again, I just wanted to leave, so I didn’t say anything.
This place is an odd gun store. I’ve never liked using them for firearms transfers but they were close to home and my choices were limited (or so I thought). I asked some folks on Reddit about this place and apparently, they’re the d-bags of the local gun stores (I’m not sure what defines d-bag here). I’ve never had issues or conflicts with the staff there, but I swear, there’s something “off” about the place.
So, I will never visit that store again. There are other stores I can use to buy things. For firearms transfers, I found out from a Reddit user that my range (I’m a member) charges $15 for transfers, for members. I could’ve used them the past 3 firearms I purchased!! What’s cool is that I could have a gun transferred there (or buy one there) and then immediately go shoot it!
So, after I got in my car, I THEN checked the firearm. Yeah, they didn’t let me check it before I did the FFL paperwork, which is bad – the reason most GOOD places let you check the gun before you do the paperwork is because the paperwork seals the deal and if the gun is broken or is missing parts (like a magazine), you can decline the transfer because there’s something wrong with the product you bought. Of the three guns I had transferred there, they only let me check one of those three and that one check was after the paperwork was completed and after I’d paid for the transfer.
I checked to see if the gun was present and that I had the two mags that came with the gun. Then I closed the box and drove home.
I got home and looked at the gun. This gun is nicer than folks will expect. A lot of guys keep insisting that, since the gun is a budget (very budget priced) 2011-patterned 1911, there has to be something wrong with it, like shoddy workmanship of the gun, tolerance issues, etc.
The gun is a $900 gun (MSRP) that I bought for $700 (street price). It feels like (at very least) a $900 gun.
Fitment is good, not great, but again, it’s a $900 1911/2011. It’s also not bull-barreled, so fitment isn’t going to be as tight as a bull-barreled gun would (generally, bull barrel guns have better slide to frame fitment).
Finish is good – the slide is QPQ and the frame is Cerakoted.
It came with two mags. Most of the latest budget 2011s have been coming with one mag. Two mags are certainly better than one. The mags are Checkmate mags, which are Staccato-patterned. They are good mags (at least $65-70 each).
The sights are good and are dovetailed. I believe the front is Novak-styled (not actual Novak patterned, though). Tisas has been pinning the front sight up until recently. The rear is Glock-patterned, which is great and means there are MANY replacement options. As well, if you decide to use an optic, you don’t lose the rear sight when the optics cut plate is removed. The rears will cowitness 1/3rd! As they are, the sights offer a great sight picture. The rear offers a semi-wide rounded U-notch and the front sight is a contrast white dot.
The optics cut is patterned for RMSc, which means I can continue to run a Holosun. The optic mounts directly to the cut (no adapter plate is needed).
The gun has a titanium firing pin, which is great.
The grip is nice. It is easily nicer than the grip on my SAS II UL. What’s nicer? It has front strap checkering, even on the polymer grip module. The side texturing feels like it will be sufficient for shooting, while also not being overly aggressive in texture. I saw someone say they thought it felt cheap. That same guy owns a SAS II UL – THAT gun’s grip feels cheap and it’s an $1600 2011!
The trigger’s shoe is polymer, but there are high end 2011s with polymer trigger shoes (Staccato and Springfield Armory Emissary guns come to mind). The trigger is also not all that light (but not heavy either). I assessed the trigger twice – an average of 5 trigger pulls netted a first average of 4 lb 13 oz. The second group of pulls averaged out to 5 lb 1 oz. 5 lbs isn’t heavy but it isn’t light, either. The perfect weight for me would be high 3s and low 4s. The trigger wall is pretty firm, though.
I field stripped it (I also removed the firing pin), and checked each part. There are some tool marks, but it doesn’t have super ugly marks like the LFA Apollo 11 or the EAA Girsan Witness 2311 guns. This gun is MIM-less. There is not a single MIM part in this gun. My Tisas Duty single stacked 1911 that I bought 2 years ago has some MIM – you can clearly see the cast lines and stamps on those parts.
The plan is to take it to the range tomorrow (or more like, today, as it is 2:30 AM right now).
I may even carry this gun, as it doesn’t feel big to me and fits in all of my 1911 holsers (those that accept railed 1911s, at least). I can conceal the grip well, too.
So far, there isn’t much to not like about the gun. In fact, I currently have no dislikes.
If Tisas does an Officer sized 2011, I’m going to buy it…there’s no question. If they follow the same recipe that they used with the Carry, a smaller 2011 is going to be an instant hit.
I’m currently working on capturing video footage for the gun that I will eventually share on YouTube.
I received an email from Bul Armory yesterday evening. They stated that the gun has been repaired!
While it was there, they also did a performance tune-up of the gun.
An explanation of the cause of the issue was not provided, but they did give me a listing of the things they did.
The pistol underwent a full inspection where we made sure all the different components are within spec.
has been polished chamber also the ramp was moved forward and polished as a extra adjusted mags specs checked extractor tension fitting slide/barrel/ejector grip has been adjusted/thumb safety
All the safety components work properly and the pistol was then test fired and works well as it should.
I’m happy the grip safety issue was fixed, but I didn’t want anything other than that to be fixed. With their tinkering, they may have introduced faults with the gun.
We’ll see how it is when it’s returned. I will have to take it to be shot Monday or Tuesday evening.
I sent it to them on 12/22. I planned to give them approximately 30 days to fix the issue before contacting them. They finished it a few days before I would’ve called them. That worked out better than I’d planned.
They also stated that they’d “adjusted mag specs”. I sent them one mag (of the four that I had) because I didn’t want to send them all and not get them all back.
I’ll probably also record a 10 min video on Monday, as well.
I’ve been keeping a running tally of notes after visiting the range – keep in mind that I’ve not been to the range with this particular gun in quite a while (2022). Here’s the latest version of my notes:
UPDATE 1:
Range photos with detailed captions are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/yrLbWQNMmDjgJCzV8. Note: I’m not sure if Reddit will choke on Google’s URL shortener – I’ve had problems with it in the past.
I brought 2 Wilson Combat mags with me, the two that the gun came with, and 1 ACT mag from another 1911. The ACT mag choked the gun once, and I knew it would be problematic because it’s been acting up the last few range visits (ie, it wasn’t an ammo issue). I bought another WC mag from the range store – it will replace the ACT mag. I will keep the ACT mag in case I need to scavenge parts from it.
The B45R loved PMC Bronze 230-gr FMJ and I shot 50 rounds of it (this ammo always feels peppy). The other ammo I used was International 155-gr frangible ammo. That ammo is crappy but it never choked the B45R. My Metro Arms hates it. I also noticed slide slowdown (an indication of low powder charge) but only when shooting it out of the Metro Arms…I didn’t notice any of that with the B45R. I shot 100 rounds of the International ammo.
I bought some G10 grips to replace the cheap-feeling grips that came with the gun. They work very well, and I expected nothing less (all of my other 1911s are using G10s).
Issues:
The WC mags will sometimes hang up in the mag well. It seems that the magazine catch/release is blocking insertion. If I hammer up on the mag, it blasts past but smacks into the upper portion of the gun (that’s probably not a good thing). If I actuate the release button a tad, the mag is allowed past. I’m hoping this issue will go away. This only happens with the WC mags. I’ve three 7-round Mecgar mags on the way here and they should arrive tomorrow. I’ll see if those get hung up. UPDATE:Found someone else reporting the same issue here – replaced the OEM mag release with a WC mag release; tested both the WC mags and GI mags – both can now be inserted without issue.
This is more of a non-issue for me but has been an issue for some folks. The grip panel bushings have been said to be “off” and will not accept non-OEM screws. I had no problem using the screws provided to me by Coolhandgear.com to install their grips. I tried two sets of differing screws and had no issues.
I’m absolutely loving this gun. My target gun was a Springfield Armory but I had a very difficult time deciding exactly what I wanted and then had a difficult time finding them in stock. So, I did research and decided to try the SDS 1911s. This gun hits way above it’s weight…it is very much comparable to a Springfield Armory Garrison (but railed). The B45R was well under $500, but has a forged frame (what other non-GI 1911s are in this price range that offer both forged frames and slides?). I basically stole a great 1911. I also don’t have any issues buying foreign/Turkish guns. I’m a 10 year military combat veteran, so I’m as patriotic as any self-proclaimed patriot, and have probably sacrificed more. ALL of my 1911s are non-US and I’ve Caniks and Tristars as well, one being my CC gun. I’ve no problem with any non-US-made guns.
The plan is to maybe change/fit a silver barrel bushing but maybe in 6 months or so.
UPDATE 2:
I visited the range tonight and put more rounds through the 1911 – 169 rounds to be exact. 150 of that was PMC Bronze FMJ and 19 was Remington HTP 185-gr JHP. There’s now a total of 319 rounds through the gun.
One JHP failed to feed but the gun is very dirty now (haven’t cleaned it since the day I received it). As well, it choked when using one of the three GI mags I bought – the round was the first in the mag. No, 19 JHP rounds isn’t much but good JHP 45ACP ammo isn’t exactly cheap, so that’s going to have to suffice for now.
I decided to test it at 12 yards out. I usually don’t shoot at distances longer than 12 yards. The gun is accurate, even in my hands (although there were flyers).
The gun is tearing up my hand at the beavertail – still trying to determine how. I’m being pinched badly at the webbing of my hand where the two skin textures meet. I’ll use gloves the next range visit. UPDATE: I believe it is the back of the right-side (ambi) safety that is rubbing my hand raw. It isn’t sharp but isn’t rounded either…over long periods of time, it’s an issue. I may look into getting a one-sided safety.
I’ve a Wilson Combat magazine release on the way. That should fix mag insertion problem with the WC and GI mags. No longer an issue.
UPDATE 3:
I’ve shot 429 rounds from my SDS Imports DB45R 1911, thus far. Since I’ve been curious about it’s carry capabilities, I’ve been trying to shoot JHP from it, initially with mixed results.
I initially shot Remington HTP 185-gr JHP, which generated several failures to feed (FTFs).
Federal LE 185-gr JHP was used, as well (maybe 25 rounds), which also generated some FTFs.
International Cartridge Corporation’s (ICC) 45ACP 155-gr frangible hollow points were used. For the most part, these shot without issue. That ammo can be used as defense ammo.
I also fired 20 rounds of Underwood ($$$) 45ACP +P 230-gr JHP. 8 of the 20 rounds generated FTFs. I used Wilson Combat mags with this ammo. Since this ammo is expensive and since it generated so many FTFs, I will stop shooting that ammo through the DB45R. Once I suspect that the gun will shoot it without FTFs, I’ll test the ammo again.
Inceptor ARX 118-gr defense ammo (non-JHP) was used, using the WC mag. There were no FTFs.
I shot PMC Bronze 185-gr JHP (non-SD ammo), using the WC mag.. There were no FTFs.
Hornady Critical Defense 185-gr JHP was shot through the gun, using the WC mag.. There were no FTFs.
So, I now know that I can use the following ammo as viable ammo for self defense: ICC 155-gr FJHP Inceptor ARX 118-gr PMC Bronze 185-gr JHP Hornady Critical Defense 185-gr JHP
In my view, the ammo problems are more than likely due to projectile ogive dimensions as well as hollow point size. If it were an issue with the gun, ALL the JHP I tested would be generating FTFs. There are no specification standards on ogive or projectile dimensions in today’s ammo market, so it’s difficult to make a gun 100% reliably eat all mass-produced ammo, and 1911s aren’t Glocks, so….
I plan to continue to shoot the PMC Bronze JHP ammo as range ammo, to continue the break-in process of the DB45R 1911.
I’ve started my Christmas 2023 vacation this week. Several things are on my agenda as far as firearms are concerned.
I’ve to send my SAS II UL back to Bul Armory for them to fix an issue that I couldn’t resolve. The problem is that I can fire the gun without disengaging the grip safety. I did replace the trigger shoe with a flat shoe. That replacement required me to remove the over-travel screw, but I adjusted it properly. At least, I think I did. I’ve done the same to my other 1911s and none of the other guns are experiencing the issue. I don’t typically test to see if my 1911s will fire with the grip safety disengaged, so I don’t know why I tried it this time. BA sent me a shipping label so that I can send it back to them. I’ve boxed up the gun and will ship it out tomorrow. I’ve removed the optic and reinstalled the rear irons. I also included an empty mag (they asked for it to be sent with the gun). I’ve no idea how long they’ll have the gun and customer support is hit/miss as far as being good is concerned.
I haven’t shot my Tisas Duty in a while. Someone asked in r/1911 about extended reviews of the gun. I stated that no one has been posting about the gun, other than after one range visit of shooting. So, tomorrow, I plan to visit the range with the Tisas. I went to Cabelas and found some somewhat cheap ammo. I bought three boxes of 50 rounds each. The whole reason I stopped shooting it was because 45ACP was expensive at the time. I’ll bring an extra box from home (I’ve a box of Herters JHP too). I’ve some Underwood +P too, but that’s expensive, and after a while, it actually hurts to shoot it. The jarring is pretty ruthless, at 1200 FPS. The plan is to try to shoot all 200 rounds. I’ve to remember to bring all the different mags I have.
While the SAS II UL is out for repair, I’m carrying the Alpha Foxtrot S15. I’d checked to see if the S15 would fit in my Tenicor holster (when I’d first bough the gun), but I’d never actually worn the holster with that gun. It EASILY carries. While I knew the grip was thin, it’s easy to hide – much easier than the SAS II UL’s grip. What I’m not used to is it’s heft. It’s heavier – not by a lot, but it’s noticeable.
As soon as the SAS II UL gets returned to me, I probably should ask Alpha Foxtrot to look at that gun, as the ramp frame insert sometimes moves. Once that has been fixed, I’m probably going to find a reputable place that’ll make the gun optics-ready.
I’ll update you all on the status of the Bul Armory once it is returned to me.
