I happened upon Crazy John's website and saw he had an Ultimate Tactical Carry in stock, so called him up and after a bit of chatting, bought one. CJ is a very nice guy and even did a little better on his price than he quoted me.
Just got it in today.
Nice and smooth, trigger is really nice (dry firing at least).

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Looks great sitting beside his brother UTC.

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Wait a minute, Two UTC's? But why, I mean, you can only shoot one at a time.
What is that.

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9mm you say? Yes, thank you.

Got a 9mm UTC from CJ to accompany my 45. Thing is buttery smooth when racking the slide and nowhere near as tight as the 45 (you have to beat the slide on/off on the 45), but she is nice and tight.

Only had a little time to get acquainted with the 9mm at lunch time, but I'm happy so far.

If the kid's go to sleep and stay asleep I intend to swap out the thin grips with standards, install the magwell, and try to change out the rear sight for a 10-8 I have laying around, as Baer's night sights suck.

Can't wait to get to the range hopefully Sunday.

9mm is the way!

Nice pistol.  Been thinking about giving him a call myself.

Baer?



Love Baers.

nice! I'm starting to get old and my stupid hands hurt, so maybe a 9mm is worthwhile for me.

Not sure I'll get rid of the 2 Baers I have in 45 though!

Very nice!

Sweet! Nice score. A thunder ranch is on my bucket list, number 1 spot since I got my Professional.

I love shooting 45, but I'm afraid you are right, a 9mm 1911 is something.
How are you liking your Xtac?

Thunder Ranch? Never heard of her.



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Ok, I am officially jealous. One day I shall own one of these!

I'm curious to hear how you feel about the 9mm after you spend some time shooting it alongside the 45acp. I would not be surprised if you prefer the 9mm.

I tried to get into 1911 pistols many times over the last 30 years. I'd buy one. Shoot it. Sell it. Repeat. Repeat, and so on. It didn't matter how fine of a gun it was, or how reliable. I just never warmed to shooting them. UNTIL...I purchased a couple of Colt's in 9mm last year; A current production 9mm Competition Government and a current 9mm LW Commander. A completely different experience than a 45acp 1911. I now have six 9mm 1911 pistols. My Dan Wesson's are my favorite. My Valkyrie Commander in 9mm is now my EDC gun.

For handguns, it is nothing but 9mm 1911 pistols and FN/Browning 9mm Hi Powers for me from here on out. John Moses Browning was way ahead of his time and got it right twice! Once in 1911 and once again in the 1930s. The fact that 9mm ammo is so common and cheap is just a bonus. You can find 9mm ammo anywhere ammo is sold and pretty much in any country in the world.

The only other handgun designer in the last century to achieve this level of iconic status is Gaston Glock. Not many handgun designers change the world the way these two guys did. I have a bunch of 9mm Glocks, but I barely shoot them anymore. I can shoot rings around them with my alloy framed Commander sized 1911 9mm pistols. The 1911 points so much better and minimizes recoil in a way a Glock could only dream of. You need to put a Comp on a Glock to get the same result.

Harrish...

I owned a RO Operator and a Combat Operator in 9mm. They were both very enjoyable to shoot. I enjoy shooting 45's, I love shooting 1911's. It just seems natural to have a 9mm 1911.

Almost there. Need to get rid of that crappy front sight.

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Wow, twin Baer pistols then you upped the ante with a Commanche TRS in beautiful HC.

Nice trio of Les Baer pistols.

Got to the range during lunch today, only a quick 120 rd sessions.The UTC 9mm shoots amazing. Has zero recoil compared to the SA Combat Operator 9mm I had.
Accuracy and trigger were both superb.
No issues with the first 120 rounds, used 4 different Wilson Combat mags with no issues. Didn't use the supplied Baer mags, will next time.

Between this and the Legion SAO, I may convert fully to 9mm :(

My TRS Commanche shot well, finally got the right height front to hit were I like, but I am shooting quite a bit left, so will have to adjust the sights a bit. The UTC and my Franken Beretta Brig both shot exactly where I aimed.

Love it!  5,395 rounds so far.

Attached File

Latest range session today was not a good one. Accuracy is excellent, however out of the 200 rounds I shot today, nearly every mag had at least 1, sometimes a few, times where the empty case failed to extract and it was trying to feed another round.

Mags used were Wilson ETM's, chip McCormicks', and the Baer supplied Tripp mags. Did this with all of them. Ammo was a mixture of WWB, Remington, UMC, and American Eagle.

The UTC was run wet with Wilson Ultima lube Oil. I have not cleaned the gun yet. I am around round count 350 or so.

Should I clean and relube, or look into extractor tension (I believe that is the correct thing)?

Check the extractor.

Well with around 400 rds through it, I disobeyed Uncle Les and cleaned and re-lube it.
Checked the Extractor per a youtube video by Wilson Combat and the extractor seems fine per that test.

Won't probably be able to get to the range for awhile, simply because I'm out of 9mm and this has been a tight month.

Sorry to hear about the bad luck OP. Hoe you can get it sorted out. That’s a fine looking gun though.

Got the slide back from Rob on Monday and finally got to the range today. Had 60 rounds of pure bliss, then the failure to extract started again with the next 60 rounds. These all happened with Wilson, McCormick, and supplied Tripp mags.
I'm of the thought that the factory 13lb recoil spring, 17lb MS + Wilson Universal lube is just too much for weak WWB 115 gr. I'll probably clean it and lube with the Wilson Light oil I have and try again tomorrow.
I only have 115gr for now, but will try to pick up a few boxes of 124 gr.

Rob's work was impeccable and I am in no way stating that the issues are his problem nor his obligation to fix, he has been very helpful.
Rob's work included:
1.) Install Dawson Fiber Optic .180" Tall .125" wide front sight. (I took the liberty of drilling the original pin hole through the slide as it should be)2.) Profile and polish extractor and check tension
3.) Properly chamber and polish barrel
4.) Polish feed ramp
5.) Polish barrel hood
6.) Check hood length/relieve to reduce interference.
7.) Lube barrel/bushing/plug with Anabolic Weapon Systems Lite Synthetic Race Lube.

I have messaged him about his thoughts as to the next step.

It is my understanding that baer's have very tight slide to frame fit. Hence they need to be broken in. How many rounds do you have through it? From the posts above it doesn't sound like many. Maybe you should wait until you have 700 to 1000 rounds thought it?

If it’s not extracting, it’s not gonna fix itself.  I had a Springfield Custom Carry 9mm that broke the extractor and I replaced it with an Aftec and it ran good with it.

Round count is right around 600-650.

Had a very nice conversation with Rob this evening, a true gem to 1911 owners. He laughed and said he was surprised the gun ran at all before I sent the complete upper to him for repair.

He said that with the light load and the very tight bushing fit that my utc has, the 13lb recoil spring/17lb hammer spring just won't work. He sets his guns up with a 10 or 11 recoil 19 hammer setup. Rob said he would send me those springs out this week to try it out before going any further. Told him let me know how much to write the check for and he said no charge. Again a great guy.

Accuracy is superb, at least out of my hands.

I'll change out the springs and see how it goes.

Rob said the tension was spot on (I did add a little before sending it to him) but the hook was ugly and needed massaging. I think he is doing everything he can not to say Les' monkey's didn't finish building the gun

Yeah in 9mm, most of the recoil energy is expended getting a Baer to unlock, if they build them as tight as their 45s.

When I build 9mms, I'll work on the lower barrel lug fit so that there is just a gentle squish on the last 1/4" of travel back into battery.  You don't need a come-along and a couple of friends to get it out of battery, either.

Little update.
I believe the consensus has been reached that WWB is garbage (which I knew, just what I had handy). Even switching over to an 11/19 setup on springs, I could only get 50rds of WWB through a clean/well lubed gun before the failures started. Went and got some Blazer Brass 115gr (only thing available locally to try out) and got through 240 rounds with only 1 failure. Switched over to the WWB just to try again and gave up after 3 straight mags of failures.

Accuracy and trigger were amazing. Will save up some pennies and just order a case of AE or blazer.

The SRP on the other hand was flawless, just needs a Dawson FO front.