FYI, I just bought a Firestorm 1911 Compact (aka commander style).  For the price, its not bad. Although f&F isn't great, it functions perfect.  It seems to be a great disposable for the 1911 enthusiast.  ZT

Hmmmm . . . how many rounds through it?  Gentlman's bet:  I'll betcha it doesn't get through 1,000 rounds without breaking something.

No offense, I'm glad you like it.  That's just the cynical bastard in me . . .

I've only run 6 boxes of ammo through it, but it has not jammed. I'm sure it won't last forever, hence the disposable comment.

Keep us posted on how many rounds go through and what, it any, problems you run into.  I have looked at these myself. Thanks

Sweet, I pick mine up on Monday.  Yep it's cheap and yep it's probably not going to last forever, but it'll be fun to play with.  Later this year I'll probably get a Rock Island 45 to go with it.  

And sometimes the cheapy guns suprise ya.  My FEG PK9 has about 2k rounds through it and is still going strong.

This gives me an idea.  I wonder if we could set up a topic where we can all post long term testing results on the various firearms we all own.  Could be interesting to find commonalities in failures during the testing.

Opinions?

Quoted: go with it.   And sometimes the cheapy guns suprise ya.  My FEG PK9 has about 2k rounds through it and is still going strong.

true story about a FEG PK9, a friend of mine said his wouldn't go 3 rounds without misfiring,jamming,stovepiping.  he sold it to me for 50.00 and an ar15 mag.  i never cleaned the gun or did anything, just paid him for it, got it registered and took it to the range.  I HAD NOT ONE PROBLEM WITH IT THAT DAY (350 RDS) OR ANY OTHER (ALMOST 4,000 RDS)    
you just never can tell.

I picked my Firestorm up yesterday and played with it last night.  The pictures I took didn't come out very well, I'll try and take some more.  
This may not be an "exact" copy of a 1911, but it's darn close.  At least comparing vs. the kuhnhausen books.  
It comes in a small box (4Wx12xL2H) that's red and says "FireStorm" on the front.  Cheesy  Inside there was the firearm, one magazine, a trigger lock, a small packet containing the casing of the test round fired, and a note telling me not to fire the gun until i've read the manual.  
There wasn't a manual in my box.  I don't know if it's typical or not, though.  The sample round's paper envelope has the name of the person who tested it, the manufacturer (in Espana), and the US importer's FFL number (oops).  
Finish:  It's parked, looks ok.  I had one small blemish on the slide serrarations.  The barrel is shined up nice in the ejection port, but is blued on the outside of the barrel under the slide.  There was a mark on the feed ramp from feeding a couple of rounds.  Front strap has vertical serrarations cut in it. Slide has serrarations near the front and above the safety.  The grips are rubber with steel supports in them.  They are pretty wide for grips (imho).  I'll probably be replacing them with some mahogany ones pretty soon.  Hammer is the skeletonized type.  Grip safety looks pretty standard.  

Internal: I disassembled the piece to check it out and clean and lube it.  Pretty standard 1911 take down, flip the bushing, pull the recoil spring, flip bushing, take out bushing, take out slide release lever, etc.  They were oiled before I got them, but I wiped them off and sprayed some new oil.  

Function:  The trigger, while short and semi-crisp, has a bit of up-down wobble in it.  I didn't remove the small parts from the frame but I can see that it will happen in the near future.  The trigger bars look ok, so I suspect that the trigger to trigger bar connection is somehow suspect.  I hand fed a mag of rounds through it, they all went fine.  This piece uses standard 1911 type magazines.  The magazine would not always drop from the frame when released (2/8 times) so I suspect i'll have to check it out when I strip the frame down.  The thumb and grip safetys, and slide lock all work as prescribed.  Hammer fell every time I pulled the trigger.  I couldn't get it to go with either or both safetys engaged.  It would not follow the slide back after simulated firing.  

I haven't gotten to the range yet, so I may add more once I've shot it a bit.  

Overall, for the price I paid (a bit over $300), this so far represents a pretty good deal.  It's not the steal of the century, but for a shooter on a budget, check one out.  I'd probably recommend the Rock Island 45, though, just cuz it seems to be an actual 1911 clone instead of a mostly 1911 clone.

Quoted: i never cleaned the gun or did anything, just paid him for it, got it registered and took it to the range.  I HAD NOT ONE PROBLEM WITH IT THAT DAY (350 RDS) OR ANY OTHER (ALMOST 4,000 RDS)     you just never can tell.

Mine works really well, now.  Originally, the magazine follower needed to have the edges rounded a bit so it wouldn't hang up when feeding.  The trigger originally sucked, but removing the lame mag safety and shooting it a bit has helped it come along nicely.  I polished the feed ramp on the barrel and lightly touched up the chamber.  I ran over the rails with 1200 grit paper after the first 500 rounds or so, and that seemed to help it feed a bit better.  The recoil spring was replaced with a slightly higher # spring.  The first 1k rounds were so-so, now, as long as I don't use Blazer ammo, it works fine.  I use it once or twice a year in our local IPSC style shoots. I like it, looks good, shoots ok.  I'm still better with the glock, though.

Quoted: true story about a FEG PK9, a friend of mine said his wouldn't go 3 rounds without misfiring,jamming,stovepiping.  he sold it to me for 50.00 and an ar15 mag.  i never cleaned the gun or did anything, just paid him for it, got it registered and took it to the range.  I HAD NOT ONE PROBLEM WITH IT THAT DAY (350 RDS) OR ANY OTHER (ALMOST 4,000 RDS)     you just never can tell.

Sounds to me like your friend was limp-wristing it and inducing jams himself. Obviously operator error. Good find.

Quoted: [Sounds to me like your friend was limp-wristing it and inducing jams himself. Obviously operator error. Good find.

I have a NAA Guardian that malf'd with everything and every mag.  My hands are kinda large so i figure the gun was shifting too much in my hand so i really cinched down...no improvement.  Sent it back to NAA.  They couldn't find anything wrong with it and even passed it out to a tour that was coming through, nobody could make it quit.  Got it back still had problems tried it out a month later and it's worked like a charm ever since.  Any gun will jam..or not.

Sfoo, Your write up is very similar to my experience.  Buy a new trigger from SARCO, you'll be pleased.  Also, plan on keeping the wide grips, they're too not interchangeable w/ 1911s, but almost everything else is.  Mags will drop if you back down the grip screw.  You "should" have received a manual and 1-2 fired casings in the box.  Neither offer any value.  Overall. however, my firestorm shoots great and seems to be good value.  FYI,they are made by LLama, and I paid $269.  ZT

I was just wondering where in CA you guys have been finding these pistols? I was thinking about getting a cheap .45 and this would be great I am debating between thise and the Rock Island from Sarco.
Thanks,
Chris

Will it tolerate hollowpoints? Or will it only take FMJ without modification?

Quoted: I was just wondering where in CA you guys have been finding these pistols? I was thinking about getting a cheap .45 and this would be great I am debating between thise and the Rock Island from Sarco. Thanks, Chris

My local FFL had the firestorm.  Get a Rock Island if you can, that's my recommendation.  If you can't get one of them, then look at the Firestorm.  Dunno if it'll handle HP be default, haven't tried.  

I think a pair of 1911 grips can be made to fit fairly easily, so I'll try and get some unfinished ones to play with.  I'm going to try and make a trigger on my nice new mill, if that bombs out I'll buy one.  

Quoted: Hmmmm . . . how many rounds through it?  Gentlman's bet:  I'll betcha it doesn't get through 1,000 rounds without breaking something.

Halfway there and nothing's out of whack yet. While in Reno, dropped by an indoor range with a box of 500 miwall 45 reloads and started shooting. Two hours later, there were about 60 rounds left and we went to dinner.  The first 14 shots I sent went through the 3x5" orange center spot on the target, moderately speedy shooting.  Guns is pretty darn accurate.  Had about 6 other folks play with it as well, they all had nice things to say.  I had two jams out of those 400+ rounds, both in the first 14 shots I took.  My friend's g/f liked it better than his walther P99.  At one point, the barrel was smoking from the number of rounds that had been put through it.    The new nickel 1911 mags that I bought worked fine in it.  

Regular 1911 grips won't fit, the screw holes are about 1/4" offset from the firestorms.  Other than that I haven't played with anything else on it. I did loosen the grips a bit and the mags drop free now.