I received this gun on Tuesday of this week and took it out for its first time last night.  As you can see it is an S/A 1911-A1 G.I. parkerized model.





Fit and finish were as expected with nothing out of the ordinary.  Frame to slide fit was tight, but there is still some play forward.  The trigger was better than I expected, with very little slop and minor over-travel.  Still, it is better than needed for a defensive gun.  Sights are a weak point in this model due to their size and I found myself taking more time to get a good sight picture.  Also, the thumb safety is Very tight and even after I broke it in with some heavy lube and repeated engage/disengage it is still too tight.  The barrel is a two-piece type with the opening of the chamber and ramp nicely polished.  The fit was as expected in a G.I. model.  I changed out the wood grips with some rubber ones I had from my Kimber.  The standard wood gips are nice but brittle.




Prior to going to the rane the gun was field stripped and cleaned using Mpro7 and lubed with Militec.  Everything disassembled easily and went back together just as easily.  The extractor seemed to be tuned right with a positive curve and stampped with a "K" at the end.  The firing pin is titanium and seemed to be of good quality.

At the range.  The range is indoors and distance is limited to a little past 50ft.  When firing I started at 15ft then moved to 20, 25, 30 and 50ft.  Ammunition used was Winchester "white box" 230grain FMJ 100 rounds from Wal-Mart for about $10.00.  I did not use the factory mags.  I used two Wilson Combat 47D's which have always been reliable feed boxes.


Failures:  I did have two failures and both were within the first 50 rounds.  The first was the last round failed to feed.  In fact, it just bounced out of the mag and sat in the feeding area.  The second failure was a "Stove-Pipe" where the bass seemed to bounce around trying to escape before the slide came back placing it in the charactristic "Stove-Pipe" position.  Those were the only failures and the rest of the session went without incident.  Ejected brass went high and to the right and one round did tag me in the forehead.

Accuracy was fine, proving more than enough for defense.
(1st 50)

(2nd 50)

I have read other posts discussing the same problems.  Extended ejector, tuned and better extractor (Wilson), cleaning up the breach face, lower/flare the ejection port and an 18.5 recoil spring will elliminate this problem.  I honestly feel that my problems were not extractor related but ejector and ejection port clearance.  The extractor did do its job and grabbed very will leaving consistent marks on the brass.  For now, the only thing I might change is the recoil spring.  After 1000 rounds or so the gun is going to be custom built by Wilson Combat.  I have a wish-list on Brownell's and will order the parts soon.  ILS system will also be shit-canned.

For what this gun is it is a nice little shooter that is a perfect platform for a custom build or just to shoot the way it is.  I hope you get something from this post.  If there are any questions please let me know.  Thanks for reading.

Good base gun (based on your end comments)!

Nice shooting!

Thanks!

I had one. Mine was SO BAD it was sent back TWICE and still FTE'd with factory hardball and FTFd at least once every 20 shots or so. A shame because it was very accurate. I ditched it in a trade for another gun