Posted: 7/3/2011 6:06:52 PM EDT
Well I said I would so here goes . When I received the pistol all looked good. It seemed pretty well made from the outside and finish was Ok . Test fired some plated bullets and lead flat point round nose . Out of 150 rounds or so I had a couple of failures - the fired brass would not clear the gun. Then about every 1out of 5-7 would come straight back into my face hat or glasses . Not much fun to shoot like that . Accuracy seem fair just shooting off hand a 25 yards at steel and latter at some paper another time with OK results . The point of aim was off quite a bit high and right for me so I drifted the rear sight and filed down the blade to correct that with good results . I also opened up the rear sight cut a bit for my old eyes . I grabbed another extractor out of an old colt and that took care of the ejection problem as far as function but still would have some cases come back in my face. I also worked on the ejector and had good ejection path when the extractor would hold the case properly . I have not put a new extractor in yet . So still have the cases coming straight back sometimes . (I suspect that the old extractor from the colt was not as good as it should be either - dated from 1916 if it had not been updated) . Then as I was shooting it more and more noticed that the thumb safety would fail the click test and also discovered the grip safety would fail the click test also. They both were fit too sloppy to keep the sear from moving although the hammer would never release with either safety engaged . I discovered that the sear pin would come out bent after the gun was shot. I straightened that a number of times and just need to replace all the pins . I got hold of ATI and they sent me a new grip safety and thumb safety , I doubted that they would do that but it seemed like no problem for them after I explained the situation , I asked for a new extractor also but got a slide stop instead . Had a grip screw strip out and they sent me some new ones also. The customer service was quite good and the man sounded like he would have sent me all the parts I wanted , because he asked if I wanted anything else. So that was good. Got the parts and installed them , the grip safety took quite a bit of fitting and blending , but the thumb safety dropped right in and was a little tight but loosed up in no time and both worked correctly with out any issues. All of the internals are MIM of course and not the best looking stuff. The extractor looks kind of weird to me also , I think it is cast too. The trigger pull is OK and I smoothed on the sear some , it does not have any secondary cut , but at some point I will replace all of the fire control any way. The way the gun is now it measures around 3lbs 8oz. pull with some creep at times . So I still need to replace the extractor and maybe the ejector to correct the ejection issues- needs a new set of pins and a man could live with trigger as is , but I may still upgrade ......or shoot it a few more thousand to see what I need to do. I have well over a thousand through the gun and it works good all but the ejection path. No failures to feed , I am thinking a new extractor would make this little gun a good base gun . For the money- hey not all that bad of weapon . Truly an entry level commander , but I kind of like the thing and have not given up on it just yet. With another $150-200 invested in some good quality parts this would be OK> Final word –– if you are looking for a shooter and have the ability to replace and fit some parts this is an OK gun to work with , if you do not want to mess with any thing like that you might want to look elsewhere. I picked one of these up instead of a RIA because of the true commander size and bushinged barrel with a beaver tail grip safety also at just the same money . I will update with other improvements as I go. (Got an American Classic commander on the way , so I will check that out too. ) Thanks for reading my long winded post............. |
| I got one of those recently. I had no jams, but at 10 yards it shoots high bout 3 inches above point of aim. The front sight seems to of a GI type and the rear sight looks more like a Mil-spec type but without dots - lining up the sights, makes you shoot high, as the rear sight is much higher than the front sight. Check your front sight. Mine actually seems to be cast along with the slide, instead of staked on. |
| I got one of these a couple weeks ago also. Had some of the same problems, ejector throws a case in my face every 5-10 rounds. mine shot about 6" low and had a 8 # trigger pull. I changed the trigger to a long version, added a taller rear sight, worked on the sear and polished some internals and cut 2 coils from the hammer spring,also changed the magazine release. For the price it is now a pretty good gun, not fancy but usable and wayyyy cheaper than a more popular name brand. |