About mid-May of last year, I walked into my Friendly Local Gun Shop (Champion Firearms in College Station, at the time) with the last $100 I needed to get a Charles Daly 1911 out of layaway.
I was NOT super pleased at my choice, knowing little about the brand, but being a poor college-type I did not have more than around $400 available for my 1911 purchase (seems kinda funny now that I am saving up for an ACOG). All I really knew was that I wanted a 1911A1 NOW, and could not afford a Colt/Kimber/SA immediately. Upon entering, I scanned the case where the 1911s were, and my eyes fell upon an Auto Ordnance 1911PKZ "WW2 Parkerized" model. I am sure the fact that I had just watched "Band of Brothers" the prior day has NOTHING to do with this
, but long story short (too late), I walked out with the similarly-priced AO. This was in the dark days before I learned about FFL transferred firearms. I assumed that I would customize/change the pistol later as funds became available.
I freely admit that I had not researched this purchase well. I had yet to even find this site, and had owned my XM15 for about 2 months already (a horrible sin, I know). I have seen the occasional comments about AO, since I started browsing this site, but have been concentrating on the AR side of things until recently. If I HAD read the remarks here, I would have saved up more, but freely admit this as an impulse-buy. I HAD heard of AO before, and in more favorable light than Charles Daly (only having seen the latter on Wal~Mart shotguns before), so this was the impetus.
This pistol has performed adequately in its (still) stock configuration (I have about 500 rounds through it now). I have had 5 bad FTEs wherein the empty casing got badly jammed in the slightly narrowed section in the top rear of the ejection port. The AO pistol does NOT have a lowered ejection port like the mil-spec SA. One of those 5 jams occurred during my concealed handgun license class, and was the only thing that kept me from a perfect score on the shooting test.
This means that a lowered ejection port is NOT an "option" in this case, and will be one of the first gunsmith jobs I will commission for this pistol. The only reason I have put off having the lowering done was because of the parkerizing on the slide, which would have to be replaced after the opening up of the port (extra $$).
Accuracy-wise, I shoot as well or better with this pistol as I do with any of my others (which is to say much better than my 2" barrelled .38 Airweight and slightly worse than my 5.5" barrelled Vaquero). I have no problems keeping in the black at 25yds, and this is good enough for me. This is with the crappy weakest-part-of-the-gun-IMO GI "hump and a bump" sights. The feed ramp is also a problem that will be rectifying soon, although the pistol feeds 230gr ball without a hiccup, this pistol will NOT feed those WinClean 230gr "BEB" semi-wadcutters you get at Wal~Mart well. They hang up on the (parkerized!) feed ramp. It occasionally "hangs" when trying to drop the slide on the 230gr Winchester SXTs I load as defense rounds (although I would grab my Airweight first, currently. Don't need one of those FTEs to ruin my day....) although I have never had an SXT fail to feed when actually firing (I have about 50 SXTs through the pistol).
Altogether, I am pleased with the pistol, but am aware that much is still to be done if this is to be a worthy sidearm.
Before the month is out, I hope to have the feed ramp/chamber throat smoothed out.
I am also purchasing a replacement grip safety. Tentatively this one:
www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/Store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=7642An ambidextrous thumb safety and a flat mainspring housing are on the charts, as well. I actually LIKE the GI spur hammer better than the Commander-style ones, so that STAYS!
Now to the questions:
1. Are there any serious problems I should be aware of with this model? I heard a rumbling once about "soft" steel used in these pistols, but I was not paying attention at the time (silly me), and am unable to find any more data. Is my keeping this pistol AT ALL a good/bad idea?
2. I was considering the
Chip McCormick drop-in fixed rear sight (looks kinda like a Novak but it fits into the GI slide cut). Has anyone heard anything positive or negative about these?
3. Any other comments/questions welcome, although it is unnecessary to inform me that AOs suck. I am TRYING to rectify this, after all.
Is there anything else I absolutely NEED to replace on this pistol?
Thank you for reading through my book-sized post.
Edited to heat up one of my links.