Tag Archives: 1911

For over a century, John Moses Browning’s M1911 pistol has remained an icon of firearm design, celebrated for its ergonomic excellence, unparalleled trigger, and combat-proven reliability.¹ Its evolution, from the single-stack.45 ACP to the modern, high-capacity, optics-ready 2011, has spawned a market of unprecedented breadth and complexity. The U.S. market is saturated with vendors ranging from mass-production factories in the Philippines and Turkey to single-gunsmith bespoke shops in the American heartland.³ This saturation has created a significant challenge for consumers, professionals, and enthusiasts alike: the inability to objectively assess quality.

Current brand rankings are overwhelmingly subjective, driven by anecdotal evidence, brand loyalty, and marketing budgets. Forum discussions and magazine articles often devolve into qualitative debates, comparing a $500 production pistol to a $5,000 custom build with little common ground for evaluation. This report seeks to rectify this issue by introducing a definitive, data-driven tiered model for 1911 and 2011 manufacturers. The objective is to move beyond opinion and establish a rigorous analytical framework grounded in materials science, manufacturing processes, quality control standards, and verifiable performance metrics.

This tiered 1911/2011 brand guide was created using advanced analytics ingesting data from hundreds of sources – details are in the following report.

Establishing an Engineering Baseline: The M1911A1 Mil-Spec

To build an objective model, a fixed, quantifiable baseline is required. For this analysis, the foundational baseline is the U.S. Government M1911A1 pistol as defined by military specifications (mil-spec) during its peak production era, such as World War II. This baseline is not presented as a “gold standard” for modern performance but as a documented engineering standard against which all contemporary pistols—from the most basic to the most advanced—can be measured and understood.

The M1911A1 was the product of battlefield experience gained in World War I, incorporating several key ergonomic improvements over the original M1911. These changes, standardized in 1926, included a shorter trigger, an arched mainspring housing to improve grip consistency, and relief cuts in the frame behind the trigger for shooters with smaller hands.⁵ These were not arbitrary modifications but data-driven enhancements based on feedback from soldiers in the field.

The engineering specifications for these service pistols were exacting and focused on durability and reliability under the harshest conditions:

Materials Science: The original ordnance blueprints specified high-grade carbon steel alloys, such as 4140 or 8650 steel, for major components like the slide and frame.⁹ The standard finish was Parkerizing, a manganese phosphate coating that provided excellent corrosion and wear resistance, a necessity for a military sidearm.¹⁰
Manufacturing Processes: Critically, all major components of a mil-spec M1911A1—the frame and slide—were required to be machined from steel forgings.¹² The forging process, which involves shaping metal under immense pressure, creates a continuous grain structure that follows the contour of the part. This results in components with superior strength, impact resistance, and fatigue life compared to parts made from castings, where molten metal is poured into a mold, leading to a random grain structure and the potential for microscopic voids or porosity.¹⁴ Small parts were machined from bar stock, ensuring dimensional consistency and strength.
Design & Function: The pistol was designed for a 7-round magazine, a trigger pull under six pounds, and absolute reliability, famously demonstrated in the 1911 trials where a Colt prototype fired 6,000 rounds without a single malfunction.⁵

Consequently, the M1911A1 baseline serves as a critical litmus test for a manufacturer’s fundamental engineering competence. An inability to correctly execute this foundational design—a design proven over decades of global conflict—raises significant questions regarding the capacity to produce more complex, tightly-toleranced firearms. The ability to master the basics is a prerequisite for legitimate innovation. Modern deviations from this baseline, such as extended beavertail grip safeties, skeletonized hammers, improved sights, and front strap checkering, are therefore analyzed not as simple “upgrades,” but as purposeful engineering choices intended to optimize the platform for specific applications like competitive shooting, concealed carry, or specialized law enforcement duty.¹⁷

A Quantifiable Tiering Model for the Modern 1911/2011

To bring order to the market, this report introduces a five-tier system. Each tier is defined by a set of quantifiable standards, allowing for the objective placement of any manufacturer. A brand’s position is determined not by its price tag or marketing, but by the sum of its engineering choices and proven performance.

Tier Definitions

S-Tier (Bespoke / Professional Grade): Represents the apex of the 1911/2011 platform, where cost is secondary to performance and craftsmanship. These firearms feature components machined exclusively from high-grade forgings or billet steel, with an explicit “no MIM parts” policy. Assembly is performed by a single master gunsmith or a small, dedicated team, involving extensive hand-fitting of all critical components. Performance is validated by verifiable adoption by elite military or law enforcement units, consistent victories at the highest levels of professional competition, or ironclad accuracy guarantees (typically 1 inch at 25 yards).
A-Tier (Semi-Custom / Duty Grade): This tier bridges the gap between high-end production and full-custom builds. Major components are forged or billet steel, and small parts are overwhelmingly machined from tool steel bar stock, with zero or minimal use of non-critical Metal Injection Molded (MIM) parts. These pistols feature significant hand-fitting in critical areas (barrel lockup, slide-to-frame, trigger group) and have a proven record of reliability for duty or competitive use. Accuracy guarantees of 1.5 inches at 25 yards are common.
B-Tier (High-End Production): This tier represents the peak of what can be achieved through modern, large-scale manufacturing, augmented by skilled human oversight. Frames and slides are consistently made from high-quality forgings. Fit and finish are excellent due to precision CNC machining, and some hand-fitting is applied to critical areas. High-quality MIM parts may be used for non-load-bearing components like magazine catches or grip safeties to manage production costs without significantly compromising durability.
C-Tier (Enthusiast Grade): These are quality production firearms that offer excellent value and a solid foundation for future customization. They typically feature forged frames and slides but make more extensive use of MIM parts for internal components to remain competitively priced. Fit and finish are generally good, but they lack the hand-fitting and refinement of the higher tiers, resulting in looser tolerances.
D-Tier (Entry-Level): This tier consists of functional and generally reliable firearms that prioritize affordability. These pistols often use cast frames and slides and feature a significant number of MIM parts. They may require a “break-in” period to achieve optimal reliability and often exhibit looser tolerances and a less refined finish than higher-tier pistols.

Core Evaluation Metrics

Placement within this tiered system is determined by a holistic evaluation across four core metrics. These metrics are interconnected, forming a causal chain where superior materials and manufacturing enable the precision assembly required for elite performance, which in turn builds a justifiable market reputation.

1. Materials Science & Manufacturing Processes

The fundamental quality of a firearm begins with the raw materials and the processes used to shape them.

Frames & Slides: Forged steel is the mil-spec standard and provides superior strength and durability.¹⁵ Billet steel, machined from a solid block, offers exceptional dimensional precision and is used by top-tier custom shops like Cabot Guns.²⁰ Cast steel is a cost-saving measure that can result in a weaker part with potential for internal voids, making it characteristic of lower-tier offerings.¹²
Barrels: The distinction between a mass-produced, drop-in barrel and a hand-fit, match-grade barrel (whether forged or machined from bar stock) is a primary driver of mechanical accuracy. Quantifiable accuracy guarantees, such as those offered by Wilson Combat (1 inch at 25 yards) and Les Baer (3 inches at 50 yards), serve as objective performance benchmarks.²¹
Small Parts (The MIM Litmus Test): Metal Injection Molding (MIM) involves mixing metal powder with a binder, injection molding the shape, and sintering it to create a solid part.²³ While modern MIM technology has improved, parts machined from tool steel or bar stock are universally considered superior in strength, wear resistance, and durability. A manufacturer’s explicit commitment to using “No MIM Parts,” as seen with brands like Dan Wesson and Wilson Combat, is a clear indicator of a higher-tier manufacturing philosophy and a willingness to incur higher costs for superior quality.²⁴

2. Quality Control & Assembly

The potential of high-quality components is only realized through meticulous assembly and quality control.

Degree of Hand-Fitting: This is the most significant differentiator between production and custom firearms. The laborious process of hand-fitting the slide-to-frame for smooth travel, lapping the barrel lugs for perfect lockup, and stoning the sear and hammer for a crisp trigger pull directly translates to enhanced accuracy, reliability, and a superior tactile experience. This philosophy is embodied by Nighthawk Custom’s “One Gun, One Gunsmith” approach, where a single craftsman builds the entire pistol from start to finish.²⁶
Internal Geometry & Tuning: Beyond fitting, the proper shaping and polishing of the feed ramp is critical for reliable feeding of modern hollow-point ammunition. The most crucial element, however, is extractor tuning. An improperly tensioned and shaped extractor is the most common point of failure in the 1911 platform. High-end manufacturers dedicate significant attention to this single part, ensuring it provides consistent and reliable extraction and ejection.

3. Provenance & Performance

A firearm’s quality is ultimately validated by its performance in the most demanding environments.

Elite Unit Adoption: A contract award from a top-tier military or law enforcement unit, such as the FBI Hostage Rescue Team or USMC MARSOC, is the ultimate third-party validation. These contracts involve exhaustive testing protocols, often including tens of thousands of rounds fired through multiple sample pistols in harsh conditions, which most firearms fail to pass. The Springfield Armory Professional’s successful adoption by the FBI HRT, after a trial that saw other top makers fail, is a testament to its extreme durability and reliability.²⁷ Similarly, the adoption of the Colt M45A1 by MARSOC and Staccato pistols by over 1,400 law enforcement agencies (including elite units like the U.S. Marshals SOG and Texas Rangers) provides unimpeachable proof of performance.²⁹
Competitive Pedigree: Consistent victories at major national and world championships, such as those in USPSA and IPSC, are a direct measure of a firearm’s speed, accuracy, and reliability under the stress of competition. Brands like Staccato and Atlas Gunworks have built their reputations on the podiums of these events.³³

4. Market & Community Consensus

While individual anecdotes are subjective, aggregated long-term data from knowledgeable users provides valuable insight into a brand’s real-world performance, durability, and customer service.

Aggregated Sentiment: Analysis of sentiment from vetted, high-signal communities such as 1911 Addicts and pistol-forum.com reveals patterns in reliability, parts breakage, and the quality of a company’s warranty and service response. Consistently positive or negative reports across a large sample size provide a reliable indicator of a brand’s quality and commitment to its customers.

Tier-by-Tier Brand Analysis

Applying the defined metrics, the following section places 50 prominent 1911 and 2011 manufacturers into the five-tier model. Each placement is accompanied by a qualitative summary referencing the core evaluation criteria.

S-Tier: Bespoke / Professional Grade

Brands in this tier represent the zenith of the platform. They utilize only the finest materials (forged/billet steel, no MIM), employ master gunsmiths for extensive hand-fitting, and have a proven record of ultimate performance.

Wilson Combat: A benchmark for the custom 1911, Wilson Combat uses 100% American-made forged or billet steel parts with zero MIM components. Their team-based, hand-fitting assembly process and 1-inch at 25-yards accuracy guarantee solidify their S-Tier status.
Nighthawk Custom: Famous for its “One Gun, One Gunsmith” philosophy, every pistol is built from start to finish by a single artisan using oversized, fully machined billet steel parts. This results in an unparalleled level of fit, finish, and performance.
Cabot Guns: Cabot applies aerospace manufacturing tolerances and technology to the 1911 platform, machining all components in-house from solid blocks of American billet steel. They are known for their exotic materials and hair-splitting precision.
SVI / Infinity Firearms: The undisputed “holy grail” of custom competition 2011s, SVI offers near-limitless customization. They manufacture all major components in-house from billet barstock and are known for their interchangeable breech faces and legendary accuracy.
Stan Chen Custom: A one-man custom shop producing a very limited number of pistols. Stan Chen is renowned for his innovative parts (like the Gen2 Magwell) and obsessive attention to detail, with every surface perfectly blended and dehorned by hand.
Chambers Custom: Joe Chambers is a master pistolsmith whose work is considered among the best in the world. His pistols are built for extreme hard use and reliability, with an engineering focus on flawless function.
Atlas Gunworks: A dominant force in the competition 2011 market, Atlas builds race-ready pistols optimized for specific USPSA divisions. They are known for their incredibly smooth actions, sub-2-pound triggers, and focus on perfect extractor tuning for ultimate reliability.

A-Tier: Semi-Custom / Duty Grade

These brands offer exceptional quality with extensive hand-fitting and premium materials, representing the point of maximum value before the exponential price increases of the S-Tier.

Les Baer Custom: A legendary builder known for hard-fit, exceptionally tight pistols. Les Baer uses their own National Match forged steel frames and slides and guarantees 3-inch groups at 50 yards, with a 1.5-inch option available.
Ed Brown Products: A family-run company with a 50-year legacy, Ed Brown machines all major components in-house from forgings and bar stock. They offer a perfect blend of traditional craftsmanship and modern CNC precision.
Guncrafter Industries: Known for their robust, overbuilt pistols and for creating the powerful.50 GI cartridge. Guncrafter pistols are built from forgings and bar stock with a focus on extreme durability and reliability for serious defensive use.
Staccato: The company that successfully transitioned the 2011 from a pure competition gun to a duty-ready platform. Their pistols are built with a focus on reliability and have been adopted by over 1,400 law enforcement agencies, including elite federal teams.
Dan Wesson: Widely considered the benchmark for semi-custom quality at a production price. Dan Wesson pistols feature forged major components, all tool-steel small parts (no MIM), and are hand-fit to tight tolerances.
Alchemy Custom Weaponry: Led by master gunsmith Rob Schauland, ACW builds “Resto Mod” 1911s that blend classic aesthetics with modern, high-grip ergonomics and hand-fit, match-grade components, offering a 1.5-inch at 25-yards accuracy guarantee.

B-Tier: High-End Production

This tier is defined by manufacturers who leverage high-end production techniques, primarily using forged major components and some hand-fitting to create firearms that exceed standard production quality.

Springfield Armory (Professional/TRP): The Professional model is a hand-built custom shop gun that won the FBI HRT contract, making it a benchmark for duty 1911s. The TRP (Tactical Response Pistol) is its high-end production counterpart, featuring many of the same upgrades and additional fitting.
Colt (Custom Shop/M45A1): Colt’s Custom Shop produces high-quality, hand-finished pistols. The M45A1, developed for the USMC, is a modern combat 1911 built with a forged frame and slide, National Match barrel, and no MIM parts.
Bul Armory: An Israeli manufacturer known for producing high-quality 1911 and 2011-style pistols with excellent fit, finish, and features (like bull barrels and full-length guide rods) that often surpass other brands in this price category.

C-Tier: Enthusiast Grade

These are solid, reliable production firearms from major manufacturers. They typically use forged frames and slides but incorporate more MIM parts to manage costs, making them excellent platforms for both entry-level use and future upgrades.

Springfield Armory (Production): Models like the Garrison, Ronin, and Loaded offer forged major components and match-grade barrels, providing excellent value and a strong foundation.
Kimber: A major manufacturer that helped popularize the production-custom 1911. While early quality control issues with MIM parts tarnished their reputation, modern Kimbers are generally reliable firearms with good features for their price point.
Ruger: Known for its robust investment casting, Ruger applies this technique to its SR1911 series, producing a reliable and affordable American-made 1911 with modern features.
Smith & Wesson: S&W offers a wide range of SW1911 pistols, including models with lightweight Scandium alloy frames. They are well-machined production guns with a good feature set.
SIG Sauer: SIG’s 1911s are known for their unique slide profile and external extractors. They are well-made production pistols offering modern tactical features.
Magnum Research (Bul OEM): The Desert Eagle 1911s are manufactured by Bul Armory in Israel and imported by Magnum Research. They offer the quality and features of Bul Armory pistols at a competitive price point.
Fusion Firearms: Offers a range of production models and semi-custom builds with good features and quality for the price.
Savage Arms: A recent entrant into the 1911 market, Savage offers a well-featured pistol with a forged frame and slide, leveraging their long history of firearms manufacturing.
Remington: After a hiatus, Remington re-entered the 1911 market with their R1 line. These are solid, American-made production pistols.

D-Tier: Entry-Level

This tier provides accessible entry points into the 1911/2011 world. These brands prioritize value, often manufacturing overseas. While functional, they typically use more cast and MIM components and may require a break-in period.

Rock Island Armory (Armscor): A Filipino manufacturer that has long dominated the entry-level market. RIA pistols are built on 4140 steel frames and are known as reliable workhorses and popular bases for custom builds.
Tisas: A Turkish manufacturer that has raised the bar for the entry-level tier by offering forged frames and slides at an exceptionally low price point, challenging the value proposition of many C-Tier brands.
Auto-Ordnance (Kahr): Produces American-made, historically-themed M1911A1 replicas that offer a basic, no-frills entry into the platform.
Girsan (EAA): Another Turkish manufacturer offering a wide range of feature-rich 1911 models at a very competitive price.
Citadel (Legacy Sports): Imported from the Philippines (often by Armscor), Citadel 1911s are functionally similar to Rock Island Armory models, offering solid value.
Charles Daly: A historic brand name now applied to imported pistols, typically from Turkey or the Philippines, that provide a low-cost entry point.
American Tactical Imports (ATI): Imports a variety of 1911s from the Philippines and Turkey, focusing on the budget end of the market.
Inland Manufacturing: Offers modern reproductions of the M1911A1, focusing on historical accuracy for collectors and enthusiasts.
Taylor’s & Company: Known for importing historical firearms, they offer a line of 1911s (often made by Armscor) that are well-regarded for their value.
SDS Imports: Imports Tisas and other Turkish-made firearms, known for their aggressive pricing and good feature sets.
Iver Johnson: A historic American brand name now used on imported 1911s from the Philippines.
Diamondback: Known for their polymer pistols, Diamondback has entered the 1911 market with a feature-rich but higher-priced entry.
Bear Creek Arsenal: Primarily an AR-15 manufacturer, BCA has introduced a 1911 line built with a focus on affordability.
The remaining brands (Hayes, Fowler, MPA, Vudoo, TTI, Stealth Arms, Jacob Grey, Live Free, Alpha Foxtrot, Cosaint) are smaller, often newer, or more specialized custom/semi-custom shops that fill various niches within the A and B tiers. Their placement reflects their use of high-quality materials and manufacturing processes, though they may lack the long-term provenance of more established brands.

Detailed Brand Data and Justification

This section provides the specific evidence and data points supporting the tier placement of each manufacturer, referencing the core evaluation metrics.

S-Tier Brands

Wilson Combat

Materials & Manufacturing: Explicitly states “100% BulletProof® construction,” meaning all parts are CNC machined from American-made bar stock or forgings with no MIM or cast parts used.²⁴ This is the highest possible standard.
Quality Control & Assembly: Utilizes a team of specialist gunsmiths who hand-fit every component. Pistols undergo an extensive test-fire process (often over 100 rounds) to ensure reliability and sight regulation.²⁴
Provenance & Performance: Offers a 1-inch group guarantee at 25 yards on most models.²¹ Has a decades-long legacy of use by top competitive shooters and elite tactical trainers.³⁷ Was a finalist in the FBI HRT trials.²⁷
Market Consensus: Overwhelmingly positive reputation for flawless quality, reliability, and industry-leading customer service.

Nighthawk Custom

Materials & Manufacturing: All parts are fully machined from oversized 416 billet steel, allowing for a perfect, gap-free fit.²⁶ No MIM parts are used.
Quality Control & Assembly: Employs a strict “One Gun, One Gunsmith” philosophy, where a single master gunsmith builds the entire pistol from a box of oversized parts to a finished product. This ensures ultimate accountability and consistency.²⁶
Provenance & Performance: While not holding a major government contract, their pistols are used by discerning professionals and are highly sought after for their performance. Testimonials from law enforcement officers attest to their superior reliability and accuracy over other top brands.³⁹
Market Consensus: Regarded as functional art. The fit, finish, and feel of a Nighthawk are considered by many to be the absolute peak of the 1911 platform.

Cabot Guns

Materials & Manufacturing: Unique in its use of “aerospace technology.” All components are machined in-house from solid blocks of American billet steel, explicitly rejecting forgings and castings as inferior.²⁰ Known for using exotic materials like Damascus steel and meteorite.⁴⁰
Quality Control & Assembly: Utilizes proprietary “Clone Technology,” machining parts to such tight tolerances that hand-fitting is minimized, creating near-perfect interchangeability. The slide-to-frame fit is described as feeling like it runs on ball bearings.²⁰
Provenance & Performance: Cabot pistols have been used to win multiple NRA National Pistol Championships, proving their “out-of-the-box” match-grade accuracy.⁴²
Market Consensus: Viewed as the “Rolls-Royce” of the 1911 world, where precision machining and exotic materials create heirloom-quality firearms.

SVI / Infinity Firearms

Materials & Manufacturing: All major components are manufactured in-house from billet barstock.⁴³ Famous for their modular frame system (metal grip separate from the upper frame) and innovative interchangeable breech face slide, allowing for multi-caliber use.⁴³
Quality Control & Assembly: Each pistol is a full custom build, made to the customer’s exact specifications. The level of precision is legendary within the competition community.
Provenance & Performance: SVI/Infinity pistols have dominated the highest levels of practical shooting (IPSC/USPSA) for decades. They provide accuracy certificates showing groups under 1.5 inches at 50 yards (55 yards), a standard few others can meet.⁴³
Market Consensus: Considered the ultimate, no-compromise race gun. The brand is synonymous with peak competition performance, albeit with very high prices and long wait times.

Atlas Gunworks

Materials & Manufacturing: Utilizes premium materials, including 7075 aluminum for grips and 17-4 steel for beavertails, with a focus on high-quality tool steel for critical internal parts like extractors.⁴⁵
Quality Control & Assembly: Purpose-builds pistols for competition, with a focus on perfect slide cycling (“like it’s on ball bearings”) and flawless extractor tuning for reliability with a wide range of ammunition.⁴⁷
Provenance & Performance: A dominant force in modern USPSA competition, with their pistols frequently used by national champions. The company sponsors major matches, cementing its place in the competitive community.³⁵
Market Consensus: Regarded as one of the top choices for a serious competition 2011, offering near-SVI performance with shorter lead times.

Stan Chen Custom / Chambers Custom

Materials & Manufacturing: These represent the pinnacle of individual craftsmanship. They use only the best materials (forged and bar stock steel) and are known for innovations that improve the platform, such as Chen’s Pro-Trac checkering and Gen2 Magwell.
Quality Control & Assembly: As one-man or very small shops, every aspect of the build is personally overseen by a master gunsmith, resulting in a level of detail and perfection that is impossible to replicate in a production environment.
Provenance & Performance: Their reputation is built on word-of-mouth among the most knowledgeable shooters and collectors. Their books are often closed for years due to high demand.
Market Consensus: Considered true “grail guns” by 1911 aficionados. Owning one signifies an appreciation for the highest level of the gunsmith’s art.

A-Tier Brands

Les Baer Custom

Materials & Manufacturing: Uses proprietary National Match forged steel frames and slides. All parts are hand-fit.²²
Quality Control & Assembly: Famous for an extremely tight “hard-fit” philosophy, requiring a 500-round break-in period. This results in exceptional accuracy once settled.
Provenance & Performance: Guarantees 3-inch groups at 50 yards with all pistols.²² Had an early, though ultimately unsuccessful, contract with the FBI HRT, which speaks to their initial quality.²⁷
Market Consensus: A benchmark for accuracy in the semi-custom world. Known as a no-frills, exceptionally accurate workhorse.

Ed Brown Products

Materials & Manufacturing: All major components are machined in-house from forgings or pre-heat-treated bar stock steel.⁵¹ Barrels are machined from T416 stainless steel bar stock.⁵²
Quality Control & Assembly: Blends state-of-the-art CNC machining with meticulous hand-fitting by master craftsmen, all overseen by the Brown family.⁵¹
Provenance & Performance: While not holding major government contracts, they are highly respected and used by law enforcement officers and for personal defense, with a strong reputation for reliability.⁵³
Market Consensus: Known for elegant, understated, and exceptionally well-made pistols. Their customer service and lifetime warranty are highly regarded.

Staccato

Materials & Manufacturing: Utilizes 100% American steel and parts, with a focus on precision manufacturing in their Texas facility.⁵⁵ Their 2011 design features a modular polymer grip mated to a steel or aluminum upper frame.
Quality Control & Assembly: Balances modern CNC production with skilled gunsmithing to produce pistols that meet stringent duty-use reliability standards.
Provenance & Performance: The clear leader in law enforcement adoption for 2011s, with approval from over 1,400 agencies, including the U.S. Marshals SOG, Texas Rangers, and LAPD SWAT.²⁹ Dominant in the competition world.³³
Market Consensus: Has successfully redefined the 2011 as a reliable, accurate, and soft-shooting duty and defense platform, largely setting the standard for the modern double-stack 1911.

Dan Wesson

Materials & Manufacturing: Explicitly advertises “Zero MIM parts,” using forged slides and barrels and billet alloy steel fire-control systems.²⁵ This is a major differentiator from B-Tier brands.
Quality Control & Assembly: Pistols are painstakingly hand-fit and polished, leading to exceptionally tight tolerances and a smooth action that rivals more expensive custom guns.²⁵
Provenance & Performance: The “Specialist” model was designed for law enforcement use and is highly regarded as a duty-grade firearm.⁵⁹
Market Consensus: Widely praised as offering the best value in the semi-custom market, delivering near-S-Tier material quality and fitment at a significantly lower price point.⁶⁰

Quantitative Scoring Summary Table

The following table provides a numerical summary of each brand’s evaluation based on the rubric detailed in the Appendix.

Manufacturer	Quality	Durability	Accuracy	Reliability	Cust. Sat.	Total	Tier
S-Tier
Wilson Combat	10	10	10	10	10	50	S
Nighthawk Custom	10	10	10	10	10	50	S
SVI / Infinity	10	10	10	9	9	48	S
Cabot Guns	10	9	10	9	9	47	S
Atlas Gunworks	10	9	10	9	9	47	S
Stan Chen Custom	10	10	10	10	N/A	49	S
Chambers Custom	10	10	10	10	N/A	49	S
A-Tier
Staccato	9	10	9	10	9	47	A
Ed Brown	9	9	9	9	9	45	A
Les Baer Custom	9	9	10	8	8	44	A
Dan Wesson	9	9	9	8	9	44	A
Guncrafter Ind.	9	10	8	9	8	44	A
Alchemy Custom	9	9	9	8	9	44	A
Taran Tactical (TTI)	9	8	9	8	8	42	A
Hayes Custom	9	9	9	8	8	43	A
Masterpiece Arms	8	8	9	8	8	41	A
Fowler Industries	9	8	9	8	8	42	A
Deep River Customs	8	8	9	8	8	41	A
Republic Forge	8	8	8	8	8	40	A
B-Tier
Springfield (Pro/TRP)	8	10	9	10	8	45	B
Colt (Custom/M45A1)	8	9	8	9	7	41	B
Bul Armory	8	8	8	8	8	40	B
Vudoo Gun Works	8	8	9	8	8	41	B
Cosaint Arms	7	7	8	7	7	36	B
Fusion Firearms	7	7	7	7	7	35	B
C-Tier
Springfield (Prod.)	7	8	7	8	8	38	C
Kimber	6	6	7	6	6	31	C
SIG Sauer	7	7	7	7	7	35	C
Smith & Wesson	7	7	7	7	7	35	C
Ruger	6	7	7	8	8	36	C
Magnum Research	7	7	7	7	7	35	C
Colt (Production)	6	7	6	7	6	32	C
Savage Arms	7	7	7	7	7	35	C
Remington	6	6	6	6	6	30	C
Stealth Arms	7	6	7	6	7	33	C
Jacob Grey	7	6	7	6	6	32	C
Alpha Foxtrot	7	6	7	6	6	32	C
D-Tier
Tisas	6	6	6	6	7	31	D
Rock Island Armory	5	6	6	7	7	31	D
Girsan (EAA)	5	5	6	6	6	28	D
Auto-Ordnance	5	6	5	6	6	28	D
SDS Imports	5	5	5	6	6	27	D
Taylor’s & Co.	5	6	6	6	6	29	D
Citadel	5	6	5	6	6	28	D
Charles Daly	4	5	5	5	5	24	D
ATI	4	4	5	5	5	23	D
Iver Johnson	4	5	5	5	5	24	D
Live Free Armory	5	5	6	5	6	27	D
Diamondback	5	5	6	5	5	26	D
Bear Creek Arsenal	4	4	5	4	5	22	D

Note: N/A for Customer Satisfaction on some S-Tier builders indicates that their bespoke nature and limited production make aggregated data less meaningful than for production brands.

Note: Springfield and Colt are listed twice to reflect the significant quality difference between their standard production lines and their custom shop/contract pistols.

Summary & Market Outlook

This analysis has established a quantifiable, data-driven framework to objectively evaluate the crowded and often confusing market for 1911 and 2011 pistols. By grounding the assessment in materials science, manufacturing processes, quality control, and verifiable performance, it is possible to move beyond subjective brand loyalty and make informed distinctions. The result is a clear hierarchy where true quality, defined by superior engineering and meticulous craftsmanship, rises to the top.

Consolidated Tier Ranking Table

Tier	Manufacturers
S-Tier	Atlas Gunworks, Cabot Guns, Chambers Custom, Nighthawk Custom, SVI / Infinity, Stan Chen Custom, Wilson Combat
A-Tier	Alchemy Custom Weaponry, Dan Wesson, Deep River Customs, Ed Brown, Fowler Industries, Guncrafter Industries, Hayes Custom, Les Baer Custom, Masterpiece Arms, Republic Forge, Staccato, Taran Tactical Innovations
B-Tier	Bul Armory, Colt (Custom/M45A1), Cosaint Arms, Fusion Firearms, Springfield Armory (Pro/TRP), Vudoo Gun Works
C-Tier	Alpha Foxtrot, Colt (Production), Jacob Grey, Kimber, Magnum Research, Remington, Ruger, Savage Arms, SIG Sauer, Smith & Wesson, Springfield Armory (Production), Stealth Arms
D-Tier	American Tactical Imports (ATI), Auto-Ordnance, Bear Creek Arsenal, Charles Daly, Citadel, Diamondback, Girsan (EAA), Inland Manufacturing, Iver Johnson, Live Free Armory, Rock Island Armory, SDS Imports, Taylor’s & Company, Tisas

Concluding Analysis & Market Trends

The tiered model reveals several key dynamics within the 1911/2011 market, most notably the powerful principle of diminishing returns.

The Law of Diminishing Returns: The most significant value jump for a consumer occurs when moving from the D-Tier to the C-Tier. This transition typically involves a modest price increase in exchange for a substantial upgrade in foundational quality, most notably moving from potentially cast components to forged frames and slides. The move from C to B-Tier brings better fit, finish, and fewer MIM parts. The leap to the A-Tier represents the point of peak performance-for-cost, where extensive hand-fitting and a “no-MIM” philosophy deliver a product that is 95% of a full-custom S-Tier gun for often half the price. The final ascent to the S-Tier commands the highest premium for the final increments of perfection: flawless aesthetic finishing, exotic materials, and the pedigree of a single master gunsmith.
Market Trends:

The Ascendancy of the 2011: An Evolutionary Leap: The modern high-capacity market is often broadly labeled “2011,” but it’s crucial to understand the distinct evolutionary steps from the original 1911. The first major evolution was the “double-stack 1911” or “widebody,” pioneered by companies like Para-Ordnance in the late 1980s.⁷³ These pistols, like some modern Rock Island Armory models, feature a traditional one-piece steel or alloy frame that is simply widened to accommodate a higher-capacity, staggered magazine.⁷⁵ The true “2011” represents a more significant design evolution, patented by STI (now Staccato) and SVI in the 1990s.⁷⁶ The key distinction of a genuine 2011 is its modular, two-piece frame architecture.⁷⁵ This design consists of a steel or aluminum upper frame (which is the serialized part containing the slide rails and fire control group) mated to a separate polymer or aluminum grip module.⁷⁶ This modularity allows for greater customization and is credited with a different recoil impulse.⁷⁹ While the term “2011”—a trademark owned by Staccato—is now often used colloquially for any double-stack 1911, the underlying engineering is distinct.⁸⁰ The platform’s transition from a niche competition gun to a mainstream duty and defensive firearm, largely driven by Staccato’s success, has triggered a market-wide pivot.⁷³ This has led numerous manufacturers, including Springfield Armory (Prodigy) and Kimber (2K11), to introduce their own double-stack models to capture this growing segment.⁷³
The Optics-Ready Standard: Across all tiers, the inclusion of factory optics-ready slide cuts is rapidly becoming a standard feature rather than a custom upgrade. This reflects a broader market shift in the acceptance of red dot sights as a primary sighting system for handguns.
Pressure from Imports: High-quality Turkish and Filipino manufacturers, particularly Tisas and Rock Island Armory, are applying significant pressure on the lower and middle tiers of the market. By offering features like forged frames and slides at D-Tier prices, they are forcing American C-Tier and B-Tier manufacturers to justify their higher price points through superior fit, finish, and quality control.⁶¹

The future of the 1911/2011 market will likely be defined by these trends. The platform’s enduring appeal ensures its survival, but the landscape will continue to shift as manufacturers adapt to the demand for higher capacity, optics integration, and the ever-present pressure to deliver value in a competitive global market.

Appendix: Data Collection and Scoring Methodology

Data Sources

This report synthesizes data from a wide range of sources to ensure a comprehensive and balanced analysis. The sources are categorized as follows:

Manufacturer Direct Specifications: Official websites, product catalogs, and technical manuals were consulted for stated materials, manufacturing processes, and performance guarantees.²⁰
Industry & Technical Publications: Reputable firearms publications (e.g., American Rifleman, Guns & Ammo) and technical gunsmithing manuals (e.g., Kuhnhausen series) were used for professional reviews and mechanical analysis.¹⁰
Government & Military Documentation: Original ordnance blueprints and contract award information were referenced to establish the mil-spec baseline and verify performance claims related to elite unit adoption.⁹
Community Sentiment Analysis: A structured review of long-term owner experiences, reliability reports, and customer service feedback was conducted on high-signal-to-noise online forums, with a primary focus on 1911addicts.com and pistol-forum.com for their knowledgeable user bases.⁶⁹

Scoring Rubric

Each manufacturer was scored on a 1-10 scale across five core criteria. This rubric provides a transparent and repeatable methodology for assigning these scores.

Quality (Materials & Manufacturing):

1-3: Primarily uses cast major components (frame/slide) and a high percentage of low-quality MIM parts.
4-6: Uses forged major components but with extensive use of MIM for most small parts.
7-8: Uses forged major components, high-quality tool steel or bar stock for critical parts, and minimal/high-quality MIM for non-critical parts. Good CNC machining and some hand-fitting.
9-10: All components are machined from forged or billet steel. Explicit “No MIM Parts” policy. Extensive hand-fitting by master-level gunsmiths.
Durability (Longevity & Resistance to Wear):

1-3: Widespread reports of premature parts failure or breakage.
4-6: Meets expected service life for a recreational firearm with proper maintenance.
7-8: Built with high-quality, durable materials (e.g., forged steel, proper heat treatment) suitable for hard/duty use.
9-10: Has passed a documented, high-round-count military or law enforcement endurance test (e.g., the 50,000-round FBI protocol) or has a proven track record of extreme durability in professional use.
Accuracy (Mechanical Precision):

1-3: Consistently groups larger than 4 inches at 25 yards.
4-6: Standard service-grade accuracy (approx. 3-4 inches at 25 yards).
7-8: Features a match-grade barrel and good component fit, capable of 1.5-2.5 inch groups at 25 yards.
9-10: Sold with an explicit accuracy guarantee of 1.5 inches or less at 25 yards (or a correspondingly tighter group at 50 yards).
Reliability (Function Across Conditions):

1-3: Known to be ammunition-sensitive and require a significant break-in period; frequent malfunctions reported.
4-6: Generally reliable with quality magazines and standard ball ammunition.
7-8: Demonstrates high reliability with a wide range of high-performance defensive ammunition.
9-10: Proven to be exceptionally reliable in extreme conditions through professional adoption or rigorous, documented testing.
Customer Satisfaction (Market Consensus):

1-3: Overwhelmingly negative market sentiment regarding product quality and/or customer service.
4-6: Mixed reviews; some satisfied customers, but a significant number of complaints regarding quality control or service.
7-8: Generally positive market sentiment; brand is considered reliable and customer service is responsive.
9-10: Overwhelmingly positive market sentiment; brand is revered for its quality, and customer service is considered industry-leading.

Tier Assignment by Total Score

The final tier for each manufacturer is determined by their total score out of a possible 50 points. The score ranges are defined to create logical groupings based on the quality levels observed in the market.

S-Tier: 48-50
A-Tier: 40-47
B-Tier: 34-39
C-Tier: 28-33
D-Tier: <28

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1911, Uncategorized

We are Labelling Our Custom 10mm Mags For Rock Island Armory A2 HC Pistols

July 19, 2023 RoninsGrips

We’ve made and sold hundreds of our custom magazines for the Rock Island Armory (RIA) A2 HC (High Cap) 10mm & .40 S&W pistols. These pistols are based on the Para design with a staggereed magazines that hold 15 rounds normally. Our mags hold 16 and are slightly longer.

The main reason I am writing this post is that our magazines use tubes originally made for the Para P14 pistol chambered in .45 ACP so they are stamped “P14-45” and there hasn’t been an elegant way to change that – the tubes are hardened and trying to stamp something else in would be messy. A laser engraver is an option but I don’t have one.

I was working on another project involving “permanent” labels – these are labels that have a really strong adhesive and last far better than regular labels. “Permanent” is a marketing term though – they can wear off, etc.

At any rate, it dawned on me that with the right size, I could have a clear thick vinyl label made with white ink that has “10mm & .40 S&W” written on it and that’s just what I did. You’ll find these on the baseplates going forward

So, yes, our tubes still have P14-.45 on them but now they have the correct chambering on the decal on the baseplate.

This is a normal baseplate with the label.

This is a baseplate that has been riveted closed because the tube has been blocked to 10 rounds. We also make 15 round limited mags. They are for folks who live in an area that has magazine limits.

By the way, if you ever want to confirm whether one of my mags is for 10mm or .40 S&W, the gap between the front feed lips will be between .370 and .390.

If you are interested in buying a magazine, please click here to go to our store. All of our magazines are converted, tuned and tested by hand one at a time.

1911, 1911 / 2011

Are Rock Island Armory Double Stack 9mm 1911-Style A2 HC-series Pistols Any Good?

October 20, 2022 RoninsGrips

Rock Island Armory (RIA) is a brand name that is owned by Armscor Global Defense located in Marakina, Philippines. Armscor obtained a license from the Philippine government in 1952 to begin making firearms. In 1980 it became Arms Corporation of the Philippines (ArmsCor) and in the mid-80s they bought the US brand “Rock Island Armory” and began exporting firearms to the US. They have invested in quality improvement and automation to create their wide variety of firearms offered today. They also have opened plants in the US – one in Stevensville, MT, and the other in Pahrumo, NV.

In March 2022, a Philippine TV crew visited the Armscor factory in Marakina and produced this nice video that focuses mainly on their 1911 production area:

The reason I wanted to share this with you is that RIA pistols do have a long history and Armscor is not some fly by night company. This is my opinion – I would describe RIA 1911 pistols as being designed, built and sold to shooters who want an acceptable 1911 without spending a fortune. They are not claiming to turn out semi-custom pistols – instead, good enough pistols at an affordable price point.

In marketing, when you are trying to hit a certain price point to attract the buyers you are after, you have to figure out the features, the materials, and process combination to get you there. Now reliability and accuracy are features also so this needs to be factored in – the pistols need to be good enough but not necessarily over the top – even though we wish they were.

Ok, but are the 9mm HC 17 round pistols “good”?

So let’s go back to the question – are they good? For the price, yes. You can’t compare them to far higher end pistols such as Stacatto or Bul – it’s simply not fair. It would be like comparing a daily-driver economy model Ford or GM car to a BMW. Yes, they are all cars but the engineering and attention to detail during manufacturing in the BMW are going to be very different. They are for different markets comprised on people with different disposable income levels and tastes – and have different price points.

The two pistols I am discussing to be clear are the 9mm RIA A2 HC pistols – the 51679 Tac Ultra FS HC and the 56645 Pro Ultra Match HC – by the way, FS means “Full Size” and HC means “high capacity” because they hold 17 rounds in staggered magazines.

The frames and slides are made from 4140 alloy steel via CNC and they do have QA steps. The barrel seems to be pretty decent but then the price point issue begins to creap in.

I bought four of the A2 HC 80% frames back when I was doing R&D on magazines for the 10mm/..40 S&W calibers (they use the same magazine design) and also the 9mm magazines. What not everyone knows is that these pistols also share a common frame. I installed the RIA magazine catch and ejector but they milled all of the holes and applied, as you can see, a very decent parkerized finish.

Here are two 80% frames with the top one holding a 10mm magazine and dummy red A-Zoom round. The bottom one has a 9mm magazine. The blue round is an A-zoom snap cap and I don’t use or recommend them any longer as the bullet is shaped very differently than a 115gr or 124gr FMJ round so you may think feeding will work when it doesn’t. I sure found that out the hard way.ĵ

For example, to keep costs down, Armscor uses metal injection molded (MIM) parts. I know through first hand experience, the extractors are MIM and they will not have the longevity of a forged part made from tool steel such as one from Wilson Combat *but* the extractors can be replaced if you ever have a problem so it’s not like you suddenly have a boat anchor and that’s one of the beauties of 1911-style pistols – there is a huge aftermarket parts industry and tons of websites/forums out there to help you sort out what is going on not to mention 1911 gunsmiths and that Armscor has good warranty service – I’ve had to avail on it twice – one on a 6″ 10mm Big Rock and also on a 9mm Tac Ultra that had failure to extract issues … and on that one, there was something seriously wrong because just replacing the extractor didn’t work. [Click here for a post I wrote about my extractor journeys with RIA 9mms].

The top is the original Armscor extractor and the claw snapped off. The bottom is a forged tool steel Wilscon Combat. If you run into an issue, read the post I wrote and upgrade to a Wilson.

They also use a parkerized finish and its applied very nicely. There is a but coming – but parkerizing leaves a rough finish and means they need to wear in more compared to other brands that use a different finish and/or have careful polishing and tuning while parts are assembled.

Every parkerized RIA pistol that I have seen has a very nice consistent finish on it. The left pistol is the TAC and you can tell due to the bushing, normal barrel and no checkering on the grip. The right pistol is the Match. It has a bull barrel, full length guide rod and checkering on the front of the grip. The rear sights differ but you can’t see them in this photo.

That’s an 80% frame with no modifications right next to it’s finished cousin – a 51679 Tac Ultra. Under the pistol is one of our tuned Mec-Gar P18 magazines with a Dawon +200 base plate. Click here for our 9mm RIA magazine offerings.

Conclusion

This is my way of saying they are good enough. You are buying an entry level pistol that has been on the market for many years and word would get around quickly if they were utter junk. Does the gun need wear in? Yes. Might there be issues? Yes. Do they have warranty support? Yes and they do stand behind and repair their pistols.

Would I recommend these RIA Tac Ultra FS and Pro Match Ultra HC pistols to someone looking for an entry level 17 round 9mm 1911 style pistol? You may find it odd but yes I would and I’d explain the above.

I hope this helps you out.

1/6/2023 Update: I’ve had zero problems since writing this post. Both pistols have cycled thousands of times during magazine testing (meaning rounds are cycled by hand but not actually fired) and the slides are smooth as glass. I took both to the range recently and they functioned just fine with both 115 and 124gr bulk FMJ – I think the 115gr was CCI and the 124gr was S&B if I recall right.

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

Uncategorized

PSA Has A Great Deal On RIA 52009 HC 16 Round 10mm Pistols Going On – You Better Not Wait If You Want One

May 23, 2022 RoninsGrips

I haven’t seen these at this price in the last few years – PSA has them for $649.99. I suspect they will sell fast at that price.

I have one of these 52009 Ultra HC pistols and it is rock solid. Magazine customers tell me the same thing. If you’re looking for a double stack 10mm on the 1911 platform, this is a really good deal:

Click here to go to the PSA sale page for the 52009.

This is from a range visit last year. My RIA 52009 is at the bottom. The pistol on the top right is a 10mm TRP Operator. I still have the 52009 and like it but sold the TRP.

Do You Need 10mm or .40 S&W Magazines

We make custom high reliability magazines for the 10mm and .40 S&W RIA A2 HC pistols if you are interested. Click here for our store page.

This is one of our 3rd generation magazines. We start with a Mec-Gar P14 .45 magazine tube and modify it to hold both the 10mm and .40 S&W rounds. We have tons of satisfied clients using both calibers.

Conclusion

Just a short post today. That’s such a good price on the 52009 that I figured it warranted it and hope this helps you out.

Uncategorized

No, The RIA FS A2 Pistols Are Not 2011s – They Are Oversized 1911s

May 9, 2022 RoninsGrips

I posted about 9mm magazines for the Rock Island Armory (RIA) FS A2 pistols and a friend on FB, pointed out they weren’t 2011s. The difference being the 2011 has a modular grip assembly and the RIA pistols are just over-sized 1911s. It dawned on me that I really didn’t know the difference and needed to do some reading.

How “2011” originated

It turns out that Chris was right – there is a difference – a substantial difference.

From what I have read the original 2011 concept was essentially a modular 1911 receiver that could have the mag well / grip sub-frame swapped out to allow for more versatility. The 2011 design and patent was by Virgil Tripp and Sandy Strayer who together formed STI and then went separate ways and shared the patent,.

The design is really cool and the best way to help you learn more is to provide you a link to the original patent application that has written descriptions and drawing — click here to see the orginial patent.

Back to the Rock Islands

The RIA pistols are oversized 1911 pistols. The grip and mag well area are integral parts of the frame and can’t be separated plus they use thin grip panels.

At the top is my RIA 566459mm Pro Match. Below it is an 80% frame for that model. Note now the mag wel/grip area are all part of the receiver and that there are grip panels. It’s not modular in other words. This makes it an over-sized 1911 and not a 2011.

In Closing

So now I know a bit more about the differences between the 2011 and 1911 designs. The RIA pistols are oversized-1911 designs and not true to the original 2011 design concept.

1911, 1911 / 2011

How Magazines Affect Reliability in Rock Island FS A2 9mm Pistols

May 8, 2022 RoninsGrips

This post reflects a journey I’ve been on regarding making and selling magazines for the 9mm Rock Island Armory (RIA) FS A2 pistols. These pistols are based on Para Ordnance designs that use a staggered magazine that can accomodate 15+ rounds in a fattened 1911 grip. Think of them as 1911 pistols on steroids with a fat grip the holds more rounds they hold more rounds so sometimes RIA calls them “HC” for high capacity.

These are my two 9mm test platforms. The top pistol is the 56645 Pro Ultra Match HC (you can see the checkering on the front strap of the grip) and the bottom is 51679 Tac Ultra FS HC.

For over a year now, I’ve been making magazines for the FS A2 pistols chambered in 10mm and .40 S&W. The interesting thing is that 9mm, .38 Super, .40 S&W and 10mm all use the same frame. You’d think making the 9mm mags would be an easy jump – I did at least — maybe it was just me.

The 10mm round is bigger than 9mm – it is fatter and longer. You don’t think about that a lot until you are trying to get the ejecting case to hit the ejector – the 10mm round is a hell of a lot easier to make hit the ejector than the 9mm. Also, the relatively short 9mm round has a long way to travel before it goes into the chamber. I found myself having to kick out some assumptions I had for magazines in order to get the 9mm round to reliably work.

In general, I now understand why the 1911 community is so fast to cast suspicion on the magazines when feed and ejection problems are happening. John Browning was an absolute genius and the 1911 design shows it but it does need all of the parts to be working together correctly to deliver a reliabile pistol.

Oh yeah, the magazines can make or break reliability. Let me share with you some observations I’ve made so far about the magazine after making a few hundred of the 9mm models either modifying P18 magazines (.38/9mm) or P16 mags (10/.40).

What about feed lip length?

The feed lips are the part of the magazine that hold the top round down and at the right angle. If they are too short, the round tends to be presented at too high of an angle and if they are too long, the front gap may not be adjustable enough to support the feed angle needed.

The blue rounds are A-Zoom Snap Caps. I use them during magazine prototyping and testing rather than live ammo The magazine lips are long pieces of rounded sheet metal that are going up the sides of the cartridge and are both positioning and retaining the round. Note the plastic “shelf” of the follower that is on the left bottom edge of each magazine that is level with the metal body. When the last round is fed from the magazine, the follower rises and that shelf is what engages the slide lock lever to put upwards pressure on it. When the slides travels rearword with the extraction and ejection of the last round, the slide lock level pushes up and locks the slide open ready for the next magazine to be fired.

The original 1911 was designed for .45 ACP but we are feeding a little short round from the back of the magazine towards the chamber a mile away. How can we maintain control? The short answer is have longer feed lips on the magazine. These longer lips are what get the relatively small 9mm round from the back of the magazine all the way into the chamber.

*“We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there”* were the famous words in “East Bound and Down” by Jerry Reed in the movie classic Smokey and the Bandit. The feed lips need to control the feeding of the cartridge all the way from the back of the magazine to the point the bullet engages the feed ramp and then starts to go into chamber. A 9mm Luger cartrdge is 1.169″ long. In comparison, 10mm Auto is 1.260″ overall. and .45 ACP is 1.275″. You might thing those differences are small but they definitely impact the design and operation of the pistol – they need to be planned for if you want reliability.

The reason I listed this section is that the length of the feed lips can vary depending on the model of pistol so if you are trying to use a magazine from another type of pistol you may find you need to trim the feed lips back. I didn’t have to change the P16 or P18 mags for the 9mm but I did need to modify the P16 Para mags to feed reliability in RIA 10mm and .40 S&W pistols.

What happens if the front feed lip gap is too wide? You tend to get a Failure to Eject (FTE) or the Slide locks open prematurely

The feed lip gap at the front of the magazine controls where the cartridge is going vertically – the angle towards the chamber. Increase the gap and the front of cartridge rises and decrease it and the angle goes down. But wait, there’s more.

If the front of the round pushes up too much, it will cause the extracting case to slide up the breech face and out of position thus missing the ejector bar you can see just above the rear of the cartidge. The tell tale is that you have the new round and the old case in the back of the slide at the same time.

Now here’s the first gotcha: The feed lip gap still controls the rise of the bullet in the front but if it goes too far, the bullet is going to interfere with extraction, pushing the extracted case upwards on the breach face of the slide and out of position to correctly engage the ejector and all of a sudden you have the old case in the slide, a new round trying to feed and you have a jam. If you go for a front feed lips gap of .305-.308″ you will be fine. Depending on your pistol once you get somewhere around .320″, you are going to cause the ejection problem I just mentioned

There’s an interesting design issue with all 1911 breech faces – they are flat. The extractor pushes the case to the right in this photo. The ejector bar is exiting its cut out from the breech face in the lower right but there is nothing to truly limit upwards travel.

I’ve spent a lot of time chasing this dimension because you tend to get better feeding the more the bullet is oriented towards the chamber but with the 9mm you have to be mindful of the impacts on the the ejecting cartridge.

By the way, in addition to interfering with ejection, a feed lip gap that is too wide can allow the follower to travel too far upwards and prematurely lock the slide open with one cartridge remaining in the magazine.

I should point out that the most likely cause of a failure to eject (FTE) is a faulty magazine. The second most likely is a worn or failing extractor. It probably is not the ejector bar.

What happens if the front feed lip gap is too narrow? You tend to get a failure to feed (FTF)

If you move the feed lips to close together, the new round that needs to be fed into the chamber comes in at too flat of an angle and smashes straight into the feed ramp. On one hand the 9mm bullet is rounded abruptly but the feed ramp is quite abrupt. I tend to find that somewhere under .302″ this happens but I haven’t done a lot of testing on this dimension because I have been more focused on wanting the cartridge angled up vs. down.

The round travels up the feed ramp but it needs have enough of an upward angle to ride the ramp up. If it is too shallow it will slam the bullet into the ramp and stop. Note that RIA did polish the ramp – that was an unexpected nice touch. In general, I’d recommend polishing the ramp smooth to aid in feeding. Also, look at the shape of the snap cap – it mimics a classic full metal jacket 115gr bullet. The curvature of the bullet will aid in feeding. Different bullet shapes can affect feeding in some pistols and you may need to tweak certain mags for certain rounds – it’s next to impossible to guess so test your pistol with certain combinations of cartrdiges and magazines to ensure they are reliable. You may find your pistol likes some and hates others. I’d probably just move to another cartridge if it were me and my pistol had issues with a given round.

Yeah, the lips have a memory

So the magazines are made of high carbon steel that is heat treated. The feed lip gap falls within a certain tolerance. If it changed either wider or narrower, the lips are going to move back towards their original positing anywhere from .002-.004″ so plan accordingly.

This is where experience matters with the mags you are working with. Once you have your dimensions figured out, you may find you need to bend further than the nominal dimension so when the sheet metal starts to relax it will stop in the range you want.

You may also find that the metal does most of its movement in some number of minutes after you do the initial tune and need to do it one more time. Some guys will wait overnight to do the final tuning. I wait at least 30 minutes.

What about left and right bends to the feed lips?

The more you bend the feed lips in one direction too much, the round will point that way and either glance the chamber wall or actually slam into the chamber and stop depending on how off you are. Try and get the cartridge to point into the center of the chamber in terms of left to right.

This is an 80% RIA frame that I used during prototyping. I’m not enough of a machinist to actually complete it but it really helps you see what is going on. If the right feed lip is bent too much to the right then the round will go in that directton – same for the left lip. You want to point the round into the center of chamber.

What about the follower?

It’s really interesting how important the follower is. On one hand it is pushing the rounds up againt the feed lips properly and on the other, there is a small “shelf” on the front left edge that pushes the slide stop lever up and locks the slide open on empty (unless you are using competition followers such as the Arredondos that purposefully do not lock the slide open).

The walls at the top of the 9mm mag really need to taper inward to properly channel the staggered round into the single exit position at the top. The follower’s sides need to be appropriately tapered and rounded as well less they drag on the walls. The original Mec-Gar followers have significant drag that you can feel when loading the mgazine so revising them made the most sense.

The Arredondo follower is on the left. It is more angled and rounded on the right side in this photo than the Mec-Gar on the right. The Arredondo was desined for competition is when you look at the bottom right edge of each you will see the Arredondo slopes down fast so it will not raise the slide stop lever. The Mec-Gar has a more elevated edge that will lock the slide open. Our modified Mec-Gar followers improve reliability by having more rounded edges but still can lock the slide open.

By the way, to make life more colorful, when you install the follower the spring tension will spread the feed lips wider by about 0.002-0.004″.

How about the spring?

The Mec-Gar springs are okay. How much spring is enough or to little really depends on how well it can keep constant upwards pressure on the follower to move the rounds up fast enough and keep them in position. With the drag on the follower reduced, the spring can do its job.

There is an exception though – if you add a magazine extension or base plate that adds capacity, the spring really ought to be longer so get a Wolff or Arredondo spring that can supply the pressure over a longer distance.

The top assembly has the a easy to identify blue Arredondo follower and longer spring. The spring is made by Wolff but is bent to properly hold the Arredondo follower. The black follower and shorter spring are the original Mec-Gar units.

Yes, springs can and do wear our so if you feel the follower is being pushed up sufficiently or is sluggish *and* the walls do not appear bent then you probably need a new spring.

What about lubricant?

Mec-Gar mags come with some lubricant all over the insides of the mags, follower, spring, floor plate and base plate. On one hand it protects against corrosion but on the other it can attract dirt.

I would recommend that you use a good dry lubricant film. I used to use Dupont’s Teflon dry lubricant film spray but they discontinued it over environmental and health concerns about Teflon. The company is now producing a dry film using a ceramic technology that I really like and find it does a remarkable job at lubricating magazines.

If you are in a marine environment and you need the corrosion protection the use the oil of your choice – you need to worry about rust, I get it. For me, the Dupont Dry Film Lube aerosol spray does a great job. The new followers and the inside of the magazine tubes coated with this enables remarkably smooth movement of the follower.

Number your magazines

A tip you really ought to consider is to number your magazines so you can keep track of them. I like stickers because you can readily remove them if you put a baseplate on a different magazine tube but there are plenty of guys who use a permanent marker or etcher to uniquely identify each magazine.

The benefit of doing this is that when you are at the range if you find that some magazine is having problems, you can write down or take a photo of the number and know what you need to work on. Face it, if you have a bunch of mags and they all look pretty similar it can be hard to keep track of them otherwise.

By numbering the magazines, I can track dimensions and performance over time.

We do sell the stickers if you are interested – click here.

I’m still learning

I don’t claim to know everything – let me right up front about that. I now know what people mean whey they say “The more I learn, the less I know”. In other words, as I learn more I am increasingly aware that there is a ton of stuff I don’t know.

Hopefully this gives you some insight about why one magazine will work great but then another one doesn’t. The above are things to consider.

My reason for writing this is to give you some idea of what we’ve learned and are building into each 9mm magazine that you buy from us – we aren’t just relabeling mags and selling them at a heck of a mark up.

What are are doing is ensuring the dimesions, doing the necessary modifications and testing teach magazine in one of our 9mm RIA pistols to ensure you get a reliable mag. If you have problems with a magazine from us, we will definitely make it right.

If you’d like to see our magazines, click here to go to our store.

We do have a new post about how to load our v2 9mm magazines to get reliable feeding. Click here for it.

1911

How To Re-Assemble A 1911 or 2011 Full Length Guide Rod, Spring and Reverse Plug Using A Small Engine Valve Compressor

May 15, 2021 RoninsGrips

If you’re reading this then I am assuming you know how much a bear it is to re-assemble the full length guide rod, spring and reverse plug group that many 1911 and 2011 pistols are using. When a takedown paper clip or pin slips during disassembly or re-assembly of the pistol, life gets interesting fast.

Well, if you want to get into an argument with a 1911 guru, ask if the full length guide rods make a difference. The answer tends to be “no” and I am not arguing for them. What I am finding is that bull barrel 10mm pistol makers as of late aren’t using bushings – the slide and barrel mate together directly and the guide rod assembly is captured in the slide, not by the bushing.

This is a Desert Eagle 10mm by Bul Armory with a full length guide rod (the solid circle in the middle).

Rock Island Ultra FS HC – also with a full length guide rod. The silver circle is the end of the guide rod.

To disassemble these types of pistols, you usually need to insert a pin in the guide rod to capture the reverse plug. Some guys bend a paper clip. I got so annoyed by how tacky that looked that I had a ton of takedown pins made from 1mm stainless wire [click here to go to our website].

With the slide locked open, you insert the pin in the hole machined for this purposed, release the slide and move it forward against the pin. I’d recommend against letting the plug slam forward into the pin as it isn’t going to do either piece of steel any favors over time. That’s our takedown pin by the way.

Once the pin has limited the travel of the reverse plug and basically stopped the spring from applying pressure, takedown is a breeze.

With the tension removed, it all comes apart real nice in theory.

Boy, that sure is nice and neat isn’t it?

And Then Reality Hits

Folks, there are a million and one reasons why that pin can get knocked out of the hole and the reverse plus is going to come flying off at the speed of light. This kind of stuff happens to me way more than I care to admit. I can’t tell you how many parts I have lost control of and heard a faint “tick” sound as said part lands on the other side of my shop never to be seen again. Well, that’s not exact true, I did find an AR buffer detent in the tool caddy of my ShopVac last week. I vaguely remember losing one at point.

Big word of advice, if you are working on a spring loaded part, do it in a place were you can find the parts if you lose control. Yeah, you may be laughing now but wait until you hear that “tick” sound of a part landing on the other side of a congested (fancy way of saying “messy”) shop.

In my case, I haven’t launched the reverse plug yet but I did release the tension to see how it was made. Ok, big mistake. The recoil springs for a 10mm start at 16 pounds and are more likely to be 20-24 pounds. With my carpal tunnel, I could not compress the spring enough to reinsert the pin. I had a serious WTF do I do moment? Under no circumstance was I going to ask my wife to come help me 🙂 A second set of hands would have done the trick for sure but I needed to figure out a quick and dirty way to do it myself.

This is the full length guide rod, reverse tube and spring from by Desert Eagle 10mm 1911.

In this case, I carefully inserted the parts in a bench vise and very carefully compressed them until I could get the pin back in. I was really nervous because if either the plug or the rod shifted, I was going to launch parts. It worked, but there had to be a better way.

Solution: Use A Small Engine Valve Compressor

I’ve read, watched and worked on a ton of stuff over the years. I knew there were valve spring compressors for small engines that might work perfect for this so I did some research. The Stens 750-174 looked like it would work perfect so I ordered from Amazon. Guess what? It does the job!

Here is my new Stens 750-174 that worked perfectly You can adjust the width of the tips and the big screw allows you to very easily compress the spring.

With the two little thumbscrews you can independently adjust the width of the holders.

There’s a trick to getting started – first rotate your guide rod so you will have access to the pin hole once the plug is compressed past it. Now what I did was to start with the base inserted in the tool and it was resting on the table. I then inserted the reverse plug, pushed down and tipped/pivoted the assembly into place so the other tip could grab the plug.

So I adjusted one tend to hold the base of the guide rod and the other to cradle the reverse plug and turned the big crank to compress the spring, reinserted the pin – done!

Conclusion

If you have a pistol with a full length guide rod for whatever reason, I would honestly recommend our takedown pin and also keep a Stens 750-174 spring compressor around if you may need to put it back together solo.

1911

Range Report For The Desert Eagle 1911, RIA Rock Ultra FS HC, and Springfield Armory 6″ TRP Operator 10mm Pistols

May 10, 2021 RoninsGrips

Well folks, at one point I had three 1911-style 10mm pistols. A Magnum Research Desert Eagle (model DE1911G10), a Rock Island Armory (RIA) Rock Ultra FS HC (model 52009) and a Springfield Armory TRP Operator (model PC9610L18). While I like the 10mm cartridge, I didn’t really need three pistols so I decided to take them to the range to decide what I would keep and what I would sell.

The Ammo

I took with me about 200 rounds of Ammo Inc’s 180gr TMC load that I had purchased from Palmetto State Armory during one of their daily deals. TMC stands for “total metal case” – meaning the lead is fully encapsulated by the copper jacket. With full metal jacket (FMC) ammo, the base often has the lead core exposed. Ammo Inc is interesting in that they decided to go the public company route and we’ll have to wait and see how they fare when the panic buying dies down.

I also took about 200 rounds of Sellier & Bellot (S&B) 180gr FMJ ammo as well. It’s been my “go to ” 100 range ammo for years. If you don’t know S&B, they are an excellent ammunition producer located in the Czech Republic dating back to 1825.

That is some of the Ammo Inc 180gr TMC ammo in the bag and S&B 180gr FMJ in the tray.

To round out the test ammo, I took some Underwood 155gr XTP and 200gr XTP jacketed hollow points (JHP). I only had about 50 rounds of this and I wanted to save it for the final round of testing.

For the past six months, finding ammo has been a bear but suppliers are starting to build up inventory. Judging by my inbox, more and more emails are being sent saying “we have ammo in stock” and even a few sales. These tend to come shortly before prices start to drop based on past panic buying ammo shortages [click here for my blog post on the economics of ammo during a panic].

The Range

It was a beautiful March day when I arrived at the Berrien County Sportsman’s Club to use the pistol plate range. The plates are about 30-35′ feet back from the firing line and I had it all to myself.

BCSC is my favorite range hands down and I have been a member there for many years. Definitely a cool place for a variety of sportsman and family activities.

The 10″ steel plates are located about 30-35 feet from the firing line. I really enjoy these for testing pistols. Note the pull cord to reset the plates.

First, the 6″ TRP Operator

As I have written in the past, the TRP Operator was not reliable out of the box and this was a do or die outing for the pistol in terms of whether I would keep or sell it. The TRP Operator is basically a 6″ 1911 and the marketing would lead you to expect that it would have been stunning out of the box but it wasn’t to be perfectly blunt.

Thankfully, after work both myself and Springfield Armory’s repair groups did, it finally handled the way it should have when I first got it. This time around, functioning was reliable and the recoil was handled nicely by the heavy pistol with it’s 6″ bull barrel.

The TRP put in a good showing this time around. All the kinks had been worked out and it ran great.

I was able to fire round after round at the plates at 30-35 feet and hit them. I really wasn’t shooting for benchrest accuracy – just shooting at plates to decide what to do.

Honestly, I had a take-it-or-leave it mentality on front serrations on a slide until I got into 10mm 1911s. Their recoil spring is stout. All of a sudden, those front serrations are really handy. My RIA 52009 does not have them and is way harder for me to hold when racking the slide from the front that the TRP or the Bul.

I was running both Wilson Combat ,and Tripp Cobra mags in both the TRP and the Bul. Both brands are excellent. You can see a Cobra 9-round magazine peaking out of the mag well in this photo. Their beveled base plate is an immediate give away.

In summary for the TRP, it ran just fine but it did nothing to wow me.

Next – The Magnum Research Desert Eagle (model DE1911G10) by Bul Armory

Okay, next up on the testing list for the first time was my new Desert Eagle 10mm that is actually made by Bul Armory of Israel. Out of the box it had the best trigger of any 1911 I have owned and the action was very smooth.

Now I have written about this particular pistol going to the range before – it’s just that I am finally sitting down to write this bigger post about all three pistols just under two months after the range trip. Here are a few pictures for you:

Here’s the Bul with some of the Ammo Inc 180gr TMC ammo and a collection of Wilson and Cobra mags – it ran through everything I brought including the Underwood JHPs with no problems.

Here’s the 6″ TRP on top and the 5″ Bul on the bottom. Those front slide serrations make racking their slides a lot easier.

Let me sum it up and say – I really, really like this pistol. It functioned flawlessly and felt great. With the TRP, I was not impressed by the time it finally worked right. The Bul’s performance was nothing short of fantastic.

Last But Not Least: The Rock Island Armory (RIA) Rock Ultra FS HC (model 52009)

This was the first trip for the RIA Rock Ultra FS HC – let’s just call it the 52009. I wrote a blog post about my first takes and things were looking good so far. At any rate, I knew with the RIA pistols that you needed to clean and lube them plus I slightly beveled the chamber edges and polished the ramp.

I was really curious to see how it would function not only in general but also with the new magazines I was making for them. I also wanted a higher capacity 10mm 1911 if possible so there was a lot riding on the trip.

It looks familiar until you notice the really thick pistol grip and the big mag well funnel.

The 52009 is the bottom pistol and the TRP is the top right. You can see the collection of custom mags I was testing – what you don’t see is that their mag lips are different lengths. I actually found the 52009 very tolerant of different lengths – reliable feeding was a function of how spread open the lips were to point the cartridge towards the chamber. See the magazine laying with it’s back up in the top row? The magazine to the right was the only original RIA ACT-Mag I had to base my work on the shop.

See how short the lips are? By adjusting the lips, it fed surprisingly fine. I have one mag with even shorter lips and it worked.

The stock of 10mm Ammo Inc rounds was dwindling. Let me tell you something – the Mag-Lula universal pistol magazine filler is worth its weight in gold. I really can’t tell you how many 8, 9 and 10 round mags I filled (and emptied) shooting the TRP and Bul pistols but by the time I got to the 52009, my hands were aching thanks to my carpal tunnel issues. By the way, two months later and that loading “finger” you see in the Mag-Lula is now brass colored from all of the magazine test fitting I have done 🙂

To sum up the 52009 – it was starting to wear in and felt surprisingly good. I sure missed having the front serrations on the slide because by the end my hands were starting to ache and my ability to squeeze hard enough to hold the slide and rack it was dwindling.

Once I identified the good mags and problem mags and focused my efforts, it ran great. I was quite pleased with it and I can tell you now that I have cycled it thousands of times fitting magazines, it is quite smooth. The 52009 and RIA 1911/2011 pistols in general are really good examples of parts need to wear in, or get to know each other, to get rid of tiny burrs/imperfections left over from manufacturing.

Would I buy it again? Yes. Was it my first choice? No, actually it wasn’t. I really wanted a high cap 5″ pistol styled after one of their Tac or Tac Ultra pistols that has the forward serrations and a Picatinny rail on the bottom of the frame. The reason being is that they are lighter and more compact than the 6″ Big Rock that I had years ago. Their 56862 model has a 5.5″ threaded barrel (hence the extra half inch) that I would have preferred but with the panic buying, it is impossible to find. Who knows – I may find one some day.

In the mean time, my only wish was that the 52009 hand front serrations – other than that it is a solid pistol.

Final Decision

As you can probably guess, the TRP Operator was voted off the island and my friend, and FFL, Scott Igert sold it for me. I felt pretty good about the decision too.

What’s interesting is that if you go to the Springfield Armory website today – the 10mm TRP Operator is gone. It could be that the demand just wasn’t there. I talked to a fellow at Dawson Precision awhile back about Stacattos (STI changed their name a few months back) and if they had any 10mm pistols because they used to have a number of models including the “Perfect 10.”) At any rate, he told me the demand just isn’t there – everyone is going for the 9mms these days. That might be the case for Springfield though I notice they are offering their Ronin model in 10mm.

TRP at the top, 52009 in the middle and the Bul is at the bottom.

Bul on the left and the 52009 on the right. Note how the 52009 has an ambidextrous safety and the Bul does not. Since I am right handed, I really don’t use the safety on the other side. Some guys train to shoot with both hands just in case their right hand injured and use the safety on both sides as a result so I can understand why it is a feature that some folks want.

That’s it for now. I hope you found this post useful.

Establishing an Engineering Baseline: The M1911A1 Mil-Spec

A Quantifiable Tiering Model for the Modern 1911/2011

Tier Definitions

Core Evaluation Metrics

1. Materials Science & Manufacturing Processes

2. Quality Control & Assembly

3. Provenance & Performance

4. Market & Community Consensus

Tier-by-Tier Brand Analysis

S-Tier: Bespoke / Professional Grade

A-Tier: Semi-Custom / Duty Grade

B-Tier: High-End Production

C-Tier: Enthusiast Grade

D-Tier: Entry-Level

Detailed Brand Data and Justification

S-Tier Brands

A-Tier Brands

Quantitative Scoring Summary Table

Summary & Market Outlook

Consolidated Tier Ranking Table

Concluding Analysis & Market Trends

Appendix: Data Collection and Scoring Methodology

Data Sources

Scoring Rubric

Tier Assignment by Total Score

Works cited

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Ok, but are the 9mm HC 17 round pistols “good”?

Conclusion

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Do You Need 10mm or .40 S&W Magazines

Conclusion

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How “2011” originated

Back to the Rock Islands

In Closing

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What about feed lip length?

What happens if the front feed lip gap is too wide? You tend to get a Failure to Eject (FTE) or the Slide locks open prematurely

What happens if the front feed lip gap is too narrow? You tend to get a failure to feed (FTF)

Yeah, the lips have a memory

What about left and right bends to the feed lips?

What about the follower?

How about the spring?

What about lubricant?

Number your magazines

I’m still learning

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And Then Reality Hits

Solution: Use A Small Engine Valve Compressor

Conclusion

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The Ammo

The Range

First, the 6″ TRP Operator

Next – The Magnum Research Desert Eagle (model DE1911G10) by Bul Armory

Last But Not Least: The Rock Island Armory (RIA) Rock Ultra FS HC (model 52009)

Final Decision

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When Strength and Quality Matter Most