Girsan MC 1911 C XLV

[jar]

So Davidson's latest exclusive Girsan arrived and did so quickly and over the Thanksgiving holiday. But my FFL was upstate on his deer lease suffering lousy weather and no sight of Bambi so it sat for a few days until he got back in town. Yesterday I got to pick it up and bring it home for basic inspection, clean and lube.

The pistol is a Commander size 1911 made in Turkey, just black cerakote but forged slide and frame with Novak style three dot sights, ambidextrous thumb safety, long trigger, extended beaver-tail with the speed bump, skeleton hammer, checkered front strap and flat main spring housing and a full length guide rod with flat spring. It came in a small foam lined plastic clam shell case with on eight round ACT magazine, a cable lock and a manual.

Generally the fit and finish is fine but it's clear it's a pieces parts amalgam. For example while the slide stop, font strap and mainspring housing are checkered the thumb safety and hammer and magazine release are striped. The slide cut out for the safety also does not match the shape or dimensions of the thumb safety itself.





Granted those are purely aesthetic and relatively minor issues.




But how does it shoot?

The rear sight was off slightly and needed to get drifted over but the elevation was right on. I ran a total of fifty rounds of 230 ball using the eight round ACT magazine as well as seven rounders from Mec-Gar, Ed Brown and Checkmate plus a Checkmate eight rounder. Initially there were a few failure to feeds but always cured by a tap rack and the last round in each magazine failed to feed. That decreased and the last two magazines, the seven round Ed Brown and the eight round Checkmate fed all rounds flawlessly. Trigger pull after the first fifty rounds average 4 pounds eleven ounces with a short take-up, clean break and very short audible and tactile reset.

So far I'm satisfied and if the feed issue continues to improve I will add likely it to my carry rotation.

 

[Nature Boy]

That’s a nice looking pistol

 

[md7]

Congrats on the 1911! Hope it runs like a top for ya.

 

[Tallball]

Looks nice!

 

[jar]

Will run another 30 or so rounds through it today.

So far it's simply not reliable enough to carry for SD but it is also far from broken-in. The Turkish Tisas pistols just spoiled me since they have been totally reliable since the very first round.

 

[jar]

Today went a little better. Still getting failure to feed issues but all seem to be too tight extractor and since it's still very new I will not do anything about that yet. Another 50 rounds planned for tomorrow. But again today the Ed Brown seven round mag and the Checkmate eight round mag ran without a hitch. The Mec-Gar and ACT mags were where I had the failure to feed so it may be both too tight extractor and follower type. The ACT and Mec-Gar use a different follower while the Ed Brown and Checkmate use the same dimpled Checkmate patent follower.

 

[jar]

Ran another 40 rounds so up to 120 rounds so far. Today it was only eight round magazines loaded with eight rounds of 230 ball. Three failure out of five magazines. Four magazines were Checkmate while the fifth was the ACT that came with the pistol and this time it fed, fired and ejected all eight rounds. Of the three FTFs only one was not the last round in a magazine and both of those magazines are relatively new.

Progress and so far nothing that I can see needs to be adjusted. I'll wait until 200 or 300 rounds have run through it before thinking about bending stuff.

 

[jar]

Thirty more rounds today to bring the total up to 150 rounds. But a rather strange session. The failures today were two failures to go fully into battery and in both cases it was the next to last round of the magazine; once with an eight rounder and once a seven rounder.

 

[Blkhrt13]

My guess is until you shoot it out a little more these quirks will happen. I really hope it stops after 2 or 3 hundred rounds. It’s really easy to forget that plastic modern guns just about eliminate the break in 1911s need.

 

[jar]

My guess is until you shoot it out a little more these quirks will happen. I really hope it stops after 2 or 3 hundred rounds. It’s really easy to forget that plastic modern guns just about eliminate the break in 1911s need.

Not all 1911s. I was pleasantly surprised by the three 1911 Tisas pistols since they seemed to work perfectly from the first round right through the first 500 or more rounds.

Plus the Tisas cost somewhat less and have a better initial fit and finish than this Girsan. The Girsan has been far more Colt or Dan Wesson; but only moderately disappointing since it still cost only a fraction of what those two cost me.

None of the issues with the Girsan thus far have been large enough to warrant anything more than more range time.

 

[Blkhrt13]

Not all 1911s. I was pleasantly surprised by the three 111 Tisas pistols since they seemed to work perfectly from the first round right through the first 500 or more rounds.

Plus the Tisas cost somewhat less and have a better initial fit and finish than this Girsan. The Girsan has been far more Colt or Dan Wesson; but only moderately disappointing since it still cost only a fraction of what those two cost me.

None of the issues with the Girsan thus far have been large enough to warrant anything more than more range time.

That’s great news. One day I will find a Tisas Tanker to play with. I have found all of the Turkish stuff I have shot to be quite functional and fairly well fit.

 

[CajunBass]

Not all 1911s. I was pleasantly surprised by the three 1911 Tisas pistols since they seemed to work perfectly from the first round right through the first 500 or more rounds.

Plus the Tisas cost somewhat less and have a better initial fit and finish than this Girsan. The Girsan has been far more Colt or Dan Wesson; but only moderately disappointing since it still cost only a fraction of what those two cost me.

None of the issues with the Girsan thus far have been large enough to warrant anything more than more range time.

As stated above, this is good news. I got a Tisas 1911A1, in 45, a week or so ago, but still haven't had a chance to shoot it. Still, I was so impressed with the gun, I ordered a 9mm Tanker to go with it. Should be at my FFL in a couple of days.

My Girsan MC-P35 has been good go. At some point I noticed the front sight was offset to the left. I'm not sure if it came that way, got wacked, or just worked it's way loose, but a couple of minutes with a sight pusher put it back top dead center. As stiff as it was in the sight pusher, I suspect it's been that way all along. I haven't had a chance to shoot it since, but it shoots straight with an ELMS laser cartridge. Very cool little gizmo for dry fire practice.

 

[jar]

Update in the Girsan.

It is working as it should finally. I've put 241 rounds through it so far and today it had only three failures; one was a failure to feed the last round from an eight round Checkmate but later it ran all eight through the same magazine. The other two failures were "me's", premature slide lock back almost certainly caused by a miscreant thumb.

Still not confident enough to put in my carry rotation but certainly far closer than before. Next range session I'll run the Yam extractor test.

 

[unclenunzie]

I would guess extractor tuning and it might be worth considering metalform rounded follower magazines. Not that the others shouldn't work, I just had good results using them with my Tisas, and they were not expensive. Did have to send one of four back that was defective NIB and cheerfully replaced by Midway. The rest and the replacement continue to work fine.

I like how yours is marked XLV, Roman numerals for 45