My new Les Baer

[roval]

My recently ordered heavyweight monolith arrived at the ffl yesterday and I picked it up today. I came prepared with a couple of sheets of paper shop towels. I had gotten one with the 1.5" guarantee. I was looking at the 3 inch but between 2 online vendors the difference was about $ 148 factoring in difference with shipping so I went for the 1.5"

By the way kudos to CJ at 1911 heaven. I had ordered the gun before Christmas and initially was going to get a cashiers check for the order but figuring out the slight delay and $ 47 less diffference vs convenience of a cc purchase , I later decided the same day to just purchase with a CC. After 6 days and no gun I called him up and he apologized as he had filed my order as pending since it was initially a check purchase and he was still waiting for something that I was not mailing. He therefore shipped my order that day and did not charge me a credit card fee because of the 1 week delay in shipping.

I was going to video my first racking of the gun but just couldn't help myself while inspecting the gun at the ffl and was quite surprised how much easier it was to rack compared to my premier II 3"s first rack. That was almost embarrassing it took 3 tries. With this monolith, I could even rack it with my fingers and the fcs. I had read before that the 1.5" were not as tight(racking wise) but I was still surprised at the difference. Weight difference compared to my older baer wasn't too noticeable. Supposed to be 3.5 oz heavier low and forward.

I had disassembled my first baer prior to it's first range trip since nothing was mentioned in the paraphernalia but with this one I'll follow the 500 rd no clean break in. Too bad snow is forecast tomorrow as our city range opens on Wednesday.

With this I hope to shoot like a girl... This girl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se195o80-Eg

Naaah not with my glasses.



Following are pics from out of the box.

 

[imashooter]

Congratulations on a very nice pistol. Sounds like "CJ at 1911 heaven" is a good guy. I like the additional touch of all the folks who played a role in the manufacture, assembly, and testing of your pistol.

 

[glove]

Nice looking pistol. Let us know if you shoot it like that girl.

 

[surjimmy]

You got the best 1911 of the big 3 (Baer, Wilson, and Brown). IMHO

 

[Deaf Smith]

Les is more!

Great gun.

Deaf

 

[browningguy]

Very nice, congrats.

 

[Dave P.]

Of course we expect to see a 50 yard target picture that looks like the
piece of cardboard.
Do they tell you what load they test with?
Nice toy!!
Dave P.

 

[I6turbo]

Gun looks good!

Judging from the certificates they should stick to pistolsmithing and give up wordsmithing.

 

[Shipwreck]

Man, that is sweet. Several years ago, I came so, so close to ordering that particular model

 

[roval]

They don't tell you what bullet it was shot with in the test target but somebody from another forum asked them and they said American Eagle 230 rn which may not be correct. I will not be able to shoot close to the limits of the gun but it's nice to know the accuracy is there.

 

[bannockburn]

roval

That is one impressive looking 1911! Congrats on the new addition to the family!

 

[tark]

Roval, that is a nice looking Monolith. When I worked for Les he used Federal American Eagle 230 grain for test firing. Pretty sure he still does. That was almost three years ago.

It is not uncommon for an 1 1/2" gun to be easier to rack than a standard. To tell the truth, most of the standard 3' guaranteed guns will shoot tighter than that. We made two guns for Steven Seagal (A HUGE 1911 fan) years ago and he specifically insisted that the guns be easy to rack. And they were. Out of curiosity, we Ransom rested them. One put all of its shots into one hole at 25 yards and the other one did almost as well.

Your gun should have no trouble living up to its billing.

 

[roval]

Thanks tark, I respect anything you have to say regarding baers. Too bad neither of my guns were worked on by you.

I can't wait to get to the range. I work in bursts so I have a stretch of being off but so far rain/snow is forecast for the next few days . I don't like indoor ranges as I don't know if I can pick up my brass and the targets move. May get a couple of boxes of American Eagle as part of the break in. I'll try shooting it from the bench with a merit disc once I get a chance.

I'm fighting the urge to field strip it before the first trip.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Beautimus!

 

[RayTheGreat]

Beautiful gun, congratulations! I've always liked the way the frame extends to the end of the slide. It reminds me of the old Colt 1907s. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Resist Evil]

Do you have a fitted holster for it? Was it difficult to find?

 

[roval]

I don't have a fitted holster for it I actually don't have a single holster for any of my guns since I don't carry.

It wasn't hard to find. There was a heavyweight mono that I've been eyeing with one other online vendor but I ended up buying other guns over the year. I got this from 1911heaven which I heard about a few weeks ago from somebody's post over here. He had one in stock in 1.5" and I got it since the difference didn't seem much compared to the other one.

Finally got to go to the range today. I put about 350 rds thorugh it. I used a chip mcormick, old and new les baer and a Wilson magazine. I bought 100 rds of American eagle 230 RN and the rest were my reloads 230 gr xtreme over bullseye and 700x and 200 gr xtreme swc. Wih SWC as expected experienced frequent failures to feed but occasionally I'll have a whole magazine go through, Had one stove pipe with American eagle and there was one magazine I had to whack to feed in but can't remember which one it was.

The trigger wasn't as nice as my old regular premier II but that one is beyond broken in but I do think it affected groups. I hope it smooths out. I like the rear sights in that it's straight across compared to my premier II which was slightly rounded.

Below are pics of the first shots. Each card had 8 shots and had American eagle except for the mentioned SWC. The 6 of diamonds is the first magazine and the following magazines were next to it, except the Ace of spades which was shot with my premier II for comparison. These were benched at 10 yrds.

The other pic is offhand at 10 yrds. The 3 of hearts is a good group with SWC but I had a flyer above the group. I had to adjust the elevation later especially at 25 yrds when it was more noticeable. Of course I was aiming for the center of the playing card.

I don't have any 25 yrd pics since I made adjustments while shooting the same target. Once it was zeroed I shot steel at 25(6 inch) and 50yrds(9x10 inc gong). Don't know if the recoil was less but it was very comfortable to shoot. I let several of the range officers shoot a magazine or 2 and they had some hits at 50 yrds as well.

I still haven't broken it down. I just wiped it with CLP and it's like an itch I can't scratch leaving the gun dirty. The premier II has solvent in the bore even though I only ran 3-4 magazines thorugh it.