My wife has one for a bedside gun. Well worth the price IMO. When she first got it we put 200 rounds through it and had two stovepipes in the first 50 and none after that or since then. Only thing that she wanted changed is the grips, now it wears purple wraparound Hogue's.

 

I got one of their enhanced models years ago. Rail, novak style sights, beavertail, cutout hammer. Came with a holster, 2 8rnd mecgar mags, hard case. Haven't had a single issue with it through all kinds of ammo, it's as accurate as I want it to be, and cost $400 brand new.

 

Where are they made?

 

Turkey.

 

Picked one up for $320 at Online Outfitters.

Includes hard case, two 8 round mags, cleaning brush, plastic patch rod, plastic bushing wrench.

Series 70 internals. Hammer forged. Chrome barrel. Good and consistent black Cerakote finish. GI cuts. Standard GI'ish 1911 sights.

I will be replacing the sights and grips, not because there is anything really wrong with them, but because of my preferences for night sights and wood grips. I probably will replace the hammer to debur it a bit, and replace the trigger with something skeletonized, simply because I like the cosmetics better.

Put accurately put 150 rounds through it thus far without as much a hiccup. It's not a Les Baer custom shooting experience, but it is a solid 1911 performer thus far. It could easily be a less expensive EDC for someone who prefers a 1911.

Photos taken from the web, but an accurate representation of what received.

View attachment 449025 View attachment 449026

Very nice. I want a Springfield Defender Series 1911 in .45 acp. If I ever get my rights back, that will be the first gun that I buy. Going to find a pic of it and post it in an edit. But you did good MSP, I'm happy for you.



ETA: Defend Your Legacy Series 1911 Mil-Spec .45 ACP Handgun - Springfield Armory

 

Very nice. I want a Springfield Defender Series 1911 in .45 acp. If I ever get my rights back, that will be the first gun that I buy. Going to find a pic of it and post it in an edit. But you did good MSP, I'm happy for you.



ETA: Defend Your Legacy Series 1911 Mil-Spec .45 ACP Handgun - Springfield Armory

Thats the 1911 I have wanted for years.

Nice write up OP. I am interested in the Tisas Beretta copy of the model 84 in 380 caliber. I don't really care for 380 micro guns but the bigger sized 380s really appeal to me.

AimSurplus, LLC

Of course its now out of stock.

AimSurplus, LLC

 

I have a Turkish O/U shotgun sold under the Mossberg name. It’s ok.
I also have a numbers matching Turkish M1938 Mauser that is a fine piece.

 

I don't own one nor have a shot one but I have heard great things about these 1911 for several years. I should do myself a favor and probably pick one up.

 

I've kinda been looking at their railed Commander sized gun, just because. I wouldn't mind trying one of the Turkish Benelli M4 clones either.

 

I bought two 1911 45 ACP Regent models about 10 years ago one for me and one for my son. Couldn't pass up the price of $349 each.

ABSOLUTELY love it. I had my slide cerakoted and put new grips on and it is a very reliable shooter. The mags that came with it are ok but had some hang ups. I bought a number of Reminton mags and they work flawlessly. I have other 1911s but use this most and love to shoot it

 

The Tisas M1911A1 US Army variant is proving to be a popular item. My favorite LGS is not able to get one through their normal distribution network. They recommended another dealer back east with whom they are on file with. One is on the way.

Oh, popularity is driving the price. Mine will be $30 more than the one one of my co-dependent enabling friends took possession of a couple of weeks ago.

 

Got the same exact one last month,my first 1911.
319.99$ at Rural King..so I beat Mr.Sock by a penny..354.64 total after everything.
Happy with it,its my first..so no review as I have no experience to compare it with,but shoots fine.
I also want wood grips for a more traditional look,but won't change anything else...so any suggestions accepted.
Might go down the road for a flap leather holster if that is traditional,will have to research it,maybe they were canvas?

 

My new toy arrived at favorite LGS this afternoon. Will pick up tomorrow.

 

Got a haircut this morning and decided to stop by favorite LGS afterwards. They received 6 this week! AFTER I had already taken delivery of one ordered over the internet because their distributor wasn't able to get any.

Anyway, 2 of the 6 had already been sold. 2 more were sold while I was there. One of those was to me.

I figured "why not?"

 

I have one of these: https://www.sportsmansguide.com/pro...-45-beretta-92f-9mm-right-hand-cross-draw?a=453872&_br_psugg_q=shoulder holster

 

Picked up new toy. Haven't taken out to shoot yet. Soon.

So far, looks and feels just like any other M1911A1. Series 70 internals, can't go wrong.

 

Fin Feather Fur, in NE Ohio, has the 1911 A1 US Army version or the 1911 A1 Service Special model on sale for $319.99.
I elected to get the Service Special edition.

It came with a very nice, lockable case, collet bushing wrench (plastic) two sets of grips and two Mec-Gar 8 round magazines.
It shoots great and seems to eat most everything so far but I only have about 50 rounds through it.
I did add the Pearce Finger groove insert.

Amazon.com : Pearce Grips, Rubber Finger Groove Insert, Fits Colt Government Model 1911 and Equivalents : Sports & Outdoors

Amazon.com : Pearce Grips, Rubber Finger Groove Insert, Fits Colt Government Model 1911 and Equivalents : Sports & Outdoors

www.amazon.com

The sales guy told me that the mags would need to be replaced as they weren't very good. I have used Mec-Gar for many years and have yet to find a bad one so YMMV.

 

Fin Feather Fur, in NE Ohio, has the 1911 A1 US Army version or the 1911 A1 Service Special model on sale for $319.99.
I elected to get the Service Special edition.
It came with a very nice, lockable case, collet bushing wrench (plastic) two sets of grips and two Mec-Gar 8 round magazines. It shoots great and seems to eat most everything so far but I only have about 50 rounds through it. I did add the Pearce Finger groove insert.

Good gawd, why? It makes the gun look fugly and isn’t necessary.

My buddy Jimmy, from down at the range, has that exact model and Tisas’s full GI clone too. He runs both with the stock grips and has no bruises or cuts to show for it.

Here’s my stock Colt Series 70 model with stock grips. Note the absence of any fuglys. Tight shooter it is too.

The sales guy told me that the mags would need to be replaced as they weren't very good. I have used Mec-Gar for many years and have yet to find a bad one so YMMV.

Agree on the mags.

The cheapo mags that come in the box with 1911 clones these days have long been known to cause most of the feed/cycling issues experienced during a new 1911’s “break-in period,” which can be anywhere from 500-rds (MIMbers) to zero rds (Colts) depending on Q.C.

Serious 1911 Pros always avoid the problem up front by using only quality mags, e.g., Wilson’s.

 

Thinking about using a pair of fancy pieces of desert ironwood to try my hand at a set of fancy grips for my Tisas.

 

I actually like that grip and may add on to mine. Price is certainly right.

Amazon.com: Pachmayr Grips For Colt 1911 and Copies (with Deluxe Pacwood)

Amazon.com: Pachmayr Grips For Colt 1911 and Copies (with Deluxe Pacwood)

www.amazon.com

If you wanted to spend a lot more, I have these on my Commander and I love them.

 

Just got an ad in my inbox..they have a "tanker" version,barrel/slide makes it shorter by 3/4 inch,2 oz lighter...said something about larger ejection port?...beveled mag well?

 

For 1911 fans with a serious ‘Bling’ craving, Cimmaron is offering an all-nickel 5” Gov’t variant that appears to sport some Old School 1911 lines, like a flat MSH w/ lanyard loop:

Also worth noting is the thankful absence of any billboard-style rollmark that screams some overhyped declarative like, “Special Forces” … or, worse, “Operator.”

‘Course, you’ll need to wear sun glasses just to shoot it.

 

My first foray into the 1911 world was a dirt-cheap Regent R100, made in Turkey like the Tisas. The only thing differentiating it from other budget clones is the included rubberized Hogue grips. Is it a work of art? No. Has it proven reliable with a variety of mags and ammo, including defensive JHPs? Absolutely. It eats everything I feed it. Not sure if I've topped 1000 rounds yet, but I trust it based on the results thus far.

In comparison, I have a Springfield Mil-Spec that is very finicky about ammo; it took a couple hundred dollars in upgrades to improve the reliability to 90% of what the Regent was capable of right out of the box. That and replacing a broken safety plunger tube mean that I've spent more on the Springfield's post-purchase repairs/upgrades than the Regent in its entirety.

So, I wouldn't have any qualms about another handgun from an established Turkish manufacturer. The only thing that I would outright avoid is some of the cheap semi-auto shotguns (AR and bullpup styles I've seen so many of) that seem to get pretty bad marks for reliability.

 

What kinds of round counts are you owners looking at?

When the Turkish 1911 clones were first imported (after the success of the PI made Rock Island guns) there were reports of soft slides causing the slide stop notch to round out.

My friends and I own several versions of the Rock Island 1911s and never heard of any issues.

 

In the past year, Ive picked up three Tisas 1911's now, two in 9mm (Service and Army) and one in 45acp (Tank Commander).

Overall, they seem to be OK, but they still seem to be your typical 1911, and havent been 100%.

The "Service" gun I got used, and as best as I can tell, whoever had it before me, must have been trying to +1 the gun by dropping a round into the chamber and closing the slide on it. My guess anyway, as I had to replace the extractor, put a heavier recoil spring in, and fiddle with a couple of other things, just to get it to run reasonably well. Things improved greatly with the new extractor. I also switched out the flat MSH for an arched version, as they point more naturally for me. You would think a "service" gun would have come with one, and one with a loop.

And so far, Ive probably got more than what the gun cost in ammo through it, trying to get it right.

The "Army" gun was NIB, and for the most part, has run OK, but I still have fairly regular feeding issues with it.

Both the 9mm guns have a ramped barrel, instead of the Colt type with the ramp in the frame, which I think was a mistake on their part. I also have a Colt Commnder in 9mm, and it doesnt have the feeding problems that the Tisas have, and I use all the same mags with both.

Mags also seems to be a lot of the problem here too. I had a bunch of MecGar basic 9 round 9mm mags with the Colt, and the Tisas have always been finicky with them right from the start. I get a fair amount of double feeds with them, and a lot of times the guns will puke live rounds out while the gun cycles, but it still runs.

The exception with the MecGars is the 10 round "Match" mags they make, which are built differently than the 9mm's,. The standard mags have a spacer in the back to get the shorter 9mm rounds to fit in the mag, where the Match mags, have the spacer in the front of themag, and have a small ramp at the top, which helps keep the rounds going up into the chamber, instead of nose diving into the ramp, and causing a stoppage. So far, these have worked pretty much 100%. If you get one of these in 9mm, and g with MecGar mags, Id go with them. They cost about the same too.

I havent tried any other 9mm mags, and I probably wont at this point, as these are all basically just range/getting acquainted with guns.

The Tank Commander in 45 was also NIB, and seems to be like any other "basic" GI type 1911, but it does have larger sights, instead of the GI type sights (which with this gun, I would have actually preferred).

It works OK for the most part, but you'll definitely have to figure out what mags and ammo it likes. If I were going to carry one, Id send it out for a T&P and Reliability Package from someone who knows what they are doing. These are based on basic guns and youll need to address that.

I have a bunch of different 45 7 and 8 round mags, USGI, Springfield, Colt, Wilson, and a few more. As with all my other 1911's the original GI mags seem to work the best with this gun.

The mags it seems to have the most trouble with, are the five Wilson 47D's I have. I can pretty much guarantee that when one of those is in the gun, it will have a stoppage. Those mags have been pretty reliable in all my other 1911's, and were the mags I used to carry with my Commder when I was carrying it, so I dont know what the deal is here.

Other than the somewhat frequent and random malfunctions, they all seem to shoot OK, and accuracy is what youd expect from your basic 1911.

 

MecGar is using 38 super mags with spacers rather than make dedicated 9mm mags.

 

Personally in the world of inexpensive 1911s, I would buy a Rock Island over a Tisas any day.

 

I have had both as well as ATI, I like them all. Have you owned a Tisas? What problems did you have?

 

Personally, I wouldnt trust any 1911 for anything serious these days, unless it had some work done to it by someone who knew what they were doing. And that goes for the myriad of guns that have been supposedly "upgraded" to more current standards. And even then, whats the point really?

All these "cheap" 1911's, especially those who claim to be Series 70 or prior in spec, need even more too, and even then, again, whats the point? This isn't the 70's or 80's anymore, and we have better options all around.

I still like shooting them, and the fiddling is OK, if youre a bit bored and willing to tinker. But thats about as far as Im willing to go with them anymore. And getting sucked into the few Ive messed with lately, just shows that boredom isnt a good thing.

 

Personally, I wouldnt trust any 1911 for anything serious these days, unless it had some work done to it by someone who knew what they were doing. And that goes for the myriad of guns that have been supposedly "upgraded" to more current standards. And even then, whats the point really?

All these "cheap" 1911's, especially those who claim to be Series 70 or prior in spec, need even more too, and even then, again, whats the point? This isn't the 70's or 80's anymore, and we have better options all around.

I still like shooting them, and the fiddling is OK, if youre a bit bored and willing to tinker. But thats about as far as Im willing to go with them anymore. And getting sucked into the few Ive messed with lately, just shows that boredom isnt a good thing.

I never had to "tinker" with any of my 1911s. (Colt Series 80, Kimber Pro CDP, Rock Island Tactical, Colt Officer's and Para P13)

The sole problem I have had is the RI didn't like to feed 230gr HP ammo. Which since that was way beyond its design spec I took no issue with. It has been 100% with anything 230gr Ball or smaller (200/180gr HP feed fine).

In fact while my Kimber has a frame that's way out of spec (rails are not parallel) it has been 100% with everything I have fed it. And yes it has been back to the factory...twice. Where after acknowledging the issue (and telling me I wasn't qualified to question them) they finally declared it met their QC and basically told me to go **** myself. I will never buy nor recommend anything in the Kimber line.

Where the "finicky" appellation came from was when back in the day competition shooters tried to "accurize" standard GI spec 1911s. Then it took some measure of skill for a smith to get it to be both reliable and one hole accurate.

 

Your experiences are about 180° from mine. The only commercial 1911's I ever trusted to carry were Series 70 and 80 Colts and all of those still went to EGW for "reliability packages", T&P, etc., and those, with the right mags, have been the only ones that come close to things like my SIG's and Glocks for reliability. I had a couple of USGI guns early on that had the usual reliability work done to them as well, and they were OK, for the most part.

I quit the 1911's for SIG's back around the turn of the century because I was tired of all the "fiddling" and other issues, and more recently, after about 20 years of staying away from them, having picked up a half dozen or so more current guns, and have come to find nothing has really changed. Still fiddly, and unacceptably unreliable as they come. Of course, these are/were just basic guns of a reasonable price. Not one of the high dollar guns. I would expect they would work for the money they command, but for that money, I can get 4 or 5 Glocks that do the same thing and be way ahead.

I was never looking for a "target" gun, but just one that was close to basic, with decent sights, more importantly, reliable, and acceptably accurate. Accuracy generally wasnt ever really an issue, but reliability certainly was, and still seems to be.

At this point, Im nearing having had almost 50 1911's in my lifetime, and carried one for a little over 25 years on a daily basis. And only trusted a small few of those for that role. They are cool guns, when they run right, but with whats available today otherwise, I really see no point.

I still have the last Commander I carried, and still shoot it regularly, with the right mags, its usually 98% plus, but if I were to go back to a 45, it would be a SIG P220, or maybe a Glock 30S.

And so far, Im not real impressed with them in 9mm. The old Colt Commander I have seems to be pretty close to OK, but the ramped barrel versions of the Tisas, and some of the others, and the steady problems that seem to persist with them, would give me pause.

The mag issues for the 9mm are another problem, and thats a whole other money/fiddling pit you would have to wade into.

And again, why bother? I can have something like a NIB Glock for $500 and they work right out of the box, and their mags work, and are dirt cheap.

 

MecGar makes a couple of different versions of 9mm mags. I have both.

The 10 round "Match" 9mm mags seem to work more reliably with the ramped barrel 9mm's like the Tisas. They are built differently than their standard 9 round 9mm mags, and have the spacer in the front with a small ramp at the top.

The standard mags have the spacer in the rear of the mag, and no ramp. They tend to want to make the round nosedive into the ramp on loading and a number of mine like to puke live rounds out with the extracted rounds on cycling.

Both types work fine in my 9mm Colt Commander, but it has the traditional barrel frame set up. The standards still want to puke live rounds with it too though.

 

Since I shoot 1911’s in USPSA(single stack division 45) and IDPA (9mm) I want to give my two cents.
1st: when 1911’s were made for the war effort all parts were inspected by an inspector who made measurements to make sure the specs were followed. I believe every 10th part was measured on assembly line. Sadly, today with so many manufacturers producing 1911’s they have become out of spec from the original design. Also, in my experience in high round count 1911’s min/cast parts like extractors are junk. Min/cast parts are ok for some things…not extractors or ejectors.
2nd: the single most problem I see with cheaper 1911’s is the barrel isn’t fitted to the slide correctly. If you look at the back of the chamber where the locking lug locks into the slide and see any space on either side of the locking lug, that barrel isn’t fitted correctly. That alone will cause all kinds of problems with functioning. Poorly fitted locking lug will also wear out the barrel link prematurely causing functional issues. Another problem I see with Poorly fitted barrels is if you can push down on the chamber when the pistol is in battery you will have functioning issues. I see this issue way to many times on 1911’s. The lock up should be tight and not be able to push down on the barrel hood while barrel and slide are locked together.
3rd: if you are having failure to feed and ejections issues try this. Make sure it’s a safe place where no one will get shot, place a loaded magazine in the pistol. Put the magazine butt on the shooting bench and push down while firing. Magazine manufacturers cut magazine notches large to fit variations in magazine catches/latch. If you insert a mag and can push up on the mag after it locks in on the mag catch, you need to replace/fit the mag catch with a high shelf mag catch to get the magazine to lock up tight. EGW makes high rise mag catches. I believe they will custom machine a high rise mag catch, to what ever hight you want, so you can fit it correctly to the specific magazines you use. After fitting the mag catch to your magazines, stay with those mags. I like Sig magazines for 45. This is a common problem with 1911’s, even expensive 1911’s.
4th: I use sig 1911 magazines in 45 for competition. They seem to be very high quality mags that in my experience, in high round count and hard use, hold up the best. In IDPA I shoot a 9mm 1911, I use MecGar mags.

These are my experiences shooting 1911’s over 40 years, many years in competition. I hope this will help others enjoy shooting their 1911. In my experience there’s still no pistol that has a trigger as exquisite as the 1911.