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Metro Arms 1911 (my findings)

24K views 18 replies 13 participants last post by  Speed Demon 
#1 · (Edited)
Metro Arms-American Classic 1911 (my findings)

I had ordered a Metro Arms American Classic II 5" in hard chrome through a distributor.
The gun arrived and looked great. I figured it was a great value for the money spent and the few reviews I could find seemed to be positive.

Well, examining the gun I found the following

Slide to frame fit is excellent, trigger is very very good
but

Extractor Clocking
Poor barrel fit
Only the provided ACT magazine would fit (Les Baer, Wilson, Mcormick and Colt magazines will not lock in)

When hand feeding from the magazine all rounds take a nose dive into the feed ramp and the gun will not chamber a round unless it is from a single round in the magazine.

I contact the distributor and have the gun exchanged for a second one.

Second gun has a non clocking extractor but all of the rest of the issues are identical.

Gun will be sent to factory service for repair along with my magazines. But I will not ever recommend, sell or stock any of these products again.

I have sent an e mail to both the Importer and manufacturer. I doubt I will receive a response.
 
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#3 ·
Funny, my brother-in-law put my Kim Pro Tac Mags and my CM Power Mags through his AC II with ease and aplomb.
 
#4 ·
I have sent an e mail to the Importer. Let's see if I get a response.

I have sold several of the RIA guns, I thought the American classic offered a lot of bang for the buck.

I may send a copy of the letter to Metro Arms in the Philippines
 
#5 · (Edited)
i purchased the ACll ( hard chrome finish)about a month ago. the gun has functioned very well. the only problem i had was with the ACT mag. i sent it to new jersey, and they are sending me TWO ew ones. i bought two MEC-GAR nickle plates 7rd mags and a colt ss 8rd mag and all functioned flawlessly. i am currently awaiting my 2 new mags. they sent me 2 because i drop $600 for the gun and allready had an issue with the mag. they told me that they would not refund they shipping, but would send me 2 mags for my one. the gun has 600 rounds of ball ammo, and 50 rounds of golden sabre through it with no ftf yet. like i said, the only issue was with the factory ACT mag. great gun for the mone, IMO.
and it is still shooting groups of 2 1/4" to 2 1/2"'s at 25 '. i posted my initial range targets on another thread, i think under american classic commander?
 
#6 · (Edited)
I have sent an e mail to the Importer. Let's see if I get a response.
Iam not the imported but I work closely with them So here your first response . Really your 2nd

I answered you at Glock Talk . But I will here also . I gave you a link and a name of who to PM at Eagle Thru their Company Bersa site. I also forward your complaints to that person. So he is aware of your problem. So now follow up and Iam sure it will be resolved. .
I have helped others and will try to help you. For these problem on 2 pistols is unheard of. . Mine will use any 1911 mag I have tried including the pre WWII to color one I have had since the 70's . I have never experience the first jam with ball or HP I carry mine with 200+P Corbon .

If you at the NRA convention this month I will be working the Bersa/American classic booth on Sat and Sunday Come visit.
 
#7 ·
I did take your advice and I joined the Bersa forum. I did send a PM to the person you suggest and I copied my posting onto the Bersa site.

I have sold many many Bersa Thunder 380 guns over the years and never ever had an issue with them. I will continue to sell them. I have sold a very few of the Bersa Thunder 9 pistols without pistols and will continue to sell them. I can not sell the American Classic and I am glad I only ordered one rather than 3-4 for inventory.
 
#8 ·
I have never hand cycled my ACII. I took it out of the box, loaded it and shot it. Had no failure to fire, jam, eject, no problems at all.

Why some people insist on hand cycling, I do not know. That is not what the pistol was designed for.

I have used the ACT mag that came with it and Wilson Combat mags - with no problems. I like the blued finish much better than anything from Armscor.

Speaking of Armscor, the best looking one of the many they build that I have seen is the the new 1911 from Cimarron. It is not a 1911A1. Really retro-cool if you like that. Sights too small for my old eyes, though.

Just my .02.
 
#11 ·
On my ACII, the part of the slide stop that sticks into the slide was too long, and 230 gr FMJ (or plated) bullets would get hung up on it, causing a malfunction. My gunsmith replaced the slide stop with an Ed Brown (would have done that anyway to get rid of the extended stop), fit an Ed Brown mag catch, throated the barrel, polished the feed ramp, and shaped and adjusted the extractor, and it is flawless now with hardball (but won't work with Berry's 200 HP Plated for some reason). It also works great with Tripp Cobra and Chip McCormick Power Mag + mags.
 
#14 ·
Madecove, your problem is rare, I have a metro arms 1911 contender in hard chrome and Im very happy with it, i have shot 4500 rounds with it and had only 14 FTF using range reloads. I can consistently hit the A zone at 20 yards. The finish is still nice, slide to frame fit is still tight. Because of my good experience with metro arms, im no longer planning on getting the more expensive 1911s. But since they are are mass produced some problems can occur with some 1911s just like in some companies like Kimber, paraordnance, and smith and wesson.
 
#16 ·
Hi all, This is my first post here. I hope there wasn't a intro section that I missed.

Anyway, I just bought a ACII and knew a head of time (from forum reviews that there was issues with the first rd. nose diving if you load 8 in the mag. I took mine out and sure as shoot, if I load 8 in the mag it FTF(eed) about 50% of the time.

I ordered a Trip mag and will see if that fixes the problem, but I've seen where some people said new mags fixed it and some said it didn't.

Other than the feed problem, I love the gun. Very comfortable and a joy to shoot. This is my first 1911, and I was originally going to get a Kimber, then decided on a Wilson, then dropped down to a Colt, and finally decided that for my first 1911 I'd go cheap with an ACII. That way I can see what features I actually care about. But, now having used it a bit (only 50 rds) I may never bother getting a 'factory custom' brand, if I can get this feed issue fixed.

Anywho, I'll chime back in when the new mag arrives and let you know if it fixed the problem or not.
 
#17 ·
Welcome to the board Jesse,

My ACII will not accept any other magazine other than the factory original one it came with. It also won't chamber more than three rounds.

When your new magazine arrives make sure to slam it home and verify that it stays.
 
#18 ·
I picked up a Chip McCormick Shooting Star mag at Ace the other day. It did the same nose dive on the first try but worked on the second try. I only got to run one mag through it that day.

Today my 2nd Gen. Tripps Cobra Mag arrived and I headed back to the range. I put 6 mags through it some with 8 rds. and some with 8 +1 without a flaw! I tried the CMC three times and it nose dived every time.

I'm SOLD on the Tripps and will be ordering 3 more ASAP. Also, haven't had a problem with any of the three (ACT, CMC, Tripps) mags not locking in.

This feed issue is the only thing I didn't like about the ACII for the money. If it keeps running with Tripps mags, I will declare that I officially love this gun!
 
#19 ·
American Classic Commander - Feed Problems

I had a problem with my MetroArms AC Commander feeding hollow points. Gun shoots great ... I got 1 1/2 inch groups at 25 feet ... but it didn't like hollow points of any kind ... especially with 8 in the clip. I ordered Wilson Combat magazines #47DC and the feed problems went away if I only loaded 7 rounds, but when I loaded 8 rounds of hollow points it conitnued to jam up on the feed ramp on the first round.
I read the Wilson magazine instructions ... and they mention that the feed ramp needs to extend a certain distance from the rails on the side ... and guess what? The AC Commander is nicely polished, but not as far down the feed ramp as it needs to be to flawlessly feed hollow points. So I took out the Dremel with a small sanding dowel and extended the ramp about 4 mm then I wrapped a piece of 2000 grit wet sand around a 3/8" socket extension and smoothed the heck out of the ramp ... lastly I polished the ramp with Simi-chrome on a small buffer dowel on the Dremel. The whole job took about 20 minutes ... now it feeds anything ... I mean ANYTHING... as fast as I can squeeze them off!
You can tell if your ramp is not polished far enough down by pulling the slide back with an empty clip and locking it back, then with the tip of your finger push down on the magazine follower and look at the front of the clip ... if the area in front of the clip (inside the magazine well of the gun is rough and not polished far enough down, then you won't be able to feed hollow points ... no matter what magazine you use. Anyway, mine is feeding all kinds of ammo and it is not the least bit temperamental, so I thought I would share what I did. Hope you find this helpful.
 
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