TacOps range report

[FrontRangeFuzz]

Well, technically this was the second time I've been to the range with my new favorite pistol...but the first time I went, I only had the time for one 50 round box of ammo. The gun ran perfectly for me, but experienced an FTE on the 5th round while being shot by my friend who was tagging along. That was the only malfunction that we experienced, and he admitted he may have limp-wristed it, but needless to say I wrote down the magazine number and kept an eye on it.

Fast forward to yesterday: Open Range day for the sheriff's office. My agency trains with them, so as a result we are also invited to their open range days which is nice! Shooting for free with SWAT instructors is always beneficial.

Now, let me preface this review with the following:

I was not nice to this gun while running through quals with it. I did not baby it, I was not gentle with it, and while I wasn't "abusive" by any stretch, with this gun in particular (being my first "duty" 1911) I wanted to make sure that any anomalies or defects were exposed on the range. I treated it accordingly - like the tool that it is. Mags were dropped into the rocks/sand during reloads, retrieved at the end of the stage, reloaded and then shoved back into the gun without anything more than a shake-out. Reloads themselves were fast and violent, as was drawing and re-holstering. Real-world all the way. When all was said and done the gun was filthy, with wear marks showing on the slide from the holster's locking mechanism (Safariland 6320, basketweave kydex). I probably only shot between 2-300 rounds, but the drills focused more on fundamentals than round count.

Through it all, the gun ran like a Swiss watch (which makes sense, with it's Swiss heritage ). It was lubricated with my standard duty combo of GunButter and BE's Slide Glide, which has proven to be a real winner for my needs.

It ran, and ran, and ran....right up until the last magazine change. Gun went to slide lock, I dropped the magazine and inserted a fresh one, fast and hard like all of the previous mag changes, and....

...the gun locked up tight.

WTF!? Slide lock lever wouldn't even budge. Mag release would travel all the way in and out just like normal, but the magazine wouldn't come out either. So here we are with a hot magazine with the slide locked back, but no way to get the slide to go forward, and no way to get the mag out. We ended up hand-feeding the rounds from the magazine into the chamber, and then using a knife to remove them from the chamber one at a time until the mag was empty. When empty, it popped right out. I have not been able to duplicate the problem.

The magazine in the gun was one that I purchased on the aftermarket, made by Checkmate for the company I purchased it from (it's a small company, so without having definitive knowledge that it was a faulty magazine, I will not name the company). It's nearly identical to the factory magazines, except the feed lips are a little different and it uses the old style "short" base pad retaining clip. I did notice upon inspection that this short retaining clip allows the base pad to slide forward with minimal thumb pressure. Both of the instructors looking at the gun with me seem to think that had something to do with the magazine jamming in the gun. Personally, I think that some debris or other factor locked it up. Regardless, that particular magazine has been relegated to range use, unless I can prove something else caused the problem.

Aside from that strange little anomoly at the very end of the range session, the gun ran flawlessly, and ate up all of the dirty range ammo I could feed it. Oh, and all of those wear marks? Yeah, those wiped right off during cleaning. Nitron is one great finish for a firearm. After cleanup, it looks brand new again!

Pardon the 5.56 casings. Thats the only caliber I had laying around.

Nice and dirty:

Notice the marks on the top of the slide from the holster's retention device:

The magwell got a workout too:


After cleaning, it's a new gun again:


Don't mind the smudges...that's just grease and oil. The finish is in perfect shape.

All in all, I've got no problem dropping this thing in my holster and going to work. However, I will keep an eye on that mysterious lockup issue. I don't think it's a deal breaker for duty use as the mags were pretty dirty and I haven't been able to duplicate the problem, but definitely worth sharing with you guys.

[SIGmanfrued]

I was very interested in a Sig 1911 that was chambered in 5.56. Those pics had me confused and excited.......lol

[SmurfHunter]

Very nice

[stephansnow]

Good to see everything is working out. Mine should be here this week.

[LEO2B]

Excelllent description of bizzare circumstances.

Nice work.

[msmedley]

On your gun it sounds like the follower on the mag missed the slide stop and wedged up against the slide stop. I just got an sig xo and it was doing this. When it happened the slide stop was hard to move and the mag wouldn't drop free and had to be pulled out. I put a colt slide stop in and it works fine now. Sig is suppose to send me a new slide stop.

[pdogkilr]

I have a Tac Ops TB and the slide stop appeared to have been "fitted" after the finish was applied - parts of the internal area was in the white. Not sure what was up with that. I used a little cold blue and have never had an issue. I really like mine - accurate POA = POI, and "Hollywood quiet" with the TiRant on it.

[FrontRangeFuzz]

Originally Posted by msmedley

On your gun it sounds like the follower on the mag missed the slide stop and wedged up against the slide stop. I just got an sig xo and it was doing this. When it happened the slide stop was hard to move and the mag wouldn't drop free and had to be pulled out. I put a colt slide stop in and it works fine now. Sig is suppose to send me a new slide stop.

I was planning on replacing mine with a Wilson unit anyway, but it's interesting that you had a similar issue. On mine though, the mag was wedged in tight, it would barely budge 1/16" on an inch when being cranked on by the instructors...one of whom was a not-very-small SWAT member. After it was unloaded...presto. Out she came. But it wasn't happening before we got the rounds out.

Originally Posted by pdogkilr

I have a Tac Ops TB and the slide stop appeared to have been "fitted" after the finish was applied - parts of the internal area was in the white. Not sure what was up with that. I used a little cold blue and have never had an issue. I really like mine - accurate POA = POI, and "Hollywood quiet" with the TiRant on it.

Mine looks the same way. After the first 50 rounds I noticed that it was digging into the frame and making an outline of the lever in the Nitron, so I took a jeweler's file and lightly dressed the edges a little more to smooth the burr that had developed. Hardly any material was removed, so I highly doubt that minor bit of finishing had anything to do with the issue...but as I mentioned above, I'm more than likely going to throw a Wilson BP unit in there just to eliminate any potential issues, being that the factory unit is MIM.

Nice looking setup by the way. I'd love a can for my rifle (since my chief authorizes NFA goodies for work), but it's not in the financial cards for the time being.

[SmurfHunter]

Originally Posted by pdogkilr

I have a Tac Ops TB and the slide stop appeared to have been "fitted" after the finish was applied - parts of the internal area was in the white. Not sure what was up with that. I used a little cold blue and have never had an issue. I really like mine - accurate POA = POI, and "Hollywood quiet" with the TiRant on it.

That Looks great. I ended up going with the osprey 45 to match the shape of the slide.