Art
03-15-2016, 01:38
I had said I would post a review on this pistol as soon as I got it so here goes:
The pistol comes in a fitted hard case with one magazine, two fired shell casings, a lock, warranty card and instruction booklet. It says 1911A1 but the pistol retains the flat mainspring housing despite being straight 1911A1 in every other way including the "dime" front sight. The finish is strikingly good charcoal gray Parkerizing without any variation in color. There are almost no visible tool marks and that includes the inside. The pistol has very little "wobble" between the frame and the slide.
The load that made the .38 Super such a hit (if a short lived one) with the Feds and Highway Patrol Units in the early 1930s was a 130 gr FMJ (often cupro-nickle) bullet at 1300 fps give or take a little. Car doors, auto bodies and auto glass were penetrated easily at any reasonable range by this round as were most of the early "bullet proof" vests. I acquired 50 rounds of Fiocci 129 gr copper plated ammo rated at 1100 fps., a 50 rd. box each of 130 gr. FMJ Remington and Winchester both rated about 1,200-1,220 fps. I also got three boxes of twenty rounds each of ammunition which are loaded to show the actual potential of the cartridge, two boxes of 20 rounds of Cor Bon 125 gr JHP rated at 1350 fps and one box of 20 rounds of Buffalo Bore 124 gr. JHPS rated also at 1350 fps. Buffalo bore shows results of velocity from three different pistols which as you know does make a difference, they ran from a low of about 1320 fps to a high of 1360 fps.
So off to the range. I had questions as to whether the Fiocci had enough "oomph" to operate the action, it did and was the most accurate of all the ammo. It was also very, very mild in the recoil dept. The Winchester had a lot more "snap" both in blast and recoil. The Cor Bon and the Buffalo Bore didn't kick much more than the Winnie but even with hearing protection on it had a lot of "blast." Not as much as a "full house" .357 Magnum load but you wouldn't want to shoot these without good hearing protection. Everything functioned without a hiccup including the Cor Bon which had a hollow point cavity just short of the old .45 Flying Ashtray rounds. I had heard Cor Bon had had problems with overpressure in it's .38 Super loads but none showed up in the rounds I fired. Quality control can be a problem with these "boutique" cartridges, extremely poor quality control is what put the old "Super-Vel" company under. Some of the last lots they made were actually dangerous. All in all the gun showed excellent manners on the range, very controllable with even the hottest loads. It was a bright day and the "dime" front sight was big problem, glare making it very difficult to see where the top of the sight was and even creating shine that led to shot drifting laterally. However, if you "held it and squeezed it" the pistol was capable of great accuracy.
One interesting note on magazines. I bought a Kimber 9 round magazine and found it was set up to take 10 rounds. the problem was that if you loaded 10 it wouldn't lock into the magazine well solidly and kept falling out....so I guess it is a 9 rounder.
All in all quite a gun considering it can be had almost anywhere for between $450.00 and $500.00.
The pistol comes in a fitted hard case with one magazine, two fired shell casings, a lock, warranty card and instruction booklet. It says 1911A1 but the pistol retains the flat mainspring housing despite being straight 1911A1 in every other way including the "dime" front sight. The finish is strikingly good charcoal gray Parkerizing without any variation in color. There are almost no visible tool marks and that includes the inside. The pistol has very little "wobble" between the frame and the slide.
The load that made the .38 Super such a hit (if a short lived one) with the Feds and Highway Patrol Units in the early 1930s was a 130 gr FMJ (often cupro-nickle) bullet at 1300 fps give or take a little. Car doors, auto bodies and auto glass were penetrated easily at any reasonable range by this round as were most of the early "bullet proof" vests. I acquired 50 rounds of Fiocci 129 gr copper plated ammo rated at 1100 fps., a 50 rd. box each of 130 gr. FMJ Remington and Winchester both rated about 1,200-1,220 fps. I also got three boxes of twenty rounds each of ammunition which are loaded to show the actual potential of the cartridge, two boxes of 20 rounds of Cor Bon 125 gr JHP rated at 1350 fps and one box of 20 rounds of Buffalo Bore 124 gr. JHPS rated also at 1350 fps. Buffalo bore shows results of velocity from three different pistols which as you know does make a difference, they ran from a low of about 1320 fps to a high of 1360 fps.
So off to the range. I had questions as to whether the Fiocci had enough "oomph" to operate the action, it did and was the most accurate of all the ammo. It was also very, very mild in the recoil dept. The Winchester had a lot more "snap" both in blast and recoil. The Cor Bon and the Buffalo Bore didn't kick much more than the Winnie but even with hearing protection on it had a lot of "blast." Not as much as a "full house" .357 Magnum load but you wouldn't want to shoot these without good hearing protection. Everything functioned without a hiccup including the Cor Bon which had a hollow point cavity just short of the old .45 Flying Ashtray rounds. I had heard Cor Bon had had problems with overpressure in it's .38 Super loads but none showed up in the rounds I fired. Quality control can be a problem with these "boutique" cartridges, extremely poor quality control is what put the old "Super-Vel" company under. Some of the last lots they made were actually dangerous. All in all the gun showed excellent manners on the range, very controllable with even the hottest loads. It was a bright day and the "dime" front sight was big problem, glare making it very difficult to see where the top of the sight was and even creating shine that led to shot drifting laterally. However, if you "held it and squeezed it" the pistol was capable of great accuracy.
One interesting note on magazines. I bought a Kimber 9 round magazine and found it was set up to take 10 rounds. the problem was that if you loaded 10 it wouldn't lock into the magazine well solidly and kept falling out....so I guess it is a 9 rounder.
All in all quite a gun considering it can be had almost anywhere for between $450.00 and $500.00.