It looks good.

 

Looks like the Colt M45A1. Any closer shots you can share? How is finish?

 

I didn't notice it's resemblence to the M45A1 until you pointed it out. Unfortunately this one just has basic white dot sights not tritium sights, and it isn't Novak cut it appears to have some proprietary Girsan thing going on with the sight cuts. The finish is referred to as Cerakote. Whether that's Cerakote™ brand cerakote or Turkish off-brand cerakote is anyone's guess, but so far it looks decent enough. And now that I've had more time to nit pick the thing to death, I suppose the barrel lock up could be tighter. I'll need more range time to assess if that requires adjustment, but it's comparable to my Springfield Loaded and I've never complained about that pistol's accuracy so it'll probably fall into the 'good enough' category.

More pix:

I'm digging all the features this thing has going on at this price point though. Accessory rail, checkered front strap, if the worst I have to do is paint those dots with some glow in the dark sight paint I'll be a happy camper.

 

Those are some cool grips. Where did you get them if you don't mind?

 

They're from Esmeralda. <--- link for convenience. Might not provide the most traction, but they look darn good.

 

It might not be “overly ‘spensive” but shoot the heck out of it an enjoy!!!
Looks Cool too

 

A 6" Girsan 10mm is on my bucket list. They're pretty smart, they offer it in FDE, and Black WITH AND WITHOUT a rail! I called EAA and they assured me that the feed ramp is supported so, as soon as I can get one without a rail I'm in.

 

A 6" Girsan 10mm is on my bucket list. They're pretty smart, they offer it in FDE, and Black WITH AND WITHOUT a rail! I called EAA and they assured me that the feed ramp is supported so, as soon as I can get one without a ramp I'm in.

 

Took it out and flexed the Girsan a little more today. Over all it went pretty well. It only had failure to feed with my Chip McCormick 10 round magazines, which wouldn't surprise me because my Springfield hates those too - except for the fact that somehow the rounds that it had issues with ended up in front of the extractor? I can't for the life of me figure that one out. The slide picked them up and pushed them into battery fine, but somehow the round skipped in front of the extractor instead of being caught by it. Makes me wonder if maybe it needs to be loosened up a tick.

The sights aren't exactly well regulated either. It's correct on the horizontal plane, but the rounds land low and I have to raise the front sight above rear sights to put the rounds where I want them, even at close distance. Aside from that, when I do my part, the gun does it's part. At roughly 10 yards:

And at 25 yards:

I think I might take advantage of that accessory rail and affix a light/laser combination to it since the sights can't really be changed. The front sight height is fine, the rear sight height is low and needs to come up just a tick. At least if I compare it to my Springfield. It would be a non-issue if I only shot the Girsan, but getting used to aligning the top of the rear sights with the center of the white dot on the front sight caused a slight problem when I switched to my CSX. It took my brain a minute to re-program and correct the sight alignment since that little fella is dead on with a normal sight picture but my brain kept trying to raise the front sight higher than needed.

Edit: Definitely the McCormick mags. Their feed lips open up and release the round sooner than my other magazines, and that's letting the rim of the round skip up ahead of the extractor because it doesn't have a hold on the round when it's cut loose of the feed lips. Now I know why the Springfield also didn't like those mags.

 

I bought a Girsan MC 1911c 9mm last week. This had the optic sight on it but both reviews I read said the optic sight was junk, so I put the solid rear sight on that came with it. If I could have found one without the optic sight I would have preferred to get that but couldn't find one.
I aslo own a Colt series 80 MKIV in 45ACP and a Sig 1911Ultra in 9mm. The Sig is an alloy frame so I wanted the steel frame Girson because I shoot a lot of 9mm and don't want to get too much wear on my baby. I bought 2 - 9 round Sig magazines for range use (cheaper than 8 round) when I bought the Ultra and it turns out they fit the Girsan fine.
I ran 300 rounds through the Girsan today, all my reloads. I had 1 FTF about 20 rounds in and the rest fed fine. The sights seem right on the money although I had gloves on (14 degrees out) and I shoot better without gloves.
After one outing I am pleased.

 

Just received mine yesterday. Out of the box, one of the best looking and feeling 1911 I own. Hope to get to the range tomorrow. The price is great. I am too cheap to pay for $1200 to 3000 for a Colt, Remington or Springfield. Guns should be affordable and not require a second mortgage Get one as soon as you can

 

I'm not gonna lie, the gun looks - and feels - fine. The only cosmetic complaint I have is whatever they painted the barrel bushing with started to peel off. No big deal, ultimately I replaced that with a match barrel bushing when I put a threaded barrel in the gun. If it bothered me, I'd just cold blue the factory bushing and call it good. It's weird. There's no logical reason for me to dislike the gun. But I can't seem to warm up to it, even though I honestly have nothing but good things to say about it.

As far as function goes, I didn't feel the urge to do any trigger work. The trigger breaks fine and the pull feels like it's in a range I'm happy with. No trigger gauge to give an exact measure so the best I can do is a subjective 'this is fine for my purposes.' It never gave me any guff as far as feeding problems or failure to feed/fire/eject, but I did polish the feed ramp just to make sure it stayed that way. Extractor tension felt fine to me, the slide/extractor pass the shake test. It runs great. Shoots great. Or at least it groups well.

I don't like that Girsan regulates their sights for a combat hold, nor that their rear sights can't be replaced with standard Novak sights to address the issue and raise the point of impact. I would have to file the front sight down until half the white dot was missing to have them regulated the way I want. But the gun does have a rail, and it's a range toy primarily. I have another 1911 that I actually carry. So I slapped a green laser on it. And now that I understand the combat hold a little better (every gun I own aside this is setup with a 6 o'clock hold) I might be fine with the sights once I get some more practice using them.

Still fun as heck to shoot. Next range day I'll have to break out the Girsan and give it some working out. The first trip shaking hands with the laser was kind of a bust. I got it set where I wanted at 10 yards, then pushed it out to 25 and everything fell apart after making adjustments. That's just me sucking at sighting in a laser though, certainly no fault of Girsan.

Who knows, maybe one of these days it'll grow on me.

 

Well, today I found one and ordered it in black sans the rail. It should be here in a week. I suspect the only thing I may do to it is remove the slide stop and install an extended slide release. More to come.

 

Thanks for the above info,are 1911 5 inch Girsans forged frames?

 

I see that they're 'machined steel' but I dunno what that means in relation to whether they're forged or not. I'm assuming they mean machined from barstock and not MIM, but we also know what they say about assumptions.

 

What sight cut is the dovetail. There must be some option for the rear sight without milling.

 

Nope. It's proprietary. It's shaped like a Novak sight, but miniaturized looks to be about 3/4 scale. So a Novak sight isn't going to fit without filing on the sight to get it into the dovetail, and if one did they would find the rear sight hanging off the back of the slide something like a quarter inch.

Also a fun fact: The picatinny rail is a little on the slender side. The Olight Baldr Pro that I have is a smidge loose, and the light is adjusted as tight as I can get it. So the little green laser shifts with each shot. Currently mulling over a method to build the pic rail out a smidge and see if I can't tighten that up.

 

@Levian that's a great looking rail gun, good to hear you didn't have to do much to make it a reliable shooter. Those slim grips made by Esmeralda?

 

Yeah, they're Esmeralda's. They're currently living on a Magnum Research 1911, I'll have to scrounge up another pair for the Girsan. I will give it credit, it's been reliable from day 1. Zero work on my end was done in the name of reliability.

 

I ended up with a brand new Girsan 1911s almost 10 years ago. It was something thrown in to close a deal back when we could. She looked like a standard old 1911 like I carried in the Corps. I had primarily hadn't settled on any one pistol in my civilian life. I was hunting out in western Kansas where accurate reach was important and me and that kind of pistol accuracy don't have a relationship. But I shot those old 1911's and qualified everytime. I had tried a Tisas back then and it was functionally good, broke in well. I never liked it, I upgraded it, still didn't like it. Didn't have a bad word to say about it, I just didn't like it. I didn't have any real expectations of how this would go. At first I noticed how solid it felt, I started at 10ft it shot about 10 jnches low but I nice little 3 inch group. I read above some talk about combat sights, hell I didn't know anything about this. But I filed down the front sight, mine didn't have any dots so I had to buy that high priced crap for her. I handload her ammo and use some pretty traditional loads. I always said that if I ever found a 1911 that I could shoot accurately I'd keep it forever. I have put a spring kit in it and put a flat checkered mainspring housing on it. I happen to be restricted in my mobility and my conveyance always (where legal) the place to have it. When I was taking my CCL classes my instructors asked to shoot it. They were amazed at the Turkish pistol. I am not a shill for the company, my barrel nut is black but not the same as the slide and frame so there is no finish to rub or peel, the barrel isn't chromed its beyond chrome, I have maybe 800 rounds through her. There are slide marks on both sides of the frame, slight but there. I have had to replace that damn white paint to often. I have often thought about buying sights for it. I give this pistol my best opinion I can albeit I bought another first year firearm that year and I can promise you that anything after the first full production run of that S&W product is a totally different product.
YMMV⚡⚡⚡

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Thanks for the reviews on the Girsan. I've been kicking around the idea of getting one, but haven't had the chance to shoot one yet. I'll pick one up for sure now.

 

I think the next time I fiddle with it, I'll get some data where it prints at a known distance and at least replace the front sight. If I can get one of those short enough it'll have the familiar and desired 6 o'clock hold. I need to get an actual muzzle device for that threaded barrel too. At the moment it's just there because threaded barrel and that doesn't sit right with me. I still need to sort out how to tighten the light on that rail too, but I think it's finally starting to grow on me though.

 

Levian, mine doesn't have a threaded barrel, it has one that is so chrome you can't believe it, inside and out. It still doesn't have any wear marks on it. Probably the highest polished thing I've ever seen.
I have finally come to my biggest gripe about the Girsan family of 1911's. The grip screw bushings are a different size and the screw heads are a different size so get ready to buy the drill and tap. Install the regular grip screw bushings. There is a tall and a short depending upon your grip panel size. They should be here next week I will send pics then..I have had different grips on her.

 

Yeah, I'm aware they used a non-standard screw & bushings for the grips. However, I tried them with a pair of slim grips I had lying around and the factory hardware did a decent enough job. The grips I originally had on the Girsan have found a permanent home on a Magnum Research 1911 though. So...I'll have to kick some ideas around for what type of grips I want applied as replacements.

 

I think I've got this fella sorted out. Front sight post knocked out and ready for the shorty I ordered from Dawson Precision:

Teeny fiber optic sight filed down, cerakoted, and ready to be locktited in place:

And final result, complete with new grips:

So, Dawson's fiber optic front sight, .120" tall. White Cocobolo grips from Fusion. I an very happy with these.

I also fiddled around with the Baldr a bit. You can see some of the double-sided 3M tape sticking out from under the light. I used that to pad the rail a bit and make the light more secure to the pistol. It was mostly to add dimension in some paces so it doesn't wiggle while affixed to the gun, this stuff doesn't seem to stick to either the gun or the light itself very well at all. Which is fine by me, since it'll come off easy when it's time to take it off. I also took the adjusting screws out of the Olight and added some loctite, then adjusted the laser to be zeroed just above the front sight post at 25 yards. Hopefully once the loctite dries between that and the tape I'll have the laser sorted so it stays put too.

Fingers crossed that having that front sight perfectly centered is the sweet spot where point of aim meets point of impact. The front sight is also loctited in place. It's blue loctite, but still. Adjusting things might be less than fun if it comes down to it.

I'll have to keep an eye on EAA's website and get some new grip bushings and grip screws when they come back in stock. If it ain't one thing with this pistol it's another. One of those grip screws stripped out when I was putting those grips on. It seems secure enough for now, but goes without saying will need to be fixed.

But I'm liking how this is shaping up. Not quite what I anticipated when I bought a gun to tinker with but...I am tinkering, so I guess I can't complain. Further range testing either tomorrow or Sunday. We'll see how that pans out.

 

She looks good. I understand the way of making it work. On the grip screws and bushings. The drill bit and tap are available on Amazon for a little over $20, it's an easy job. I think the factory grip screws and bushings are just too soft.

 

Those grips totally changed the gun! Purty

 

Maybe at this point I should consider making a new thread, or having this one moved to 'other 1911s' or something. But I finally got the Girsan back to the range. Now I have to say I legitimately like this pistol. Swapping out the front sight for one from Dawson Precision has made all the difference in the world. Here are the first two 5 round strings and one 4 round set that was shot in pieces fired cold at 10 yards:

Well, I shot 6 at the first because I threw a round, then put 2 in the circle below. New mag, put 5 rounds in the second circle and another 2 in the center circle. And you can see the log I found out in back of the shop that turned into a pen/marker/pocket screw driver holder acting as a paper weight.

The last round in that magazine was put in the center circle at the bottom of the page. The next magazine was 5 rounds in the lower left circle (4th string), 3 rounds in the top center circle, and a final 5 round string in the lower left circle.

I wasn't exactly impressed with the groups here, the obvious fliers were me and I knew the moment I pressed the trigger I threw the shots. But I know I can usually shoot tighter groups than this at 10 yards (with other pistols). What I wasn't sure of was if it was a small case of the yips, just being cold, or if there was a problem with the pistol setup. What did bring my hopes up were how tight the groups were when I focused on the smaller circles. So probably just a combination of being cold and not having a proper center to focus on. Aim small, miss small.

I did a little 25 yard testing next, but it was too early and the bottle shaped target that I chose really didn't lend itself to revealing anything useful to me. But my target at 25 yards looked about like the target from the bay next to mine at 7 yards. So...I'll take it I guess. I tried a few rounds with iron sights, they seemed to go about the right height, which was also heartening. But the rounds were either to the left or right of center. Poor technique. And by the time I flicked on the laser there were too many holes to really get any useful data because I couldn't suss out where the rounds were printing versus where the laser pointed. Lesson learned.

So I put a fresh target at 15 yards and re-zero'd the laser. I put a few rounds in the body area, then a few rounds in the head region. Things seemed to be going fairly decent and I was pleased with it thus far. So I moved on to the number 1, 4, and 3 targets in that order. Still not my best shooting, but the laser seemed to be staying stable. Until I got to target number 6. Then it started to look like the laser was walking higher with every shot. I found that a bit aggravating, so I shut it off and moved on to the number 2 and number 5 targets. I don't know what it is about the left side but they always seem to give me a bit of extra grief. Might have also been the mild frustration at what I thought was a continuing problem with the laser, but my string on 5 was in the gutter.

So to make myself feel better I put the last target at 10 yards to do some grouping with irons now that I was more warmed up. I also had to take a small break to load up the last 23 rounds because all my mags were emptied 2x 10 round McCormicks and I think the last 3 were in a Kimber flush fit. This is the set that changed my mind entirely on the Girsan. I started out with two 5 round strings at a moderate rate of fire that slowly increased pace as I worked through the mag. Then I did a 3 round string from the partial mag that measures exactly 2 inches - proof in my mind the deficiencies were me and not the gun, and confirmation the Dawson sight is spot on. The final 10 rounds were fired as fast as I could reacquire a good sight picture. Not exactly rapid fire, but faster than I normally shoot.

Yeah. I'll take that. I'm surprised the front sight didn't seem to require any drifting. I knew the height would be correct because I was pretty meticulous in gathering data and collecting measurements, but as far as seating it in the dovetail I just made it as close to centered as I humanly possibly could. It's dead on the money, printing probably .75" about point of aim at 10 yards. I'd prefer just a tick higher because that also means it will be further off at 25 yards, but as short as that sight post is close enough will have to work. I don't think it can get smaller.

As far as the laser goes, maybe I got ahead of myself. I cleared the pistol once I got home, pointed it, and turned the laser on. It's right above the front sight post at around 15 yards where I had set it. So unless it walked back down after I shut it off I probably just let my form go to Hell because laser and blamed the equipment instead of my technique (or lack there of).

So at this juncture we're at 400 rounds through the pistol without cleaning it. I've counted a total of 4 malfunctions. Two times now with the Chip McCormick 10 round magazines a round has gotten ahead of the extractor and caused a failure to feed. Normally I would write this off as 10 round mags being 10 round mags, none of my three 1911s like those things and it's a crapshoot whether they'll work flawlessly or I'll see this exact same problem with any of my guns. But it also did it with one of my 2 ACT mags. It also had a stove pipe with one of those magazines last range trip, but I didn't bother to mark it so I don't know if we have a magazine issue with a particular ACT mag, or an extractor issue. I'm kind of leaning toward extractor, maybe at some point I'll use Steve in Allentown's extractor adjustment thread and give it a once over just to be sure.

Left on the to-do list: pick up compensator and modify down to single port. Acquire a fitted bushing to replace the drop-in that came with the barrel, lock up could be tighter. Check extractor and adjust if needed. Spend more quality time shooting with the laser to suss out if it can actually be relied on now, but that's not terribly important anymore.

TL;DR - now that I can shoot it without having to rely on the laser or compensate for the short rear sight to get the point of impact where I want it, I am a happy Girsan owner.

Edit: Scratch the barrel bushing. Was collecting all my spare parts and found an unused bushing that I fit to...something, can't remember what. Put it on the Girsan for kicks 'n grins. Tight fit, may need some small adjusting. But the lockup is much improved over the drop-in bushing it was wearing.