[Levian]

I was at the LGS just to burn time on a Saturday (an expensive mistake!) and let the salesman put a Girsan 1911 in my hands. I had heard good things about them, but hadn't really handled one before. Right off the bat I was impressed by the trigger. I would say it was every bit as good as the trigger on the 1911 I built myself. No trigger gauge, but it feels like a ball park 5 lb break, crisp, and just the right amount of take-up. So it came home with me.

I bought this thing expecting to have to do some tinkering. My only complaint with the gun initially was the stiff mag release, but with a little bit of 800 grit lapping compound and some flexing it's broken in decent. Aside from the mag release, giving the feed ramp some 1K sand paper love to make it shiny and smooth, and slapping on some spare slim grips I had lying around I really don't think there's going to be anything left to tinker with. And I wouldn't necessarily say it needed the feed ramp polished. I only fired 16 rounds at the range today because my primary focus was checking the CSX that I also bought for function, but the Girsan fed them flawlessly. I just polished it to cover the base. The mouth of the barrel was already polished pretty decent, and now I can hand cycle the slide and feed it snap caps. I have a feeling it'll be just fine.

And for the range report portion, here's the first 4 rounds fired cold at 10 yards:

I won't show the rest of the targets because all it really shows is how badly my shooting has deteriorated without regular practice since the start of Covid. Especially the shots taken at 25 yards.

I think the fact that it's grouped low is just me improperly aligning the 3 dots. Once I remember how to shoot properly I think the gun will be a keeper.

 

[AVG]

It looks good.

 

[SPEEDGUNNER]

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

 

[Levian]

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.

 

[akguy59]

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

 

[V GEHTS]

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

 

[Levian]

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.

 

[gnappi]

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.

 

[Levian]

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.

 

[JKP]

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.

 

[cjking11]

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.

 

[cjking11]

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

 

[gnappi]

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.

 

[Levian]

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.

 

[rl550b]

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

 

[Levian]

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.

 

[SG29736]

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

 

[Levian]

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.

 

[Intercessor]

@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?

 

[Levian]

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.