I have no answers but so far my four cerakoted Tisas 1911s with over five hundred rounds through each of them have not choked.

The internet is full of opinions but often short of facts.

 

Yeah, that's what I figured. I pretty much ran the Tank Commander dry for the first 100 rounds.

I know it's not good for the pistol in the long run and always lube my weapons correctly but I was curious to see how it would run nearly dry. Only had the lube that was applied by the factory which is probably just a preservative.....it ran 100% with the issue mags and S&B 230G Ball....we'll see how she does with JHPs etc. 100 rounds is nothing, I know, but I just got the pistol.

 

Is the pistol parkerized before cerakoted?

I asked SDS customer service this question last year and they said yes.
@Tisas USA would likely have current/definitive info

 

Yes, the Cerakote is over park.

 

Can you tell us if it's air or heat cured?

 

But the internet has a lot of opinions that cerakote will cause a 1911 to choke. If true, I would think this would happen in the first couple mags

"Choke" is such an ugly word

I did have a practical non-issue with this with my black Carry in 9mm.

I'll start by saying that the finish is immaculate in it's smoothness and consistency. No runs or high spots at all.

However, outta the box, this particular specimen was almost unusable. Constant stoppages of various kinds and would not lock back on the last round.

While still at the range and investigating, I put the slide on the frame by itself, just on a whim and noticed that that were some pronounced sticky spots as I slid it back and forth, The short version is, I cleaned all the lube off and worked it back and forth rapidly by hand for a few minutes (resting intermittently) until the stickiness loosened up quite a bit. I don't understand why somebody would lubricate surfaces that they are intentionally trying to create friction in. I took the lube off because I wanted the coating to wear. It took a bit of work, but it loosened up.

Lubed it back up and put it back together.

Every single problem was gone. The next 150 rounds ran with a single odd nosedive in the middle of a mag which had nothing to do with this and was probably a malformed cartridge or something. Locked back every time on empty.

I hesitate to even bring this up because some may take it as a discouragement to buying one of these pistols, but that is most assuredly not the case. Or shouldn't be anyway.

As I say, to me, it's practically a non-issue. 10 minutes of simple idiot work to get this much gun for this little money I consider a great thing.

I only mentioned it because this exact question was asked and I wanted to report how trivial the effort was to permanently overcome it.

 

I did experience the same "stickiness' in my 45 Commander. But, as I said I shot her dry and had no malfunctions for 100 rounds of ball. When I fiddled with it out of the box the "stickiness" raised a red flag in my mind. That's why I thought I'd shoot her dry( I wouldn't try this with my girl friend for a worst case scenario and was pleasantly surprised.

Shot the pistol again today, after proper clean and lube, this time with different mags but of the same type. Probably CMs also but unmarked, hybrid lips, dimpled follower and welded floor plate. 100 rounds of ball and again no bobbles (sound better than chokes of any kind.

Now to the 230 grain JHPs, also S&Bs. One mag functioned without a problem but I had several failures to feed with the other. So, this pistol is true to the breed (this has been my experience with 1911s) and is mag sensitive with certain loads. FWIW, my Colt LW Commander will not function with JHPs and mags it don't like either.

All said, I really like the pistol. The trigger is heavy but breaks clean and I can live with that. I also had to move the rear sight for my zero which wasn't easy as it's in there pretty tight. For me, it's the right size and weight for a 45 and I've been carrying it concealed the past couple weeks.

It has a definite utilitarian appeal, no frills, business like, and I'm going to leave it as is

 

I will say this, most will indeed run out of the box. But, I can say this with a reasonable degree of accuracy, that "mag sensitive" and "ammo sensitive" issues should probably be called "extractor sensitive" in most cases.

Since I learned and started tuning my extractors, even stock ones, according to the @Steve in Allentown tuning guide...my pistol "sensitivities" disappeared.

 

"mag sensitive" and "ammo sensitive" issues should probably be called "extractor sensitive" in most cases.

And from my observation are not limited to Tisas handguns and many even considered to be higher tier also display these idiosyncrasies with some regulararity.

 

on several of my "tight" handguns, I put Bore Past on the rails, and worked the slide back and forth while watching tv, and didn't take long to remove any "high spots." NV

 

But the internet has a lot of opinions that cerakote will cause a 1911 to choke. If true, I would think this would happen in the first couple mags or so which did not happen with minimal lube....the application process defines the quality of any finish but does Tisas use a special chemical process? Is the pistol parkerized before cerakoted?

1911s tend to have little in the way of clearance. Cerakote when perfectly applied is around a thousandth of an inch thick. Some of the clearances on a 1911 are .003" plus or minus. So if you've hit your mark building the gun, then cerakote both surfaces to perfection, your .003" clearance just got dropped to .001" and if you put it on a little thick well...Yeah, it could be a minor inconvenience. But that's also more than likely not cerakote specific. Anything you put on the raw steel save for maybe a melonite type finish is going to add to some dimensions and can cause (temporary) issues with particularly tight guns.

Now, the simple solution, and the one I used on both the guns I built, was to have some patience and work the parts until they moved smooth and free. It will only be a 'problem' until the cerakote has worn off the tight areas, and then it will be fine.

 

Tell you one thing, I wanted to file down the bump on the grip safety so I took it out and put it in the vise. I went to start filing on it with an excellent file I've had for a long time, and it just skidded across that rounded hump. I tried it again with similar results. I had to start on an edge to break that Cerakote even with a file that cuts gun steel like butter and did just that once I had removed the Cerakote. I had no idea that stuff was literally like a Porcelain coating. I decided right then that I want more guns coated in this.

 

Yep. It's surprisingly hard stuff. And it's extra slick when oil is applied. I'm still on the fence as to how much I like it. On the one hand...it's scratch resistance is excellent for a painted on coating. On the other if a little gun oil gets somewhere you want to be able to grip and get traction it obviously doesn't go so well. It's easier to DIY than bluing, parkerizing, or other gun coats though so...for my purposes it's arguably the best option.

 

I keep my pistols running pretty wet, but I haven’t noticed any affect on the coating by solvent or gun oil!
My older Regent was bead blasted and blued, and its finish has also held up surprisingly well over the years.

 

The slide to frame on the little Bantam was tighter than Dick's hatband. Dunno how many times (a lot) I racked jacked the slide (minus the recoil spring) before it was ever fired. Other than erratic ejection patterns, it worked fine. Still does

 

Yeah but as I said although the pistol felt quite "sticky" (unusually tight) it functioned 100% for 100 rounds DRY.

 

HMmmm, I bought the bluing, some steel wool, distilled water, vinegar, cheap plastic gloves, couple foil-pans and used a coathanger I chopped into hooks. Turned the oven to merely WARM, boiled the parts in vin & water to remove blue and rust.. Another boiling pan of just water for rinsing, (dumped in SS sink)

Boil and scrub to remove rust and old blue, rinse in the sink, pop in the oven to warm and dry, apply and hang and go away/work on another part - whenever the parts look matte or fuzzy, you scrub, boil and back to the oven to dry, etc, etc, etc..

 

I love the Tisas Tank Commander.
I hate ceracoat.
So I sanded it off the rails and blued them. Next I will sand off the flats and blue them.
It is still an excellent value and a great pistol. Worth my small efforts to make it mine.

 

I'm interested in how you will address the parkerizing "undercoat" when refinishing the pistol?

 

Sand right through it. Got it to bare metal, then cold blued. Not terribly hard.
I did a little more.

 

So the front strap can handle some checkering.

I run grip tape as an easy fix for extra grip but I'd like to do some checkering. More tools lol.

The Tank Commander and Service Special are incredible values. I'm still impressed at the accuracy and quality, and minor mods have turned both into fantastic pistols. I literally got the A1 Special on sale for 320 bucks! Are you kidding me?

 

My amateur checkering is fairly shallow. I would maybe stipple instead for a good grip. No fancy tools hahaha!