Review: Tisas Service 1911A1
A no frills 1911 right out of World War II...but new.
First, the backstory: Here in New Mexico, our concealed carry requirements are a bit mental. It's obvious that the people that wrote them don't know a ton about guns and how they work. There's a qualification that needs to be done every two years, but the renewal is every four. Mostly, this is to make the instructors money, although I'll admit maybe shooting your firearm once every two years is a real minimum. (In the military and police, quals were once a year...that seemed, even then, a bit long of an interval.) Oh, you do this at seven yards. You can practically hit someone with the weapon itself at seven yards. The real issue, however, is in addition to having to qualify for a revolver and semi-auto separately (okay -- the manual of arms is different enough that basic handling might be an issue for some; but they're still a point and click interface) and in the "largest caliber you plan to carry". They're looking at the number. That means even though 10mm has more recoil than .45ACP, it’s a .40 caliber; and while .357 magnum is a bit more tricky to use for many folks than .38 special -- no. Number big -- that's important. So that means that while I prefer a 10mm to most cartridges, I have to qualify with a .45 to basically carry whatever the hell I want.
Well, I guess technically I should be doing that with .50 calibers, but no.
That means once every two years I have to dust off my .455 Webley and borrow a .45ACP from someone. It's stupid. I decided I'd rather have a cheap .45 I could make good enough hits at spitting range. In the local gun store, the excellent Right to Bear Arms, they had a few .45s. I'd been dickering about over buying one for a whle. There was a used Springfield Armory XD9 for about $400, then there was a no-name Turkish 1911 for about the same.
Enter the no-name pistol: the Tisas 1911A1 Service pistol. This is a seriously no-frills pistol. Old-school Colt Series 70 with no ambi-safety, an old-school GI hammer and tang. No memory ledge on the mainspring grip safety. No real sights -- they're black, they're small, but they work. The frame and slide forged carbon steel with a really good Cerakote finish in "basic black, sans pearls"; the barrel is cold hammer forged and bright silver. There's no full-length guide rod nonsense here. Just the old style spring cap fitted into a bushing. It comes with two 8-round magazines, which puts Tisas way ahead of most stingy 1911 manufacturers where you get one magazine and shut the hell up. Black plastic grips finish the package, though I threw a few shekels Tisas' way for the wood grips with the US emblazoned on them — ‘cause, “Merica!
In the shop, I found the trigger was 1911 good, but not top of the line 1911 good; so better than most other pistols out of the box. It breaks at about 5 lbs but feels lighter, has a bit of takeup to the wall, and a crisp release. The reset is short and audible. You can feel a bit of movement in the grip safety as the mainspring moves, but I've felt that in high end guns, as well. Not a deal breaker. The slide ran smoothly and it's sprung tightly. The hammer felt like it was scraping a bit against the frame, but there's no indications of wear. I snapped it up and headed straight out to the range with 100 rounds of Blazer Brass in 230 grain. No cleaning. No oiling. Let's see how this POS fares.
Out of the box, without any of the usual care I would give a pistol before it's first time out, I had four failures to go into battery; the shell just hung up a bit going into the pipe. It only happened on one of the magazines, and did not occur on the second. At 10 yards, I did the bottom group with the first box of ammunition. The initial right and low was due to my grip which was a bit off from shooting the Prodigy. A slight wriggle on the grip and most of it was in the orange. The upper group was the second box, with a bit of trailing down in the last magazine or two. That's pretty good for a $400 Turkish pistol.
Even better, after getting it home and cleaning the thing, the finish in the high abrasion areas was completely unblemished save for the usual spots on the firing pin block. The Cerakote held up along the slide rails and the locking lugs; something a lot of pistols don't pull off in a similar round count. (I seriously think the coating is better than on my Kimber Camp Guard, which at 2000 rounds is showing it's age.) Function was smooth, save for the sense the hammer is still scraping a bit, but I'm not seeing indications of it. I may just be looking for something to complain about.
The Tisas 1911 is imported by SDS out of Tennessee, which also handles Spandau and Tokarev. Allegedly, their own engineers go out to the plant in Turkey to oversee some of the development. I've heard rumors that Girsan and Tisas basically come off the same lines, but I don't know if that's true — the Girsans I’ve seen aren’t really up to snuff, in my opinion. In addition to coming with an extra magazine (and well done, Tisas!), the 1911 comes with a pretty nice hard case, the usual owners manual and other "by stuff" paperwork, a patch rod and brush, a bushing tool and a good trigger lock. It's actually a surprisingly good presentation for a solidly good pistol.
The next outing, with a cleaning and decent lube job, the Tisas functioned flawlessly. Accuracy was excellent for a cheap-ass pistol with the old, barely-there style sights; and good even for a 1911...meaning better than a lot of the polymer framed guns out there. All of my issues were due to the extra magazine. I didn't use it, and that seemed to mitigate the issues. I suspect I could have just shot it dirty with that magazine only and had the same results. The wear on the finish, again, is very, very minimal. I'm truly impressed with the Ceracoting on the gun. With a decent magazine, this is easily an acceptable carry weapon, if you don't mind a full-size service pistol.
So is it worth it? With this second run, I have to say: at $400, you cannot beat this if you're looking for an entry 1911.