Greetings all. I picked up my 8th 1911 this past week. I wasn't planning on it, but it begged me to take it home! ATI M1911GI FX. This is the straight GI spec gun with a 4.25 inch barrel.
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First of all, I haven't been impressed with the reports of the Philippine made guns, but for $385 OTD, I couldn't pass it up.
This one is produced by S.A.M., who also produces the new Iver Johnson 1911's.
Overall fit and finish are very good. No rattles when shaken, overall dull matte blue with mahogany grips, all lettering is sharp and clear. Fit at back of slide is very nice, slide to frame is a thin line, better than my Colt 1991A1 and my Springfield loaded! Extractor is flush and hard to discern, the line is so tight. No discernible side to side play, tiniest bit of vertical. Barrel hood is tight, no play when pushed down. No tool marks present to outside of gun, a few small ones inside dust cover when stripped down. Only feature I don't care for is the bright finish on the barrel hood, rest of barrel is blued. Ejector port is not lowered, brass gets dinged a bit. All internals seem to be of good quality steel. Recoil spring looks a bit odd, like it's a thinner wire, but seems to function fine. No FL guide rod, standard plug and bushing system.
All safeties work as advertised, beavertail has a memory bump. Long trigger is serrated at front. Sights are drift adjustable rear, pinned front. Rear sight seems to be a bit higher on left side, slopes a bit, but shoots POA.
Gun comes with only one ACT mag. I had heard they were problematic, but this one works fine. I took the gun home, stripped it, lubed the rails and critical points with some Tetra gun grease and sauntered out to my back yard. First mag was 8 rounds of Blazer 230 gr ball in the ACT mag, range 10 yards. Trigger has the slightest bit of creep but breaks clean. I didn't put the trigger gauge on it, but an estimated guess would be 5 lbs. Result? 8 rounds dead center of an 8" paper plate with a dot in the middle, 5 rounds in one hole! Group size was approx 1.5 inches, freestyle.
I proceeded to load a CM powermag with my 230 gr LRN (4.9 gr Titegroup, 820 FPS). Slightly larger group, still COM. Next up, 200 gr LSWC (same powder charge, 870 FPS). Same result. I loaded up some Wilson mags, a few old Mec-Gars and some Springfield 7 rounders and finished off 100 more rounds of the LRN and LSWC.
No FTE's, no FTF's!
I am truly impressed! I did not expect anything like this when I bought the gun. I figured at most it was gonna be a ball only proposition and maybe 3-4" pistol IF I was lucky! So I may hear more horror stories about the Filipino made guns, but I will reserve judgement from now on.
__________________
First of all, I haven't been impressed with the reports of the Philippine made guns, but for $385 OTD, I couldn't pass it up.
This one is produced by S.A.M., who also produces the new Iver Johnson 1911's.
Overall fit and finish are very good. No rattles when shaken, overall dull matte blue with mahogany grips, all lettering is sharp and clear. Fit at back of slide is very nice, slide to frame is a thin line, better than my Colt 1991A1 and my Springfield loaded! Extractor is flush and hard to discern, the line is so tight. No discernible side to side play, tiniest bit of vertical. Barrel hood is tight, no play when pushed down. No tool marks present to outside of gun, a few small ones inside dust cover when stripped down. Only feature I don't care for is the bright finish on the barrel hood, rest of barrel is blued. Ejector port is not lowered, brass gets dinged a bit. All internals seem to be of good quality steel. Recoil spring looks a bit odd, like it's a thinner wire, but seems to function fine. No FL guide rod, standard plug and bushing system.
All safeties work as advertised, beavertail has a memory bump. Long trigger is serrated at front. Sights are drift adjustable rear, pinned front. Rear sight seems to be a bit higher on left side, slopes a bit, but shoots POA.
Gun comes with only one ACT mag. I had heard they were problematic, but this one works fine. I took the gun home, stripped it, lubed the rails and critical points with some Tetra gun grease and sauntered out to my back yard. First mag was 8 rounds of Blazer 230 gr ball in the ACT mag, range 10 yards. Trigger has the slightest bit of creep but breaks clean. I didn't put the trigger gauge on it, but an estimated guess would be 5 lbs. Result? 8 rounds dead center of an 8" paper plate with a dot in the middle, 5 rounds in one hole! Group size was approx 1.5 inches, freestyle.
I proceeded to load a CM powermag with my 230 gr LRN (4.9 gr Titegroup, 820 FPS). Slightly larger group, still COM. Next up, 200 gr LSWC (same powder charge, 870 FPS). Same result. I loaded up some Wilson mags, a few old Mec-Gars and some Springfield 7 rounders and finished off 100 more rounds of the LRN and LSWC.
No FTE's, no FTF's!
I am truly impressed! I did not expect anything like this when I bought the gun. I figured at most it was gonna be a ball only proposition and maybe 3-4" pistol IF I was lucky! So I may hear more horror stories about the Filipino made guns, but I will reserve judgement from now on.
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