Friday, August 17, 2012

A Paul Harvey-esque Failure...

..sorry..l forgot to mention that Sig Sauer sent me the little .45 "Ultra"  specifically in response to my comments on short-barreled 1911 platform pistol. If you recall, I basically agreed with Rob Pincus that I'd never had much luck with shorter-than-Commander length .45 1911s, with the specific exception of dual recoil spring Detonics Combat Master. 

Probably the best thing I've read since that imbroglio was from my old friend Ken Hackathorn, as quoted by Rich Grassi in the Tactical and the Shooting Wire:

-- Currently there are negative perceptions that are being expressed on the 1911 style pistol. Your take?

"I have a hard time being objective about it," he said. "I grew up with it, invested a lot of effort in learning how to use it."

The basic service pistol, the 1911 pattern gun has gotten the job done for over a century. "I carried it daily." The question as to whether the gun will withstand a 2,000 round test or class without cleaning or lube is silly.

"My question is, "Will the gun go three magazines without choking?"" he said. "I only carry three magazines with the gun. As a practical matter, it's most important that the gun work through that load."

"If I'm in a place where I need more than that pistol and those magazines," he said, "I'm in the wrong place with the wrong gun at the wrong time. It's a bad day."

8 comments:

Chad said...

Michael, not sure if you saw my comment on your previous entry but I will copy and paste it on this entry. Have you had a chance to test the Sig yet? Hopefully you experience the same results as I did. My father got rid of his Kimber Ultra Carry II because it would not feed no matter what ammunition or magazines used. Here is the comment from the prior post:

I have carried the Sig Ultra Compact 1911 everyday now for about 8 months. It has over 500 rounds downrange with both JHP and FMJ. I have never had a failure of any kind and I would agree that this little 1911 is hands down the best I've owned or tried. Dang near perfect. I did replace the Sig mags with Wilson Combats making just that much closer to perfect.

Michael Bane said...

Will probably get it out to the rage this afternoon and get started testing it...

mb

gunman42782 said...

My Kimber Ultra Carry has been 100% reliable. Have been carrying it and shooting it for 3 years now, with nary a problem.

Trav said...

Michael--Please stop saying nice things about the Detonics CombatMaster. They're not new; they're not tacticool. They're not even dishwasher safe. "Everybody" knows somebody who couldn't get a Detonics through a magazine without it gagging. Besides, if it were a descent pistol, one of the four manufacturers of the CombatMaster would've been able to make a go of it.

I know these are only worth ~$10 at the gun buy-back, but I'd be willing to double that in order to get one of these miserable firearms off the street. :)

Anonymous said...

Trav posted ;

" Besides, if it were a descent pistol, one of the four manufacturers of the CombatMaster would've been able to make a go of it."

I don't know what you career field is so I have to post that your comment is most likely wrong.
I have been in manufacturing for better than 25 yrs and have seen several companies fold.
I have never seen one go under for poor workmanship, or lousy product, in fact, those companies are still going strong.
In every case I have seen the collapse was entirely do to poor management.
I have no reason to expect a different cause for the difficulties of Detonics or Bren.
Tom Bogan
Laconia NH

Trav said...

Tom--Agreed. The whole thing was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek reply.

Trav said...

I was all set to buy an Atlanta one, but that company had other problems. Now, I cannot seem to find one of their pistols anywhere.

JohninMd(help?) said...

From what you re-printed, not sure if Ken realized the kerfufle was about compact & sub-compact 1911s. what do you think of the rounded main-spring housing grip frame style guns? Any advantage or disadvantage that you see?