We 1911 review

Alvin T. Grey

Hi I'm Alvin. And I'm addicted to M1911s. I blame it on TMs HiCapa 5.1.

Long story short. I lost the mag for the Hi Capa, and needed to buy a sidearm in a hurry.

Enter the offering form WE. At a little over €100 it certainly fits the bill as a reasonable buy.

First things first.

The Box
It's square, black and has an M1911 inside. - duh.

Back in the old days it used to ship with 2 mags, but unfortunatly someone somewhere copped on. Now it ships with only the one.

Look and feel
Whoa DOGGIE! -
This bint is full metal, she is heavy. The sound of the mag slapping home, and the slide racking back is pure poetry. Mind you a little silicone on the rails to clear out the gunk that ships with it is a must. After that, the action cycles like a greasey ferret in a drainpipe.
The grip is plastic. So what? It's very comfortable. Almost everything is reachable with the thumb. This is however deffinatly a right handed pistol.
There are three working safetys on this little puppy. The leaver right where you'd expect it. The beaver tail on the grip, and a hammer safety. All three must be disengaged before the equipment will discharge.

To strip it, rack the slide half way, line up the slide release, and push it through from the other side. - Make sure you have the mag out though. Otherwise the slide wont come off, and you'll look stupid.
The internals are Marui knock off. The hop-up is in the same place, same type, same just about everything. And they are metal.

Performance
You know how, when you marry, the other person somewhere along the line stops being the reason you get up in the morning, and starts being 'That-semi-mobile-lump-on-the-couch-in-curlers'?

With this, that happens the moment you try to put gas in it. 5 second fill? 10 second fill? up to 30 seconds....Dosn't seem to make much of a difference. You'll get 1 - 1/2 mags out of it. And forget about rapid fire. This design is purely double tap only. Any more then a shot or so a second, and the thing goes off in a puff of gas and embarassment.
My method of choice is

1. Hold mag upside down
2. 2 X 5 sec fills
3. Place in front trouser pocket
4. Yelp like girlie
5. Quickly remove and place in back trouser pocket
6. Wait for a few minutes before using.

The build quality leaves quite a bit to be desired in the wear and tear department. But with care, you can use this little girl like a rented mule, and she'll keep firing. It's all about what you expect from the package. And at ~€100 do you honestly expect it to perform as well as it's TM cousins?

Exactly.

All in all it is a perfectly satisfiable backup. It's the Opel Corsa of the M1911s. A cheap, functional, built for beginners sidearm.