First off - I want to thank everybody for their help and advice. I had narrowed my seearch down to three models: The Sig Carry Fastback, the Smith and Wesson E Series Round Butt Scandium, and the Kimber Super Carry Pro. It's possible that I erred by being too cautious but based on most people's recommendations, I ruled out the Kimber right off the bat. Between the Smith and Sig, I chose the sig for the following reasons:
1. Money. The Sig was $250 cheaper, and when your wife has you on a leash... errrr... budget, like I am, you tend to make every penny count. I realize that I'm not the 1911 expert that many here are, but my inexperienced eye couldn't see any major differences in the way each was built to justify the extra cost. I figure that most of that extra money goes into the materials - I don't know how much scandium costs, but it's got to be more expensive than stainless steel and I just can't see myself spending the extra cash on something I'm not going to appreciate.
2. That scandium frame again. A few years ago, I broke my right arm. The nature of the break cause the surgeon to have to cut through my right shoulder to implant rods and pins to fix it. I've had three surgeries through my right shoulder, and it's mostly scar tissue inside. Because of this, I'm not entirely recoil-averse, but recoil is definitely a factor that shaped my decision. The all-steel frame of the Sig just plain felt more comforting than the much lighter Smith. I have no doubt that the Smith will hold up to the kind of casual use I'm going to put it through, but it wasn't for me.
3. Exactness of build. I'm not sure how to quantify this, but the Smith that I was looking at just felt a lot looser than the Sig. I could take the slide on the Smith and rock it side to side with just my hand - there was noticible play when it was in battery. And when manually racking the slide, I noticed a couple spots where it seemed to have a hitch as it traveled forward and back. The Sig, on the other hand, locked up with no play, and the slide moved like it was on ball bearings. The Sig's trigger seemed to be a lot lighter, and even though it seemed to have just the tiniest amount of creep, it was easy to imagine getting that surprise break that I've been trained to have when squeezing a trigger. All in all, the Sig just felt better to me.
I purchased the pistol on Friday, but had to wait until Saturday to get it to the range. I brought a couple boxes of Federal hardball with me. My goal was not necessarily to go for extreme accuracy, but just to get the "breaking in" process started. The magazine springs felt extremely stiff - much stiffer than either the factory springs or the springs in the Wilson Combat magazines I use in my Officers' Model. I suppose they'll break in, and get a little lighter, but in the meantime it's not too big of a struggle to load them up with eight rounds. BTW, the stainless steel mags have witness holes perfectly lined up to show how many rounds are in each one, and they're stamped with the numbers 1 though 8 for dummies like me who tend to lose count. I felt that was a nice touch. Both factory-supplied mags locked up tightly, ejected easily, and fed reliably. For the first hundred rounds, I didn't have a single fail-to-feed.
I started off just banging away at a silhouette at distances from 7 yards to 11 yards. It was easy to see that I need a lot more practice. My doubles and triples weren't nearly as fast as they should be. Felt recoil was a little bit less than in the all-steel Officers' Model, but accuracy (for me, anyway) was much better. The full-size grip makes the pistol much easier to control, and the bobtail didn't negatively affect shooting at all. If anything, it makes the grip fit my hand better. I've no doubt that if I were able to practice as much as I'd like, my abilities would improve dramatically. As it is, the pistol is ten times more accurate than I am as a shooter. I had no failures-to-eject, no light strikes, no problems whatsoever. The sights presented a good sight picture, and even though the range was too well lit to see the tritium inserts, the night sights can be seen easily in a somewhat dim room. All-in-all, I enjoyed shooting this pistol immensely.
After the first box ran out, I changed targets and tried to settle down for some off-hand slow fire. The range I was at has the distances marked at 15 feet, 21 feet, 33 feet, and then 50, 60, and 70 feet, but the full distance is 75 feet. I fired five rounds each at 15 and 21 feet, ten rounds each at 33 and 50 feet, and then five rounds again at 60 and 75 feet. I then brought the target back in to 21 feet and fired the remaining ten rounds at the target's head area. The photo will show you how I did. Again, the gun is easily ten times more accurate than this target will attest. Maybe one day I'll take the opportunity to shoor it from a solid rest, but in the meantime I'll just keep on having fun. 'Cause yes –– like Old Painless says... "Shootin' stuff is fun!"
When I got home, I was comparing the size of the Sig to the Officers' Model. Man, it's hard to get a decent photo of these two side-by-side to get a real comparison. I don't know how the professionals do it. This is about the best I could to. For now, the Officers' Model is still my carry pistol, but if thie Sig proves to be as reliable as it seem snow, that'll probably change.
Hope you enjoyed my quick unscientific review, and if anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
1. Money. The Sig was $250 cheaper, and when your wife has you on a leash... errrr... budget, like I am, you tend to make every penny count. I realize that I'm not the 1911 expert that many here are, but my inexperienced eye couldn't see any major differences in the way each was built to justify the extra cost. I figure that most of that extra money goes into the materials - I don't know how much scandium costs, but it's got to be more expensive than stainless steel and I just can't see myself spending the extra cash on something I'm not going to appreciate.
2. That scandium frame again. A few years ago, I broke my right arm. The nature of the break cause the surgeon to have to cut through my right shoulder to implant rods and pins to fix it. I've had three surgeries through my right shoulder, and it's mostly scar tissue inside. Because of this, I'm not entirely recoil-averse, but recoil is definitely a factor that shaped my decision. The all-steel frame of the Sig just plain felt more comforting than the much lighter Smith. I have no doubt that the Smith will hold up to the kind of casual use I'm going to put it through, but it wasn't for me.
3. Exactness of build. I'm not sure how to quantify this, but the Smith that I was looking at just felt a lot looser than the Sig. I could take the slide on the Smith and rock it side to side with just my hand - there was noticible play when it was in battery. And when manually racking the slide, I noticed a couple spots where it seemed to have a hitch as it traveled forward and back. The Sig, on the other hand, locked up with no play, and the slide moved like it was on ball bearings. The Sig's trigger seemed to be a lot lighter, and even though it seemed to have just the tiniest amount of creep, it was easy to imagine getting that surprise break that I've been trained to have when squeezing a trigger. All in all, the Sig just felt better to me.
I purchased the pistol on Friday, but had to wait until Saturday to get it to the range. I brought a couple boxes of Federal hardball with me. My goal was not necessarily to go for extreme accuracy, but just to get the "breaking in" process started. The magazine springs felt extremely stiff - much stiffer than either the factory springs or the springs in the Wilson Combat magazines I use in my Officers' Model. I suppose they'll break in, and get a little lighter, but in the meantime it's not too big of a struggle to load them up with eight rounds. BTW, the stainless steel mags have witness holes perfectly lined up to show how many rounds are in each one, and they're stamped with the numbers 1 though 8 for dummies like me who tend to lose count. I felt that was a nice touch. Both factory-supplied mags locked up tightly, ejected easily, and fed reliably. For the first hundred rounds, I didn't have a single fail-to-feed.
I started off just banging away at a silhouette at distances from 7 yards to 11 yards. It was easy to see that I need a lot more practice. My doubles and triples weren't nearly as fast as they should be. Felt recoil was a little bit less than in the all-steel Officers' Model, but accuracy (for me, anyway) was much better. The full-size grip makes the pistol much easier to control, and the bobtail didn't negatively affect shooting at all. If anything, it makes the grip fit my hand better. I've no doubt that if I were able to practice as much as I'd like, my abilities would improve dramatically. As it is, the pistol is ten times more accurate than I am as a shooter. I had no failures-to-eject, no light strikes, no problems whatsoever. The sights presented a good sight picture, and even though the range was too well lit to see the tritium inserts, the night sights can be seen easily in a somewhat dim room. All-in-all, I enjoyed shooting this pistol immensely.
After the first box ran out, I changed targets and tried to settle down for some off-hand slow fire. The range I was at has the distances marked at 15 feet, 21 feet, 33 feet, and then 50, 60, and 70 feet, but the full distance is 75 feet. I fired five rounds each at 15 and 21 feet, ten rounds each at 33 and 50 feet, and then five rounds again at 60 and 75 feet. I then brought the target back in to 21 feet and fired the remaining ten rounds at the target's head area. The photo will show you how I did. Again, the gun is easily ten times more accurate than this target will attest. Maybe one day I'll take the opportunity to shoor it from a solid rest, but in the meantime I'll just keep on having fun. 'Cause yes –– like Old Painless says... "Shootin' stuff is fun!"
When I got home, I was comparing the size of the Sig to the Officers' Model. Man, it's hard to get a decent photo of these two side-by-side to get a real comparison. I don't know how the professionals do it. This is about the best I could to. For now, the Officers' Model is still my carry pistol, but if thie Sig proves to be as reliable as it seem snow, that'll probably change.
Hope you enjoyed my quick unscientific review, and if anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
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