I just got this SA Mil Spec a few months ago and have put only 750 rounds through it. Last night while cleaning, I noticed this chunk missing. It might be hard to see what you're looking at here, but this is the gun all stripped down except for the trigger, and the chunk is missing from the bottom of the hole that the disconnector goes into.
At first glance I thought this was a notch that was supposed to be there, but no. The edges are jagged and its irregularly shaped. I'll be calling Springfield to see how they want me to proceed.
Overall, its a nice gun and pretty accurate, but I can't say I'm impressed with the quality. First off, its proudly stamped "made in brazil" on the side. I was kinda hoping I'd get an american made 1911, but sometimes its up in the air where things are made. The action of the gun is nice. The slide works very smoothly and it sounds good. Oddly enough, it feeds SWC better than RN bullets. The sights are TERRIBLE. I bought the Mil Spec over the GI because the Mil Spec had 3 dot sights, but the front dot is hard enough to see that it might as well not even be there. And the rear sight? The dots were stamped slightly crooked; they're not parallel to the horizon. The sights are VERY unimpressive. And the finish? Forget it, its awful. You can *almost* scratch it with your fingernail. It has the feel of very fine sandpaper, like the kind you'd wetstand your car with. It picks up THOUSANDS of scratches, and wherever metal touches metal, the finish is history. I'm concerned that I'm gonna start seeing corrosion in places where bare metal is exposed (and that's a lotta places). I suppose that's my fault for not fully understanding "parkerizing". I was thinking it was gonna be more like the finish on my Glock.
So as far as mechanical action and shooting, its fine. As far as durability, I gotta give it two thumbs down. As far as frills, well, its a Mil Spec. What do you expect?
Moral of the story? If you're in the market for a $600ish 1911, check out the Ruger SR1911. Its stainless and the sights are outstanding. Mililtary spec is cool for nostalgic reasons, but when it comes to a gun that's gonna be your buddy and you're gonna bond with it and put thousands of rounds through it, you'll prolly want a bit better than what the military spec'd out.
At first glance I thought this was a notch that was supposed to be there, but no. The edges are jagged and its irregularly shaped. I'll be calling Springfield to see how they want me to proceed.
Overall, its a nice gun and pretty accurate, but I can't say I'm impressed with the quality. First off, its proudly stamped "made in brazil" on the side. I was kinda hoping I'd get an american made 1911, but sometimes its up in the air where things are made. The action of the gun is nice. The slide works very smoothly and it sounds good. Oddly enough, it feeds SWC better than RN bullets. The sights are TERRIBLE. I bought the Mil Spec over the GI because the Mil Spec had 3 dot sights, but the front dot is hard enough to see that it might as well not even be there. And the rear sight? The dots were stamped slightly crooked; they're not parallel to the horizon. The sights are VERY unimpressive. And the finish? Forget it, its awful. You can *almost* scratch it with your fingernail. It has the feel of very fine sandpaper, like the kind you'd wetstand your car with. It picks up THOUSANDS of scratches, and wherever metal touches metal, the finish is history. I'm concerned that I'm gonna start seeing corrosion in places where bare metal is exposed (and that's a lotta places). I suppose that's my fault for not fully understanding "parkerizing". I was thinking it was gonna be more like the finish on my Glock.
So as far as mechanical action and shooting, its fine. As far as durability, I gotta give it two thumbs down. As far as frills, well, its a Mil Spec. What do you expect?
Moral of the story? If you're in the market for a $600ish 1911, check out the Ruger SR1911. Its stainless and the sights are outstanding. Mililtary spec is cool for nostalgic reasons, but when it comes to a gun that's gonna be your buddy and you're gonna bond with it and put thousands of rounds through it, you'll prolly want a bit better than what the military spec'd out.
