I do not have a Metro, but I do have a Philippine 1911 – with the ATI brand on it. I put it that way because my gunsmith told me that many Philippine-made 1911s are made by one company, and branded for the company that imports and sells them here.
Grabagun.com had them on sale for $329 (and still does until July 1.) I disregarded it at first because of the low price, but then I bought it after seeing a review here --
https://www.1911addicts.com/threads/buyers-guide-for-all-you-1911-addicts.511/
and then looking up other reviews wherever I could find them around the web. The link above is to a site operated by a fellow who has more than 60 different 1911s, all from different companies, and the site has high-quality photos and reviews of each of them.
First of all let me say a word about the Grabagun purchase process. I ordered the ATI 1911 FX45 Military (5-inch barrel) around noon one day, and had it in my hand on the morning of the second day after the day I ordered it. I was charged only $6 for shipping, though the gun was sent USPS priority mail. Not only that, but my gunsmith had mistakenly faxed in an outdated copy of his FFL, with the wrong address on it, but Grabagun somehow figured it out and mailed to his correct, current address.
Now as to the gun itself. As so many others whose reviews I read on line before deciding to purchase the FX45, I am very impressed with it. Though it is extremely close-fitting everywhere, I nevertheless was astounded at the out-of-the-box, silky smoothness of the cycling of the action. Attempting to create any movement at the rear of the barrel by poking a finger through the ejection port was unsuccessful, as was attempting to move the muzzle end. This thing is just TIGHT!
Finish is a nice, smooth, consistent-all-over black matte. Grips are very nice, checkered mahogany.
Another thing that astounded me is the glittering, mirror-like appearance of the bore. I’ve never seen one like it – it looks like highly polished silver. If I can keep it that way, I’m hoping it will give me an extra 100 FPS!
The gun came sealed in a plastic, sort of “baggie,” and covered inside and out with something that looked and felt a little like a mix of 10W30 and liquid cosmolene. It was easy to remove the stuff and replace it with one of my own favorite lubes.
It came with an eight-round ACT mag (unfortunately only one, though for the price I’m not complaining) which I have no experience with, though from online research I understand that it is a rather high-end, high-quality item.
So far I have only managed to put 100 rounds through it, one trip to the range, with 230-gn. ball ammo. There were no problems at all. I loaded the 100 rounds five at a time, so there were 20 mag changes. I have read of some others having problems getting all eight rounds out of the mag, but I never loaded that many so have no comment on this.
Sights are military style – simple, low and fixed, but slightly higher than the standard GI sights. The mag well is slightly beveled.
One thing that had me a little concerned was the fact that the ejection port is standard military, neither lowered nor beveled, but so far no problems with ejection or anything else.
I did end up with a small, slightly bleeding slice in the web between my right thumb and index finger, and traced it to a very sharp edge on the bottom rear of the manual safety. Easily fixed.
I should mention here that on one (and regrettably only one) of the 20 targets that I shot at, at ten yards, all five shots went into one ragged hole. All my other groups were 2 – 3 inches across, but that one group tells me that my new gun is a whole lot more accurate than I am.
I shot one target from a rest at ten yards, the shots grouping about one inch above, and one-and-a-half inches to the right of the point of aim. I like a bit more opening than the usual gap in my rear sights, so I think I’ll have my gunsmith figure out exactly how much to take off the inside of the left ear, and make it go right where I want it to.
I am, so far, very pleased with the FX45. I don’t know if it is manufactured by the same plant that makes the Metro or not, but if it is, I highly recommend it.
