Cthulhu
Member
Last night I got to put a very limited amount of rounds through a sample GSR SS. It showed excellent fit and finish, and the slide traveled smoothly yet with no play, similar to a Springfield TRP. The slide, while decidedly Sig inspired, looked appropriate and businesslike on the railed frame. Somehow I managed to cycle the gun with 100% sucess despite a lack of front slide serrations. The external extractor seemed to do its job, inelegant as it is. Functioning of the gun and Novak SS mag was perfect for me with Win Win-Clean (no, I didn't pick the ammo) which, as most people know, puts it reputation for being "clean" before traits like accuracy or feed reliability. The three dot sights were easy to pick up and the accuracy was extremely good, putting all rounds except my hand cycled first shot into a 2" continuous string at 15yds. The aforementioned first shot was a flyer about an 1" away high left, though I'm not arrogant enough to assume it was attributable to a problem with the gun. It was most likely due to it being my first shot ever with this unfamiliar firearm. I'm sure it is capable of better accuracy than I displayed, but I did not have SIG's blessing to really ring it out.
Gripes? The grip safety is ill conceived for human hands. At least this pair of human hands. Instead of a memory bump it has an elongated protrusion that was obviously precision engineered to focus the recoil energy into a sharp point in the middle of the palm. It would be the first thing I would have attended to.
It also displayed the same problem as the early Smith 1911s in that the amount of pressure on the Schwartz-style grip safety and the particular grip chosen has a noticible effect on the trigger pull. Grip the gun high and the trigger was 3-5 lbs heaver than a lower grip that squeezed the GS more. For an all steel 1911 with a rail, it had a surprising amount of muzzle whip. It may be that the springs aren't quite up to snuff or the slide has a different mass and recoil velocity, but the muzzle jump seemed more pronounced than a standard 5" 1911. It reminded me of shooting a Commander with weak springs, rather snappy, but not really difficult to shoot rapidly.
Although I did not experience any problems, other people shooting this particular example reported issues with the Win Clean, mostly failures to feed during a string.
I don't see any reason that the issues with feeding and and grip safety
couldn't be easily resolved before the rest of the guns hit the street. The example I fired had a 3 digit serial, so they may have already worked them out. Price should be comparable with the Kimber Tac Pro, so its in the high mid range for a regular production 1911. Should be attractive to those who like big bore pistols with light rails (you know who you are), and those who can handle mixing a little Sig 220ST into the 1911 gene pool. Those who fall into neither will probably want to wait for the non-railed GS.
Gripes? The grip safety is ill conceived for human hands. At least this pair of human hands. Instead of a memory bump it has an elongated protrusion that was obviously precision engineered to focus the recoil energy into a sharp point in the middle of the palm. It would be the first thing I would have attended to.
It also displayed the same problem as the early Smith 1911s in that the amount of pressure on the Schwartz-style grip safety and the particular grip chosen has a noticible effect on the trigger pull. Grip the gun high and the trigger was 3-5 lbs heaver than a lower grip that squeezed the GS more. For an all steel 1911 with a rail, it had a surprising amount of muzzle whip. It may be that the springs aren't quite up to snuff or the slide has a different mass and recoil velocity, but the muzzle jump seemed more pronounced than a standard 5" 1911. It reminded me of shooting a Commander with weak springs, rather snappy, but not really difficult to shoot rapidly.
Although I did not experience any problems, other people shooting this particular example reported issues with the Win Clean, mostly failures to feed during a string.
I don't see any reason that the issues with feeding and and grip safety
couldn't be easily resolved before the rest of the guns hit the street. The example I fired had a 3 digit serial, so they may have already worked them out. Price should be comparable with the Kimber Tac Pro, so its in the high mid range for a regular production 1911. Should be attractive to those who like big bore pistols with light rails (you know who you are), and those who can handle mixing a little Sig 220ST into the 1911 gene pool. Those who fall into neither will probably want to wait for the non-railed GS.
