Here are some first impressions from just handling the gun. Haven’t shot it yet. This is also my first double stack 1911/2011
On Hilton Yam's last video, episode 86, where he reported results of an SA 1911 DS 5” that he rebuilt, his initial stock trigger pull on the stock gun was a gritty 6.5 lbs. It measured about 4lbs I think after he completed the rebuild.
The trigger pull on the 4.25” model I brought home yesterday measures 5 lbs even. I can probably work with that and get that down to 4lbs, maybe 3.5 with a little massaging. I don’t know how many rounds SA puts through them before they ship them, but they are shipping them wet, and the lube is pretty dirty. No sure if that is machining schmutz, or they ran more than just a couple of rounds through it.
The slide hangs somewhat on the disconnector when manually manipulating the slide, as Hilton observed. This will not be the first 1911 in 9mm I’ve owned that exhibits that, even Dan Wessons. Hilton’s 5” model was hanging on the disco enough to impact feeding, which he remedied for the most part when he rebuilt the gun.
I’m a right-handed, thumb-safety rider and not a fan of ambi-safeties because the right paddle on the thumb safety usually crowds my right knuckle. I’m not experiencing this so much on this gun, but I’ve never been crazy about the ergos of Springfield’s thumb safeties in general and have always changed them, most recently to Wilson low lever thumb safeties. I have a stainless one in my parts can that hasn’t been fitted to another gun, but I can’t tell without taking this pistol apart whether it will actually work with this particular gun. The Wilson safety’s paddle might actually get tangled up with the frame. I’ll save that project for later.
As an aside, I had talked to Staccato on the phone about ordering one of their pistols a few weeks ago and ordering it with a single side thumb safety. They won’t do that without me buying the gun first, getting an RMA, sending it back to them to have them install a single side safety, and they won't just ship a single side safety to the customer, because it has to be fitted. Of course it has to be fitted. Seems like they were making that harder than it needed to be on several fronts.
I am quite pleased with the iron sights on the Prodigy, which is how I plan to run this gun. That’s a whole other discussion, I know. I invariably change iron sights on just about every pistol I own, but not so with this one. The fiber front sight blade is .125, and rear blacked out u-notch is .145, which is exactly how I like them. Staccato doesn’t put a rear u-notch on their offerings, and Dawson doesn’t even market a u-notch rear sight to my knowledge, which seems somewhat odd to me.
Hilton observed that it is hard to manipulate the slide stop the way it fits into the contours of the slide and frame. It’s a traditional “retro” style slide stop which is my preference, but manipulating it is somewhat challenging due in large part to the design of the frame (IMHO). It doesn’t exactly look like it fits flush, but it feels like it. Reminds me a little of the slide stop on a first gen S&W M&P in that regard. I believe Hilton changed his slide stop to a 10-8 part that happily just dropped in for him. That might be on the short list of things I do to this gun.
The slide stop is countersunk and flush cut, much like the Staccato. As someone who has stopped a 1911 cold in the middle of a tier 2-3 match after inadvertently putting my booger picker on that pin at the exact moment the slide was cycled back, I appreciate this feature, and even smithed it into my last Springfield all steel blaster myself.
The lubed mag catch feels somewhat “sticky” when depressing it, which I think is due to it sliding inside a plastic grip. I am speculating this will break-in with use, although Hilton did change his.
I will report more after I get it to the range, hopefully this week.
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