Ive been seeing a lot of videos and reviews about the various Tisas 1911s. A few friends have purchased them and I have been impressed with the fit, finish, and apparent quality of the guns. I got the opportunity to pick up very lightly used a 9mm commander length Carry model today for 500 bucks. The gun feels really nice. No excessive rattling. The slide is very smooth and tight to the frame. Grip safety is well fit and smooth operating. The thumb safety clicks on and off positively. However the thumb safety does have some mush when it’s in the off position and pressed on. Feels very similar to the Colt Competition I recently sold.
Im taking it to the range tomorrow and am going to try and run over 100 rounds through it. Ill keep this thread updated in the coming months on how the gun performs. Im also just about finalized a trade with a guy for a Dan Wesson Guardian 9mm bobtail. It will be interesting to compare the two if the trade goes through.
Cool! I’ve been wanting one of these too. I ended up with the SA-35 (Hi Power) to scratch my 9mm itch instead because I didn’t know of any Tisas 9s in town.
You should bring it out to the Ranch Saturday. We’ll be banging on pistols a bit.
Well things have not started off great but not horrible either.
Lets start with the good. I got to the armory and field stripped the gun and gave it a good cleaning and oiled it. Everything looked good with no obvious machine markings or warped/broken parts. The gun is also pretty accurate. The group shown was the first 100 rounds through the gun from 10 yards. I wasn’t shooting for groups, but I wasnt just blasting away either.
However there was one bad thing. The extractor. I started to have random failures to extract malfunctions. The spent casing would get left in the chamber and the slide would attempt to feed a live round behind it. Sometimes it happened twice in one magazine, sometimes it would go 50 rounds between the malfunctions. In the first 200 rounds I would guess 10-15 times. I tried to 10-8 Performance extractor test of firing one round at a time without the magazine in the gun. It failed spectacularly. Most of the time the casing fell out through the mag well while other times it would get caught in the ejection port. out of 20 shots, it properly ejected maybe 5 cases. I tired a couple other extractor tests like placing a live cartridge on the breachface under the extractor and rotating and shaking the slide. It did better on these tests and would pass the test most of the time, but barely. Here are some pictures I took of the round under the extractor.
I added some tension to the extractor and shot another 150ish rounds through the gun. The failure to extract problem happened again but this time less often. Maybe 5 times. I added more tension and then tried to live round under the casing tests again. This time it passed without any issues. I ran out of time and was unable to try live fire again. Im hoping to get to the range tomorrow to try it again. Here isa picture I took after the last time adding tension. It looks better, but we shall see how it performs. If it still has problems Im just going to buy a Wilson Combat extractor and take it to a 1911 gunsmith.
Just for grins, put the slide on the frame without the barrel and spring and see if you have any sticky spots from the finish. Mine did and gave me no end of woe until I got that sorted. Which consisted of working it back and forth with no lube for a few minutes. Perfect since.
I do see that the extractor is too long. Those who know 1911s a thousand better than I do (which wouldn’t take much) say that long extractors are common on production pistols.
My nephew has the same gun and has experienced the same problem.
I had similar issues with my Springfield Armory EMP. My gunsmith does great work on the 1911 and said that is very common with 1911 9mm with internal extractors.
He adjusted the extractor tension on mine, polished the extractor. Might as well have the feed ramp polished if your gun is visting the gunsmith. I also had the barrel crowned.
That’s a properly finished extractor claw/hook in your pic above.
Virtually all production 1911s never have bottom of claw radiused as yours has been.
Too little tension and a sharp, 90 degree angle at this point are a guarantee for failures to extract.
I remember you posting about this. I was hoping it was a one off, cuz I wanted a 9mm plinker. I ended up with the SA-35 (springfield Hi Power). I’ve slowly grown to enjoy the SA-35.
Here’s something that you don’t see every day. Fitting a 9mm extractor using the same method as fitting a .45 extractor. It takes more time and effort but yields great results. I do mine this way and know a few others who do also.
Go to this LINK](https://www.1911forum.com/threads/steve-in-allentown-extractor-fitting.829865/) to read all about fitting an external 1911 extractor correctly. There’s more to it than simply dropping one into the slide. Tension is just one of the three basic areas that need to be addressed when fitting an extractor and is last on the list to be addressed. The other two are geometry and deflection.
FWIW, I prefer EGW extractors for two reasons. One is that they’re shorter than the others which means there’s less work during fitting. Two is that they have extra “meat” in all the right places to allow custom fitting to every slide that’s ever come across my bench. Good luck with the Wilson extractor.
Fitting a 9mm extractor so that the edge of the hook pushes against the flat immediately ahead of the case rim is the most common, fastest, and easiest method which makes it a favorite of 'smiths. But, in my experience, it’s not the best method as I touched on in post #12. Ask your 'smith about it and watch him scratch his head.
With the Wilson extractor ordered I decided to just crank on the extractor. I’ve been fairly gentle with it since I didn’t want to over do it. Well apparently I just needed to use my man hands and put some torque on it.
Shot 100 rounds today with total reliability. Then I did the 10-8 extractor test for 20 rounds. It fully extracted all rounds. 3 of them did fly back at 6 o’clock, which isn’t ideal, but it functions now.
So the saga continues. Failures to extract started again. Took it to a gunsmith. He looked at the gun and believes the extractor tunnel is milled a little out of spec with the opening along the breachface being to narrow and binding the extractor. Filled out the warranty paperwork today and waiting on my RMA label from Tisas.
Be advised; too much extractor tension can result in occasional failure to fully go into battery.
As a Murican I tend to align with the “mo is betta” camp.
This is not always the case.
Sorry to hear about your 1911 woes. Between the fact its imported, and chambered in 9mm, reliability is probably going to be a tall order. They probably make a good base gun for a jr 1911 gunsmith, but based on your results not a good choice for gun newbs.
Tisas had the gun for about a week. I shot 100 rounds through it yesterday with 100 percent reliability. Tried the 10-8 extractor test and it extracted and ejected 20 rounds without issue. Not the most consistent ejection pattern but it reliably did so. Im going to put another 200 rounds through the gun before I call it good.
Took the Tisas to the range again today. I’m now over 400 rounds without issue. Seems they have fixed the issue and they did it fast and easy.
I really like this gun. Way more than I thought I would. It doesn’t have the fit and finish of my S&W PC Pro Series or my Staccato C2, but it carries well and shoots straight. That’s not to say the fit and finish is bad though. If this were a 1000 dollar Springfield or Colt I wouldn’t be upset with the build quality at all. The only flaw I can find (now that it’s reliable hahaha) is the safety has some spongy movement in the off position.
For someone wanting to try the 1911, I think it’s a very good budget option.
