I was lucky enough to get to take my new 1911 .45ACP Commander Bobtail (CBOB) out shooting today. I had shot it in the past, but I didn’t have enough ammo to shoot it as much as I had wanted. This 1911 is widely believed to be the best value Custom 1911 on the market right now. I paid less than $1K shipped to my FFL.
It is a series 70 Commander (4.25″ barrel) 1911 with a bobtail. It utilizes many Ed Brown components, a sure sign that they are trying to make a high quality weapon. First impressions are, I LOVE THIS GUN! Recoil is manageable, and this 1911 is capable of some serious accuracy. The trigger is clean and breaks very nicely.
The Trijicon night sights are very nice as well. Considering that most gunfights take place in low light conditions, they will likely be very nice to have if you ever need to use this weapon to save lives.
I got a chance to run about 100 rounds through it and experienced no failures except for two that I can without a doubt blame on the Metalform magazines that failed to properly feed the final round in the magazine. I feel pretty good about it so far though, considering that these require a little bit of a break in period. It may have helped that I had cycled the slide probably close to 1000 times since I bought it. I had also field stripped it and lubed it well. Ammo used today was 230gr Federal FMJ that I bought at Wal-Mart for about $16/box.
The few Speer Gold Dots I have tried so far worked fine on previous outings. My stock Dan Wesson mags performed flawlessly to this point. I am going to be investing in some Wilson Combat magazines pretty soon though.
I have been loading the mags to 7 rounds just because when I load a magazine with 8 rounds when the slide isn’t locked back, the top round in the magazine gets dinged up a little and the magazine doesn’t lock into place quite as easily. This might make tactical reloads difficult I am thinking.
I was impressed with the accuracy. I could easily hit targets as far away as 20-25 yards away as long as I did my part. Here is a picture of the fit between the slide and receiver. This attention to detail is one of the reasons that Dan Wesson (owned by CZ) is making such a good reputation for themselves.
The bobtail makes carrying this gun more comfortable than I imagine it would be otherwise. It should also help with concealment as well.
I plan on shooting this gun quite a bit more. I have also found some good .45ACP defensive loads that I want to do some of my own personal testing with and will report on in this blog sometime in the future.
I am grateful to many of the members of various gun boards (namely 1911 Forums) that helped me discover the value of this 1911 as well as locate one for me to purchase. COTEP!