Well Daddycat
I took the Springfield Armory Champion/compact to the the indoor range Wednesday morning and noticed a couple things and wanted to let you know about the reliability, accuracy, overall performance and quality I had with it.
I was going to do a side by side comparison between my Kimber Covert vs. the Springfield A. Champion but it just wasn't going to happen today. The Springfield just ate up too much of my time up to do anything else. It must have been set on JAM-O-MATIC. I was getting anywhere form 2 to 5 jams with every magazine I shot through it.
I ran just under 300 rounds of Federal American Eagle 230gr. FMJ about 50 of those rounds were Federal 230gr. Hydra Shoks w/a handful of Golden Sabers thrown in too.
50% of the problems for the malfunctions were that the slide stop would engage when there were still rounds to feed into her. To see if I was inducing the problem I tried different holds and kept my thumb away from the slide stop and had my friend watch closely to see if I was and it still happened. So, I'm sure it wasn't operator error.
The other 50% were the rounds (both FMJ and HPs) getting hung up on the feed ramp. It couldn't have been magazine induced. I had used 4 different magazine brands. 4 Shooting Star 7 rounders (which never caused a jam in my Kimber that was mag related), 4 New Mag-Packs 7 rounders with Wolff extra-power springs, 2 new Springfield factory 6 rounders, and 1 New Kimber factory 6 rounder. The problems occured with ALL of them. The gun wasn't able to shoot thru one mag without hiccups. I'm going to test these same mags this Saturday, with my Kimber which is a lot more reliable, not 100% but far from being as bad as the Springfield.
I thought a couple rounds into the shooting session it just needed "Broken in". I think IT just settled for being "BROKEN".
I didn't think the sharp edges would bother me, but they did........a lot. I'm sure having to clear jams every other round didn't help matters either.
The allen screw on the rear sights weren't tightened down and after about 70 rounds my shots were all over the place. I noticed it was off center, estimated where it needed to be and tightened down on it. Not a major headache but another annoyance, that contributed to the whole migrane and that needed to be mentioned. The groupings were decent after the sight incident. Regardless of the feeding problems.
Once I took it apart an started cleaning it. I noticed that there were small nicks on the frame's feed ramp. Hmmmmm.....this could be the reason for the rounds hanging up and possibly the slide stop engaging. My shooting buddy, sho has a lot more experience with 1911's, saw that there were unusual wear marks on the dust cover saying possibly the lugs weren't cut right or aligned right. When I talk to the gunsmith I'm sending it to,to hopefully get customized, Saturday I'll have him see if he can give me a more definite answer on the problem.
The link pin was never peened and will fall out if you tilt the barrel, slightly while apart.
Most of these problems could have been discovered before this pistol left the plant for the real world if they just would have run 1 measly mag of ammo through it. If they did, they still sent it out.....making you wonder about THEIR quality control.
I too primarily bought the S.A. Champion because of the slight disappointment with my Kimber, which is now been downgraded to an 'extremly slight' disappointment compared to the Champion. The disappointments with the Kimber just needed a little stronger recoil spring and their Kimpro finish was flaking off.
I don't claim to know a lot about 1911s and my small experience I have with them have been learned recently, but I do know enough to tell you is that "IT'S NOT WORKING RIGHT! HECK IT'S NOT WORKING AT ALL!" There didn't seem to be any quality control done on Springfields part. Sorry for the yelling but I'm not too happy with this gun. This pistol is a very big dissappointment.
The only plus I can say about it is It got me to work on my TAP, RACK, BANG skills. I think I got enough reps in to hold me over for 3-4 months
These are my humble observations and I strongly suggest looking elsewhere.
Good luck with your search Daddycat
Ross T.
[This message has been edited by ROSANGHAL (edited December 16, 1999).]