Unlicensed Dremel
Moderator
Finally got one - wanted one for several years now. I'm quite happy to have found one for sale, since they seemed to have mostly dried up.
This is an email I sent to some friends, just FYI - I'm nowhere near an expert on these - I don't hang out on gun boards much any more and don't keep up, so going in "blind"..... so I apologize in advance if everyone already knows all this.
"First impressions [....]
Pros:
-Awesome hunk of all steel with excellent fit and finish; quality materials with one small exception (see below)
-Excellent touches like aggressive front checkering and rear stippling; beautiful wood grips; pre-drilled frame holes for mounting optic rail
-Comes with 2 front sights - one regular and one fiber optic, which are very easy to change out with the supplied allen wrench and a brass punch
-Great quality locking box and accessories, including two extra recoil springs of varying weights
-Slide is very easy to rack
-Design allows for racking with the safety ON, so you can rack and press-check safely, without disengaging.
-Mag doesn't just drop free - it "shoots" free
-Manual safety has a large ergonomic "shelf" making it easy to use
Cons (more than I would have guessed):
-First and foremost, the magazine's floorplate is PLASTIC - jiminy jumpin, I hate plastic. Why would you use highest quality materials in every piece of this gun, except one tiny one, when all you'd have to do is use aluminum or steel instead for the floorplate? Major fail, Tanfoglio.
-Only comes with one mag (or maybe others come with 2 mags and the seller just kifed one of them? I only got one)
-The magazine it comes with (which I found out is the correct / standard issue one now, so this concern is thus not unique to me), only holds TWELVE rounds, not 15, so it's 3 rounds short of what it was advertised to be by the seller, and what it used to be with the prior mag design. This is disappointing. But I'm guessing that the old mag design was less reliable, and that this one is more reliable, or they wouldn't have made the switch in design. The spring in the mag is extremely powerful. You *can* in fact get a 13th one in there, with an insane amount of pressure and thumb pain (sometimes), but it slips in so incredibly tightly, that it seems like it's about to bend the feed lips out - it's really ridiculous how hard it is to get the 13th one in, as is said to be what the new mag supposedly technically really is (13). But no way would I trust cycling with 13+1 with the top round that tight pressing up against the bottom of the slide. So in reality, this becomes a 12+1 gun at most, with this mag. Even just getting the 12th round in is very difficult ... hopefully this will loosen over time. This is really the single biggest drawback because I can get a .45 acp / .45 super double-stack holding 12+1 or 13+1! A 10mm 2-stack should hold at least two more (at least 14+1), and preferably 15+1 as the old ones did... as my old Witness 10mm did. I suppose I could try some of the old mags to see if they run. If they're fatter and thus not drop-free, that wouldn't bother me a bit... all that matters is reliability. If the old style mags work then this would also solve the plastic floorplate fail issue. I'll order one or two.
-It's a true 1911-like SAO, not a DA/SA (cocked and locked is the best option) - I would definitely prefer a DA/SA with decocker for this pistol, which I bought for a woods defense gun (some might consider this an advantage, not a disadvantage though)
-No decocker (not a big deal as an SAO, since the "hammer down on loaded chamber on an SAO" is not a recommended carry mode option, in my view)
-Manual Safety isn't super-light, but it's not as stiff / resistant as I would like it to be - can and will definitely get accidentally disengaged sometimes. As large and ergo as the "shelf" is, they should have made it much stiffer, and it would still be easy to *intentionally* disengage, without risking accidental disengagement.
-Trigger has a bit of creep
-Trigger reset itself is moderately short, but then there is some take-up after reset before breaking - don't care for that too much, but this is pretty minor. (No creep after the resistance-free take-up upon reset; clean break)
-Rear sight is fully adjustable, but it would be nice if it had a white outline around the bottom of the notch - it doesn't.
-The mag release is huge and "long". Never seen a mag release like this....very wide, and "long" or "tall" or however you want to describe that - sticks way out to the left. Makes no sense on a "Hunter" model gun - it's like this gun has an identity crises - can't decide if it's a target shooter for competitions or a hunter. But the name is Hunter, so I deem this a moderate fail. Last thing you want on a woods gun is an accidental mag release before you need the gun. But, OTOH, this would be an excellent competition gun, I should think.
The slide release / takedown lever's axle extends a good 1/8th of an inch out the right side of the frame (much more than other CZ 75 clones). This is good for pushing it out to take down, but can "rake" your fingers if you grab the slide in the wrong place to rack it.
That's it. Still, with all the flaws, I still think I will end up finding it a big thumbs up, and keeping it. It's got a lot going for it. Obviously, test firing is next to come. It's reported to be capable of 4 MOA (2") at 50 yards - we'll see."
So my question is, what mags that I can order NEW hold more than 12 and still are known to work (if any)? Thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfGsMhKbnw0
P.S. That video there - the guy says "13 fits fine, but 14 is very difficult" - that must be a different magazine (it is - it looks different), because as I said above, the mag that ships with them now, the reality is one less: "12 fits though very tightly -- but 13 is very VERY difficult, bordering on impossible".
This is an email I sent to some friends, just FYI - I'm nowhere near an expert on these - I don't hang out on gun boards much any more and don't keep up, so going in "blind"..... so I apologize in advance if everyone already knows all this.
"First impressions [....]
Pros:
-Awesome hunk of all steel with excellent fit and finish; quality materials with one small exception (see below)
-Excellent touches like aggressive front checkering and rear stippling; beautiful wood grips; pre-drilled frame holes for mounting optic rail
-Comes with 2 front sights - one regular and one fiber optic, which are very easy to change out with the supplied allen wrench and a brass punch
-Great quality locking box and accessories, including two extra recoil springs of varying weights
-Slide is very easy to rack
-Design allows for racking with the safety ON, so you can rack and press-check safely, without disengaging.
-Mag doesn't just drop free - it "shoots" free
-Manual safety has a large ergonomic "shelf" making it easy to use
Cons (more than I would have guessed):
-First and foremost, the magazine's floorplate is PLASTIC - jiminy jumpin, I hate plastic. Why would you use highest quality materials in every piece of this gun, except one tiny one, when all you'd have to do is use aluminum or steel instead for the floorplate? Major fail, Tanfoglio.
-Only comes with one mag (or maybe others come with 2 mags and the seller just kifed one of them? I only got one)
-The magazine it comes with (which I found out is the correct / standard issue one now, so this concern is thus not unique to me), only holds TWELVE rounds, not 15, so it's 3 rounds short of what it was advertised to be by the seller, and what it used to be with the prior mag design. This is disappointing. But I'm guessing that the old mag design was less reliable, and that this one is more reliable, or they wouldn't have made the switch in design. The spring in the mag is extremely powerful. You *can* in fact get a 13th one in there, with an insane amount of pressure and thumb pain (sometimes), but it slips in so incredibly tightly, that it seems like it's about to bend the feed lips out - it's really ridiculous how hard it is to get the 13th one in, as is said to be what the new mag supposedly technically really is (13). But no way would I trust cycling with 13+1 with the top round that tight pressing up against the bottom of the slide. So in reality, this becomes a 12+1 gun at most, with this mag. Even just getting the 12th round in is very difficult ... hopefully this will loosen over time. This is really the single biggest drawback because I can get a .45 acp / .45 super double-stack holding 12+1 or 13+1! A 10mm 2-stack should hold at least two more (at least 14+1), and preferably 15+1 as the old ones did... as my old Witness 10mm did. I suppose I could try some of the old mags to see if they run. If they're fatter and thus not drop-free, that wouldn't bother me a bit... all that matters is reliability. If the old style mags work then this would also solve the plastic floorplate fail issue. I'll order one or two.
-It's a true 1911-like SAO, not a DA/SA (cocked and locked is the best option) - I would definitely prefer a DA/SA with decocker for this pistol, which I bought for a woods defense gun (some might consider this an advantage, not a disadvantage though)
-No decocker (not a big deal as an SAO, since the "hammer down on loaded chamber on an SAO" is not a recommended carry mode option, in my view)
-Manual Safety isn't super-light, but it's not as stiff / resistant as I would like it to be - can and will definitely get accidentally disengaged sometimes. As large and ergo as the "shelf" is, they should have made it much stiffer, and it would still be easy to *intentionally* disengage, without risking accidental disengagement.
-Trigger has a bit of creep
-Trigger reset itself is moderately short, but then there is some take-up after reset before breaking - don't care for that too much, but this is pretty minor. (No creep after the resistance-free take-up upon reset; clean break)
-Rear sight is fully adjustable, but it would be nice if it had a white outline around the bottom of the notch - it doesn't.
-The mag release is huge and "long". Never seen a mag release like this....very wide, and "long" or "tall" or however you want to describe that - sticks way out to the left. Makes no sense on a "Hunter" model gun - it's like this gun has an identity crises - can't decide if it's a target shooter for competitions or a hunter. But the name is Hunter, so I deem this a moderate fail. Last thing you want on a woods gun is an accidental mag release before you need the gun. But, OTOH, this would be an excellent competition gun, I should think.
The slide release / takedown lever's axle extends a good 1/8th of an inch out the right side of the frame (much more than other CZ 75 clones). This is good for pushing it out to take down, but can "rake" your fingers if you grab the slide in the wrong place to rack it.
That's it. Still, with all the flaws, I still think I will end up finding it a big thumbs up, and keeping it. It's got a lot going for it. Obviously, test firing is next to come. It's reported to be capable of 4 MOA (2") at 50 yards - we'll see."
So my question is, what mags that I can order NEW hold more than 12 and still are known to work (if any)? Thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfGsMhKbnw0
P.S. That video there - the guy says "13 fits fine, but 14 is very difficult" - that must be a different magazine (it is - it looks different), because as I said above, the mag that ships with them now, the reality is one less: "12 fits though very tightly -- but 13 is very VERY difficult, bordering on impossible".
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