Category: Tisas

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1911 2011 9mm double-stack double-stacked Tisas

Carry DS9 – A Good Gun But Not In Love With It

The last time I posted about the Tisas Carry DS9, I’d only recently bought the gun.

That was back in February 2024. It is now June 2024. I’ve owned the gun right at four months and I’ve right at 1200 rounds through the gun! Yeah, it’s that much fun to shoot/own! And, of those 1200 rounds, it has only misfed one time. I was also able to shoot that same round from the gun after loading it back into the mag. It’s eaten steel cased ammo, lots of JHP, and lots of JHP that is considered good SD ammo. This may well make for a good gun for training courses. It can withstand gunk/carbon/dirt, too — I went maybe 400 rounds before I cleaned it, at one point.

I’ve a running thread at 1911forum.com that has somewhat detailed updates. I’ve also been posting video updates on YouTube.

Initially, I ran into an issue with the gun that I couldn’t ignore or adapt to. The gun had a trigger that was not only somewhat heavy, but it was difficult to work around. The trigger wall itself was super thick, to the point that I was pulling the gun out of target alignment when actuating it. The goal was to not modify the gun before I hit 1000 rounds. I made it to maybe 450 rounds before I decided that I had to either pay a gunsmith to make the trigger better or do it myself.

I ended up buying a 19 lb mainspring and a sear spring from EGW. The sear spring is what I thought would solve the issue. I actually pulled the OEM sear spring and looked at it. The OEM spring was bent oddly and didn’t have a lot of spring/give. It was also difficult to remove and re-install. I believe the main issue was the sear spring and I was correct – when I received the EGW sear spring, it immediately solved the issue. The new spring didn’t require any tuning, either. The trigger was a bit over 5 lb when I got the gun. By 450 rounds, it was at 4 lb 8 oz. The new sear spring didn’t change the trigger weight but did change the trigger wall. The wall was much more crisp after that upgrade.

I installed the 19 lb mainspring just to determine if I’d like the change. Initially, I didn’t like it. It made the trigger feel sloppy (added some slack). I put the OEM mainspring back into the gun. Oh – that’s also the first time I did something like that. I didn’t think I could do it without a workbench or clamp but I was able to replace it without issue. I ended up re-installing the EGW mainspring and the gun ended up wearing in – the gun’s trigger feels fantastic now.

I also did several detailed strips of the gun, just to look at the individual parts. I can verify that the gun has NO MIM parts. Not a single part is MIM. None of the parts, apart from the weird sear spring, has fitment issues. No, none are polished, but they’re standard parts and fit well enough.

After I crossed 1000 rounds, I decided to have a bit of fun with the gun. I ordered 14 lb and 12 lb flat recoil springs (from EGW). I thought they’d fit but they wouldn’t fit around the short guide rod. I ended up having to buy a full length guide rod (the requirement was I required a 1/4″ diameter rod), which came with a plug designed for use with a FLGR.

I installed the parts and was shocked again…the gun felt even better, just racking the slide. When I took it to the range, I was shooting quite a bit faster, while still being accurate. The lighter recoil spring makes the gun feel more manageable, control-wise. It seems to shoot flatter. The Prodigy comes stock with a 12-lb recoil spring and those guns shoot really well. There are more than a few videos that state the Tisas guns are over-sprung…I believe it’s true.

Another great thing about the gun is that iron sights will co-witness (1/3rd) with the optic. I’ve a Cyelee CAT that works well with this gun. This optic has been 100% dependable.

There are a few bad things about this gun, though.

The optics cut is crappy. Tisas CS is insisting that the issue isn’t that they’ve milled the optics cut wrong, but that the optics makers have milled their optics wrong. I don’t think that’s the case, as I tried two different brands (Holosun and Cyelee) and neither would fit well. I could see daylight between both optics and the slide. As well, both optics were factory zero’d to have the dot rendering generally within the center of the glass, but when I installed both, both dots were rendering super-high. I wasn’t the only person with this issue, either, and many of those folks complained that they couldn’t zero their optics because they ran out of elevation adjustment when trying to bring the dot down. I fixed my issue by using an optic ship (bought from Amazon). The shim allowed a better fit on the gun (no daylight between the optic and slide) and also allowed a lower shifting of the rendered dot. The shim doesn’t help everyone, though. Some folks stated they had to use two shims to get their optic to properly zero.

What’s funny is that Tisas keeps trying to dodge blame. Not only that, but folks keep insisting that Holosun is a cheap optic and that makes Holosun at fault. WTF. These aren’t EOTechs but they aren’t exactly cheap, either.

Tisas has a problem with milling in general. Initially, their single stacked 1911s had (and still do have) issues fitting standard 1911 sights. Part of this is because they’re avoiding licensing Novak specifications. Later on, folks started complaining that they couldn’t mount their standard-sized lights on the M1918 rail mount. Tisas stated that the rails will only mount small lights. This mainly affected their Carry line – they installed smaller rails for some reason. This issue migrated to their new line of Carry DS9s. Now there’s mounting issues with the optics and I know for a fact that it is indeed the slide milling that is the issue.

Those issues and the fact that Tisas didn’t jump to help folks means that I won’t be buying any other Tisas guns. There’s also another reason. I bought the Carry DS9 after already owning a couple of double stacked 1911s that cost over twice as much as the Tisas. Those two guns feel better and shoot better. They feel expensive. That’s not saying that someone with a DS9 won’t be able to outshoot someone with a SAS II UL. What I’m saying is that, no matter how much they make the DS9s cheaper, it’s still a cheap (as in cheaply made) gun. There are immediate and significant differences when comparing a DS9 to a SAS II UL, whether a person is just handling both or shooting both. No, most folks won’t cross-shop those two guns but I’m not the only person that has bought a DS9 after owning a Prodigy or SAS II UL or even a Staccato.

In summary, I didn’t need the DS9 and the SAS II UL almost certainly spoiled me. The DS9’s trigger will never feel like the UL’s trigger. The DS9 rattles. It has side to side play in the slide. The trigger is a bit sloppy. The DS9 right-side safety isn’t blended (it cuts my hand – my Tisas single stacked Duty 45 does the same thing and I ended up swapping in a single sided safety to save my hand). The DS9 isn’t bull-barreled. There’s the optics milling issue. That sear spring on the DS9 was shoddy. All of those 7-8 sentences I just typed is justification to stay away, in my humble opinion.

For those who don’t already own a 2011 or nicely crafted double stacked 1911, this gun is probably for you, as long as you remember that a cheaper gun is going to be built cheaper. There’s a reason why 2011s, up until recently, were priced at mid $1000. If you already own something twice the cost of a DS9 (or other variant), you’re going to be disappointed, unless you love to tinker.

I love it but I’m not in love with it.

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1911 2011 9mm double-stack double-stacked Tisas

Let’s Discuss Several Several Things About the Tisas Carry

I’ve been to the range twice with the Tisas Carry DS9.

I’ll share some information about the first range visit. I also suspected some of the things we discussed in my last post would be apparent during the first range visit.

The trigger had issues. The gun initially had a thick walled trigger. While the trigger itself wasn’t heavy, it wasn’t light either, so that’s a wash. The trigger wall was stiff, but I shot maybe 130 rounds from the gun, so the wall softened a bit. As well, the trigger is now lighter by 1 lb.

Between the trigger’s issues and the sights, I was having issues hitting where I aimed. I shot low (90 degrees low) with every shot — not low left, but directly low. I’m not sure how to use the U-notch sights, but I’m thinking they’re off by a bit, at least.

The gun didn’t hiccup at all during the first range visit. I shot a mix of ammo, some being HP, some being SD HP, and some being FMJ. The gun is flat-shooting, too.

When I got home from the first range visit, I sat while watching TV and kept racking the gun and pulling the trigger to get that thick wall to wear-in as quickly as possible.

When I went to the range next (two days later), I shot 187 rounds. Quite a bit of ammo was shot, some HP, some SD ammo, and a lot of range ammo. I had one fail to feed one one HP (I think it was Winchester range JHP). I put it back in the magazine and it feed and shot successfully.

The gun also shot a lot better, probably due to the trigger breaking in. Also, I man-handled the gun, as the first range visit, I was sloppy with gun control (recoil management and probably trigger control). My grouping were MUCH better this range visit.

I now have 317 rounds through the gun. The gun has yet to be cleaned, which says a lot, because I’ve looked in the gun and it’s pretty filthy. The rails were overly lubricated, which may have helped. I may clean it tomorrow, as I’m not intentionally trying to induce filth-related failures.

I also published a video. I’ll be producing a longer duration video soon. The short duration one below lacks some information (I had to make it fit into a 15 minute timeframe).

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1911 2011 double-stack double-stacked Tisas

I Now Have The Tisas Carry DS!

I posted that I bought a Tisas 1911 Carry DS.

The Tisas 1911 Carry DS product page is here.

For some reason, I had a difficult time obtaining this gun.

First, I should’ve bought it from a different seller. The place I purchased it has a spotty customer service reputation and many folks that have purchase things from them have had bad experiences.

Second, the gun took a day to ship, as the seller created the pickup slip after the mail had been picked up for that day, so the package waited another day before USPS picked it up. USPS picked it up on Tuesday.

It was delivered to the my choice of gun store on Thursday, at 1:30 PM. The gun store sat on it until Friday (WTF). They texted me Friday morning (a bit after 10 AM) saying that the gun was ready and that I could come pick it up.

I went to pick it up at 11:30 AM. It took me 15 minutes to get there and then 15 minutes to complete the background check paperwork (I had to redo one form and redid another form two times). I gave the cashier my state ID and concealed carry license.

Now, normally, there’s maybe a 5-10 minute wait for me and then they tell me that the I passed the background check. I ended up waiting 40 minutes. I wanted to leave and thought that they’d call me when it was approved, but I didn’t want to do the paperwork over again (if I couldn’t come back until the next day) and didn’t want to be on the way home just for them to call me back in (or call me after I’ve arrived back at home). They called me just before I walked out.

WTF. It was a little bit busy, but I know damned well that I don’t have any dirt in my background. I’ve used this location two other times, and didn’t have to wait that long during those times. It was busy but it wasn’t 40 min delay busy. Either NICS had issues with their systems or maybe NICS itself was having a super busy day.

It was fucking odd waiting that long. I was running out of things to look at in the store. I almost asked what took so long, but I was so flustered, I knew I was going to pop off, so I just shut the hell up so that I could leave as quickly as possible. Also, their damned FFL transfer fee went up (it’s now $45…that’s kinda high around here). I was unaware until it was time to pay. Again, I just wanted to leave, so I didn’t say anything.

This place is an odd gun store. I’ve never liked using them for firearms transfers but they were close to home and my choices were limited (or so I thought). I asked some folks on Reddit about this place and apparently, they’re the d-bags of the local gun stores (I’m not sure what defines d-bag here). I’ve never had issues or conflicts with the staff there, but I swear, there’s something “off” about the place.

So, I will never visit that store again. There are other stores I can use to buy things. For firearms transfers, I found out from a Reddit user that my range (I’m a member) charges $15 for transfers, for members. I could’ve used them the past 3 firearms I purchased!! What’s cool is that I could have a gun transferred there (or buy one there) and then immediately go shoot it!

So, after I got in my car, I THEN checked the firearm. Yeah, they didn’t let me check it before I did the FFL paperwork, which is bad – the reason most GOOD places let you check the gun before you do the paperwork is because the paperwork seals the deal and if the gun is broken or is missing parts (like a magazine), you can decline the transfer because there’s something wrong with the product you bought. Of the three guns I had transferred there, they only let me check one of those three and that one check was after the paperwork was completed and after I’d paid for the transfer.

I checked to see if the gun was present and that I had the two mags that came with the gun. Then I closed the box and drove home.

I got home and looked at the gun. This gun is nicer than folks will expect. A lot of guys keep insisting that, since the gun is a budget (very budget priced) 2011-patterned 1911, there has to be something wrong with it, like shoddy workmanship of the gun, tolerance issues, etc.

The gun is a $900 gun (MSRP) that I bought for $700 (street price). It feels like (at very least) a $900 gun.

Fitment is good, not great, but again, it’s a $900 1911/2011. It’s also not bull-barreled, so fitment isn’t going to be as tight as a bull-barreled gun would (generally, bull barrel guns have better slide to frame fitment).

Finish is good – the slide is QPQ and the frame is Cerakoted.

It came with two mags. Most of the latest budget 2011s have been coming with one mag. Two mags are certainly better than one. The mags are Checkmate mags, which are Staccato-patterned. They are good mags (at least $65-70 each).

The sights are good and are dovetailed. I believe the front is Novak-styled (not actual Novak patterned, though). Tisas has been pinning the front sight up until recently. The rear is Glock-patterned, which is great and means there are MANY replacement options. As well, if you decide to use an optic, you don’t lose the rear sight when the optics cut plate is removed. The rears will cowitness 1/3rd! As they are, the sights offer a great sight picture. The rear offers a semi-wide rounded U-notch and the front sight is a contrast white dot.

The optics cut is patterned for RMSc, which means I can continue to run a Holosun. The optic mounts directly to the cut (no adapter plate is needed).

The gun has a titanium firing pin, which is great.

The grip is nice. It is easily nicer than the grip on my SAS II UL. What’s nicer? It has front strap checkering, even on the polymer grip module. The side texturing feels like it will be sufficient for shooting, while also not being overly aggressive in texture. I saw someone say they thought it felt cheap. That same guy owns a SAS II UL – THAT gun’s grip feels cheap and it’s an $1600 2011!

The trigger’s shoe is polymer, but there are high end 2011s with polymer trigger shoes (Staccato and Springfield Armory Emissary guns come to mind). The trigger is also not all that light (but not heavy either). I assessed the trigger twice – an average of 5 trigger pulls netted a first average of 4 lb 13 oz. The second group of pulls averaged out to 5 lb 1 oz. 5 lbs isn’t heavy but it isn’t light, either. The perfect weight for me would be high 3s and low 4s. The trigger wall is pretty firm, though.

I field stripped it (I also removed the firing pin), and checked each part. There are some tool marks, but it doesn’t have super ugly marks like the LFA Apollo 11 or the EAA Girsan Witness 2311 guns. This gun is MIM-less. There is not a single MIM part in this gun. My Tisas Duty single stacked 1911 that I bought 2 years ago has some MIM – you can clearly see the cast lines and stamps on those parts.

The plan is to take it to the range tomorrow (or more like, today, as it is 2:30 AM right now).

I may even carry this gun, as it doesn’t feel big to me and fits in all of my 1911 holsers (those that accept railed 1911s, at least). I can conceal the grip well, too.

So far, there isn’t much to not like about the gun. In fact, I currently have no dislikes.

If Tisas does an Officer sized 2011, I’m going to buy it…there’s no question. If they follow the same recipe that they used with the Carry, a smaller 2011 is going to be an instant hit.

I’m currently working on capturing video footage for the gun that I will eventually share on YouTube.

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1911 2011 double-stack double-stacked Tisas

I Purchased A Tisas Double Stack 1911!

This is my annual purchase for 2024!

I mentioned not long ago that Tisas is now making double stacked 1911s. I also have documented my journey with the Tisas Duty BR45 that I bought 2 years ago.

It is almost 1 o’clock AM and I was viewing availability of the new Tisas double stack 1911s. I was watching to see if I could find low priced variants, and also was waiting to see reviews of them – there are not all that many, currently. I did not intend to purchase until I noticed that the prices were creeping upward. As well, most places that had them earily in the week had sold out. I decided to buy now.

I bought a black Carry model. I’d been studying the Duty variant but none of those have been available…I can get one of those later, if need be. I was also looking at the MAC DS varaint, but didn’t feel like spending $900 on a 1911 (even though that price is below MSRP).

Note that the Tisas will be MIM-less (all but the recoil spring plug). Also, the gun comes with 2 mags. As well, the gun is optics-ready and the cover plate does not have the rear sight attached (which is great).

I’m excited about this gun, as it will be my second legit 2011. I saw some Prodigys that were marked way down from MSRP, but those were still $1100. I also looked at Apollo 11. This gun also undercuts the LFA Apollo 11 by a fair margin ($300) and comes with an extra mag, as well as having no MIM.

I’m happy with my single stacked Tisas and know they’re reliable, so I decided to give their 2011 a try.

This time, I bought from TheGunDock.com, mainly due to their lower pricing.

As with every gun purchase, I’ll document my journey with this gun.

UPDATE (2/10/2024): I waited two days for the gun to ship, but my FFL hasn’t yet sent it’s FFL information to the place I purchased the gun. They sent it to me by mistake. The gun store requires the FFL to send the info, not the person buying the gun. Until my FFL can follow the process, shipping won’t occur. I asked them to resend the info again, but it was late in the afternoon and I don’t think they saw my email. I may get the gun by the end of next week, IF my FFL clears up their mistake either tomorrow or Monday.

Categories
2011 9mm Tisas

Tisas is Now Producing 2011s!

So, I was checking Reddit today and saw a post that Tisas had listed a double-stacked 1911 on their website product list. Within an hour, there were like 5-6 other posts (in the r/1911 subreddit).

I decided to check the product page and was shocked. I thought they’d produced a Para-patterned 1911, but they actually produced THREE (3) 2011-patterned 1911s. They producted a 5″ variant, a 4.25″ variant, and a 5″ variant of their Night Stalker SF.

Not only that, but typical recent budget 2011s offer optics cuts that remove the rear sights. The Tisas variants will allow the rear sights to stay in place when using an optic. They’re also using 1/3rd co-witness of the rear sight through the mounted optic.

What’s the difference between Para- and 2011-patterned handguns? Para-patterned guns have the grips a permanent part of the frame. The frame and grip are one piece. 2011-patterened handguns have modular polymer grips that are separate from the frame. Many folks confuse Para-patterned double-stacked 1911s as 2011s, when there’s a distinctive difference.

Anyways, here are two videos: one of the 5″ Duty DS and the other of the 4.25″ Carry DS.

UPDATE (2/8/2024): I’ve removed the YouTube videos from this post, as the publisher marked them as private. It’s a bit annoying, because the publisher was Tisas.

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1911 Duty range report range visit Tisas

Revisiting The Tisas Duty 1911

I’ve been keeping a running tally of notes after visiting the range – keep in mind that I’ve not been to the range with this particular gun in quite a while (2022). Here’s the latest version of my notes:

UPDATE 1:

  1. Range photos with detailed captions are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/yrLbWQNMmDjgJCzV8. Note: I’m not sure if Reddit will choke on Google’s URL shortener – I’ve had problems with it in the past.
  2. I brought 2 Wilson Combat mags with me, the two that the gun came with, and 1 ACT mag from another 1911. The ACT mag choked the gun once, and I knew it would be problematic because it’s been acting up the last few range visits (ie, it wasn’t an ammo issue). I bought another WC mag from the range store – it will replace the ACT mag. I will keep the ACT mag in case I need to scavenge parts from it.
  3. The B45R loved PMC Bronze 230-gr FMJ and I shot 50 rounds of it (this ammo always feels peppy). The other ammo I used was International 155-gr frangible ammo. That ammo is crappy but it never choked the B45R. My Metro Arms hates it. I also noticed slide slowdown (an indication of low powder charge) but only when shooting it out of the Metro Arms…I didn’t notice any of that with the B45R. I shot 100 rounds of the International ammo.
  4. I bought some G10 grips to replace the cheap-feeling grips that came with the gun. They work very well, and I expected nothing less (all of my other 1911s are using G10s).
  5. Issues:
    1. The WC mags will sometimes hang up in the mag well. It seems that the magazine catch/release is blocking insertion. If I hammer up on the mag, it blasts past but smacks into the upper portion of the gun (that’s probably not a good thing). If I actuate the release button a tad, the mag is allowed past. I’m hoping this issue will go away. This only happens with the WC mags. I’ve three 7-round Mecgar mags on the way here and they should arrive tomorrow. I’ll see if those get hung up. UPDATE: Found someone else reporting the same issue here – replaced the OEM mag release with a WC mag release; tested both the WC mags and GI mags – both can now be inserted without issue.
    2. This is more of a non-issue for me but has been an issue for some folks. The grip panel bushings have been said to be “off” and will not accept non-OEM screws. I had no problem using the screws provided to me by Coolhandgear.com to install their grips. I tried two sets of differing screws and had no issues.
  6. I’m absolutely loving this gun. My target gun was a Springfield Armory but I had a very difficult time deciding exactly what I wanted and then had a difficult time finding them in stock. So, I did research and decided to try the SDS 1911s. This gun hits way above it’s weight…it is very much comparable to a Springfield Armory Garrison (but railed). The B45R was well under $500, but has a forged frame (what other non-GI 1911s are in this price range that offer both forged frames and slides?). I basically stole a great 1911. I also don’t have any issues buying foreign/Turkish guns. I’m a 10 year military combat veteran, so I’m as patriotic as any self-proclaimed patriot, and have probably sacrificed more. ALL of my 1911s are non-US and I’ve Caniks and Tristars as well, one being my CC gun. I’ve no problem with any non-US-made guns.
  7. The plan is to maybe change/fit a silver barrel bushing but maybe in 6 months or so.

UPDATE 2:

  1. I visited the range tonight and put more rounds through the 1911 – 169 rounds to be exact. 150 of that was PMC Bronze FMJ and 19 was Remington HTP 185-gr JHP. There’s now a total of 319 rounds through the gun.
  2. One JHP failed to feed but the gun is very dirty now (haven’t cleaned it since the day I received it). As well, it choked when using one of the three GI mags I bought – the round was the first in the mag. No, 19 JHP rounds isn’t much but good JHP 45ACP ammo isn’t exactly cheap, so that’s going to have to suffice for now.
  3. I decided to test it at 12 yards out. I usually don’t shoot at distances longer than 12 yards. The gun is accurate, even in my hands (although there were flyers).
  4. The gun is tearing up my hand at the beavertail – still trying to determine how. I’m being pinched badly at the webbing of my hand where the two skin textures meet. I’ll use gloves the next range visit. UPDATE: I believe it is the back of the right-side (ambi) safety that is rubbing my hand raw. It isn’t sharp but isn’t rounded either…over long periods of time, it’s an issue. I may look into getting a one-sided safety.
  5. I’ve a Wilson Combat magazine release on the way. That should fix mag insertion problem with the WC and GI mags. No longer an issue.

UPDATE 3:

  1. I’ve shot 429 rounds from my SDS Imports DB45R 1911, thus far. Since I’ve been curious about it’s carry capabilities, I’ve been trying to shoot JHP from it, initially with mixed results.
  2. I initially shot Remington HTP 185-gr JHP, which generated several failures to feed (FTFs).
  3. Federal LE 185-gr JHP was used, as well (maybe 25 rounds), which also generated some FTFs.
  4. International Cartridge Corporation’s (ICC) 45ACP 155-gr frangible hollow points were used. For the most part, these shot without issue. That ammo can be used as defense ammo.
  5. I also fired 20 rounds of Underwood ($$$) 45ACP +P 230-gr JHP. 8 of the 20 rounds generated FTFs. I used Wilson Combat mags with this ammo. Since this ammo is expensive and since it generated so many FTFs, I will stop shooting that ammo through the DB45R. Once I suspect that the gun will shoot it without FTFs, I’ll test the ammo again.
  6. Inceptor ARX 118-gr defense ammo (non-JHP) was used, using the WC mag. There were no FTFs.
  7. I shot PMC Bronze 185-gr JHP (non-SD ammo), using the WC mag.. There were no FTFs.
  8. Hornady Critical Defense 185-gr JHP was shot through the gun, using the WC mag.. There were no FTFs.
  9. So, I now know that I can use the following ammo as viable ammo for self defense:
    ICC 155-gr FJHP
    Inceptor ARX 118-gr
    PMC Bronze 185-gr JHP
    Hornady Critical Defense 185-gr JHP
  10. In my view, the ammo problems are more than likely due to projectile ogive dimensions as well as hollow point size. If it were an issue with the gun, ALL the JHP I tested would be generating FTFs. There are no specification standards on ogive or projectile dimensions in today’s ammo market, so it’s difficult to make a gun 100% reliably eat all mass-produced ammo, and 1911s aren’t Glocks, so….

I plan to continue to shoot the PMC Bronze JHP ammo as range ammo, to continue the break-in process of the DB45R 1911.