I’m glad we’ve reached the 1000 round goal with this gun.
I’ve owned this gun almost four years now – 3 years 10 months, to be exact. During this time, this gun has been a pain in the ass.
The last 200 or so round was not kind to me. There was an absolute crapload of fails to feed.
Initially, the gun was straightup single shot when I decided to take it to the range again, in December 2025. Immediately, I knew there was an issue when firing the first mag. I almost packed up and went home but I thought about it for a minute or so – I was thinking, “how am I going to troubleshoot this at home?” I decided to stay but I knew it was going to suck.
I spent that whole range session clearing malfunctions. I think I shot 50 rounds (I actually shot 42 rounds). I was there for an hour. The gun would be so locked up that the only way I could clear the malfunction was to pull the mag (and the mag was resisting).
The rounds were hanging on the feed ramp, no matter the magazine. I had maybe 9 magazines with me: two 8-rnd Mecgar mags, an 8-rnd ACT mag, three ACT 7-rnd GI mags, and three Wilson Combat ETM 8-rnd mags. They were ALL misfeeding. The GI mags are somewhat new, as well as one WC mag…those shouldn’t have had issues.
It was not limp-wristing, as this was happening before I fired the gun. The very first rounds were failing to chamber, whether I slingshotted the first round or if I dropped the slide on a full magazine.
One other gun uses the above-mentioned mags, which is my Metro Arms AC Commander. Yes, that gun was misfeeding too, so I kept thinking it was the mags that was causing the issues.
I lubed the gun and put a light coating of oil on the feed ramp, and then tried each mag again. The FTFs didn’t go away.
I then decided to just focus on the GI mags. I just kept shooting, thinking that the gun would eventually start shooting well again. It didn’t. I went home perplexed.
The next day, I cleaned the mags, all but the GI mags (again, as I’d cleaned them the day before the range visit). My thought was that maybe I’d assembled the mags wrong. (All nine of them?) I did notice that three of them had rather limp spring tension. I lubed each and ensured that each was properly re-assembled.
I also suspected the ammo. I only had one type of ammo with me – Winchester white box 115-gr FMJ.
The next day, I returned to the range, with Herters 115-gr FMJ. I started with that first, in a GI mag. I had immediate failures. I again kept shooting and, toward the end of the range visit, I noticed that the gun was now only misfeeding on the very first and very last rounds of the mag. As well, when the gun misfed, I was now able to sharply bump the back of the slide, which fed the round (I’d attempted that on the first range visit and the slide wasn’t having it). I only shot with the GI mags. I went home perplexed again, but a bit more sure…I don’t think the issue was the mags, as the gun felt it was getting a bit better.
When I got home, I gave the gun a once-over to ensure nothing was amiss internally (field stripped). I didn’t see anything amiss.
I then decided to order parts. I ordered a 16-lb recoil spring and a new extractor, which I didn’t think was needed, but I was getting desperate. Once I received the spring, I found that the GI guide rod would not accept the spring (it was an EGW spring). I did quick research and found that this was a particular issue with Tisas guns – the guide rod was slightly out of spec, which caused the slide to be blocked from it’s full range of rack-back. I ordered a replacement GI guide rod from EGW, which fixed the issue. I also tuned the extractor two hours before the range visit.
I also ordered an 18-lb recoil spring for the Metro Commander, as well as a new extractor (that gun had a known bad and not really tunable extractor).
I took both guns back to the range. I only used the GI mags. The Tisas shot 69 flawless rounds…no feed or extract issues. The Metro shot 62, with 2 misfeeds (one FTF and one FTE) – I didn’t tune it’s extractor, but still, I got 60 fault-free rounds from that gun.
I’ve hindsight in that I maintain a range log of all my guns. What I should’ve done was, as soon as I had issues the very first time, was consult my range logs. I had this exact same problem in the past with the Tisas, in December 2023. I shot 147 rounds that visit. Here’s my log entry:
Today’s range visit was a HORRIBLE experience. There were many FTFs, which is weird since yesterday’s feed issues were due to aluminum case ammo and GI mags.
The gun is absolutely filthy, though, even though I lubed the rails before the range visit. I can’t remember the last time I cleaned it. The feed ranp is jet-black.
Many of the feed issues were rounds nosediving on the first and second rounds of the mags. Every mag had feed failures at some point in the shooting. I’ve WC mags, ACT GI mags, the two OEM Mecgar mags, and an ACT 8 rounder (that’s known to be crappy). They all failed. There were so many fails that I stopped counting. Most of it was the PMC bronze, although I also shot Speer Lawman TMJ 230-grain ammo and Blazer aluminum cased ammo. I spent a shitload of time clearing malfunctions.
Three of the PMC rounds hung up on the feed ramp and the projectiles were so pushed in that I had to discard them. Also, more than a few PMC rounds had case lip dings…I saw those on the spent casings as well as the ones that misfed. WTAF.
The gun was failing to feed even before shooting the gun (was occurring during racking after mag insertion — and yeah, I’m sling-shotting with authority. Again, the feed ramp is absolutely filthy, so that could be the issue. I’ve only cleaned it once since ownership (Feb 2022).
Yesterday’s small count of feed issues could just be that the gun was filthy AF. I’ve to keep in mind that these guns are not Glocks, so I shouldn’t be treating them as such. They require cleaning.
I’ll clean the gun today and visit the range again tomorrow or Friday to test again. I’ll also give the internals a once-over, just in case something is amiss with the gun.
I think I’m just going to not shoot PMC JHP through this gun anymore…it’s a waste of ammo. I’m just confused as to why this box was so bad when yesterday’s box wasn’t as bad. Last year, I also shot this same ammo without issues…they’re all from the same batch (I bought like 250 rounds of that ammo a year or two ago, from an online ammo store).
Also, my hand (between the thumb and index finger) is tore TF up…skin isn’t broken but it may as well be. I’ll have to either shoot with gloves or put a bandage on that portion of my hand. I think it’s actually the right side of the grip and thumb safeties that’s chewing up my hand.
I find it difficult to believe that the extractor and recoil spring got tired before 1000 rounds were shot, but I’ve no idea what type of metal is being used for Tisas OEM parts.
If mag springs were the issue, I’d still be having issues, even with the GI mags. I’ve yet to test the non-GI mags, though.
I also bought new 4 GI mags, although they are of questionable quality (they are Triple K branded). If I have issues with them, I’ll buy replacement springs, plus Triple K has a one-year warranty on it’s magazines.
Again, the Metro needed a new extractor and I was aware of that issue, but it’s also super odd that both guns were exhibiting the same issue, even with newish (ACT GI) mags. There’s no way all of those mags had spring issues, though.
I was going to say that I was done with cheap guns, but my RIA guns have never done this (I’ve three RIAs, two 9mm and one 10mm) and one of them is over 1000 rounds, while another is close to 700 rounds…neither of those have ever had functionality issues.
I do want an Officer 1911 and I’m eyeing a Taurus since that’ll get me a Series-80 1911, and I’ve never owned an Officer or Series-80 1911. I just don’t feel I need all my guns to be $1000. I suppose I could buy an RIA Officer, but I need front strap serrations and Taurus has those on their Officers.
Of all my 1911s and 2011s (in fact, of ALL my guns), the Tisas Duty is the one that I’m really disappointed about. I already said this before, but Tisas isn’t my favorite brand…not because I’m joining some Haterade campaign against Tisas (because they’re Turkish or a cheap brand). I’ve documented all of my issues with my Tisas guns and each of those issues are objectively shared. I’ve no bias but I don’t want shit that’s always going to break, either (or run but have heavy-assed triggers, funky sear springs, funky rails, or funky optics cuts, all of which my Tisas DS had).
At one point, I’d been thinking about using the Tisas Duty as a home defense gun. Not now. I’ve plenty of guns that have never had issues – I’ll pick one of those over a finnicky Tisas.
