I became a .45 believer some years ago. It was a combination of things:  talking with some people who had been shot with various caliber handguns and studying the charts mostly. I figure I need all the help I can get. But my wife isn’t going to shoot a .45 and frankly she’d rather carry a revolver than a semi-automatic. She has a good 9mm semi-automatic and that’s her bedside gun, but when she’s out and about she wants a revolver.

The .38 Special is kind of anemic and the .357 Magnum is way too much for her to handle. So what does the job? When you get a chance, go back and look the comparison charts I did here in this blog in August 2015, you’ll see that an often misunderstood or overlooked revolver caliber ranks right up there with .357 Sig, .40 S&W and .45 ACP in what I look for in stopping power. That caliber is the .327 Federal Magnum. It’s a small cartridge, but because of the velocity with which it is flung from the .327 Magnum case, it packs a wallop! Especially if you choose Speer Gold Dot with 500 ft./lbs. of energy on target.

One of the reason’s I turned to the .327 Magnum when looking for a good self-defense revolver is that most of the guns built for that particular round hold six rounds of ammo, where the smaller .357s hold only five. Another cool thing about it is you can shoot .32 S&W Short, .32 S&W Long, .32 H&R Magnum, or .327 Federal Magnum cartridges. Some of these are pretty soft shooting for practice, whereas the H&R Magnum or the Federal Magnum cartridges are pretty serious self-defense rounds.

This is a comeback round and I’m really glad to see manufacturer’s taking it seriously. My wife’s gun is a Taurus .327 Magnum. It fits in her purse or in her center console quite handily. Speaking of center consoles, I just happen to have a Ruger SP101 in .327 Magnum in my Jeep console today, and pretty much every day It’s a great shooting little revolver with sights I can see well and in perfect size for a console gun.

I recently added another .327 to the family collection, a Ruger Single Seven, which compliments the Single Nine .22 Magnum and Single Ten .22 already in the family. So if you’re looking for a self-defense revolver for either back up or as your primary handgun and don’t want the heavy recoil of a .357 Magnum or .44 Magnum, you might consider the .327 Federal Magnum.

Some of my buddies have owned Rock Island 1911s and I’ve seen some pretty impressive targets as a result of their shooting range adventures. Recently I saw one of the Rock Ultra series Commanders at an “I don’t see how they can do that!” price. If you’ve read any of my stuff previously, you know Commander-size 1911 pistols are among my favorites. My “I don’t need any more guns” resolve seems to be short-lived, so naturally I gave in. The gun is classified as a Rock Ultra MS and it came with the features I like such as a skeletonized hammer and trigger and ambi-safety. It has what appears to be a very durable Parkerized finish. The sights are not my favorite, I like night sights, but the ones on this gun are visible and snag-free. The factory picture shows it with a fiber optic sight on the front, but mine doesn’t have that. The sights are black all over.

I changed the grips when I got it home. The gun came with a set of very aggressive G-10 grips. I had some not-so aggressive ones on hand, so I did a switcheroo with the grips, wiped off the shipping oil and put the gun and a box of 45 hollow points in the Jeep so I could try it out during the next trip to the range. That trip turned out to be a CHL class and since we had several instructors on hand, I set up on one of the lanes with a B-27 target, the Rock Island Commander and a box of 45s, planning to shoot part, if not all of the Texas CHL Shooting Proficiency test.

Target After the 1st 10 Rounds

After ten rounds I was disappointed. This is not how I shoot. I was confident that every time I squeezed the trigger my front sight was on the X and was properly aligned with the back sight, but my shots were going wide. You’ve seen my 1911 Commander targets. I generally obliterate the center of the target, especially at close range. The distance here was only 9-feet!

I shot another ten rounds and then we moved the targets out to 21 feet. By the time I’d fired 30 rounds total, I figured I was done. I pulled the target back in, and left some ammo so the other two instructors could try their hands at the gun. When the target got close to me I was surprised. The last 15 rounds or so, even at 21 feet were right in the center of the target, where they should be. That was more like it! When the other two instructors shot the gun, their shots were grouping well, but they both said their shots were impacting a little below their point of aim.

As we were discussing our thoughts about the gun later, one of them mentioned he had read that Rock Islands tend to get better after a little break-in. Funny, I read in the manual where they recommended a 500 round break-in period before making any kind of warranty claim. I’ve never been much on these break-in period claims. Most of my guns have cycled and fired right out of the box just like I wanted them to. But in this case, this particular gun’s accuracy did improve after a few rounds had been put through it.

There was another reason besides the price that I wanted to try this gun. It has a bull barrel as opposed to the  barrel bushing arrangement on every other 1911 I’ve owned or shot. I’ve handled other 1911 style guns with bull barrels and noted they’re a little more challenging to take apart for cleaning, but had no information about whether one was better than the other. Comments I’ve read say that it adds a little more weight up front, which might help with recoil and it results in less parts to wear out. Another reason I’ve read is that in some of the early short-barrel 1911s the bushings had to be thinner and tended to break. I think that was a Colt issue with some of the earlier Commander or Officer firearms. Once the accuracy of this particular firearm improved to the point it became a non-issue I can’t tell the difference between shooting it and shooting a standard 1911 with the barrel bushing.

Workmanship on the Rock Island is superb. I find nothing to indicate its lower cost results in lower quality. From what I’ve read about Armscor, the maker of the Rock Island guns, they have state-of-the-art CNC machinery and they make the guns from the same 4140 steel as the best made guns from American manufacturers. I originally thought I might try this gun, write about it, then sell it, but for now I’ve decided to hold onto it. I’ll probably make it my “truck” gun, only now I drive a Jeep, so I guess it will be my “Jeep” gun.

Would I recommend it to others? If price is an issue and that stands between you getting a good 1911 45 versus some other gun, I would certainly suggest it with no reservations. Currently, I believe the Ruger Lightweight Commander 1911 is the best 1911 value on the market, with the Remington R1 Carry close behind. If you’re willing and able to spend more money there are a number of options. But this Rock Island is nothing you would be ashamed to own, carry, even show off!

Update 11/13/2020:

For more on my experience with Rock Island pistols, see my review of the Rock Island MAPP MS in the Mar/Apr 2019 issue of American Handgunner and a review of the Rock Island XTM-22 1911 in 22 Magnum in the December 2019 issue of GUNS Magazine.

Racking the Slide Using the Sling-Shot Method

Early in my training to become a handgun instructor, I was taught to place a semi-automatic handgun into battery by pinching the rear end of the slide between the thumb and forefinger of my support hand, pulling back on the slide with the support hand while pushing forward on the grip with my shooting hand, then releasing the slide when I felt it stop, which happens in something like an eighth of an inch on most semi-automatics. For a slide that is difficult to pull back, an alternative to pinching the slide with between the thumb and forefinger is to reach across the rear of the slide with the heal of my hand on the left side of the slide and my fingers on the right side (I’m right-handed), squeeze tight and pull the slide back and release it that way. Either of these methods is commonly called the “sling-shot” method by most instructors. To me the terms “sling-shot” and “rack” the slide are synonymous in this context.

The reason most commonly given for doing it this is that it is easier on the gun and won’t wear the slide-lock notch out like just thumbing the slide lock does over time. Since my initial instruction in this regard, I’ve heard it from instructors and gunsmith’s alike and have adopted it as the method I teach. When I see old-time shooters releasing the slide lock with their thumb, I usually at least make them aware of the alternate method while saying something like “I know the military teaches using your thumb to disengage the slide lock, but they have armorers who can fix their pistols when the slide lock notch wears out.”

In studying the issue more carefully, I’ve discovered some other reasons for using the sling-shot method as opposed to thumbing the slide lock. One of these is that this method provides the gun with a stronger, cleaner push into battery, as long as you don’t ride the slide forward with your hand. That’s the important part. Whether you pinch the slide or reach across it with your hand to grasp it, you must let it go as soon as you feel the slide stop in its rearward move. This will happen with very little rearward movement. When you let it go, let it go like it was hot and burning your hands. If you need to reach across the slide to grasp it, avoid the ejection port as this is a place on the gun that can easily pinch you, perhaps even drawing blood.

Using the Thumb to Release the Slide Lock

The sling-shot method works on all semi-automatics, pretty much the same. Slide lock levers are all over the place from gun to gun. Some are small, some are large, some are way forward, some are near the rear of the slide, maybe not the notch, but the lever (I’m thinking in particular here of the Sig Sauer SigPro 2022). Maybe you’re left-handed and the slide lock lever is on the side opposite your shooting hand thumb. If you use the sling-shot method, you don’t have to worry about where the slide lock is and if you can get your thumb on it.

Strength is sometimes an issue when racking a slide, especially for women or anybody with hand issues such as arthritis or any of the issues that come with long-term and frequent computer use. Using your thumb to release a slide lock can have the same issues. Regardless, I won’t do it with my guns because I want them to last a long time, plus I find it much quicker to just sling-shot the slide.

When it comes to racking slides and locking them back for the range safety officers or to load the gun, new gun owners are often confused with the internal slide lock associated with an empty magazine. Practically all semi-automatics are designed such that when a magazine is emptied the follower inside the magazine engages a notch inside the gun that locks the slide back. This is how you know the gun is empty and requires reloading before you can continue shooting. This internal slide lock can frustrate your attempts to sling-shot the slide, because with an empty magazine in the gun, you must also be pushing the slide lock down at the same time you’re racking the slide. This should be done with the thumb of your shooting hand if you’re holding the gun correctly.  Just remember, if the gun has no magazine in it or a magazine with ammunition in it, simply pull the slide back slightly and release it to get the slide to go forward with the proper strength and velocity for it to go into battery. But with an empty magazine, you must also push the slide lock down while rack the slide.

We had finished the range portion of the NRA Basic Pistol class Phil Epps and I had taught Sunday and had the range for a few more minutes. This gave me the opportunity to do a little follow up testing regarding my Sig Sauer 1911 Scorpion Commander. On a recent trip to test various magazine/ammunition combinations I had discovered that Fiocchi jacked hollow point rounds did not feed reliably in that particular gun. Since every other type of ammunition I had tried worked fine, I was puzzled. When I got the gun home and began looking for the source of the problem, I didn’t find one. In fact, when cycling the gun by hand, it fed those rounds with no problem. So, now back at the range, I ran a target out to ten feet or so, loaded eight Fiocchi hollow points in one of my Colt magazines and left whatever was already in the chamber there. Why was one in the chamber? It was my carry gun for the day.

I started shooting with my typical two-hand grip, unsupported and after 4 shots there had been no issues with feeding the rounds. But there was something else. The target had a single quarter-sized hole in which all four rounds had converged. I called Phil over and got him to take a picture with his IPhone. After getting that benchmark, he snapped a photo after each of the remaining shots in the magazine. After all nine rounds, it was a pretty impressive target.

I went on to shoot some more and a couple of our students who had hung around to watch were given the opportunity to shoot the gun as well. The final target had a big fist-sized hole in the center with a couple of flyers in the inner orange ring.

I could be just bragging on me a little, but what I’m really bragging on is the gun! My 67 year-old arthritic hands aren’t always able to hold a handgun absolutely steady, but I was having a pretty good day that day. The gun was having an amazing day. But, I’ve noticed that about Sig Sauer pistols, at least the ones I own. They always make me look good!

UPDATE 10/3/2015

I had a chance to shoot the Sig again today as we were wrapping up a CHL class. I had approximately 20 rounds of mix and match ammo. It included some Sig Sauer JHP, Speer Gold Dot JHP and Hornady Zombie ammo, which is basically their Critical Defense. I fired 20 rounds during the timed portions of the CHL class, 1 round every 2 seconds and 2 rounds every 3 seconds. The target was at the 9 foot range. The end result looked like 10 rounds had been fired, all well within the 10 ring. The first three shots were in a hole the size of a quarter, then I pulled the 4th one off about 2 inches. The next 10 rounds essentially filled out the first holes. This is one accurate firearm!

Upgrades, enhancements, customization . . . you pick the word. There are some easy things you can do to make a gun truly yours, especially if it’s a 1911. I’m using 1911 examples for this article because the parts necessary for these upgrades are readily available and on a 1911, the upgrades are relatively easy to accomplish. Why would you want to do any of these upgrades? That’s up to you. Maybe this isn’t for you, but I’ve always liked adding my own personal touch to items I own. As a kid I was into Hot Rods and Custom cars and I guess I’m still a kid at heart at 67, so here we go.

First let’s talk about grips. That’s an easy upgrade and sometimes it’s the difference between having a gun you can comfortably shoot and one you can’t. Or maybe you just want to change the look of the gun to make it more appealing. I’ve done several things with grips on my 1911s, but one of the most rewarding has been adding aftermarket logo grips. Here are some photos of grips I’ve added to a Remington R1, and a Ruger LW Commander:

The Remington Grips are Walnut with the metallic Remington “R” logo added. The Ruger grips feature the Ruger Phoenix logo carved into the beautiful wood grips. I have to admit that as beautiful as the Remington Grips are, I first tried them on my R1 Carry Commander and swapped back out to the full-size Ruger because those particular grips are a little rough on my hands when I shoot. So I’m going for beauty on the one I don’t shoot as much. The Ruger grips are totally satisfying in both look and feel and set the gun apart from a stock SR1911 LW Commander.

I really had fun with the Colt because not only did I find Colt logo grips that look and feel nice, but I even found some logo grip screws to hold them on. What’s really cool about these grips is where I found them–on Amazon.com. There are hundreds of grip choices on Amazon.com. Something to remember about swapping grips out is that if you go for thin grips–and I like thin grips because I have short, stubby fingers–you’ll need screws and bushings designed for thin grips. The bushings are what screws into the frame. The grips fit down over the bushings, then the grip screws screw into the bushings to hold the grips on. If they are not sized right, the grips can be loose or the screws can go too deep through the bushings and contact the magazine making it difficult or impossible to insert or drop. Strike Industries makes grip screws and bushings in both sizes and with in stainless, blued, or nickel and these are all available on the Amazon.com website as well as directly from Strike or through other firearms accessory suppliers.

In addition to the logo grips you can find grips of varying styles, colors and textures when shopping at Amazon or any number of other websites–those of the grip makers plus Midway USA or Brownell’s. One of my favorite companies makes VZ-Grips. Google for them and you’ll find quite a variety.

The next two upgrades I’m going to tell you about involve a little more work and gun disassembly than just changing out the grips. The first is installing an ambidextrous safety. I bought my ambi  safeties from Wilson Combat, but they’re not the only makers. It’s just that I’ve learned to appreciate the quality that goes into Wilson products, plus their outstanding customer service. Wilson make two grades of safety, the regular grade and another they call “bullet proof”. I’ve used the regular ones, but I think if I do it again, I’ll order the Bullet Proof design. That’s not because I’m unhappy with the ones I’ve got. I just want to try something different next time.

You may be surprised if you’ve never had reason to try this, but removing the existing safety from a 1911 is very simple. First unload the gun, then cock it. Then move the safety to a position that is halfway between on and off. You may have to get a small screwdriver blade or a the blade of a pocket knife to start it, but in that position, the safety will pop right out of the slide.

Installing the ambi-safety could be a simple as popping it in where the other one came out and pushing the right-hand side of the safety onto the post of the left-hand safety where it goes through the slide, but it’s more likely that you will have to do some filing. There are instructions and videos on Wilson’s website and on a number of 1911 forums. You’ll have to do a little disassembly so you can see how the safety is fitting, but it’s not complicated and the instructions will show you step by step how to do it. File a little, then check the fit. File a little more if necessary, but be careful not to over do it and you’ll find it’s really a fairly simple process. I’ve done it three or four times and the results have been gratifying every time. I don’t need an ambidextrous safety because I’m left-handed, but I like having one because it allows me to easily check the position of the safety in my holster regardless of what I’m wearing or body position.

Another easy upgrade for a 1911 is replacing the trigger. I bought a Sig Sauer 1911 that had a straight aluminum trigger with no holes. For me there were two things wrong with that trigger. The first was that it extended the reach for getting my finger properly placed on the trigger and my short fingers just didn’t like it. The second issue was that the trigger’s appearance just didn’t seem to fit the gun. I found a Wilson Combat trigger that fit the bill perfectly and with it I replaced the original trigger. The Wilson trigger is black, curved and has the three holes. I don’t know if you can really tell from the picture of the gun here, but in my opinion, this is the type of trigger that should have come with the gun.

How much trouble was it to install? Again, it requires some disassembly and it might require a little sizing. In fact this one did. The trigger itself was too tall for the space provided in the gun. It’s made out of plastic and with a few touches with a file, checking the fit as I want along, I was able to make the trigger fit perfectly. Installing this trigger as a drop-in like I did had no affect on the weight of the trigger pull. But it did make for a slightly smoother trigger pull because the part of the trigger that slides in the frame was narrower than the stock trigger and produced less friction. Not a lot, but enough that trigger operation felt smoother to me after I did the upgrade.

I’ll cover one more upgrade and this is an easy one. Ever since I started shooting 1911s I have bought Wilson Combat magazines to replace the ones that came with the gun. This may have been superstition or it may have been because I’ve seen Wilson magazines solve other people’s ammo feeding problems on the range during our classes on numerous occasions. But after buying a Colt with 8-round flush-mount magazines, I have switched to using the Colt magazines in all of my 1911s and with great success. This gives me 9 rounds available before reloading and nothing extending from the frame grip. That’s more aesthetically pleasing to me and it helps with concealing the handgun.

Another thing I like about the Colt Magazines is the follower inside the magazine is metal, rather than plastic as in so many other brands. It’s angled just perfectly for feeding the rounds and I’ve never experienced any of the next-to-last-round failure to feeds that is common with other magazine brands. As I’ve written previously, I’ve vetted these magazines in all my guns and have absolute confidence in them.

So there you have it, some ideas about how you can easily tweak your gun to fit your own personality or needs. Parts are readily available, as is “how to” information on YouTube.com and other websites. Have fun and if you think about it, let me know how some of your projects have gone.