This PC1911 Round Butt 4.25 SKU 170344 is my new favorite .45. The best words to describe it are "dead accurate" and "totally reliable" and "easy carry" - or how about just calling it the "perfected Commander".
As promised above, I will do some more disciplined, slower shooting and put the pistol down between shots. But I am confident that it will hold the x-ring at 50 feet and probably at 25 yards. Every time I did my part, the gun was right on. When I had it just right at let off, the bullet went in the x-ring, even ball.
I know the gun is reliable because it fed over-length 200 gr plated SWC's that my more finicky Colt and LB do not. S&W manufactures for police use, so they are not letting anything out of the factory unless cycles and goes bang. They must be doing some good pistol smithing with the feed ramp, the lowered ejection port and that big external extractor because the gun seems to work no matter what. Most guns will not feed over-length SWC's - this one does.
This is a lightweight carry gun. I measure it on my postal scale as twelve ounces lighter than my other two .45's. It makes a big difference carrying comfortably because I can leave my belt a notch looser and the holster is much less prone to shifting. No more stopping to fidget and pull up my pants. I am using a Galco Combat Master pancake and a Galco Summer Comfort IWB. Both are fine for carrying on the waist at three o'clock. I may want to try a small of the back holster too. Only my Airweight in a pocket holster is easier for me to carry.
Fit and finish are terrific, no flaws. The PC1911 comes with a hand-fitted slide. It is super tight on the frame, but did not require 500 rounds of breaking in like the LB. I imagine that kind of tight, where you have to cock the hammer before you can work the slide, is not something a manufacturer can do with an alloy frame. I also think that S&W wants out-of-the-box reliability because it's selling to the public and law enforcement who are not interested in breaking in target pistols.
These guns represent S&W's big investment in the burgeoning 1911 market. S&W bought new computer numeric controlled milling machines. The guns are fitted at the Performance Center, but lots of fine otherwise custom work is done robotically. This allows production-line manufacture of costly features like the Briley spherical busing (so tight it takes a light touch to reassemble), the tight slide-to-frame fit that only requires final-stage hand polishing, the checkering on the front strap, the beveled magazine well, the dulled slide edges needed for a CCW and so on.
The new methods mean a high-grade pistol at an attainable price. Most of us have other responsibilities and will not drop $4,000.00 on a custom pistol even if we could afford to do it, whatever your definition of affordable is. These PC1911's represent the logical alternative. I would be interested in knowing whether anyone with a Ransom machine rest has tested these guns against true customs from Wilson, Strayer Voight and like high-dollar manufacturers. I bet they would be close in accuracy with the nod to the Smith for being more reliable.
