The Tisas slide and frame are made of 4140 steel forgings and the barrel is cold hammer forged. This fact alone makes this gun superior to most of its competitors, as they tend to use milled parts or investment castings which lack the strength of forgings. If an airplane or a bridge is found to not use forgings in a part where a forged part is specified, the government will condemn that airplane or bridge. That’s how serious a matter this is. When lives depend on a part not failing then you need a forging.

The finish is WWII magnesium phosphate Parkerizing. There are no tool marks, and everything is properly polished before Parkerizing. The fit of the parts is as it should be. Not too tight where it needs room for dust, sand, and mud yet just tight enough where it’s important for accuracy without being too tight. These guns shoot 2-inch groups from a Ransom Rest at 35-40 yards, yet they are loose enough to handle sand and mud without malfunctioning. The trigger pull is a crisp, but heavy, 8 pounds. Thanks to this combination of American know-how and cheap foreign skilled labor, the MSRP is $480… and some dealers offer it for as low as $379. The Civilian Marksmanship Program has also bought these to sell at their outlets. These guns are marked CMP. That’s a hefty stamp of approval.

I had 100 rounds of Black Hills 230-grain FMJ, 100 rounds of Black Hills 230-grain JHP, and 40 rounds of Steinel Ammunition 230-grain SCHP (solid copper hollow point) for a total of 240 rounds to test fire in this pistol. They all ran through the pistol perfectly.

ORIGINAL G.I. VERSION

The M1911A1 I tested is the old faithful G.I. version of the gun. The M1911A1 is a combat gun designed to work in the sand and mud of the battlefield. Attempts to improve it with so-called “combat accuracy jobs” and every bell and whistle a conniving marketer can think of just take it that much further from what it was meant to be. A gun that you can stake your life on in the worst battlefield conditions. A good example of how far a match gun is from the original was a top pistol match shooter who told me that he regarded his National Match .45 as a precision target tool and not as a practical gun for the real world. So-called “combat” matches are very far removed from the realities of brutally intense combat where you and your pistol may end up crawling in the sand and muck while having the same stuff blown onto you at high velocity by exploding shells. This is no place for a gun tricked out for combat matches. This is the real world of combat, and it’s down and dirty. Yet, the G.I. M1911A1 takes it in stride and excels when lesser pistols quit functioning. For 113 years, the M1911 has forged a reputation as the most reliable military pistol there is.

WHY THE M1911A1 IS THE MOST RELIABLE PISTOL IN THE WORLD

A gun made from robust parts it is easily rebuilt when it ages and normally lasts 250,000 rounds. This is in sharp contrast to many of the most famous newer pistols which often are reduced to junk after a tenth of that round count. Plastic and sheet metal guns do not lend themselves to rebuilding easily, as well. It’s often cheaper to buy a new gun than rebuild one of the newer models. If your modern, short-lived gun comes to its end in battle and decides to quit on you, then you are screwed. Normal service testing in WWII was to choose a random 1911 from a new production lot and fire 10,000 to 15,000 rounds through it and expect no malfunctions with all the parts still in good serviceable condition at the conclusion of the firing schedule. It was then cleaned and shipped off for issue with the rest of the lot.

Key to the M1911A1’s reliability is the fact that it’s one of few guns that’s really good at throwing sand and dirt out of the mechanism as it fires. There are also places where dirt can be shoved aside within the gun without causing malfunctions, such as the Browning toggle (where the swinging link accommodates more dirt than the sliding cam of later pistols.) The swinging link toggle also serves as a bridge, keying the separate ramps of the barrel and receiver together and positioning the barrel at the best angle for cartridge feeding during the cycling of the gun.

The 1911A1’s extractor is similar to the famed Mauser 98 extractor, where the cartridge comes up under the extractor instead of having the extractor snap over the rim.

There is only the recoil spring guide and plug with the recoil spring on a M1911A1 instead of the modern guide rod which can bend and jam the gun if dropped.

The receiver is solid on the M1911A1, and broken grips do not disable, it as they do with some guns where the grips form part of the structure.

The cycling energy of the 45 ACP is much higher than the 9mm round so popular today and it does this with a mere 12,000 PSI chamber pressure instead of the 32,000 PSI of the 9mm. If a 9mm bullet gets forced back in its case, that pressure can skyrocket to 40,000 PSI or more. Some guns can’t take that. The 45 ACP’s straight-walled case pushes dirt ahead of it instead of giving it a chance to jam in the chamber like the tapered case of the 9mm. The 9mm cannot function reliably with a rough or dirty chamber but the .45 ACP can. That straight case also delivers a consistent recoil impulse where, in the tapered case of the 9mm, the bullet is smaller than the base and results in a tendency to push the gun forward which can produce an uneven recoil impulse instead of the steady push of the 45 ACP. This can cause problems with reliable functioning.

The locking system of the M1911A1 is far stronger than most would make one. When some of the hot 9mm SMG ammo was used in pistols in South America, the only ones that stood up to this were the M1911A1’s that had been made in 9mm.

The single stack magazine works reliably, even in sand. The double-stack single-position feed magazines so popular today have inherent flaws that can get you killed in a gunfight. When a partially empty magazine is dropped, the cartridges can be jarred out of position and jam in the tube, resulting in a failure to feed. The magazine spring needs to be stronger for the double-column magazines, but that makes them hard to load so they are generally left weaker than is desirable for reliable functioning in all conditions. While the magazines for the M1911A1 can be left loaded indefinitely, you cannot leave the double-column magazines loaded like that without risking problems.

The M1911A1 has few parts, and those are heavy duty. When it comes to maintenance, the 1911A1 is very easy to field strip or even to detail strip.

ERGONOMICS

Unlike many of the current pistols, which look like an obese hippopotamus, the M1911A1 is the optimum size for the round fired. Any bigger or heavier and it would be hard to carry open or concealed. Any smaller and recoil would start to be a problem, eliminating the possibility of true rapid fire.

The safety is in the best possible position for quick use. It’s worth noting that while the gun was intended to be carried cocked-and-locked, the designer, John Browning, thought the grip safety was all that was needed — only adding the manual safety at Army Ordnance’s insistence. His belief was proven true by the Shanghai Police Department before WWII when they pinned the safety in the off position on their hammerless Colt pocket automatics.

The grip angle suits most people and the gun points accurately and easily. Recoil is more of the gun bouncing in your hand than kick. The gun’s size and weight are more than sufficient to tame any recoil forces that might be objectionable.

HOLSTERS

A pistol needs its holster and the M1916 holster issued with the M1911A1 is as perfect as an open carry holster can get. It’s comfortable, protects the gun, and nothing is faster to draw from. There is a leather-covered wood block spacer to position the grip of the gun out where the hand can grab it quickly. To draw quickly, take your thumb and flip the cover flap up then start wrapping your fingers around the grip as you draw, starting with the little finger. When the gun is at the halfway point between the holster and the target, wipe the safety off. It is important to have the tie down thongs fastened before doing this.

For drawing while driving a vehicle or from a seated position, the military M1942 Tanker holster works well, holding the gun securely while still permitting a fast draw.

For civilian open or concealed carry, the pancake holster can’t be beat. It carries the gun tightly against the body with a quick release thumb-break snap for security. This holster is so comfortable that you can sleep with a M1911A1 in it and even roll over on it without waking. There are times when this is vital.

All of the above holsters can be had from El Paso Saddlery in El Paso, Texas.

POWER AND UTILITY

The 45 ACP cartridge has been a proven threat-stopper on the most fanatical foes on the planet for 113 years. It worked on the Moros in the Philippines and when the mercenaries in the Congo discovered that they could not reliably stop a panga-wielding native with a whole magazine from their 9mm Browning Hi Power pistols, they found that one 45 ACP round would do the job. I have a WWII army training manual that states flatly that the 45 ACP has more power than the 30-06. As for game shooting the old 44-40 killed more game of all types in North America than any other cartridge thanks to the timing of its appearance. The 45ACP is a better killer than the 44-40. Just remember to use FMJ ammo on big bear and moose. You already have a big enough hole, and you need the penetration of a FMJ bullet. The M1911A1 will do any normal job required of a handgun.

CONCLUSION

The Tisas M1911 A1 “ASF” U.S. Army 45 is a fine current production M1911A1 that delivers an impressive amount of quality for a very low price. It’s the best post-war .45 I’ve seen since the Norinco 1911A1 (which the government banned when they forbade Norinco guns being imported so many years ago due to import law violations.) I highly recommend the Tisas, and I prefer it to its higher priced competitors. Not only is it made of forgings that are properly fitted and finished, but it’s also patterned more truly to the original WWII guns which established the G.I. 45’s reputation. This is a contrast to the many modern variations of that design that often look increasingly bizarre. Many of the current crop are also too tightly fitted to be trusted in the gritty world of combat. The M1911A1 is the ultimate handgun, and if I could only have one gun it would be the M1911A1 because unlike a rifle or shotgun, I can always have the pistol on me.

SPECIFICATIONS

Armorer for Zion

In the Middle East, the British held the Palestinian Mandate and had done so since before World War I, but during 1948 the United Nations was in the process of debating and voting on the creation of two states from the old Palestine. One was to be for the Palestinian Arabs, and one for the Jews of Europe, who had made it through the horrors of the Nazi holocaust. Brenner had an uncle who was an ardent Zionist. He called young Burton on the phone one day to ask if what he had heard through family gossip was true, that he was interested in firearms. Brenner answered yes, and the uncle said he had something he thought he would be very interested in seeing.

Brenner made plans to meet with his uncle, and together they traveled from New York by train into New Jersey. They were picked up at the train station by a mysterious unknown man and delivered to what turned out to be an enormous chicken farm. One of the barns was built into a hillside, creating a substantial space underneath the floorboards. As they entered the barn Brenner saw thousands of rifles and boxes of pistols. Brenner was told that the guns had been brought back one at a time from Europe and Asia. They were a mixture of everything: Japanese Arisakas, German Mausers, Polish Mausers, Belgian Mausers, all the contract Mausers of World War II. There were boxes filled with Lugers and P-38s in the 9mm chambering, and lots of various .380s of all types: the list went on and on. It seemed that this material had been donated through Jewish war veterans and similar groups for the Israeli cause. Brenner was asked whether he would contribute some time checking each weapon as to headspace, bore condition, and general safety, with concentration on all those that were of universal Mauser 98 design firing the 7.92x57mm cartridge. All other rifles and calibers were to be put aside for the moment.

Intrigued, Brenner volunteered, and spent the next four months working on the project, traveling from New York to spend one or two nights at a time at the farm. After checking each rifle it was dipped in cosmoline to protect the metal surfaces from rusting while in storage or en route to Israel. After the sealed crates were taken away he would start on a new batch. Although the supply of guns diminished in a steady trickle, occasionally a fellow would show up to drop off eight or ten guns from the trunk of a car and then drive away without discussion.

To complete the inspection procedure on each rifle, Brenner decided it would be a good idea to stamp each one with a sort of proof, and obtained an inspector’s stamp with a sunburst mark. He would stamp each gun alongside the rear sight. After a few months the supply of suitable guns dwindled down to nothing thus ending his work at the clandestine New Jersey “armory.”

Some months after Brenner finished his work at the chicken farm, his uncle called and asked if he was interested in the guns that remained. Brenner, then barely 17 years old, was being told that what looked like the biggest pile of guns he had ever seen in his life was being handed to him gratis. It turned out that there were around 1,200 military rifles and 350 pistols. Brenner, along with a couple of friends, rented a truck and over a period of 3 months of shuttling back and forth between New York and New Jersey, got all of the guns out of the barn and into a friend’s basement in Brooklyn. Brenner then proceeded to wholesale the arms to various stores in the New York and Philadelphia areas.

Years later in 1955, Brenner made his first trip to Israel to buy surplus material. The Israelis had just finished their 1954 war with the Egyptians and had captured considerable quantities of weapons. He bought a great deal of interesting material on that trip, and while inspecting some of the lots for sale, found some of his chicken farm rifles, recognizing them by the sunburst stamp he had applied a few years before alongside of the rear sight.

Trade Wars

With over 50 years in the surplus business, Brenner met many people, and were mentioned in his memoirs for their efforts in making available to collectors and shooters many guns of considerable interest.

He had competed with most of them, along with just about everybody in the surplus side of the gun business. Some of these encounters ended up being pleasant run-ins and associations, and even collaborations from time to time. Others were totally awful and potentially dangerous, and if one were not a trusting person, some of the things he experienced would lead one to believe that there was little honor amongst surplus gun dealers.

In first place among these would be Sam Cummings. Sam, by his own words, was the greatest gun dealer of the 20th century. If size counts, the statement has some meaning. But one would have to look at all the aspects of the man’s personality, his character, his relationships with people, and the conclusion one would come away with might be very different from that of his self-described label. Brenner spent the better part of a year with Cummings in Europe. They shared digs in London, spent some time socializing together, and looked at an awful lot of guns in each other’s company. Brenner was always left with the feeling that he absolutely had to watch his back, that there were no limits to Cumming’s business duplicity, that he had no sense of honor. If not careful, Sam could leave another person humiliated, embarrassed, and even affected adversely in finances and reputation. Brenner opined that if measured by the milk of human kindness, Sam Cummings was one very dry individual.

During the 1950s, a whole new group of young guys popped up, all dealing in various aspects of the surplus game. Some specialized in parts, some in ammunition, some in the weapons themselves, and their paths continued to cross. Fellows like Val Forgett, who went on to create Navy Arms, was particularly well known for his inventiveness in basically creating the black powder sporting and shooting business in the United States.

Charlie Steen kept doggedly grinding away with the parts business, creating an absolute empire of his own. Known as “Service Armament Corporation” and “Steen Armament Corporation” (later shortened to SARCO) and operating out of New Jersey, Charlie’s operation continues as a supplier for a great diversity of surplus arms parts.

Century Arms and the Souter family, father and sons, are deserving of considerable words. Brenner came up against them on deals time and time again. They went on to become probably the single largest importer of surplus weapons in the game, as far as raw numbers and quantity go.

Hy Hunter of Burbank, California was a real character that in many ways was a step ahead of the game, both in the surplus importation business and in the manufacturing side. A whole book could probably be written about his colorful ways. His store was famous for having the ceiling decorated with thousands of handguns – real ones – that hung suspended there like an expansive constellation.

Numrich Arms Corporation (now called Gun Parts Corporation) is another purveyor of parts for surplus and other weapons. Located in West Hurley, New York, the company really got started when it purchased Martin Retting’s spread and excess inventory, which he left behind in New York when he moved to California.

There were dozens more who have been successful and who undoubtedly have had great adventures as Brenner, handling the most complex of deals in the midst of the incredibly intricate ropes of government licensing, shipping, and all aspects of getting a product from an overseas depot into the hands of an American collector.

Invading South America

During the late 1950s, the surplus dealers understood that with Brazil being the largest country in South America and having the biggest army, there had to be surplus material there. It was just a matter of finding a way to tap into what would surely be a very large supply of guns that the Brazilians no longer needed.

Golden State Arms employed a young Spaniard named Daniel Medilla. He had come over from Spain to learn the gun business. He spoke English, and taught himself some Portuguese, making him fluent enough to ably represent the company. As usual, it took at least six months of correspondence to affect a relationship with a commercial agent who seemed to know his way around, and understand what they were trying to do.

Dan took a tour all around South America, spending a good bit of the time in Brazil, and came back to report the availability of 10,000 M1 Garand rifles. At that time, a few small lots had come in from England, but for the most part there was a clamoring market for Garands and no way to fill it. This particular lot of rifles had been handed over to a Brazilian expeditionary force that had gone to Italy in late 1943 after Brazil had declared war on the Axis. This was their contribution to the war effort.

When Brazil finally sent out troops, it dispatched a light division, which arrived in Italy, marching off their boats with Mauser bolt-action rifles that were quickly taken away and replaced with U.S. M1 Garands. At the conclusion of their involvement a year and a half later, the Brazilians cagily marched back aboard ship, taking the Garands with them. Upon their return to Brazil, however, the Garands were piled into the armory because the caliber and type of gun was not standard in the Brazilian army. Aside from the M1s, Dan Medilla found quantities of miscellaneous rifles representing pretty much what the Brazilian army had utilized over the past hundred years. There were Winchester 1873s and 1892s. There were early American bolt-action rifles such as the Remington Lees. There were early Model 1888 German Commission guns in various configurations of rifle and carbine. Golden State was offered 20,000 guns, which they imported.

The barrels on the Garands were ruined from firing corrosive ammunition, and required replacement by Golden State, but it wasn’t long before they ran out of spare barrels. Brenner soon figured out a way to replace Garand barrels by using reconfigured 1903 Springfield barrels. The Garands were sold to Sears were they sold out almost overnight. An urgent request was received from Sears for thousands more which, sadly, there were no means of obtaining.

Sam Cummings of Interarmco opened the first Argentine deal during a period when Sam and his organization were still in close relationship with Golden State Arms and were to join forces in the Argentine deal. The first transaction consisted of a vast quantity of Model 1891 Mauser rifles, essentially the old Belgian pattern, in 7.65x53mm caliber. Their most prominent feature was a projecting magazine well descending below the stock in front of the trigger guard.

The Argentines had tens of thousands of the Mausers in absolutely beautiful condition. Unlike other Latin American countries, they had kept their older guns in top shape. Argentine troops being European trained (and largely of European background) were of advanced quality as compared to their neighbors, so the standards for maintaining equipment were kept very high. Golden State purchased all of these many thousands of Model 91 Mauser rifles, complete with bayonets and scabbards.

Argentina represented an enormous potential marketplace from which to secure surplus goods to fill the American demand. They had set up a factory, which was fully licensed by Colt, and over the years turned out a very large volume of the Argentine 1927 Systema pistols, which were eventually brought into the United States in big numbers. Another deal was the .45 caliber Ballester-Molina pistol, an Argentine modification of the basic 1911 design.

Everything the Argentines had was marked with their national coat of arms, which was a liberty cap on a sword with embellishments. Unfortunately all of these national insignias had to be removed. Nothing was to leave the country with the insignia intact. There was nothing to be done except set up the grinding machines and start belt-sanding off every insignia from all of these Argentine weapons. To take essentially new condition weapons and grind them to remove an artistically rendered crest was just a crime against collecting, but that is the way it was. Golden State took the problem as far as some of the Argentine congressmen in the country’s parliament. Eventually the law was turned around and subsequent lots of guns that came out of Argentina had the insignia left in place.

Agency Business

It should not come as a surprise that no one could be in the surplus arms business on a substantial basis and fail to eventually cross paths with the Central Intelligence Agency. It seems that back in the early days of the cold war, the Agency’s policy was to accumulate and hold large quantities of various weapons in order to place them in a given country at the right time, naturally in a surreptitious manner so as to keep the good name of the United States out of Agency games. To execute this policy, the CIA in its own wisdom deemed that, rather than deal directly with a highly visible purchase of this material from foreign government surplus sources or new production, it would utilize legitimate surplus arms dealers as cooperating suppliers for its weapons business.

Within only a year or two after the Agency started up in or around 1949, it became busy purchasing considerable numbers of different kinds of weapons. One of the first fronting firms that were used to import the material into the States for shipment to various CIA warehouses was Golden State Arms. A man named Leo Lippi managed these dealings from the Agency side. Leo was a strange character, a cameraman who was the product of the Hollywood motion picture scene. He was an unlikely looking fellow but he had authority to spend big money. Apparently, shopping lists were given to him on a regular basis, which he filled, mostly, from Golden State Arms.

Brenner originally had no idea that some of the material he was buying was intended for the CIA. An example of such a transaction concerned a lot of 40,000 MAT French 9x19mm submachine guns found in Vietnam. At the time, the U.S. was pouring in huge amounts of American military material, and wanted all of the non-U.S. items out of the warehouses and supply channels. Arms left behind by the French were clogging up the program. The MAT 49 submachine guns were purchased for $1.50 each. Upon conclusion of the sale, the MAT weapons were shipped to Puerto Rico. Shortly after the guns landed in Puerto Rico, they suddenly disappeared, all 40,000 of them.

Another instance of assisting the CIA involved the purchase of heavy Madsen machine guns from the factory in Copenhagen. There again, the goods were bought, shipped to the U.S., and then simply disappeared. Golden State Arms was actively, if quietly, participating in the effort to assist the CIA’s program of obtaining surplus weapons. The business organization was big enough that the left hand did not necessarily know what the right hand was doing and as the buyer, Brenner had no official understanding of the fact that he was procuring equipment destined for the CIA, although he presumed there was some involvement with governmental agencies.

Fidel Castro was always a focus of the CIA’s attention. At the time Castro came down from the Sierra Nuestra into Havana, he was armed for the most part with Springfield Model 1903 service rifles. That was pretty much the rifle of choice for the rebel Cuban army. Many of them were lifted from the legitimate Cuban army, but a great portion of them came into the hands of Castro from the CIA. It may surprise the reader to learn that in the beginning of this phase of history (and even then the fact was not widely known), it was generally felt in U.S. government circles that Castro could turn into a democratic fellow who would run Cuba righteously and do well by the people.

Thus the attempt was made by the CIA to give the Cubans military aid in the form of Springfield rifles. The weapons themselves had come out of Italy through an earlier Golden State purchase. An unknown buyer purchased a pretty sizable fraction of this batch from Golden State domestically. The guns were in California, fresh from Italy, and suddenly there was an order for 3,000 of them. They were promptly boxed up, put on a truck, and were gone, later showing up in Cuba. In addition, the CIA was well under way in buying up and maintaining lots of French, British, German, and particularly Russian arms so that these weapons could be dropped into trouble spots without “made in USA” tags on them. The connection between Leo Lippi and Golden State Arms lasted six years and was then abruptly cut off. Brenner believed that it was CIA policy to periodically change their suppliers so as to be able to restrict the flow of information about their activities. The next guy called upon by the Agency was Sam Cummings, who lasted as a CIA supplier for some time. Since he was as heavily involved in the surplus business as Golden State, he was able to supply their needs in good order. Eventually, his relationship with the Agency soured and he got into serious tax problems with the Internal Revenue Service. In an attempt to salvage his business and personal fortune, he left the United States.

After Sam Cummings eventually retired from cloak and dagger operations, there were two or three other chaps standing by to assume his mantle with the CIA’s clandestine gun business. Russia had attacked and invaded Afghanistan, and the Afghan locals had to be armed in a manner superior to what their hillside cottage industries could make available for resistance.

With the end of the cold war, the need for maintaining a supply of covert weapons was not as important an item as it once was. As a result, enormous quantities of U.S. arms, all having been bought with taxpayers’ money, were scrapped at depots in New Jersey and other places along the eastern seaboard under the Clinton administration.

(Look for the final chapter of the story of Burton “Bob” Brenner in an upcoming issue of Small Arms Review.)

By Al Paulson

The .45 ACP pistol is undergoing yet another resurgence in popularity as a valuable tool for “close-range interpersonal management” in the United States. Part of this trend can be traced to the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) decision to employ the Heckler and Koch Mark 23 pistol and Knight’s Armament Model OHG sound suppressor as an offensive weapon for in extremis missions. Part of this trend can be traced to Congress passing the infamous Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Public Law No. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1796), which banned the manufacture of magazines with a capacity greater than ten rounds for private ownership. This legislation obliterated the curious euphoria fostered by the popular gun press over the so-called Wunderneun (Wondernine) 9x19mm pistols, which many armed professionals viewed as nothing but dandified .38 Specials with large magazines that fostered a spray-and-pray mentality. After the magazine ban, many people started to realize that they would be better served by a more efficacious cartridge than the 9x19mm in a pistol with legislatively limited magazine capacity. And, finally, part of the renewed interest in the .45 ACP can be traced to the proliferation of concealed carry laws in the 1990s. The net result has been a plethora of outstanding new pistols chambered in .45 ACP: from the HK USP-45 Tactical to the Glock 36. While pistol manufacturers have provided a dizzying array of new .45 pistols, suppressor manufacturers did not provided a wealth of silencing options in .45 caliber.

The few .45 silencers in the marketplace in the late 1990s tended to be large, heavy, and expensive. And they generally needed a recoil enhancement module (called a Nielsen device by industry insiders) to ensure reliable functioning of the pistol. Several years ago, Gemtech introduced a simple, compact, lightweight and affordable .45 suppressor that did not incorporate a Nielsen device. Called the SOS-45, this suppressor has proven to be an important development in the quest for the optimum .45 caliber suppressor.

Making a good .45 caliber suppressor is a much more difficult challenge than designing a 9mm suppressor. Not only does the .45 produce a larger volume of combustion gases (gas volume is directly proportional to powder weight), it’s more difficult to capture, slow, and cool the broad gas stream following behind a .45 caliber projectile. It is unlikely that a suppressor design that works well in 9mm will scale up gracefully to .45 caliber. This challenge is even greater when designing a pistol suppressor (as opposed to a carbine or submachine gun can), since the length and weight of a .45 suppressor are likely to inhibit the reliability of a pistol.

Adding a Nielsen device to the suppressor can solve the reliability issue. Some Nielson devices feature a piston attached to the barrel, while others feature a piston attached to the suppressor. A properly designed Nielsen device is high art, requiring an investment of substantial funds for R&D. Furthermore, actually manufacturing a quality Nielsen device also requires special alloys, manufacturing processes, and a rigorous quality control program, which all add to the price.

Perhaps the bottom line is that any Nielsen device does add moving parts (spring and piston) to the design, violating the KISS principal—which is a corollary to Murphy’s Law well known to both engineers and armed professionals. The presence of a Nielsen device also adds to the length and weight of the suppressor, which can slow presentation from a holster or slow the speed of target acquisition from a ready position. Gemtech’s SOS-45 suppressor is short and light enough so it doesn’t need a Nielsen device for reliable functioning on the HK Mark 23, Glock 21, or M1911A1 pistols. Its compact size and small diameter also facilitate rapid presentation and target acquisition.

Fabricated from 6061-T6 and 2024-T6 aluminum, the SOS-45 suppressor is 7.1 inches (18.1 cm) long and just 1.25 inches (3.1 cm) in diameter. Finished in a nonreflective black hardcoat anodizing, the suppressor weighs a remarkably light 7.0 ounces (200 grams), providing an outstanding efficiency to weight ratio. Seven baffles of advanced asymmetrical design direct combustion gases away from the central axis of the suppressor and generate more turbulence than suppressors of conventional (i.e., symmetrical) design. The suppressor is available with one of two thread pitches at the time of this writing: 16x1mm RH for the HK Mark 23 pistol, and 0.578×28 TPI for the Colt Model 1911 and its clones. A few prototypes have also been threaded for the HK USP-45 Tactical pistol (16x1mm LH).

Like all diminutive suppressors designed for pistols of centerfire caliber which don’t use elastomer wipes, the SOS-45 uses artificial environment technology, which is a fancy way of saying it’s a wet can. The pistol is issued with a 10 ounce tube of Lubriplate No. 105 grease for this purpose. Simply insert the 2 inch (5 cm) tip into the rear of the suppressor and squeeze about a teaspoon (5 cc total) of grease into the spaces behind the rearmost two baffles of the suppressor. Don’t clog the bullet passages with grease or you’ll adversely affect accuracy and increase the back pressure generated by the can. The grease should be replenished every two magazines (20 rounds), which should be plenty for any real-world tactical scenario.

Performance

I tested the performance of the Gemtech SOS-45 on an HK Mark 23 pistol using the specific equipment and testing protocol advocated at the end of Chapter 5 in the book Silencer History and Performance ($55 postpaid, Wideworld, Dept. SAR, P.O. Box 1827, Conway, AR 72033). The microphone was placed 1.00 meter to the left of the suppressor or muzzle. The ambient temperature during the testing was 68°F (20°C), and the ammunition was UMC 230 grain (15.0 gram) ball.

The unsuppressed pistol produced a sound pressure level (SPL) of 162 decibels, while the suppressed pistol produced an SPL of 131 dB. This represents an impressive net sound reduction of 31 dB. First round pop was -2.6 dB, so the first round was quieter than the second. Both the HK Mark 23 and Colt Model 1911 pistols functioned with absolute reliability when fitted with the SOS-45. The only fly in the proverbial ointment was when the SOS-45 suppressor was fitted to the new HK USP-45 Tactical pistol, which operated in a sluggish manner with the can and would sometimes fail to eject a spent case. I think this problem could be cured when an aftermarket main operating (recoil) spring becomes available which produces somewhat less force—perhaps 3 pounds or 1.4 kg less than a factory spring.

The SOS-45’s virtues are manifest: it is quiet, short, small in diameter, and light in weight. Furthermore, it has no moving parts and it is affordable. An unrepentant miser like myself tends to have a particular affection for a product like Gemtech’s SOS-45 that delivers outstanding performance at a modest price. The SOS-45 makes an excellent choice for suppressing the HK Mark 23 and P9S pistols, or for the Colt Model 1911A1 and its clones.

Gemtech, Dept. SAR
P.O. Box 3538
Boise, ID 83703
phone 208-939-7222
fax 208-939-7804
catalog $5 unless requested
on agency letterhead
URL http://www.gem-tech.com/