Anybody ever handled / fired a TISAS Classic 1911?

[JMB is my Hero]

BEFORE YOU CHANGE YOUR MAINSPRING HOUSING, Read this.....
My TISAS mainspring housing is not dimensioned like a standard (1911A1) housing.
The top shelf that allows travel of the grip safety is much larger than the .210" shelf as called out by the old gov't drawings. I measured over .27". The rest of my housings are close to .21" give or take a few thousandths.
This will result in the grip safety not catching the back of the trigger bow, or an intermittant safety, depending on the tolerances. Or it just my just not work, as the hammer will drop without gripping the pistol, with a trigger pull.



Fortunately, I had a spare unused grip safety in my parts box. I had to ream the pivot hole out with a 5/32" reamer (.15625") and it was still a snug fit, but rotated freely at the center of the thumb safety shaft. In the picture, the left grip safety is the TISAS unit. When it comes to "No such thing as drop-in parts": I am a believer. Works fine now with the parts box special.

The top unit is the TISAS, the middle is an Ed Brown SS bobtail, and the bottom is an alloy Fusion. Notice the shelves under the grip safety stops. The TISAS is way bigger. The next picture is the TISAS vs the Ed Brown.

It is handy having reference material, I have a complete 11 x 17 set of prints for the 1911A1 from Western Sky Publishing. The book from Jerry Kuhnhausen is a really good reference too. Now keep in mind this is my personal experience, and I am in no way a professional gunsmith. But I sure have fun on the bench, not as much fun as the trigger time though.

I have seen competition guns with the grip safety pinned forward, but I like having it in functioning condition. If you want to check your mainspring housing, you could pull the unit, measure the shelf and see how much difference you have from the .21 inches. Then push your grip safety in by the difference, and if the hammer drops with a trigger pull, most likely you will want to change the grip safety with more meat on the stop. You could try peening the metal, but that can be hit or miss too.

Best of luck, and GBT.

 

[bigTOBACCO]

Got my TISAS 1911 in, and after a quick once over we took it to the range. We put 114 rounds downrange with no problems (two mags of home defense and two boxes of ball). The only complaints were the grip safety biting( the way all GI models bite me...) and the sights are too small (the way all GI sights are too small), but I've been moving away from relying on sights anyway. The mainspring and recoil spring feel a little heavy, but right out of the box it works great. I have since replaced the spur hammer and installed a lighter trigger(both $30 shipped). I will probably add a few more parts for aesthetics, but over all I'm happy with my $403 gun (shipped).

 

[bigTOBACCO]

Got my TISAS 1911 in, and after a quick once over we took it to the range. We put 114 rounds downrange with no problems (two mags of home defense and two boxes of ball). The only complaints were the grip safety biting( the way all GI models bite me...) and the sights are too small (the way all GI sights are too small), but I've been moving away from relying on sights anyway. The mainspring and recoil spring feel a little heavy, but right out of the box it works great. I have since replaced the spur hammer and installed a lighter trigger(both $30 shipped). I will probably add a few more parts for aesthetics, but over all I'm happy with my $403 gun (shipped).

 

[carlosrowlett]

i have the tisas 9mm sport and i love it :P uses sig p226 mags reliably.

 

[itsawondertoo]

I bought one of these in February and after shooting it told my Dad. He wanted a 1911 but but didn't want to spend big $ so I am buying one for him for his birthday. I think I will use your project list prep it for him. Thanks!

Here's a follow up on the Tisas project:
View attachment 20038 View attachment 20039 View attachment 20040 View attachment 20041
1. Cleaned up the trigger pull from a gritty 7 pounds to a much smoother 4 pounds 11 ounces. (Free)
2. Changed the arched mainspring housing to an alloy checkered flatback unit from Fusion. ($26.00)
3. Swapped out the grip bushings for slim units, also from Fusion, with hex head screws ($10.00)
4. Pulled the thick smooth grips and replaced them with RAASCO thin Crimson Ironwood colored Dymondwood grips, with mag release cutout. ($48.95) I have small hands.
5. Had some Snap-On tool box touch up paint, so I painted some orange dots on the rear sights and on the front sight ramp. (Close to free, Snap-On stuff ain't cheap!)
6. Populated the mainspring housing with left over parts from an Ed Brown rebuild kit. (I'd estimate about $4.00)

Hopefully your triggers were better than mine. I did not stone the sear/hammer surfaces, but cleaned up rough surfaces. And the Ed Brown spring did help too. Will get some trigger time next weekend. I tried to keep the budget down, but spent a few more $ on the grips. Nothing goes as planned.

Again, Thank You gentlemen, and GBT.

 

[F350-6]

Great posts JMB is my hero. Have you bought any other brand "cheap" 1911's you'd care to share more pictures and stories about?

 

[OldBen]

I've owned one since January, put about 500-600 rounds through it, thought I'd weigh in.

I don't work for Buds or know anyone who does. Not a 1911 guy (more of a wheel gun guy), haven't owned any 1911s, just always wanted one.

Finish is very nice, feels solid. Excellent fit, no rattle at all. A bit stiff fresh out of the box (hard to rack the slide, slide release pretty stiff), but loosed up decently after a couple hundred rounds. Sometimes failed to feed the last round in a mag with the Meg Gar mag it came with (I bought 2 more of them, unfortunately). However, since I upgraded to Wilson 47Ds it runs like a dream. Several hundred (maybe 300) rounds without a hiccup. More accurate than I am. The trigger probably could use some fine tuning, but it's decent as is. The safety is easy to operate. The only thing that really bothers me are the sights. I'll replace those when I get a chance, but just painting the front site white helped quite a bit. Overall, I'm very happy with the pistol, especially for the price. It wouldn't be the gun I'd grab if I heard glass breaking downstairs at night, but that role will always be filled by an S&W model 29 loaded with .44 specials, so no offense to the Tisas on that count. If it was the only handgun I owned, I'd be perfectly comfortable using it as a nightstand gun.

 

[pontoonguy]

Pontoonguy: I just bought a Tisas Zig 1911 A-1 45 ACP GI Black 5" barrel and picked it up from the FFL dealer. He looked at it and was impressed with how tight everything was fit, barrel, slide, magazine. I haven't shot it yet. will probably take it out today. I will post after shooting it. I bought it from Buds Guns for $399 free shipping + tax = $425 came with 1 mag and purchased 6 more on sale cheap from Buds.

 

[JMB is my Hero]

Girsan 1911 with rail

Sorry for not getting back to you, F350-6.
Yes we started yet another 1911 project. My son and I, both picked up the Girsan 1911 with tactical rail from Bud's. They shoot fine out of the box, with about 6.5 to 7 pound trigger pulls. As far a build gun, Leave them as is. Several items are not to the 1911 spec's that Uncle Sam has on his prints.

Grip bushing and screws are not standard. Both too small. I will be drilling and tapping my frame, and replacing them. The grips that come on the gun are hideous. I thought they were plastic at first, just wood with a horrible finish.

The hammer and sear pins have a "nail" or "pancake" head on them, with machining to match on the frame. The sear pin is just a bit oversized, tight, but fits into my other frames. The hammer pin is .002 oversized and will not fit into my other frames. That means you will have to ream your hammer and possibly your sear if you ever plan to change it.

The mainspring pin is also oversized by over .002". However the hole on the housing is close to spec. It is VERY TIGHT. I bent my punch (the one I always used) trying to get my son's pin out. Ended making a pushpin for a Strobel front sight press and squeezing it out. Dropped in a standard pin and it works fine.

They put two dots on the rear sight, but left the front sight black. Both are dovetailed in. The front sight dovetail looks like a Novak, but the rear sight is not a Novak, might be close to Heinie, as the dovetail base is somewhere in the 0.340"ish area. I'll drift the sight out and measure it soon. For now, white fingernail polish on the front sight (walmart $2.00)

As shipped, you get a drop-in style beavertail safety (no, its not blended in), an extended thumbsafety, 3 little holes drilled into a standard GI trigger, beveled slide lock hole on the right, and a rail built into the dust cover. All of the other stuff, other than mentioned, will be replaceable with standard 1911 parts. If I had to choose between the plain jane TISAS 1911 classic or the Girsan 1911 with rail, I'd go with the TISAS, they stuck to the 1911 recipe. Thanks guys, and GBT.

 

[joeintexas]

Buddy of mine asked me about it. Frankly I have never seen one. Anybody know anything about them?

I did find a link to what it is.

TISAS Classic 1911-A1 45ACP 5" GI BLACK $399.00 SHIPS FREE

For the price you can't go wrong. I added a set of hogue wrap around grips and had the trigger pull set to3.5 lbs. Shot 100 rounds without a problem.

 

[RandomHero]

i was wondering why there was so many new member posts in here.

googled "tisas 1911"

1) arfcom
2) youtube vid
3) budsguns
4) this thread.

we getting popular!

 

[JMB is my Hero]

Installed some 3 dot fiber optic sites on the Tisas. Sorry for the low res picture, my photo bucket is getting full. Used a strobel tool to stake in the front sight. Opened up the dovetail with a 65 degree sight base file for the rear sight to fit. These sights are the Fusion series 70 fixed fiber optic set found on Fusion's web site. They are ALOT easier to pick up on the ol' eyes, and they're much bigger too. I think I'll finally leave this one alone, and play with some of the other projects waiting for attention. Thanks to all, and ...GBT.

 

[joeintexas]

Seems to me a lot of folks that dont own or havent even seen this 1911 have voiced their opinions. Kind of like asking your barber who doesnt go to the track who to bet on in the 5th at the downs. I am no firearms expert but I do own the Tisas 1911. Is it the perfect 45 acp, no. It does fire every time, it ejects every time and it shoots to point of aim. 2000 rounds later I have no complaints. Trigger pull was heavy so I cut it to 3.5 lbs. Handguns dont have to cost 1k plus to be fun, accurate and reliable. Sorry if I stepped out of line.

 

[qwiksdraw]

The reason these foreign guns cost so much less has more to do with production and labor costs and currency exchanges. The same gun made domestically may cost twice the cost you see now.

A fellow shooter let me shoot his Tisas and I was impressed by the fit, finish and accuracy of the gun. It looked like a gun built on fundamentals So to bring in a popular analogy, while not getting a lot of sizzle, you still got a s good steak.

I am kind of fond of food analogies.

 

[chuckbone]

I recently took my CHL class and used my RIA 1911 at the range portion of the class. Out of forty or so in the class I had the best shooting results. I have not shot ant other RIAs but mine is extremely accurate and durable. I am ready to buy another 1911 and would like to try the Tisas. There is just something about a classic GI 1911 that rocks! Good shooting everyone. Really enjoyed reading all the threads and had to join.

 

[Texasguntalkguy2015]

Thank you for the detailed post about this gun. I have been looking into these and have a buddy who has one. He wants to change the main spring housing and we are new to 1911's althogther. Do you have to change the grip safety or can you do as a member here stated later in this post "Populated the mainspring housing with left over parts from an Ed Brown rebuild kit." Thanks in advance for your help.