Tisas 1911 Review

Tisas 1911 w/ Magpul grips.

A couple of years ago I was in the market for a gun chambered in .45ACP. I have always loved the look of a 1911, but as a college student, I didn't have very much money to spend on a gun. However, I stumbled upon the Tisas 1911. I bought mine from Budsgunshop.com for a whopping $349.00 shipped! I know, when it comes to many things especially guns you get what you pay for. I read several reviews and weighed the pros and cons of such a purchase and decided to go ahead with it. 

The gun is made by a Turkish company called Tisas that is ISO 9001 certified and meets NATO AQAP standards. I'm not going to go into all the details of what this means, but sufficeth to say that they meet certain standards when manufacturing their guns and this results in a benefit for consumers. When I first handled the gun I was very impressed with the finish. Bud's website says that the gun is parkerized according to military specification. It's a very smooth parkerized finish not like what you would find on an AK but more like a paint job. It’s smooth and almost looks like a semi-gloss black. The fit of the gun is excellent as well. Not what you would expect on a $349 1911. The slide to fame fit is tight with no slope in it what so ever.

All the parts on the gun are standard for a GI 1911. The sights are all black and are not adjustable. I would prefer adjustable sights but for the price I can’t complain. I’m not a fan of the all black sights because it is hard for me to aim quickly with them. I would prefer something with a little more contrast. I might end up painting the sights if I feel like it. The trigger on it is not bad. I don’t have a trigger pull gauge so I don’t know what the weight is, but the pull was decent. The barrel on the Tisas is a hammer forged barrel, a plus in my book. The grips that came on the gun are a hard wood. I liked the look of them but I liked how the Magpul grips feel so I swapped them out.

Shooting the gun revealed some problems. I mainly shot cheap Tula ammo and some Winchester white box stuff. I had a few failures to eject that occurred every now and again. I think I put about 500 rounds through the gun so far. I also had the slide lock back with ammo in the magazine still. This was because the round in the magazine would bump into the slide stop and cause it to engage. I remedied this by filing down the edge of the slide stop so the bullet wouldn’t have an issue clearing it. This seemed to work. Also, I had a problem with the safety plunger tube coming loose. I had to buy a tool to re-stake it. I also had a few failure to feeds while shooting. I ended up taking the gun apart and polishing the feed ramp to try to fix the issue. This seemed to work for me.

About the same time that I bought this 1911 my father also bought one. However, he has shot his more than me and has never cleaned it or made any modifications to it and he has never had a FTF or FTE or any other problem. The gun has been 100% reliable for him. Also, he has almost exclusively shot steel cased Tula ammo through it. So when buying a Tisas 1911 it seems to be a luck of the draw. You may get one that is great like my father, or you may get one with a few issues. But, for the money I don’t think it is a bad buy if you are looking for an inexpensive 1911. It could be a good gun to use as a platform to upgrade. I would give my gun a 3.5 out of 5. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one though.