By Roy Huntington, American Handgunner
While at S&W I also got to shoot their new tiny 9mm Pro Series 1911 during this casual match we shot. The funny thing is it shot like a “big” gun, ran perfectly (unusual for a short-slide 1911) and had a slide surprisingly easy to run. Not quite in the same easy league as the .380 EZ, it might still open the door to someone who enjoys smaller 1911s but wrestles with this pesky slide on a .45. This blend of Performance Center know-how, engineering and parts, coupled with production on the factory floor means you get a gun sort of “in-between” a stock production pistol and a full-house Performance Center gun.
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This translates to affordability and performance at the same time. I liked this gun so much I just had to show it to you here. The combination of “Officers”-sized round-butt grip holding eight rounds of your favorite 9mm, and the short overall length (6.9″ with 3″ barrel) means it’s easy to carry. The Scandium frame makes it light, and that easy-to-run slide is just a delight to work. I put about 450 effortless rounds through my sample gun and it ran just fine. It showed tight sub-2″ vicinity groups at 20 yards with a bunch of different ammo types, and being a 9mm, recoil was easy to manage.
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This is a pleasant, appealing little gun, weighing only 26 oz. in spite of its stainless slide and barrel. Think: CCW use, home defense, weekend IDPA type competition for fun and also allows you to be in compliance if you have one of those draconian 10-round mag bans haunting you. It begs to be put into a simple IWB holster or belt slide and made your everyday-gun. It’s what a personal pistol should be. At a full MSRP of $1,330 it’s essentially a custom, chopped, 9mm — for a production gun price.
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