Armscor-Rock Island Armory has been making 1911s since the 1950s. They have even made pistols for STI’s Spartan, Auto Ordnance and Charles Daly. Their latest Tac Series line of 1911 pistols offers full features for an affordable price. I got my hands on their Tac Ultra FS HC in 9mm. This pistol is basically a race gun disguised as a fighting handgun.
All Steel And High Capacity
The Tac Ultra FS HC has a full length slide with a 5″ barrel. Because It has a full length railed dust cover the frame can accommodate a full length guide rod as well. The long barrel and slide work well for covering up and protecting any rail mounted weaponlight. I mounted some SureFire weapon lights and you can see how the bezel is tucked back behind the muzzle.
The frame is based on a Para Ordnance design so the grip can accommodate a high capacity double stack magazine. The Ultra Tac FS HC 9mm comes with two 17rd magazines with a thick base pad to aid in inserting the magazine into the grip. This comes in handy since the pistol comes with a flared magwell. For those of you who do not shoot race guns or pistols with a flared magwell you are missing out. The magwell acts like a funnel and helps you to insert a magazine at full speed without worrying about snagging the feedlips on the corners of the grip.
Full Figured And Hefty Does Not Mean Bloated Or Slow
Because the frame is all steel the pistol feels a bit hefty at 3 lbs. That is 1 lb heavier than a Beretta 92. However there are benefits to rocking a heavier gun. The weight actually helps with muzzle climb and recoil. It is simple physics. Inertia wants to keep the pistol from moving. Of course there are other variable at play such as ergonomics. Even though the Ultra Tac FS HC is a Para Ordnance clone, it is a 1911 at heart. The 1911 grip angle is arguably the best for any pistol. It naturally points due to this ergonomic miracle. It is easy to instinctivley shoot and hit what you are pointing at.
As I said the Armscor double stack 9mm pistols are based on the Para Ordnance Hi-Cap design. This means it uses Para Ordnance style magazines. I have tried using 2011 magazines and while they fit in the gun, the mag catch does not lock them in place. I read that some modification can be done to get the 2011 style magazines to work.
Here is the Ultra Tac next to its Para cousins.
The Para pistols above belong to my friend Brian and setup for USPSA competition. Other than the fancy slide cuts and stainless finish the Ultra Tac shares a lot of similarities. It has an extended beaver tail, fiber optic front sight and adustable rear sight. The slide has forward serrations for more traction when racking the slide near the muzzle for press checks. The trigger has a 4-6lb pull and has an adjustable over travel stop to help with faster trigger pulls and resets. The grip panels are machined G10 with plenty of texture for positive control. Oh and a skeletonized hammer and trigger for added measure.
As I said earlier the weight helps minimize muzzle climb. You can see how apparent this is in the video below.
A post shared by Nick Chen (@solscud007) onOct 11, 2017 at 9:20pm PDT
It Sounds Too Good to Be True But It Is That Good
For an almost race ready all steel single action gun you can expect a price tag over $1000. Add on top the fact that the slide is hand fitted to each frame. That type of custom gun smithing is not cheap and yet this gun has an MSRP of only $906 on Armscor’s website. Which means a street price of around $700. That is a great deal. An STI or SV Infinity of similar features would easily cost twice as much or more. You will be hard pressed to find a handgun packed with this much features in a similar price range.
