Polymer-framed pistols with double-stack capacities are all the rage these days for those who prefer semi-automatics chambered in 10mm Auto for handgun hunting and defense against dangerous game. I like them too. And with more models popping up every year, this gun and ammunition combination is only going to become more popular.
But don't forget that when Colonel Jeff Cooper got on board with the development of the 10mm Auto cartridge, his original goal was to boost the performance of the vaunted single-stack 1911 pistol platform. He considered the 1911—and many still do today—the best option for those shooting sports enthusiasts who take their pistol craft seriously. Even though time marches on, and there are many more 10mm Auto pistols to choose from than ever before, the all-steel 1911s are still a terrific fit for this cartridge.
The blued steel Girsan MC1911 S10 Hunter is loaded with features from the factory.
I've been a fan of 1911s chambered in 10mm Auto for quite some time. But if you show me a long-slide version with a 6-inch barrel, I'll be strongly tempted to say something fiscally responsible like, "Shut up and take my money!" But therein lies the rub. The 1911s chambered in 10mm Auto are relatively rare and long-slides even more so. When you can find them the price tags are also bigger than usual.
Cosaint Arms offers a variety of custom services and upgrades for 1911 and 2011 pattern pistols.
This is why I jumped at the chance to work with the European American Armory's (EAA) Girsan MC1911 S10 Hunter pistol. Made in Turkey, this single-stack 10mm Auto long-slide is available in a blued finish with a listed price of $709 that currently translates into real-world prices of around $650. That's roughly the same cost as the upper-end of the polymer framed 10mm Auto options. At that price, this long-slide was simply too good to pass up for a test drive.
As I've evaluated a few different Girsan 1911 and 2011-pattern pistols this year (including this one) some of the pistols have arrived with a glossy card inside of the case. The cards advise customers seeking upgrades for their pistols to check in with EAA's recommended custom shop Cosaint Arms. I had not heard of this shop before but I did a bit of online research and liked what they have to offer. I gave the company a call resulting in an enjoyable and informative exchange with Greg Mooney, the Chief Executive Officer at Cosaint Arms. The following custom pistol evaluation is the result of that conversation.
The slide has been milled to accommodate C&H Precision’s CHPWS Cross Plate optics mounts and filler plates.
Girsan MC1911 S10 Hunter's Factory Features
The 10mm Auto Girsan MC1911 Hunter had a good deal going for it right out of the box. The slide and frame are both neatly machined from carbon steel alloy and the action cycled smoothly. The round-top slide sports a dovetailed and serrated sight up front, a fully adjustable square-notch Super Sight at the rear, a beveled ejection port, along with front and rear cocking serrations. The internal components follow the classic Government model configuration including the linked barrel, barrel bushing, checkered recoil spring plug, round-wire recoil spring and the short recoil spring guide. In this case, the recoil spring and its plug have been lengthened to match the 6-inch" barrel and extended slide.
A Swampfox Liberty II red dot optic was used for this evaluation.
The steel single-stack frame features a typical rounded trigger guard and 1.75-inch long 4-slot accessory rail milled into the dust cover. The checkered slide stop lever and an extended and serrated round-button magazine release button are both located on the left side of the frame. The serrated long-hole hammer is paired with an extended beavertail grip safety sporting a textured memory bump. The grip frame's front strap and straight-profile mainspring housing are cut with fine line checkering which works in conjunction with the deeply grooved synthetic grip panels to provide plenty of purchase. This pistol shipped with a pair of Check-Mate hardened stainless steel 8-round magazines.
The enhanced controls include a long-loop hammer, ambidextrous thumb safety lever and an extended beavertail grip safety.
Cosaint Arms' Custom Work
When the Hunter arrived at Cosaint Arms, there was a plan in place for the changes to the sights, slide, barrel, action and finish. The factory rear sight was removed so that, in its place, the slide could be milled, drilled and tapped for the installation of a C+H Precision's CHPWS Cross Plate optics mount. This interchangeable aluminum plate features and integral optics-height rear sight, stainless steel hardware and a hard-coat anodized finish.
Cosaint Arms tuned this pistol’s trigger to a competition grade 2-pound 3-ounce trigger pull.
In this case, the plate is sized for RMR-footprint optics and paired with an optics-height red fiber optic front sight. Cosaint Arms also provided, at my request, a rear sight filler plate that can be used when no optic is required. The other major change to the elongated slide was to mill in six 0.70-inch long vents between the front sight and the ejection port. They perform double duty as slide lightening cuts and openings for the compensated barrel.
A 1.75-inch 4–slot accessory rail is milled into the frame’s dust cover
This Hunter's barrel, which measures 6.05-inches from the muzzle to the breech face using a set of digital calipers, was modified with Cosaint Arms' V-12 porting system. The twelve-round ports are positioned in four symmetrical groups of three with two groups on the left and the remainder to the right. The purpose of this series of ports is to redirect a portion of the hot gases produced by cartridge ignition up and away from the barrel in a V-shaped pattern in order to reduce muzzle flip. It can also contribute to reducing levels of felt recoil.
The V-Ports work to reduce muzzle flip and to manage recoil.
The Girsan 1911 pistols are offered with different grades of in-house triggers. The 'stock' single-action triggers are listed as shipping with trigger pulls weighing between 5- to 7-pounds. Some models are upgraded with 'tuned' triggers with a listed trigger pull of 4.5-pounds or less. Cosaint Arms gave the Hunter a trigger job which included the installation and fitting of a Wilson Combat fire control kit. As a result of their work, the Hunter's vented and serrated aluminum trigger now exhibits just a whisper of take-up before breaking crisply with only 2-pounds 3-ounces of trigger pull according to a Lyman digital trigger gauge. It’s triggers like this that really set the 1911s apart from the polymer semi-automatics.
As configured for testing, the custom Hunter tips the scales at 45-ounces.
A quick scroll through Cosaint Arms online gallery reveals the company's exciting and diverse selection of Cerakote finish options. I live in a high-mountain desert region and hoped to have this pistol's finish reflect the colors and qualities of this landscape. We agreed on the Tri Bronze Multicam for the slide and the frame which includes gold, tan and bronze tones.
Disassembly for cleaning for this models follows the same steps as other Government-pattern 1911 pistols.
The controls and appointments received a matte-black finish, to match the sight system, while the synthetic grip panels were treated with bronze-tone Cerakote to tie them in with the Multicam finish. Frankly, the photos just don't do the finish justice. It really has to be seen in natural sunlight to appreciate the subtle yet eye-catching qualities this finish provides. Overall, Cosaint Arms' custom work and upgrades elevated the Hunter's handling and appearance in just the ways I hoped they would. In total, all of the services and parts provided for this project came to $1,030.
--- 013_CCH10S_Mags_01 The Hunter was tested using 8-round blued steel Mec-Gar (Left) and stainless steel Check-Mate (right) magazines.
Diamond D Outdoors Denali Chest Holster
A hiking, hunting and ATV rig for a 6-inch barrel Girsan 1911 with a railed dust cover and an optics cut slide can be a tall order for some holster makers. They don't have the fitments for the Girsan models, they do fit long slides but not models with rails and optics, or in some cases, a 5-inch holster is all they offer. With some manufacturers you are just going to have to wait a few weeks (possibly months) while they build it. I was concerned I might not find what I was looking for in time for this evaluation.
Diamond D Outdoors’ Denali chest holsters are available sized for a variety of hunting revolvers and pistols.
But persistence paid off as I found my way to the Denali chest holsters made here in the United States by Diamond D Outdoors (DDO). Hand crafted in Alaska using ballistic nylon wrapped around high-density foam, this Denali system is impressively light weight. The 6-inch version's holster, harness and spare magazine holder together weighed in at just 9.3-ounces making it the lightest chest rig I've tried on so far. It was in stock, ready to ship and available within just a few days of making the request.
The thin profile of the harness components makes the Denali a good fit for use with a backpack. Once the shoulder strap is set to the right height for your body shape, the chest strap can be quickly and easily adjusted to wear without a jacket or over a cold weather coat. Other features include a padded shoulder strap with accessory loops, a reinforced red-dot optic cutout and an adjustable snap-down retention strap.
The author found the 5-inch and 6-inch Denali rigs to be a great fit for Girsan’s 1911 and 2011 pistols.
The folks at DDO kindly sent out 6-inch and 5-inch versions of the Denali to test drive with various Girsan MC 1911 and Witness2311 models. The 6-inch version was an ideal fit for the Cosaint Arms customized Hunter with its tall sights and the Witness2311 Hunter with its wider 2011-style frame. The elastic spare magazine retainer snugly secured single-stack or double-stack magazines. The 5-inch version was tried with the tough to fit Girsan Influencer X which sports a full-length dustcover with an integral 3.5-inch long, 8-slot Picatinny accessory rail and a red-dot optic. It slipped right it without a fuss. Between these two holster sizes, it looks like the DDO Denali offerings will accommodate most, if not all, of the Girsan 1911 and 2011 models EAA imports for a listed price of $119.99.
Ported Pistol Barrel vs. Ammunition Performance
Generally speaking, longer pistol barrels give powder charges more time to develop which in turn can work to increase bullet velocity when shooting the same round out of a similar platform with a shorter barrel. Although this is not a universal truth for handgun ammunition (some subsonic loads won't speed up much, if at all) the chronograph results usually support this rule of thumb. And so, if you shoot a 6-inch barrel 1911 side-by-side with a 4- or 5-inch model in the same caliber, it should not come as much of a surprise if the 6-inch shots are at least a little, if not noticeably, faster.
However, compensating a pistol's barrel can be a game changer. Past evaluation metrics have often confirmed that drilling vents or ports into a barrel between the chamber and the muzzle can work to reduce a bullet's muzzle velocity. This is because the bullet essentially stops gaining velocity as its base passes the first vent or port. As a bullet travels through this particular barrel, its base passes the first pair of the V-12 ports at a distance of 3.75-inches. If we apply this rule without factoring in any other considerations, it would appear that porting a 6-inch barrel this way should result in velocities similar to a 3.75-inch barrel pistol.
The custom Hunter operated reliably throughout the course of testing.
But it's not quite that simple. After passing the first set of ports, the bullet travels through the next 1.45-inches of ported barrel followed by the last 0.90-inches of un-ported before finally leaving the muzzle. That’s 2.3-inches worth of barrel which is still playing a role in the bullet's behavior. In short, does porting a 6-inch gun result in something like 4-inch barrel performance?
As it turned out, I was working with a 5-inch barrel EAA Girsan Influencer X with a Government 1911 frame chambered in 10mm Auto at the same time as this evaluation for the Custom Hunter. I went ahead and tested them side-by-side on the same day using the same ammunition set to learn two things. First, this would provide a general idea of the differences in felt recoil. The Influencer X weighed in at 43.6-ounces while the custom Hunter tipped the scales at 45-ounces with optics installed and empty magazines in the grips. That's a difference 1.4-ounces which, in this case, was close enough for, well, Government work.
The author tested a 5-inch pistol along with the ported Hunter to compare changes in ammunition performance.
Secondly, and more importantly, the un-ported 5-inch barrel of the Influencer X is a much more common configuration for this gun and ammunition combination. Its bullet velocity results could serve as a reasonable baseline for comparison in regards to just how much ammunition performance goes on to the chopping block for the recoil reduction compensated barrel pistols provide. I went into the test expecting anywhere from modest to significant drops in bullet velocity and energy levels. But the results were surprising.
But before we get to that, let's hit the range test highlights. The Cosaint Custom Hunter proved to be utterly reliable with all of the magazines and ammunition tested. The magazine set included the two factory-provided Check-Mate stainless steel, 8-round single stack boxes along with a pair of well made and affordably priced blued steel 8-round magazines from Mec-Gar. This pistol was perfectly happy working its way through practice-grade full-metal jacket, premium hollow point and hard-cast flat nose bullet loads.
Test ammunition included loads topped with solid copper, full-metal jacket and hard cast lead bullets.
The difference in levels of felt recoil between the un-ported 5-inch barrel and the 6-inch ported barrel was most noticeable with the moderate to mid-range loads. Depending on the ammunition, the recoil for the 6-inch gun dropped into the 9mm +P to typical .45 ACP range. Greg mentioned that this gun does not even feel like shooting a 10mm Auto, and he was right. It felt more like shooting a steel-framed .40 S&W or .45 ACP.
However, things change when moving up into the hottest of the handgun hunting and deep penetration 10mm Auto loads. Sorry folks, but if you want these pistols to hit hard then expect stout levels of recoil to match. In this case, the 6-inch ported barrel changed the direction of the recoil to make the gun more comfortable to work with than the 5-inch. Instead of driving back into the shooting hand, it rolled back more like a .45 ACP. The ports made the pistol noticeably louder but the gun was definitely softer shooting across the board.
The best 3-shot group of 1.43 inches was printed using the Remington UMC load.
The formal, bench-rested 3-shot group testing was conducted at a distance of 25-yards using a RMR footprint Swampfox Liberty II red dot optic. The 7075-T6 aluminum housing, generously sized 24mm lens and 3-m.o.a. green dot are an ideal fit for a hunting handgun like this one. Other features include up to 50,000 hours of run time using a single CR1632 battery, ten brightness settings, automatic on and off functions and an attractive listed price of $249.
The ammunition for the formal testing included a light and fast G9 Defense Woodsman copper solid, practice-grade Remington UMC full-metal jacket loads with Underwood Ammo covering the heavy-bulleted deep penetrator load category. Groups ranged from 1.43- to 3.18-inches in size with an extreme spread of 2.40-inches. Here are the custom Hunter's full set of test results using a Garmin Xero C1 Pro chronograph to measure bullet velocities for 10-shot strings:
What were the bullet velocity differences between the 5-inch and the ported 6-inch pistols? You can see the complete review and results table for the Influencer X here. But in summary, comparing the two tables shows that the G9 Defense gained an average of 5 fps., the Remington UMC picked up 6 fps. and the Underwood load's velocity increased by 25 fps. Statistically speaking, that means both guns generate the same levels of performance. In other words, the ported 6-inch barrel kicks like a .40 or a .45 but hits like a 5-inch barrel 10mm Auto. That works for me!
Parting Shots
For those who have followed the links shown up above, it's obvious that I've been working with a variety of EAA Girsan 1911 and Witness2311 platforms this year. I've been pleased with the results as the various Girsan models have proven to be well made, sharp shooting and enjoyable to use. The MC1911 S10 Hunter 10mm Auto pistol has been no different than its compatriots in this regard.
However, this good gun was only made better by the services and upgrades applied by the good folks over at Cosaint Arms. This is my first time working with this company. But after seeing the quality and positive results of their work, I hope it's not my last! For more information about EAA's catalog of Girsan pistols, visit eaacorp.com . And to learn more about the services Cosaint Arms has to offer, visit cosaintarms.com.
