I had seen and shot a friend's WWII GI Mil-Spec, which is now called something else by SA and was most impressed with the barrel-to-slide and frame-to-slide fit, but I had been satisfied with the sights that came on the "regular" Mil-Spec and opted to go that route.
These pistols can be found under or right at the $500 mark from what I've seen...at least in my neck of the woods.
The Pistol: This gun came with the standard GI grip safety and spur hammer and checkered black plastic grips. The frame and slide are parkerized and the finish is even and not unattractive. The fixed sights are of the 3-dot variety and the front sight is a non-serrated ramp as opposed to the post sight on my earlier Mil-Specs. The trigger is short and grooved and the arch, grooved mainspring housing does have the integral lock.
I was surprised to see that the barrel in my gun was stainless steel and new to me was the small groove cut in the top of the barrel hood to act as a visual loaded chamber indicator.
The Mil-Spec is somewhat spartan, but this one turned out to be reliable and accurate. It is not without faults, however.
Unlike it's WWII Springfield cousin, the Mil-Spec has a lowered ejection port and the magazine well is beveled nicely. It came with one 7-round magazine.
Shooting: On two ocassions now, I've fired just over 600 rounds throught this pistol. These included FMJ, flat-points, factory JHP's, and handloads with both CSWC bullets and JHP bullets.
After the first session, I replaced the standard GI grip safety with a drop-in from Pachmayr that works fine with the spur hammer. The reason was that I was getting eatten alive by both the hammer spur and the sharp edges of the grip safety. I've had this problem with about every 1911 I've ever shot that was in this configuration. The wide grip safety stopped my being more chewed up, but managed to rub off the rather deep scabs from the previous session.
Due to rain and wind, shooting was confined to 10, 15, and 25 yards. No chronograph work was done as I didn't care to set it up in the rain, but I will check out this particular gun in the near future. I expect it will fall in line with my other 5" guns.
10 Yards: Nothing fancy a tall, just some controlled pairs fired starting from a low-ready position and a few failure to stop drills thrown in.
I found the sights easy to pick up for controlled pairs. Each set was fired in something under a second. The trigger pull on this gun is heavy, but that will be remedied in the near future.
15 Yards: Shooting from this distance was done standing and using a two-hand hold in slow-fire.
I was VERY pleased to find that the fixed sights were "on" for me. Many times this is not the case. I suspect that the group being very slightly to the left with a few shots low and left are due to the somewhat heavy trigger pull. I'd estimate it as 7 or 8 pounds. This will be changed in the near future.
25 Yards: Groups fired at 25 yards were done in slow-fire while seated and my wrists braced.
This group was fired using Federal 230-gr. HydraShok JHP in the "old" version, ie, truncated cone bullet rather than the current one having the more rounded ogive.
Observations: The gun was utterly reliable. It fired a total of just over 600 rounds w/o cleaning and the number of malfunctions was exactly zero. There were no failures to feed, fire, or eject. The slide locked open only when it was supposed to.
For those interested, a more detailed report is at:
http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/Crit ... 20Spec.htm
This one is a keeper.
Best.
