New Sig GSR

[Allan R.]

I bought it last week and shot it today, accuracy was good as it was suppossed to be about and inch at 15 yards, probably would have been better but the only thing on hand was some American Manufacturing ammo, it normally shoots O.K. A couple guy's at the club shot it and did a better than I. I purchased it at the gun shop in our area for $800.00 including tax, I could'nt pass it up and now I am glad I did'nt, I did however jam a few times after the 3rd. shot I hope with shooting it cleans up. It also could be cleaned up a little at the bottom of the grip for sharp edges on where you put the mag in. but overall I am happy with it. It does shoot better than other's I have owned, and had the features I like, and yes I like the rail on it. And tommorrow I will be out trying the 1911A1 Colt I inherited, this one is in great shape for being a pistol made in 1942. anyway thank's Allan.

[santa]

Congrats on your new toy, you lucky dog.

Could you post some pictures please?

[kendoka]

Sooo........

You say yours "jammed", eh. As in, failure to feed?

I actually like the aesthetics of the GSR (even if most of my 1911 bigot homies don't....). HOWEVER, the damned thing has failure to feed problems in spades!

One of many 1911 format pistols I own.. this thing has over 800 rounds through it and dozens, scores of feed failures...I have many "smiley faces" to reflect on. I have fed this obstinant thing reloads from 1.250 to 1.270, factory RN, and three flavors of FJHP ...all with the same problem. Four different magazine brands too!

I finally sent it off to a competent smith who says that the ramp needs some tuning. I will report back when it returns. Hope he is right, and some simple refinement does the trick.

One interesting fact is that the extractor does its job. Despite complaints (more bigotry, perhaps?) about the external extractor, I have had no problem tossing cases. We will see when it returns home.

BTW, I consulted Sigarms as all this developed....their advice was that it wants to "run wet". Right. I lubed this bad boy until it was like a baby's bottom...same problem.

Interested in others experience with this expensive firearm. :cool:

[wildon1911s]

You know that seems to be Sigs advice on everything, "they like to run wet" . My experience with the GSR was only brief, as I did not own it, it was a gun sent to my friend who writes articles for On Target magazine. The 2 received did not impress me for the price, but seem to have a lot of potential with some work on the trigger and a better fit of barrel. I do like the look of them though.

[Recon]

Did you notice where American Manufacturing ammo was made or what the headstamp was?

[kendoka]

I got my balky GSR back from my gunsmith. He tuned the extractor, polished the ramp, and did some work on the throat of the barrel. The trigger has been acceptable; so I didn't ask him to do any refinement on that. I just wanted the darned thing to cycle reliably. And now it does. At least it did so for 200 rounds. I will drag it out for some occassional exercise and make sure its reliably lives up to its price tag.

wildon1911s,

I like the look of it too. I guess I am not a "purist" about the 1911. It seems legit to explore the format and develop variants. Although, it has been interesting observing the exchange about the GSR on this forum. As far as it "running wet" my post tune-up GSR ran through the 200 rounds without an unusually high amount of lubrication. So maybe the "run wet" advice is a "red herring"?

[The Mail Man 78]

My GSR has been perfect. Better than my Wilson I am sorry to say. Anyways I think yall are being to hard on SIG due to everybody had to start somewhere. Look at Kimber, there whole thing when they came out was off Brownings design. They had ambi's,mag wells, ect. Don't hate Sig because they want some pie too! :D

[metroswat]

I have been informed by my local Law Enforcement firearms distributor that the Sig GSR will not be available to Police agencies for another 8-9 months due to reliability issues. After reading several of these threads, I feel that it is ludicrous that after spending $900.00 for a handgun, you still have to send it to a gunsmith so it will function properly. If we are being hard on these manufacturers, it is justified. A firearm purchased for self defense should work out of the box.........period !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kotonk]

I got my balky GSR back from my gunsmith. He tuned the extractor...mmm, how does one tune an external extractor?

[kendoka]

I probably use terminology "tuning" loosely or inaccurately. The way I understand the term "tuning" applied to a conventional internal 1911 extractor is two things. The first is the adjustment of the tension of the leaf spring that the extractor really is. Tuning can also include some polishing(?) or refinement of the head of the extractor. Since the external extractor isn't a leaf spring, the "tuning" does not include adjustment of the tension like a conventional one. But can't the head of the extractor be refined? I actually didn't ask. But it does cause me to ask also about the variables that would affect the tension of the external extractor (there is some spring involved here, right?) and how or if it can be adjusted. The other thing I assume is that the competence required to adjust the tension on an internal 1911 extractor is one motivation for employing an external extractor. The skill and experience level of the smith could be less a factor with the external extractor. I guess a REALLY badly adjusted internal extractor (like if I took my meat hooks to one) could become a substitute firing pin. Not sure about that, but having looked at them carefully, I guess it's possible. Even though I can disassemble and reassemble (except my Kimber) a 1911, I am not a gunsmith. Next time I talk to the mine, I will ask him what can be done with an external extractor. Can anyone here fill me in?

[Allan R.]

O.k. went to the range with friends who shoot much better than I, and this includes a very good gunsmith, Accuracy was still Great, But ONE BIG PROBLEM. Tom said that the frame was not cut very well at all, the bullets SLAM into a lip where the barrel and ramp meet, his comment was whoever was in charge of making the frame was asleep at the Job, and that includes the person's who were in charge of Quality Control. I still like my pistol and I will call Sig to make arrangements to send it back for repair. He said most likely they should replace the Frame, sometimes they weld a new piece on and grind it to where it should be;he said this is not advisable, but is acommon practise among some factory shops, I really hope they don't do this. Anyone have any suggestions Can I ask for a new frame. Allan

[Recon]

Allan:

I think your entitled to satisfaction and should ask for whatever it would take for you to be satisfied. I guess its up to Sig to demonstrate how they will backup their product. I think they should simply give you a brand new gun in exchange.

[Allan R.]

Here is what they did Polish and Recontour barrel feed ramp, adjusted Extractor, test fired with speer 230 gr. and Gold dot JHP-No failures, I will take it out Tommorrow and keeping my fingers crossed for Godd result, Thank's Guy's for all you Help. Allan.

[Allan R.]

I took the GSR out today because it supposed to rain for the next week. In a few words, I was amazed. No malfunctions at ALL, three different bullet types 185 GR JHP police service loads (MI-Wall corp) Winchester 230 GR. Full metal jacket, and Winchester JHP, the Mi-wall stuff looks like the flying ash tray loads, so it was worth sending it back, also shot very accurate. I can now say I am very pleased, I tried all 3 mags both Novak's and the Wilson, mixed and matched the different bulletts everything did it was supposed to do, I would now feel confident to carry and use this pistol for self defence. Thanks' Allan :D

[Gary W. White]

Gun has never failed to operate properly and feeds everything I put through it since purchased. The only thing that never worked right were the mags made by Novak from Italy. I sent these back to SIG who were supposed to replace these and never did. I got a couple of Wilson's and everything worked great. Ramp and barrel were polished and set within proper parameters. I did replace the internal Series 80 parts with C&S's titanium nitride parts because the plunger did not allow the firing pin to disengage properly. Placed an Ed Brown 30 LPI MSH on the the gun along with a Wilson FLGR w\bushing and a new Wilson premium trigger. The trigger was a little heavy and I reduced it to a nice 3.5 lbs and made sure the angle and secondary angles on the sear were set correctly and the hooks on the hammer were set not less than .018 and were exactly at 90 degrees. Literature says it has a Kart bbl on this but Kart doesn't make a stl bbl to my knowledge but it appears to be a match bbl. The rear lug and bushing have no springing and the bushing fits at .001 over and can be hand loosened. Frame and slide are obviously Caspian. I have hand checkered the front strap 30 lpi and plan on getting a Caspian damascus slide and having the frame done by Robar with their NP3 treatment. This will really offset my nice Colt Special Combat Government. Great firearm. I carry it daily.

Happy Shooting!
Gary

[Allan R.]

Gary, I really would send it back to SIG, They paid for the postage both way's and only took about 9 day's and as I said in the other earlier post it is functioning like it should, the only other thing with the Novak mags is make sure that they are in all the way, the Wilson mag does seem to fit in better, the Novak's seem to need that extra bump to seat in correctly, but once in they work fine. Just my two cents, Good Luck! Allan

[Gary W. White]

Hi Allan,

I think its more of a design defect that SIG kind of admitted to when talking with them on these Italian mags. They are pretty but not 100% functional. They can keep the mags as I don't trust them and Novak simply imports them and won't stand behind them. What I wanted was SIG to reimburse me for the Wilson mags I had to purchase based on about a box of ammo wasted trying to get there mags to work. The ACT-mags would slam the nose of the round (even factory hardball) into the barrel ramp when the slide was pulled back and released to place the firearm into battery or if the slide was released by the slide stop. This occurred regardless whether the magazine had one or all eight rounds in same. The follower on these mags in my opinion are not set exactly right and this causes this particular malfunction . Once loaded the SIG never failed to feed or function properly and this was probably due to the more violent cycling of the firearm then what happens when simply loading. The reason I can't trust a magazine like this is your life may depend on it on a reload. I do some gunsmithing and noted that there was nothing wrong with the ramp angle or the throating of the barrel on the SIG so it had to be a mag defect. Anyways, it's no big deal!

Good Shooting!
Gary

[nicky]

Kudos to Metroswat whats going on here we are laying out big bucks for new guns and you hve to pray they go bang when you pull the trigger. No wonder Glocks are all I seem to see in police holsters.Ill admit I am new to 1911s but I never had any problems with my many Glocks or my Sig226.