History

If you haven't read the history of the MEU(SOC) pistol in our test of the Early Model, here it is again.

The MEU(SOC) pistol is a special gun created by USMC armorers for the men in the Marine Expenditionary Units, Special Operations Command, MEU(SOC). The Marines saw the need for a reliable .45 ACP pistol, to be used as a secondary weapon from the men of these elit units and since the USMC didn't want to spend any money in procurring new pistols, the Corps armorers were called to create them.

The USMC armorers used existing 1911 frames the Corps had, and rebuild them to a level, which would make their men happy. Nothing fancy was done on the pistols, just basic work, which however resulted in some very reliable, tactical, no-frills pistols, which was what the men of MEU(SOC) were interested in. The first MEU(SOC) pistols were build on WWII frames, while other parts were procured from the open market.





If you care to read more information about this pistol, please visit the following pages:

http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/history/meusoc.htm

http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/history/meu_1911.htm

http://www.berryhillguns.com/meusoc.html

http://www.findarticles.com/p/artic..._28/ai_n6040330

This review presents to you this particular pistol, as it evolved after the Early Model. The USMC procured some pistols from the market and Springfield Armory was the prefered vendor. These late pistols had basically the same design characteristics as the first ones, with some small differences, as far as some parts are concerned.

This review is about the Springfield pistols that the USMC procured for its MEU(SOC) units.


Introduction

Having tested the Early model of this pistol, it was only natural for me to want to try the Late Model as well. And the good folks at Airsoft Extreme were kind enough to send me one for test and evaluation.



The traditional WA dark grey box, contained the usual items, the pistol with the magazine, the plastic bag with the few BBs, the bushing wrench (I'll never understand why they bother shipping that with their pistols, I've never met one that wouldn't be disassembled without a bushing wrench), the Japanase instruction booklets, the blank targets and the allen wrenches for the hop-up adjustement and the trigger overtravel adjustement.



The pistol is made from strong plastic, with the usual metallic parts (sights, thumb and grip safety, trigger and magazine catch). Here is the pistol, just fresh out of the box. Or to be rather frank, that's not the pistol as it came out of the box, because the pistol came out of the box with an ugly, plastic orange barrel. I was almost shocked to see it in that condition. Thank God, Airsoft Extreme had thoughtfully included the standard barrel with the pistol they send me, so I had a very narrow escape from that heart attack that I felt coming, as soon as I saw the orange barrel.



So what's with this pistol? A lot I would say. First of all, it is a very accurate reproduction of the Sprinfield Armory's 1911, as it was delivered to the MEU(SOC) units.



The slide came with a dovetailed front sight with a white dot (the first dovetailed front sight, whose base is fully matched to the curvature of the slide).



A rear Novak Low Mount sight with two more white dots, is used, while front and rear cocking serrations are cut on the slide.



The pistol uses the standard recoil spring guide rod (short).



The words Model 1911-A1, Cal .45 are inscribed on the left side of the slide and a lowered and flared ejection port is found on the right. On the frame, there is an N- prefix serial number and the slide stop pin which is flash with the frame (it does not protrude, as is usually the case with standard 1911s). Unfortunatelly the pin's hole is not chamfered, for a perfectly authentic reproduction. An aluminum, three-hole trigger is the only bright part on this model.

Overall, the quality of the pistol is equal if not better than the Early model. The trigger pull is excellent, and of course the ergonomics are perfect. Having the Novak Low Mount sights, makes its sight picture much crisper. I am used to the Novak sights from my real pistols and I like them very much.



The grips are the same, well-done Pachmayr immitation (in WA's site, the pictures show the pistols with real Pachmayr grips, but all production pistols are shipped with these immitation ones, which do not have the Pachmayr medallion, but have metal inserts to give weight to the pistol and a good feel), while the ambidextrous thumb safety is the same one used in the Early Model. A beavertail grip safety and a black oval hammer are used.



The mainspring housing is serrated and features a lanyard loop. The mag well is slightly bevelled up, for easier reloading.



In the beginning of this article, I said that this pistol is an accurate reproduction of the Springfield Armory's pistols. Here you can see that the accuracy is indeed examplery. WA could have used the same frame as on the Early Model, which immitates WWII USGI frames. Instead, they have created a new one. You can see the difference of the two frames in the picture above. It is well-known that the dust cover (and the front grip strap) of the Springfields is of a more square profile, than that of Colt or Kimber or other 1911s. And here you can see that the MEU(SOC) Late model is using a frame with a wider and more square dust cover, than the Early Model.

Another interesting thing, is that the pistol's front strap, below the rubber grips, is fully checkered.

The weight of this pistol was 880 gr (compared with 900 gr for the Early version, the difference due to the fact that the Early version had an aluminum slide).

Finally, the pistol arrived with the usual "Wilson Combat 47D" magazine, which takes 23 BBs.

Overall, the pistol is very nice and good feeling, like almost every other Western Arms model I've tried. It's authenticity is quite high, imitating very well the real gun. Overall, I didn't find anything I didn't like with this pistol.

Please continue to Page 2 of our review.