SIG Revolution C3--Updated

Here’s the thumbnail review for 1911 haters or those who don’t have time to read the review: SIG got it right.

Now, if you want to know more, read on.

The 1911 model pistol in .45 ACP is just 3 short years shy of its 100th birthday and going stronger than ever. For most of the last century if you spoke of a .45 you meant a Colt. Aside from some Spanish copies that would get you laughed out of any respectable shooting range Colts were about all you had to choose from. Up until my junior year of college (1978) my only handgun experience had been with revolvers. Every police department that I knew of carried them and that seemed good enough for me; besides anything with the Colt name on it was way, way outside of the price range for a common college student. My interest in Colts, the 1911 in particular, changed when I met my next door neighbor. He had a Blued Colt Combat Commander .45 ACP, a Colt Python .357 Magnum, and a Smith & Wesson Model 57 .41 Magnum and an S&W Model 66 .357 Magnum. He was a handgun god as far as I knew. He had two Colt handguns that I had only read about and thought I would never be able to afford, he had the big N framed Smith & Wesson .41 Magnum that looked like the gun Dirty Harry sported in the movies, he had the stainless steel Model 66 which was as scarce as hen’s teeth in 1978. My neighbor belonged to the local gun club and occasionally would take me and my puny Ruger Single Six .22 LR/.22 Magnum along. His heavy duty revolvers were OK, but the Combat Commander really got to me. It was a blast to shoot and more accurate then I had expected. Back in those dark ages most of the magazines I read had given me the impression that the .45 was over-powered, inaccurate, and unreliable. In the pistol matches we watched at the gun club revolvers ruled the roost and there was nary a semi-automatic in sight. The silhouette matches were ruled by N framed Smiths and Ruger Super Blackhawks and the PPC championships were full up with Smith K frame revolvers and the occasional Colt Python.

It took me a year, but by carefully saving I purchased a brand new nickel plated Colt Government Model with beautiful walnut grips. It didn’t have the balance of the Commander but it was a knock-out. Fast forward three years and I sold it to a Cook County Deputy Sheriff when I was low on rent money. But I never forgot the lure of the .45.

The years went by and so did another Colt, a .45 ACP Combat Elite was bought and a few years later sold when I was low on mortgage money. Suddenly I began to notice that Colt pistols were not to be found on gun shop shelves. The stores began to fill up with Beretta, Smith & Wesson, and eventually Glock 9mm pistols. The military and police departments began shifting to high capacity 9mm pistols so I understood why gun dealers were stocking them in sufficient quantities but the Colt 1911, enhanced by custom gunsmiths, had begun to blossom on the competition circuit—there was still a clear market for them.

Then, in 1997, something wonderful happened: Kimber began producing semi-custom 1911 pistols in all different barrel lengths and frame sizes. They were expensive but they included all of the goodies that people were spending hundreds of dollars for custom gunsmiths to put on their Colts. Match grade barrels, adjustable target or 3-dot combat night sights, lowered ejection port, ambidextrous slide safety, beavertail grip with memory bump grip safety, checkered front and back strap, full length guide rod, custom finishes, and exhibition grade grips and on and on and on. Soon Springfield got into the custom- production 1911 market. Para Ordnance expanded and improved their lines. Not long after that Smith & Wesson, the King of Revolvers, rocked the gun market by unveiling their version of the 1911 (and a darn good one at that). Then, in 2004 SIG got into the act with the GSR 1911. The GSR stands for Granite State Revolution. Granite Stated undoubtedly stands for New Hampshire where they located their U.S. factory. I’m not sure about the significance of the “Revolution” part. One article I read surmised that it was in reference to New Hampshire’s role in the 1776 American Revolution. I have not heard an explanation from SIG but my assumption is that they are referring to their own revolutionary rendition of the 1911. All of that lead us to the subject of this review.

When I saw the Revolution C3 (which stands for Compact, Concealed Carry) I was struck by it. I had been eyeing the new Kimber SIS pistols but was drawn back to the C3. It is certainly a good looking pistol but it also looked like it would be well balanced, shootable, and compact enough to carry. It was expensive and I dared not handle it as that might have sealed the deal and further burdened by indebtedness to the Master of Cards. It took me three weeks to figure out the financing. Trade two no longer needed .357 revolvers and fork over just a pinch of cash. I triumphantly returned to Gander Mountain made the deal and handled the C3 for the first time. It is a Commander length barrel/slide (4.25 inch barrel) sitting atop an Officer’s frame (shorter than the full sized Commander). All of this means that the pistol is shorter in height and length than a standard sized 1911. The balance was awesome and the grip fit my hand well. Another centimeter shorter and the grip of my little finger would have been in jeopardy.

Before going any further, here are the specifications for the pistol:

Trigger Pull: SA 4.5 - 5.5 lbs

Overall Length: 7.70"

Overall Height: 4.75"

Overall Width: 1.37"

Barrel Length: 4.25"

Sight Radius: 5.70"

Sights: Novak® Night Sights

Weight w/ Mag: 29.5oz

Magazine Capacity: 7 Rounds

Grips: Custom Rosewood Grips

Finish: Two-Tone Natural Stainless Slide and Controls

Shooting the C3 was a real joy. Prior to loading it up I have been firing a Glock model 36 .45 ACP with a compensated barrel for another review in a couple of weeks. I was quite happy to find that the recoil of the SIG was much less than that of the compensated Glock. Follow-up shots came easy due to the mild recoil and the checkering of the beautiful grips and the checkering on the front and back strap kept my grip in place; the pistol did not shift in my hand during recoil which would have required me to adjust my hold.

It almost seems to me that SIG reverse engineered the Kimber and Springfield pistols. They included some of Kimber and Springfield’s better features (match grade barrel, alloy frame, etc.) and left out those that got in the way and were inconvenient. The slide safety is slightly larger than a standard Colt safety and the C3’s is only mounted on the left side; there is no hideously large ambidextrous safety getting in the way of things. Also not included is a full length guide rod, double recoil springs, and coned barrel or standard sized barrel with an overly tight bushing. I was very pleased to see the standard recoil spring and bushing as it makes field stripping a breeze and does not make the pistol less accurate than those burdened with the lengthy guide rods, double springs, and tight barrel bushings. No bushing wrench was required to remove the bushing. This is one of the reasons that I don’t fire my Kimbers very much; they are a pain to disassemble and put back together. Also gone, and unnecessary, is the ultra light trigger pull. Many of the 1911 on he market put a 3 to 3.5 pound trigger pull which in my opinion is just too light to be practical for a carry weapon. The SIG pull is 4.5 to 5 pounds and it is right on for me.

One other thing is rather minor but I did notice it. When cleaning the slide I found that I could not get my whole, fat finger inside it. This is unusual for a 1911 so I got out the calipers and found that SIG had found a way to make the slide thinner. The specifications state that the width is 1.37 inches but that was measured at the grips (and they are easily changed to provide a thinner or fatter hold if you prefer). The C3's slide measured .86 of an inch and my Kimber, Smith & Wesson, and Ed Brown all measured .93 of an inch. Barely noticeable, probably has no affect on the pistol’s operation but it is there.

Target Time

The first several targets were all set at 21 feet and the ammunition used was Remington UMC 230 grain FMJ:

These were the first two magazines (7 rounds) fired from the C3.

Same Remington ammunition fired at 31 feet.

Same ammunition at 41 feet.

Same ammo at 50 feet

Winchester Personal Defense 230 grain JHP fired at 21 feet.

Remington Golder Sabre 230 grain JHP

I was only able to put 91 rounds through the C3 today. During that time I had one failure of the slide to return all the way. I am pretty sure that I was carelessly limp wristing the pistol due to its mild recoil. By now you have probably figured out that I like the C3 a lot. So much so that I have bestowed upon it the prestigious Clip Draw attachment award. Yes, I know that it kind of detracts from the beauty of the C3 but no greater honor can I imagine than to say that I will bet my life on this pistol.

Update

Upon carrying the Revolution C3 I determined that the concealability of the piece would be improved with some slimline grips. This was certainly not an easy decision to come to as the grips provided with the pistol are very attractive. Once I made the decision to go with slimline grips the decision about who to go to was an easy one. Esmerelda O'Sheehan makes some downright gorgeous grips and takes a backseat to no maker in the business. She also has the talent make a line of very slender grips with the same artistic checkering that goes on the full size grips. The set seen below is both beautiful and utilitarian. They have reduced the size of the grip from 1.4 inches to 1.18 inches.

Range Time With The New Grips

Rock Your Glock

Ever since Glock pistols emerged onto the international shooting stage in the early 1980’s they became the thing of urban legend, mostly due their polymer frame. Knee jerkers from all sides surrounded the Glock pistols. “The polymer frame will never hold up!” “The polymer frame will flex, loosen, and be inaccurate!” My favorite was from the gun-grabbing liberals “the plastic pistol cannot be detected by security x-ray machines or metal detectors!” Wrong, wrong, and, as usual, stupidly wrong. Time has proven the first two prophecies decidedly incorrect and last declaration was stupidly wrong because it was uttered, accepted as fact, and published in the news media before anyone actually sent one through an x-ray machine or ran one through a metal detector. By now everyone should know that there is plenty of metal in the frame components, slide and barrel to set off any metal detector and everything in the pistol, including the polymer grip frame is visible on a airport x-ray machine; yet I still hear people refer to the Glock as being undetectable to airport screening equipment.

The Glock Motto is a simple one “Perfection”. One of the things that I have come to like about Glock pistols are their engineered simplicity. As such, I can appreciate the minimalistic slogan. However, “perfection” may be a stretch. I have been on the search for the perfect carry pistol for many years and have not yet found one which offers a terminal caliber, accuracy, controllability, capacity, and ease of concealment. Should I ever find the perfect carry pistol my life will become a bit dreary. The mid-sized Glock however, comes pretty close to filling the bill. They are easy to operate, the controls are conveniently located, they are easy to field strip and the Tennifer finish makes cleaning and lubricating a snap, the sights are good and the trigger is not bad. What all of this means is that the Glock is pretty good right out of the box.

My favorite mode of carry is the utilization of the clip draw attachment which I find has worked pretty well with the mid-sized Glock. I had been put off to trying to carry the the mid-size or, for the purposes of this review, the model 19C (9mm compensated barrel) and 23 (.40 S & S) concealed as people both in and out of the firearms media usually refer to them as the “Commander” sized Glocks in reference to the Colt Commander model which was downsized at ¾ of an inch from the Colt Government Model Model 1911A1. However, as the picture below shows, the mid-sized Glock is comparably smaller.

The mid-sized Glock is 1.15 inches shorter in length than the Commander sized 1911, and is a quarter of an inch shorter in height. This gives them an edge in concealment and, with the Clip Draw attachment it conceals easily under a bulky, loose shirt (if a Glock is to be employed with a Clip Draw attachment then the rearward movement of the trigger must be blocked. Please see the April 4th posting entitled “Clip Draw Concealed Carry Device” for more information). If the dress requires a lighter shirt, then the Smith & Wesson “J” frame revolver gets employed.

After deciding that a Clip Draw on a mid-sized Glock would be a good idea I eventually wound up trading for the .40 S.&W. model 23 and the 9mm model 19C. I have intended to write about these pistols in separate reviews, however along the way I added some customized features to both of them that begged to be compared in one article.

To the Model 23 I added AmeriGlo Speed Ring night sights and the Side Lock trigger (with manual safety) as the Clip Draw had been added. So far I am not sure if I will keep the Speed Ring night sights. Prior to their arrival and installation the model 23 had been extremely accurate. So much so that I sold the larger model 22 .40 S&W for which I had traded at the same time. I couldn’t justify tying up the capital when the smaller pistol was more accurate and with a capacity of 13 + 1 rounds of potent .40 caliber ammo, it was more utilitarian. However, with the addition of the Speed Ring sights accuracy has suffered. These sights are designed for combat and get you on target quicker for both the first and follow-up shots. However, in the process accuracy decreases; for a while I thought that I was coming back on target so quickly that follow up rounds were flying loosely due to the speed of acquisition. Since then I have taken my time with the follow-up shots and the truth of the matter is that the Speed Ring is large enough that it is difficult to place the front sight consistently within it. For the purposes of close quarter combat the Speed Ring is fine, but I would feel comfortable with more accuracy and may switch the model 23 to regular night sights. The targets below were fired prior to the addition of the Speed Ring sights (all targets were fired at 21 feet with either Winchester white box or Remington UMC 180 FMJ ammo unless otherwise noted):

The following targets were fired after the installation of the Speed Ring night sights:

(Top and Center 3 targets were shot with CCI Blazer Brass FMJ ammo. Bottom left was shot with CorBon 135 grain JHP and Bottom Right was shot with Speer Gold Dot 180 grain GDHP. Target was placed at 21 feet.)

The model 19C is a 9mm pistol with a capacity of 15 + 1 rounds. The “C” in the model number designates that it is has a compensated barrel/slide. I am here to tell you that this arrangement makes the 19C a real pussycat to shoot. Even the hottest +P+ ammo was very comfortable to shoot. I would put the felt recoil somewhere between a .22 LR and .32 ACP. The reduced recoil assists the shooter in making accurate shots and follow-up shots. This pistol again was very accurate right out of the box.

One of the caveats of a compensated barrel is the amount of barrel flash visible when shooting in the dark and how that would affect your vision. Unfortunately I am not in a position to tell you. My thinking is that this could be an issue however, the range on which I shoot is hardly what I would consider “well lit” and I have noticed no appreciable flash during my shooting in their more subdued lighting. On the other hand, when shooting my S&W 586 L-Comp .357 magnum, the fireball is quite pronounced in normal indoor range lighting.

Because I was adding the Clip Draw attachment I also added the Side Lock trigger. I also added an extended slide release and would recommend this enhancement to anyone who carries or shoots their Glock pistol a lot. The extended slide release does not add appreciable bulk to the control but makes it easier to access and operate. Best of all, like a lot of Glock replacement parts, they are inexpensive (the slide release was $18.00) and usually pretty easy to install yourself.

The final enhancement to the Glock model 19C was the addition of the Advantage Tactical sights. These are an odd looking affair consisting of a front sight in the configuration of a blaze orange pentagon. The rear sight is a triangle with two bright yellow bars making up the right and left side. They come together at the top and form the base that the pentagon fits into to complete the pyramid shape of the sights when they are on target. All that geometry makes it sound a lot more complicated than it is. I will tell you that I was a little apprehensive to put additional sights on the pistol when it worked so well out of the box. However, the Advantage Tactical sights may be a good compromise between the Speed Ring and regular sights. They can get you on target quickly and can be used slowly to line up more precise sighting.

At the moment the model 19C is my go to pistol for most occasions due to it's 15 +1 capacity, accuracy, and speed of target acquisition afforded by the Advantage Tactical sights.

All targets fired at 21 feet with Winchester white box or Remington UMC 115 grain FMJ ammo unless otherwise noted:

(35 rounds fired at 50 feet)

(Defensive Ammo: Target on the left is CorBon 115 grain +P JHP. Target on the right is Remington Golden Sabre 124 grain JHP)

Going back to my original criteria for making a perfect carry pistol, the downside to the 19C would be its ability to conceal easily. It is just a tad large for summer carry otherwise it fits the other criteria, dare I say, “Perfectly”.

The Browning Hi-Power

Legend has it that the Browning Hi-Power was born after World War I when France desired a large capacity service pistol. European handguns had traditionally been small caliber affairs that were more a badge of honor than an actual combat arm. It is very easy to imagine that the confines of WW I’s trench warfare demonstrated the woeful inefficiency of small handguns chambered for underpowered calibers. At the outset of the Great War France supplied their troops with the Lebel Pistole Revolveur Modele 1892 which chambered six rounds of 8mm ammo weighing 102 grains which exited the revolver at just under 700 feet per second supplying a mere 126 foot pounds of energy.

In the second year of the war France needed more handguns and selected the Ruby pistol which was a less expensive copy of the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless.

The Ruby was produced in 7.65mm (.32 ACP) firing a 71 grain bullet at 904 feet per second that provided 129 foot pounds of energy. Contrast this to the .45 ACP round that Uncle Sam brought along which fired a 230 grain bullet traveling at 975 feet per second and provided 421 foot pounds of energy or about 4 times the knockdown power of the French side arms. The .45 ACP pistols and revolvers fielded by the U.S. Expeditionary Forces performed so well on the battlefield that General John “Blackjack” Pershing wanted every doughboy to be equipped with one.

The French turned to John Moses Browning and the Fabrique National factory in Belgium to design and produce the new service pistol. The story continues that Browning was determined to improve upon the venerable Government Model 1911 that he produced for the U.S. armed forces. The Hi-Power remained a hammer fired, single action pistol with a frame mounted manual safety, slide stop, and magazine release. Gone however, was the grip safety which had been a requirement of the U.S. mounted cavalry. Browning also designed an improved barrel link doing away with the 1911’s swivel link and replacing it with a fixed cam which made the barrel bushing obsolete. This was a great improvement as it made field stripping the pistol much easier as there were two fewer pieces (barrel bushing and recoil spring plug) to keep track of. The trigger was also redesigned and given a revolver style lever type trigger rather than the straight bar-type trigger on the 1911. The Hi-Power was produced in two models, a fixed-site version and a tangent site adjustable out to a very optimistic 500 meters. The later version was adopted by some artillery units of the Third Reich which issued them in a wooden holster that doubled as a shoulder stock.

Browning died in 1926, 9 years before the final version of the pistol was brought to the market in 1935 and the lines are somewhat blurred as to what features of the pistol were solely Browning’s and which were due to the influence of Dieudonne Saive, Browning Chief Engineer, who took over the project after Browning’s death.

For reasons unknown, France did not adopt the Model 1935 or Hi-power, as it has become more commonly known. This did not hurt Fabrique National as many other countries had lined up to purchase it including India, Austria, Australia, Argentina, Ireland, Luxembourg, Israel, Singapore, Venezuela, Malaysia, Rhodesia, and Finland . After the Nazis captured Belgium, they began arming their troops with the Model 1935. Prior to their occupation the pistol’s blueprints were smuggled to Canada when the John Inglis Company produced it for the Armed Forces of Canada, Great Britain, and China. The Hi-Power remains a mainstay in military and police inventories to this day. Sadly, it appears that it was also the favored side arm of Saddam Hussein who was frequently pictured with one.

The 13 + 1 capacity of the Hi-Power made it a hit with police officers as it was the only high capacity pistol on the market for quite awhile until Smith & Wesson bested the Browning with the 14 + 1 capacity of their model 59 which debuted late in 1970. In the early 1980’s when six shot .38 caliber revolvers were the overwhelming choice for our nation’s finest, I worked on the Southwest side of Chicago and I would have to say that the two most popular back-up guns for the patrolmen in the 10th District was either the Colt Detective Special or the Browning Hi-Power.

The specimen being reviewed here is a discontinued model dubbed the Hi-Power Practical. It sports easy to see fixed sights which have three unique white bars rather than the three dots found on most modern pistols.

I really tend to like these as they are easy for my aging eyes to pick up. The pistol also has a brushed chrome alloy frame with a high luster blue-black slide. The pistol originally came with Pachmayr rubber wrap-around grips we which were very nice, but not as nice as the Walnut Checkered grips from Hogue that you presently see on the pistol.

This pistol is beautiful and an ergonomic wonder; especially since it was produced before ergonomics blossomed into the uber-concept that it is today. I have never met anyone who picked up a Hi-Power and didn’t remark that is felt very good in their hand; the contour of the grips and the balance of the pistol is superb. Being that the magazine is a double stack it is larger than the Colt 1911 but not significant to the point that most people cannot handle it. In fact in most circles it is thought of as a slender and easily concealable pistol.

How She Shoots

The Hi-Power has had some reported trigger issues throughout its run, however I have never handled one that I considered bad. This specimen runs extremely smooth and provides great accuracy as demonstrated in the two targets below. The target on top was hit with 30 rounds of Remington UMC 115 grain FMJ ammo fired at a distance of 21 feet. The target on the bottom absorbed 50 rounds of the same ammunition at a distance of 31 feet.
In the 1970’s and early 1980’s the Browning Hi-Power acquired quite a following which began to wane in the mid 1980’s as the military, police, and civilian gun buyers became enamored with the Double Action Beretta 92. However, the Browning Hi-Power still has a lot to offer the public and I hope to see a resurgence in its popularity sometime soon.

Coming Attractions!

I haven't had much time to write, so here are some photos of upcoming reviews:

Left: Glock Model 19C 9mm with Advantage Tactical Sights Glock Model 23 .40 S&W with Ghost Ring Speed Sights.

Advantage Tactical Sights on the Model 19C with the Compensated Barrel/Slide.

Ghost Ring Speed Night Sights on the Model 23

Model 36 .45 ACP with Federal Arms Ported Barrel and Hi-Viz Night Sights

Browning 9mm Hi-Power with Hogue Walnut Grips

Smith & Wesson Model 952 9mm

CZ Model 97 .45 ACP

Walther THP .22LR

SIG-Sauer P6 with Heinie Straight 8 Night Sights and Wood Grips of Unknown Origin

Smith & Wesson Model 640 .357 Magnum