First off... If I completely put this in the wrong place please please please move me and let me know. Thank you
So I was at my local shop the other day and my favorite gun dealer hands me this 1911. He tells me it's called a Citadel and it's the same as an RIA or an American Classic. Basically an import gun from Legacy Sports Intl. Made in the Phillapines yet oddly full of features and I'll be darned if it doesn't feel pretty good in my hand. Then my crafty old dealer lays the price on me... "For you Jerry ole pal! (evil grin) $465.00 out the door." O.K. I admit it. The worlds 2nd most dedicated Springfield nut has a moment of weakness and a form, credit card, and a handshake later off I go with this import cannon.
I get home and I take this thing into the office and set down with the tools for a tear down/exploratory surgery...
-First off the trigger is horrible. It's spongy, long and the break is like 11 pounds. O.K. fine I expected that. One trigger job comin up.
-Second Flaw is a plastic... yes plastic mainspring housing. Cute little corner cutting there. It needs a magwell anyway so no worries.
-This gun has cheap wooden grips. Like checkered by a kindergarten student in the dark cheap. But in the box is a nice set of Hogue rubber grips. I think it must be something the previous owner bought and threw in since it's a new/used or returned unfired piece. A look at the Citadel website tells me though that the spare grips are actually a factory option. Cool I like that.
-The guide rod is one of those types that has a groove in it for the barrel link to rest in. I hate those. a lot. That's gotta go because it makes the slide cycle with a real bad hangup in it off the lock up. On the bright side it is full length right from the box which is nice.
-The gun is Novak cut. Sure they "look" like Novak but I've seen a few imports that have clones on top that don't measure even close to the cut for the sights they mimic. This is NOT the case with the Citadel. I threw a spare set of the real deal at it and sure enough it's a true Novak both back and front (330x65 degree front btw) Great! No cutting for me!
-The slide has front serrations and rears. Big ones that are easy to grab. That makes me really happy as I run from the front and I love a good front cut. Bonus points too that they use the Springfield cut angles, widths and depths.
-The barrel seems ok. Well enough fitted and the bushing is almost tight enough to need a wrench to remove. At the range groups were very reasonable with Winchester whitebox 230GR ball and my 168ish power factor lead stuff rolled right through it just fine. Nicer groups with those too. Definately good enough to shoot A's on most targets within reasonable ranges. I also have a feeling that after a few hundred or so rounds of break in it will run better.
-I noted one really nice feature to the gun as it comes from Legacy. It has PSI ACT-MAGS. 2 of them (8rnds) and I really like how well those work and more so how smoothly they go into a pistol on the fly. They also have just enough space after round 8 to let them go home on a closed slide without having to slam them in. Good quality mags included is a very nice touch.
-An ambi safety is on board from the factory. A pretty good sized one too. Though it hits the grips if you install the Hogues without trimming the grips a bit. A down side though is the grip safety. It's beavertail style and it has a bumper on it but its too shallow for me to peg it every time and I had 1 or two draws at the range that didn't yield a kaboom when I got on the trigger. It works but it is very unforgiving of even a slightly shifted grip on the draw.
-The finish is black oxide and seems good enough to protect the gun. I suspect it will wear off faster than high end guns though but not enough time yet on it to tell. (check back on later posts)
-Burs burs burs! This pistol when it's apart is an ouch machine. Especially inside the dustcover wherever pins pass through the frame and all around the firing controls. They're not huge though and a little cautious smoothing with a ceramic stone should clean them up no problem. Actually I'm considering passing the frame and slide to my bluing guy to bead blast them and put a good bluing on it. Though I'm going to wait a bit to see how the earlier mentioned finish it has holds up to use first.
-The slide lock lever is checkered which is nice though mine is all ready off the gun in favor of a Masen extended serrated which is my stop of choice. I did test fire with the original on board though and it did it's job without a hitch.
-Slide to frame fit is actually pretty good. Very little horizontal play and next to no vertical. It could be better but its not bad. We'll see as it breaks in how much of that is fit and how much is burs, imperfections of the slide and excess finish.
To sum it all up the gun has flaws. It's certainly not a Springfield, Caspian, Kimber et al. It's also half the price for an equally equipped high end piece. In other words you get what you paid for or rather more than you paid for. Also the parts on it that are the worst also are the ones that most competition shooters replace anyway. Hey why trow off a good part for a great part when you can throw a BAD part for a great part!
For those of us who are the build it yourself type or the folks who want very much to taste custom 1911 smithing without risking a thousand dollar gun learning. The Citadel is a great canvas to start with. I will continue to post back with updates throughout the break in process. Also as I build it up for Single Stack division I'll put up a parts list, updated project photos and match feedback once I put it "on the track"
Take care all!
