BUL 1911 Trophy Saw

[Bakerjd]

Just picked up my 9mm 1911 trophy saw. First impressions are it's very nice. Comes with 3 10rnd mags that are similar to the MecGar ones but still use a spacer in the rear of the mag. They load and unload easily unlike many 9mm 10rnd 1911 mags. Magwell is good, I'll probably swap it out at some point but going to run it for a while first. Sights are good, bomar style rear and FO front. Uses the thinner FO rod. Also has a wider rear notch plate that comes with the gun. Serrations are very functional but not too sharp. Grips are great IMO. Ambi thumb safety are good but a little slimmer then I like. I usually run EGW HD safetys. Trigger pull is right at 2lb, pretty crisp break, I've had better and worse. For a stock gun its dang good. Also has the modular trigger shoe setup and comes with long flat installed, short flat and medium curved in the box. Comes with I'd assume a 10lb recoil spring installed and has a 9lb and 11lb springs in the box. Blending between frame, beavertail, safety is good. No sharp edges. Very smooth cycling. Overall I love it. I may actually not change it and just run it the way it is for a while. 

[WFargo]

A buddy of mine has one and shoots Classic Division with it. 

It's beautiful, and a whole lot of gun for the money. 

A real quality gun with a lot of extra's. 

[Bakerjd]

Small update. Have about 500 rounds through it in practice so far. Well found the "sharp" edges on the beavertail/back of the gun. I grip the gun very high and am left handed. Ended up taking some 400 grit sand paper strips and knocking down the shard edges. Factory magwell works great but having large hands I like an arched MSH. Plus the new rules allow 45oz weight so I swapped the stock for a Smith and Alexander one piece MSH/magwell, blended it. Swapped out the factory mag catch with the dawson extended version, same oversized button, I actually use that on all my pistols. It works great for me. Currently running 135gn DG bullets at 129PF with 9lb recoil spring and it runs fantastic. Couple hiccups early on, first 50 rounds I think I had 3 or 4 failure to go into battery. But other then that no issues at all. Also swapped grips out to the techwell positrac (I think that's what they are called) ones that are extra fat, kind of like CZ palm swells. One odd thing I found was it doesnt come with any extra fiber rod.... and the factory fiber was less then bright. Put a dawson rod in and good to go. All in all it's a great gun that I'd say most shooters will love right out of the box.

[Bakerjd]

Well I'm up to about 2500 rounds now. Mix of 124/5 FMJ, blue bullets and DG 135gn coated bullets. Some conical 124gn black bullets as well. Everything feeds perfect. OAL for all ammo is 1.125 and 3.5gn of titegroup. This thing runs awesome. No issues except when I didnt case gauge some ammo but that was 100% on me. 

[yigal]

friend after 50k with same gun but with factory ammo only . has new barrel now and few new parts.

[Bakerjd]

18 hours ago, yigal said:

friend after 50k with same gun but with factory ammo only . has new barrel now and few new parts.

Why did they change barrel? 

[terrydoc]

Lot of guys here in Australia are running the Bul products both 1911 and 2011. New importer bringing them in and having trouble keeping up with the demand.

Great price point and 5 mags is a great deal here in Australia.

 

[yigal]

4 hours ago, Bakerjd said:

Why did they change barrel? 

He bought it used and I found a crack inside the rifling after 40k who knows from what.

[Bakerjd]

2 hours ago, yigal said:

He bought it used and I found a crack inside the rifling after 40k who knows from what.

Oh wow. Interesting. 

[yigal]

6 hours ago, terrydoc said:

Lot of guys here in Australia are running the Bul products both 1911 and 2011. New importer bringing them in and having trouble keeping up with the demand.

Great price point and 5 mags is a great deal here in Australia.

 

I'm glad there's progress at the end of the world. I thought you were still chasing the kangaroo with a bow and arrow.

[Bakerjd]

Me and the BUL are gonna do back to back major matches this weekend and next. Mitten match in MI and then Locap Nats next weekend. 

[dansedgli]

I saw a bul open gun with a cracked slide today.  

 

Have you seen much of that @yigal? 

[yigal]

1 hour ago, dansedgli said:

I saw a bul open gun with a cracked slide today.  

 

Have you seen much of that @yigal? 

yes. from one of club members.

in this place. and i don't know how rounds it's shot during 3 years of practice and competitions.  slide was replaced  by  warranty service.

Edited May 1, 2021 by yigal

[d3ydx3]

10 hours ago, yigal said:

yes. from one of club members.

in this place. and i don't know how rounds it's shot during 3 years of practice and competitions.  slide was replaced  by  warranty service.

Warranty service is one of the reasons I went the BUL route for my Open gun. Tomer and team are great at BUL. Recently I had an issue where I stripped the slide racker screw like an idiot. I reached out to the warranty guys in the US, and said I would pay whatever just send me a new screw. Tomer refused to let me pay and sent me a new slide racker with the screw for free, as well as a video from one of the BUL gunsmiths in Israel letting me know the slide racker and screw are designed to be loose. I also own a 1911 Trophy for Single Stack and SAS2 SL for limited and they really are great guns with great support. 

[Bakerjd]

48 minutes ago, pealandco said:

Warranty service is one of the reasons I went the BUL route for my Open gun. Tomer and team are great at BUL. Recently I had an issue where I stripped the slide racker screw like an idiot. I reached out to the warranty guys in the US, and said I would pay whatever just send me a new screw. Tomer refused to let me pay and sent me a new slide racker with the screw for free, as well as a video from one of the BUL gunsmiths in Israel letting me know the slide racker and screw are designed to be loose. I also own a 1911 Trophy for Single Stack and SAS2 SL for limited and they really are great guns with great support. 

That's awesome. I've gone through GP Armory for all three of my Bul pistols. Currently hoping he gets a shorty open gun because my girlfriend wants one. 

[d3ydx3]

1 hour ago, Bakerjd said:

That's awesome. I've gone through GP Armory for all three of my Bul pistols. Currently hoping he gets a shorty open gun because my girlfriend wants one. 

 

Gilbert is a great dude. I've consumed more of his time than I deserve and he has never hesitated to help me when it is usually user error.

[dansedgli]

20 hours ago, yigal said:

yes. from one of club members.

in this place. and i don't know how rounds it's shot during 3 years of practice and competitions.  slide was replaced  by  warranty service.

 

That is pretty good, Hopefully my friend gets the same treatment. It is about 18 months old but we had 6 months of no shooting due to covid. The crack is around the middle of the ejection port on the bottom side. The gun was not cycling well anymore, we replaced the ejector thinking it was binding then saw the crack.  

[Bakerjd]

Well made it through the Mitten Match but by the end I lost confidence in the thumb safety. I put a good ammount of downward pressure on the right side safety lever and never have good luck with the standard ambi thumb safetys. I usually break them off where the two halves meet inside at the tang. This one was getting loose and I had fit a set of limcat shielded safetys but after trimming them down to fit the box I was left with very little pad left. So took a set of EGW HD pinned safetys and fit them tonight. I've yet to break a set of the EGW ones and know they fit the box with a little, albeit very little, room to spare. Also noticed that the rear of the ejector has some movement tonight while cleaning the gun. I doubt it will effect function at all. And honestly cant say if it was a perfect fit from the factory. But the gun and I had a great match today. Total round count is around 3500 or so. Barrel lock up is still nice and tight. Seems to really like these 135gn DG Bullets. I am thinking of trying some of the brass monkey 137gn bullets though. 

[d3ydx3]

7 hours ago, Bakerjd said:

Well made it through the Mitten Match but by the end I lost confidence in the thumb safety. I put a good ammount of downward pressure on the right side safety lever and never have good luck with the standard ambi thumb safetys. I usually break them off where the two halves meet inside at the tang. This one was getting loose and I had fit a set of limcat shielded safetys but after trimming them down to fit the box I was left with very little pad left. So took a set of EGW HD pinned safetys and fit them tonight. I've yet to break a set of the EGW ones and know they fit the box with a little, albeit very little, room to spare. Also noticed that the rear of the ejector has some movement tonight while cleaning the gun. I doubt it will effect function at all. And honestly cant say if it was a perfect fit from the factory. But the gun and I had a great match today. Total round count is around 3500 or so. Barrel lock up is still nice and tight. Seems to really like these 135gn DG Bullets. I am thinking of trying some of the brass monkey 137gn bullets though. 

 

Brass Monkey makes some great bullets. Very consistent and the coating is high quality. I've been using their 180gr and 140gr (which is pretty unique to them) for 40 cal major and minor, respectively. Currently trying their 127gr 9mm conicals for open. Jason is always great to work with and they ship same day or next day on the order. They recently started trial packs.

[Bakerjd]

14 hours ago, pealandco said:

 

Brass Monkey makes some great bullets. Very consistent and the coating is high quality. I've been using their 180gr and 140gr (which is pretty unique to them) for 40 cal major and minor, respectively. Currently trying their 127gr 9mm conicals for open. Jason is always great to work with and they ship same day or next day on the order. They recently started trial packs.

Yeah that's what Andrew Hyder was telling me. Going to order a trial pack of the 137gn 9mm. I like the DG but always good to have options. 

[Jeremyc_1999]

23 hours ago, pealandco said:

 

Brass Monkey makes some great bullets. Very consistent and the coating is high quality. I've been using their 180gr and 140gr (which is pretty unique to them) for 40 cal major and minor, respectively. Currently trying their 127gr 9mm conicals for open. Jason is always great to work with and they ship same day or next day on the order. They recently started trial packs.

I ordered some 180gr for my limited major loads. I’m not hurting for bullets, but it’s nice to have another case under the bench. I messaged them through the site and Jason replied within minutes 

[BangSwitch]

I've got something like 5k rounds through my BUL Trophy SAW (9mm Minor PF)
I think it's a lot of bang for the buck - but not perfect.

• I swapped out the mag release for a Dawson.  The factory release can trap a mag if you caveman the reload.
• The OEM guide rod was plated and began to fleck off.   I replaced it with a Dawson FLGR
• A corner of the MIM firing pin stop chipped.  I bought an EGW and hand fit a replacement.

[Bakerjd]

Well made it through nats and still good. Right about 4k rounds currently. Ordered a second one from Gilbert while I was at Nats. 

[obsessiveshooter]

I'm glad to read all this. Last week I ordered a BUL classic stainless 45 1911 government from centerfire systems, for about $730.  As far as I know, nothing else comes close with the features at that price point.  

[Bakerjd]

7 hours ago, obsessiveshooter said:

I'm glad to read all this. Last week I ordered a BUL classic stainless 45 1911 government from centerfire systems, for about $730.  As far as I know, nothing else comes close with the features at that price point.  

Sweet!