snax
NES Member
Didn't say I wanted a Kimber jam-o-matic.
-
If you enjoy the forum please consider supporting it by signing up for a NES Membership The benefits pay for the membership many times over.
Tisas USA - Good or Bad?
- Thread starter Rockrivr1
- Start date
Mark from MA
NES Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 11,644
- Likes
- 11,867
It really doesnt have a bad trigger. I'd describe it as gritty......maybe a touch heavy. I'm sure something can be done with that for less than 100 dollars. I don't care, i shoot it and it hits what I shoot at. Not all that worried about it.
Lets face it, I'm not looking for a trigger that breaks like glass out of a 329 dollar 1911. People are right, they don't focus on good triggers on a cheap 1911......f***, they don't focus on triggers on 800 dollar 1911's either........as the Tisas triggers are better than my Ruger, and maybe not as smooth, but lighter than my Smith and Wesson E, horribly heavy trigger for an 800 dollar 1911.
But more apples to apples in price, Triggers are equal if not better than any Rock I've shot, but Rock's have their own issues....they don't run all that well, and I've had the slide stop notches wear and create a sharp metal burr, in both the ones I've had with not that many rounds thru them. The finish on Rocks are crap, and the machining is only OK comparitively to Tisas, and Rocks are still more $$$.
Again......I didn't buy them to build them, I bought them to shoot them, and try a 9mm 1911, if they crap out for a 330 dollar price tag....they crap out. Big deal. I'm thinking I'll get my share of rounds thru them before they do. It creates good value for me.....that's really all I care about.
Are not Magnum Research (Desert Eagle) 1911's manufactured in Isreal, in the same plant they make BUL armory 1911's???? I believe you can get a BUL armory cheaper than a DE, but we aren't talking much cheaper? If you can stand the big DE letters ripped across the side flats. Where BUL armory is much less of an obnoxious billboard. I do agree as a starting point to a really nice 1911 a BUL or DE would be a good platform. And if I was looking at another 1911 in the 800 dollar range, the features on the DE and BUL are superior to anything out there in the market.
Last edited:
When I had a buddy with a FFL, he let me look directly at his prices. I'm sure big dealers get a different price list, but kitchen table FFL? Almost no room for markup and be competitive. I'm guessing the real meat is in accessories and ammo for dealers.Why? So you guys can make a dealer bust ass to save $30 a gun?I can't imagine that there's a lot of air in the margins on these things.
ETA: there might be more savings with the actual higher grade guns that they sell typically in the $5-600 range.... but still.
Rockrivr1
NES Member
Plus when you get new guns from a distributor many of these have minimum price levels you can sell them for. If you get caught selling below that price you lose that distributor. Only so many out there so you need to be careful.
There’s room but I doubt it’s even $100 on a low end 1911, maybe less. Even for dealers that push volume cheap guns don’t have as much markup. If a dealer is doing a GB he wants to pass most of that to the participants so they can save something. Buying a couple dozen tisas to pass on another like $25. a gun or whatever vs Puds gunbroker low or whatever works out to is sawing logs in an ashtray/DSP. (dick self punching) I don’t see the point of a GB unless you can save over $100. Gun GBs work best with high fluff products. With commodity stuff, not so much.
Actually that’s an intriguing shit test if they can sell a 9mm 1911 that’s not f***ed up out of the box that tells you the QC. Most brands will f*** that up because 9mm 1911s are usually dumpster fires if not done right. Smith even used to sell a 9mm 1911 that was always f***ed up.
Mark from MA
NES Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 11,644
- Likes
- 11,867
Assumed this and why I bought the low end. Would eat it if it was a jam o matic, and not look back.Actually that’s an intriguing shit test if they can sell a 9mm 1911 that’s not f***ed up out of the box that tells you the QC. Most brands will f*** that up because 9mm 1911s are usually dumpster fires if not done right. Smith even used to sell a 9mm 1911 that was always f***ed up.
Bought the first one, ran great with shit cheapest box turkish fmj ammo, Bought the second one, full size, runs just as good with shit turkish box fmj ammo. Will admit, have not put hollow point ammo thru the 9mms, but these aren't carry guns for me. They do throw brass in funny places at times, but the ammo is very inconsistent, varying from mouse fart to some recoil in the same box. The mouse fart stuff brass lands on the brim of my hat. When I put some decent stuff thru it, it will likely not do that as much.
The .45 is a carry gun and runs flawless with mixes of my shit reloads, factory ball, and high power underwood HP blasters. So i either carry factory ball or the Underwood stuff in it when its on my hip. Didn't think I'd ever carry the thing for the price, but its had 500 rounds and its never balked at any ammo. So I use it OWB, dog walking in the woods.
Last edited:
I mean truth be told most of those cheap 1911 issues (beyond bad metallurgy) can be fixed by a gunsmith but the whole idea is to try to avoid having to do that, especially these days with a dwindling amount of gunsmiths and an increasing amount of work for the few that are left.....
S&W: "Only cheap guns need to be finished by a gunsmith?"
S&W: "noonb, hold my beer and let me show you how to sell a POS $1500 "competition" gun that required $500 worth of parts and labor".
Last edited:
Smith is about as bipolar as they come. I have seen some guns that either through luck or someone who actually cared, were well assembled and fitted. Then I've seen other guns from them where you were kind of like "was the assembler/fitter smoking crack? You can tell this gun is fuct by the way the gun feels when it locks up- you know that telltale feeling when you rack the slide on a 1911, you feel that little hitch when it locks up and you're like "oh this thing works but it's basically just going to f*** itself directly up the ass and beat itself to death until it rounds the lug surfaces off.... "
Have to disagree on the Rock's. I have a 9mm tac compact, one of the early ones, HUGE billboard on the side, that has about 2k rounds thru it. Trigger IS like glass, have to be careful when I switch over to anything else after firing it at the range. Love that gun!
snax
NES Member
Worked for a company that started to sell Bose. They (did) have set prices and you can't sale them unless told. I loaded the products on to the website. First week selling them the boss (president) comes in and tells me to mark them down and put the flashy "sale" on them.
5 minutes later, the product Mgr comes in and says wtf... Bose just called, they are threatening to pull their stuff. He had it out with the president right in the room there. Guy just didn't get the concept.
I could get the stuff at cost... alot of that stuff was marked up like 60-80%
Mark from MA
NES Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 11,644
- Likes
- 11,867
RIA are not bad guns at all, they run for the most part and are fairly proven to be reliable. Mine I tweaked a recoil spring, no big deal. It ran good after that.
I do think the machining and finish are better on the Tisas at a similar price point or less on sale.
Machining and finish are not equal to my smith, or something like a Springfield Garrison. Ive not seen the Bul Armory/DE in person, but they seem pretty nice. At that price point your gonna start getting nice stuff like checkered front straps and better finishes.
Tisas does make a Match 45 which is around 800-900 bucks and its fully decked out, all the features of the Carry or Duty, plus Stainless, checkered front strap, Bomar target sights, G10 Grips, supposedly hand lapped.................but not really sure I'd go there. My next higher end 1911 will be a Dan Wesson I think and I'll probably get rid of the Smith or Ruger for it.
They do make a 10mm with similar features than the Match, Stainless Frame/Black Cera slide, checkered front strap, for around 650 that his tickled my interest.
Mark from MA
NES Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 11,644
- Likes
- 11,867
New BUL Armory or MR for $750ish, maybe a touch more. New Springfield Garrison for $650.
Most Tisas are a sub 500 dollar gun new...no need to spend that kind money on it unless your buying the full featured Match model.
No need to buy used. Unless you found a Dan Wesson for that money...but you probably won't, unless someone is unloading. Maybe a Colt....but no sure, think I'd rather have the BUL/DE with more features.
For those interested, Tisas makes a lightweight bobtailed commander now with an alloy frame, probably a great deal if someone wants a cheap carry 1911 under 600 or whatever it was. I fondled one yesterday, it wasn't super tight but the fitting was good enough to impress me at the price point. If I was a flint or poor id be really tempted to buy one. Looked like good value prop.
Mark from MA
NES Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 11,644
- Likes
- 11,867
The service special I think comes in both colors. The regular "army" clones come in some half ass green/grey cera that is made to look like parkerizing. I have the black cera on my Duty and Carry and its pretty well done.
