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Recently I won a raffle for a Colt .22 caliber Railgun. I quickly found out that the gun is actually made by Walther in Germany, imported by Umarex, and then stamped by Colt as theirs. Big thanks to Sterling Arsenal Works and Tactical Supply for the pistol.
As you can see from the pictures it looks the same size as an actual 1911. I don't have another 1911 for comparison but I took one pic next to a CZ-75 for comparison. It appears to my untrained Mark I, Mod 0 eyeball that the frame is identical size but the slide slightly smaller than the .45 version. The gun is comportable, very light, and has a functioning grip safety. It feels like a 1911. It's a fixed barrel machine so internally it's a different animal, though.
Finish: When I initially took the gun out of the box I noticed that it has a nice, matte black finish which is very uniform. I've only put about 200 mixed rounds through it so far and the finish has stood up very well.
Function: Since the indoor range was closed for a couple of months in the process of upgrading the backstop I initally fired a few rounds outdoors at a 25 yard target. I'd disassembled the gun and cleaned it but made no attempt to zero it. At 25 yards it fired pretty low and a little to the left for me. I only fired a couple of magazines worth of cheap Federal ammo. No problems.
Last night I took it to the newly reopened range and put ~200 rounds of mixed ammo. It had only two glitches:
* One round of RemingtonHV HP failed to feed. Upon examination of the round it had a small dent in the side which I believe was there before it tried to feed but which shifted the angle of the round enough to cause it to wedge itself on the throat of the chamber.
* I let a guy at the range try it and he had one failure to extract with a Federal HV HP, the first one in the magazine. It was the fifth from the last round fired during that session.
The rest of the Federal and Remington bulk pack stuff worked just fine. I also tried CCI Velocitors which were good and maybe even a little more accurate then the others. I attempted some CCI Quiet-22 ammunition (40 grain 741 ft/s) which fired but didn't have enough oomph to cycle.
The trigger started out unusually stiff when I first tried it but after a few pulls on a snap cap it began to smooth out. That pretty much goes for the whole gun. It seemed to "settle in" after about 50 rounds or so but maybe that was just me getting used to it.
Accuracy: It fired low. At ten yards it's hitting about six inches lower than POA. After verifying a few 5-shot strings I adjusted the POA and it did just fine. It's no competition gun so far but I'm still getting used to it. Both front and rear sights are adjustable via Allen wrench (included) for windage but not for elevation. At some point I may look for a taller rear sight since the front sight is already pretty short. Sights were admirable visible with white dots.
Just to verify, I let another shooter put a few rounds through it. He had the same issue that I did with the gun shooting low.
Magazines: They're expensive and hold 12 rounds. I have two. They have a button-shaped protrusion on the side to help load them but it starts getting tougher about the 9th round. The magazines themselves look and feel kind of flimsy but so far they've worked.
Comments: It feels like a 1911. It's very light. The one problem I have is that it shoots pretty low. I don't know if this will replace my Ruger Mk II as my 'every time range gun ' but it is an interesting option. With a price tag of ~$400 I think I might go with a Ruger 22/45 if I was looking for a first .22 caliber gun.
I tried to figure out why on Earth they put a rail on the belly of this critter. The only reason I could think of would be to rig up a saddle mount and put a scope on top of it. I may have to nose around and see if I can find one that fits... some day. But that's a different review.
Supposedly some of the parts on this gun are interchangable with 'regular' 1911s. I understand that the grips are but I don't have anything official as to sights, trigger, safety, or anything else. Since the .22 version is a fixed barrel machine I wouldn't count on any of the internals swapping out without measuring and testing.
I hope this helps somebody out. Everybody shoot safely.
Cheers,
Apple
