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The 1911 has been around a long time and many manufacturers past and present have given a stab at making them. This has been great for we consumers as it has forced continual developments and features as well as competitive pricing. Even in just the 20 or so years that have passed since I purchased my first 1911 features that were once reserved for after-market custom shops have become available as a standard.
Sig's offering, the 1911-X includes many of those once-custom options as well as some tweaks of their own. Most notable for the seasoned 1911 fan is the low optics-ready cut and external extractor.
Red dots have become popular for shooters both new and old: New shooters can simplify learning to aim and shooters with impared eyesight have a bright point to assist in aiming. Red dots are not infallable (more on that later) and so being able to cowitness with iron sights is vital if a dot-equipped gun is going ot be used for anything more than range fun. As you can see, Sig's cut the 1911-X deeply enough so that when paired with the Romeo-X there is a comfortable cowitness meaning either sight system can be used.
External extractor: I leave this to the comment section to debate, but this deviation from Browning's original design is seen as a positive by many. This is what Browning wanted, but the Army forced a design change to an internal extractor. Internal extractors function more like a leaf spring which means over time they may wear, and even when new may need tuning, but they are always being stressed when in use. An external extractor instead serves on a pivot point with a spring providing most of the pressure. In theory this means the extractor will last longer and is less likely to need tuning as the round count climbs.
What Is It? The Sig 1911-X is a modernized all-steel 1911. Beyond the features listed above it's railed for lights, features an ambidextrous safety, enhanced traction, and a low-profil magazine well to assist in those single-stack reloads. At the time of writing they are available in black, or in Coyote PVD as the "Emperor Scorpion", and only in 45ACP. Options also exist between the "Carry" 4.25" barrel model and "Full" 5" model. Learn more about how barrel length and load weight impacts 45acp muzzle energy HERE.
Who's It For? The 1911 is enjoyed by many in many applications. The 1911-X is outfitted to serve in virtually any role if you don't mind the all-steel weight. With a red dot it's great on the range or for specific competition classes, the price is just right between "too fancy to get dirty" and "too cheap to really trust".The drawback one might find aside from weight is capacity. Single-stack 45acp limits one to 8+1 capacity, but many feel that is adequate for carry, and it makes this pistol friendly to state governments who refuse to acknolwedge the Bill of Rights.
Take a look at the Sig 1911-XFull Emperor Scorpion in the tabletop video below, complete with my signature "should have done it differently" reassembly errors. Yes, a 1911 was my first handgun, but after reviewing nearly 500 handguns including over 100 1911 videos I've found there is no fool-proof way to approach all of them.
Specifrications:
SKU: 1911XR-45-CXR3
CALIBER: 45 Auto
PISTOL SIZE: Full-Size
MAGS INCLUDED: (2) 8rd Steel Mag
SIGHTS: XRAY3 Day/Night Sights
RX FOOTPRINT: COMPACT (Shield RMS-c)
SIGHT RADIUS: 6.5 in [165 mm]
SLIDE FINISH: Coyote PVD
SLIDE MATERIAL: Stainless Steel
TRIGGER ACTION: Single Action Only (SAO)
TRIGGER TYPE: Black Serrated Flat Trigger
MANUAL SAFETY: Yes Ambi
FRAME FINISH:Coyote PVD
FRAME MATERIAL: Stainless Steel
GRIP TYPE: Black G10
GRIP COLOR: Black
ACCESSORY RAIL: M1913
BARREL LENGTH: 5 in [127 mm]
BARREL MATERIAL: Carbon Steel
OVERALL LENGTH: 8.7 in [221 mm]
OVERALL WIDTH: 1.4 in [36 mm]
HEIGHT: 5.6 in [142 mm]
WEIGHT: 41.9 oz [1193 g] w/Magazine
Price around the web
as of 09JAN25
Click links for current pricing
Romeo-X Enclosed Pro: The optic mounted for this review is the Romeo-X Enclosed Pro. This RMS-c footprint red dot offers three reticle choices and a whole list of features. The feature of greatest interest to me is that it is an enclosed optic and so should be free of some of the failure points I've experienced with red dots. (YouTube deleted that video, but the article lives on HERE.)
Specifications and Features:
Inspired by MIL-SPEC ROMEO-M17
Rugged 7075 aluminum housing with a fully enclosed and sealed optical system.
Patent-Pending Beyllium Copper Flexure Arm.
Distortion free aspherical lens.
MOTAC (Motion Activated Illumination)
Avialble Reticles: 3 MOA Red Dot, 6 MOA Red Dot or Circle Dot.
Low deck height for standard-height iron sight co-witness.
20,000 hour battery life with side load battery.
15 illumination settings including 3 night vision.
Assembled in U.S.A.
SKU: ROMEO-X-PRO-ENCLOSED-PARENT
RX Footprint: PRO
Waterproofing:IPX-7
Height: 0.94 in [23.88 mm]
Clear Aperture: 24 mm
Overall Length: 1.83 in [46.48 mm]
Overall Width: 1.23 in [31.24 mm]
Battery: (1) CR1632
Emitter: Enclosed
Weight: 1.2 oz [34.02 g]
Illumination Settings: 15[12 Day/ 3 NV]
Total Elevation Travel: 70 MOA
Total Windage Travel: 65 MOA
Run Time: 20000 hrs
Price: $549.99 direct from Sig
Of course the only fair way to get a feel for a gun and to give you a fair representation is to run it through the same experiences I've done with other guns and that's why we have the GBGuns range protocl including:
Cold Shots: Truly the first rounds through the gun. No warm up, no practice.
Full Magazine +1: Suprisingly some modern guns still struggle with this. It's a test of how much play is in the magazine as well as how the slide cycles with pressure. This is also when I do my best to learn the trigger.
Multi-Mag: The 1911 has been around a long time, and there are lots of magazine options out there. In my experience not all 1911s work with all 1911 magazines, so before using other magazines in WFD I needed to test if those other magazines work in the gun.
What's For Dinnerâ„¢: A test to see what ammunition the gun will eat. Does the gun feed the round from slide lock, will it cycle and feed another round of the same type, does the slide lock to the rear on empty, and is there any notable point of impact change with different loads.
For this gun we used the following ammunition:
Priced and linked where found at the time this article was written
118gr +p Inceptor
185gr Barnes TAC-XPD $30.49 / 20 at Ammunition Depot
185gr Sig V-Crown $59.99/50 direct from Sig
200gr Sig V-Crown $59.99/50 direct from Sig
230gr HST Federal Premium $29.49 / 20 at Bud's Gun Shop
230gr Speer Gold Dot $31.96 /20 at Global Ordnance
230gr JHP Sig Sauer V-Crown $24.99 / 20 direct from Sig
230gr FMJ AMMO, Inc /stelTH/ $29.98 / 50 at Global Ordnance
230gr FMJ Blazer Aluminum $25.71 / 50 at Firearms Depot
230gr Remington Ultimate Defense BJHP $24.31 / 20 direct from Remington
Standard range ammunition was PMC Bronze 230gr FMJ. $21.99 / 50 at Bud's Gun Shop
Sights & Trigger Control: on a 6" spinner target at a distance of 12 yards. We got this from Titan Great Outdoors and use it to gauge how learnable the trigger is and usable the sights are for forced, timed, precise shots.
Practical Accuracy: Five shots from a distance of seven yards at a one inch target. This isn't so much about printing a tight group as it is a culmination of the shooting experience and time for to collect thoughts prior to making a conclusion.
After Shots: Final impressions and reflections from the range session.
Watch the entire process in the Sig 1911-X w/ Romeo-X Shooting Impressions video below:
On the range the 1911-X was fun to shoot. With all of the 9mm pistols reviewed lately it's easy to forget that nice push 45acp gives in contrast to the quick snap of 9mm. The trigger and action started good, but seemed to quickly smooth out even more. The heft helped to further reduce recoil, and the enhanced controls made it an easy gun to run. Quite often 1911s fall into either the "too fancy to shoot" or "to inexpensive to want to trust" category. It seems to me that Sig has found the middle ground with the 1911-X Full in creating a nice pistol that is still reasonable enough to shoot and enjoy, but also includes some pride of ownership. The price is not inexpensive, but it's certainly less than many others that do not appear to be as ready to be run hard as the 1911-X.
The one issue I ran into came from running a dot in non-ideal weather. I've experienced dot failures in foul weather before when a rain drop or snow flake made its way onto the emitter, but the Romeo-X is enclosed. What happened this time was a fogging of the glass from inside. Typically scopers are nitrogen-purged to prevent this, and Sig optics are made less than an hour from where I was shooting so a humidity imbalance doesn't make sense. The only cause my limited knowledge can dream up would be temperature difference. As the gun heated up so did the optic and that temperature difference caused moisture to condense. When the gun cooled down the fog went away, further supporting this theory. By the time I got home and the gun had cooled to ambient temperature the fog was gone and had left no residue behind. UPDATE: Sig is going to take a look at the optic under warranty. When everything is final I will update further.
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