Ed Brown Special Forces vs Wilson Combat CQB vs Yost-Bonitz 1* Springfield Armory GI

[M4Guru]

For the record, I have a Wilson CQB somewhere in my stack of guns. I'm not anti-Wilson, but I won't put myself in the position that my buddies wound up in.

[rob_s]

I should state that I am not in any way, shape, or form a collector and am not impressed by a name. If the Yost gun loses, it goes. I buy guns with a task in mind and either they fit that task or they don't. If they don't, they go.

[rob_s]

Oh, and guys, please don't turn this into a pissing match. If ya'll want to fight about wilson, nighthawk, or whatever, please take it to PM or start another thread.

[M4Guru]

I hope the Yost loses. Are you gonna sell it here?

[rob_s]

alright, back on track...

I don't want a 1911 without a high cut front strap. I paid extra for it on the Yost as it's not standard with the 1* Enhanced. I found it interesting that all three guns have a distinctively different way that they cut the front strap. You can see it fron one angle in the pictures in the "Magazine Release" post and in profile below.

I have to say, I really don't know which one I like the best. Judging by the pictures alone, I like the Yost the best. It is nicely rounded and leaves the most material around the magazine release. It also feels VERY good in the hand. Second would be the Wilson, for having a similar rounding, and last would be the Brown.

High Cut Front Strap
Brown 1
Wilson 2
Yost 3

Total
Brown 36
Wilson 35
Yost 33

[rob_s]

I dislike wood on firearms, which gives the Yost an automatic advantage over the other two. I also dislike poorly done insets, which gives the Brown an edge over the Wilson. Also, as previously stated, the Yost does sit well in the hand and feels the thinnest of the three.

Interesting note. I pulled the grips on the Yost and the Brown to see if putting the grips of one made it feel like the other. It did. It appears that the Yost grips are not as wide as the Brown grips, but are very nearly identical in thickness. I would not have thought that the width of the grips would affect the feel of the overall thickness of the pistol, but it obviously does. I tried another set of polymer/micarta/whatever grips on the Brown as well and found that they felt the same. Sure enough, they were the same width as the Yost grips.

Another interesting note; none of the grip bushings are staked. I guess nobody does this anymore. In removing the Brown grips for the little experiment above, one of the bushings came out. Good thing I have spares. I think I'm going to invest in a bushing staking tool as well.

Grips
Brown 2
Wilson 1
Yost 3

Total
Brown 38
Wilson 36
Yost 36

(refer to pictures previously posted)

[rob_s]

I would greatly prefer a pistol with no slide markings at all. I missed the boat on the Rock Rivers back before they marked their slides, so now I prefer minimal markings. This is entirely an aesthetic thing, but it's also a matter of not wanting to seem to "poseur"ish. I'm not "Special Forces", I don't engage in "CQB", and while I suppose I do only have "one-ass-to-risk", I don't do it on a daily basis and try to avoid doing so whenever possible. I don't know if these guys are naming these things to try to market them or what. Of course, "skinny-ass over-educated project manager" probably takes up too much room on the slide anyway.

So, who has the least markings? Brown, by far. While the name annoys me, the script is subtle, and it's only on one side of the slide, and that side is the ejection port side. Very well done. If you have to mark the slide, this is the way to do it. Also, I have been told that you can order the Special Forces without the name on the slide which is especially cool. Had I known that when I bought mine I would have gotten it that way.

Wilson is next, with a very subtle "CQB" on the ejection port side. Unfortunately they had to screw it up by puttin "Wilson Combat" in giant letters on the other side.

The Yost is the most marked, largely because Springfield made the gun and put their markings on it, and then Yost worked on the gun and put his markings on it. Yost would have omitted the markings if I wanted them to, but because of the following I'm kind of glad I kept them. Virtually every 1* pistol I've seen has been marked "Yost-Bonitz Custom" on the starboard side dust cover (see example here). Mine is marked only "Yost Custom", and from what Jason Burton at Yost-Bonitz has told me, it's because Ted himself built it. More on that later.

The Yost also has all of the stock Springfield markings. I won't comment on them too much, except to say that Springfield marks their guns in way too many places and with way too little attention to detail. Yes, it's a production gun, but it would be nice if they could press the serial number in with an even pressure (see pics below).

Markings
Brown 3
Wilson 2
Yost 1

Total
Brown 41
Wilson 38
Yost 37

[rob_s]

I'll save discussion of trigger pulls to the "intagibles" at the end. For now we're talking strictly hardware. For some reason, I dislike the "speed trigger" holes and am glad to see alot of the custom 'smiths going to the solid triggers. I just think that something could get caught in those holes, yet they don't serve any purpose. So with that in mind, the Yost wins hands down. The other two are similar enough to tie for 3rd.

Trigger Hardware
Brown 1
Wilson 1
Yost 3

Total
Brown 42
Wilson 39
Yost 39

[rob_s]

And so that's pretty much it in terms of the hardware. While I realize that there are alot of other parts on the guns, at the end of the day most of them are so close to identical that they don't really even bear mentioning. If there's some part that you want to hear about in particular, please let me know and I'll try to take pics and/or give my thoughts.

What will follow from here are "intangibles". Things that are entirely personal and impossible to back up with pictures. This will include things like trigger pull, felt recoil, customer service impressions, magazines included with the gun, etc. I'm open to any questions regarding these issues as well as suggestions for specific "intagibles" to compare. I am going to have to put off this portion of the review until next week though as I have to get ready to leave town for SHOT. Hopefully none of the makers of these guns have been reading along and taken offense. If they have, I'll be the guy in the Tactical Yellow Visor, and they (or any of you for that matter) are welcome to come up and say hello.

I wonder if I can get banned from SHOT.....

[STS]

Interesting review so far - thanks for taking the time and all the pictures.