NICE Mid Tier Battle-.45 Commander BUL vs Fusion?

[DanTheWolfman]

I've handled been impressed with both. If you were going to get one or the other, likely a .45 Commander if can ever find like a $750 deal, which would it be and why? ($750 is like the limit I will spend on a gun when you can often find good guns on good deals for far less). So unfortunately, no top tier 1911 for me.

Do you have experience with either brand? Thoughts? pluses or minuses?

Thanks

[Steve_in_Allentown]

Too many negative comments about Fusion for me to get one.

You're looking for a Magnum Research pistol. Magnum Research has the same relationship with BUL that the early Springfields had with Imbel. In other words, BUL ships the parts to Minnesota where Magnum Research assembles and tweaks them. MR/BUL makes a solid 1911.

A month ago I worked on one of the Commander size MR 1911s and found nothing "wrong" with it. The trigger pull was actually one of the nicest I've felt on a production pistol. Below is a list of the tweaks I performed to make a good 1911 better. These were all "kitchen table" tweaks that anyone can do with a few manual tools (e.g. files, sandpaper, etc). I don't think I've ever run across a mass produced 1911 that couldn't be improved by simple tweaks such as these.

The barrel lock up was not the best - the lower barrel lugs did not sit on the slide stop and the muzzle was not tight to the slide. So it wasn't exactly a bullseye pistol. It was plenty accurate enough to center punch bad guys at 25 yards. It has a bull barrel which I'm not really fan of and I told the owner that it could easily be replaced with a Kart barrel that would turn it into a tack driver but I advised him to shoot it as-is first since its accuracy may be just fine for his needs and abilities.

The magazines that came with it were fine once I replaced the springs with Tripp springs and bent the front and rear legs of the followers inward a bit. The legs had been making hard contact with the walls of the magazine tube preventing the follower from easily moving upward or downward.

I filed down the locator tab on each magazine baseplate a bit to provide clearance since they were impacting the frame and making seating of the mags inconsistent.

The extractor needed a tension adjustment to cure its erratic ejection pattern. It also had excessive deflection which I fixed.

I reamed the mainspring housing to fix the noisy mainspring issue.

Smoothed and polished the disconnector contact surface on the leaf spring.

Lightly rounded and smoothed the chamber mouth at the ramp/chamber transition.

Cut a notch in the slide stop to allow for easy reassembly and to prevent the "idiot scratch'.

Here are some pics showing a couple of the tweaks.

Fixing the magazine followers


Eliminating the idiot scratch and making reassembly easy


Relieving one side of the mag base plate

[DanTheWolfman]

Thanks, I've handled the DE/BUL and it had a great trigger and seemed good fitment.

I didn't love the safety. I've decided to ride my thumb on top of the safety when swiping it off. I've fired an SA that love the way the safety feels/swoop angle or whatever.

I've fired a very old bul 1st 2011 they made plastic frame and it IS not comfortable that way. Thumb under the safety it bumped up a couple times in recoil to and in-between off/on half way up position that killed the trigger.

Can most 1911's safeties be easily swapped? Even likely on a very early plastic frame5? Any idea if would be able to on that? Not sure if most modern SA have the same safety or not, but know it's the most comfortable one I've felt. Should I just buy a safety online and hope a gunsmith can swap it and that I happen to like it? Are there catagories of different safeties or just everyone makes slightly different shaped ones? Thanks

[Steve_in_Allentown]

Can most 1911's safeties be easily swapped?

There's no such thing as a drop-in 1911 part. A new thumb safety will have to be fit to the frame and the sear. The amount of force required to move the thumb safety up or down can be adjusted but it takes some skill and not commonly available tools. This is a job for a 'smith who fully understands 1911s. Here are some sources for thumb safeties: Harrison, EGW, and Stan Chen among others. Personally, I don't like ambi safeties. I tend to use the "gas pedal" style EGW safeties and modify them to suit me.

I'm afraid I don't know anything about the plastic frame BULs.

[DanTheWolfman]

Ok, thank you for your answers.

[DG23]

($750 is like the limit I will spend on a gun when you can often find good guns on good deals for far less). So unfortunately, no top tier 1911 for me.

Do you have experience with either brand? Thoughts? pluses or minuses?

Thanks

Take that $750 and then add the stuff you know you 'got to have' to it and add that up...

If you plan to carry it you will 'need' a holster right? Add all the expenses like that to the $750 number + some more for the ammo to 'test' it out and make sure it 'worked' ok.