When it comes to guns it’s hard to be innovative with the myriad of choices out there. The task becomes near insurmountable when you tackle the venerable 1911 chassis and simultaneously create a brand new round. You have to hand it to Rock Island and I applaud their daring. I was given the opportunity to put several hundred rounds of the relatively new 22 TCM round through their full size high-capacity version of the 1911. I took the liberty to shoot some 9mm also. Yes! It comes with a 9mm barrel and spring you can drop into the gun and convert it into a 9mm blaster.
Out of the box I was impressed with the gun. I’m not one for bling so I really liked the traditional parkerized finish on the 1911. I liked the simple but bold “TCM” roll stamped on the right side of the slide as well as their flat silver logo to the rear left of the slide forward of the hammer. The box included two fired casings, a shot target demonstrating it had been fired and a 9mm barrel and recoil spring.
Picking up the gun, one can’t help but notice the heft of this solidly built all steel gun. It’s about 2.5 lbs unloaded. Secondly, the grip is built to accept a double stack magazine featuring SEVENTEEN rounds but it wasn’t uncomfortable to me and I have large hands but even my 5’4” wife could comfortably grip the pistol. I really liked the polymer checkered grips. One’s grip sliding wasn’t going to be a problem with this gun. My review gun came with two magazines but sadly I understand production guns only come with one.
Manipulating the slide was incredibly easy with the 22 TCM barrel & spring installed. When I installed the 9mm barrel and spring slide manipulation remained undemanding. For those who have had issues with 1911 slides you won’t have that problem with this gun. Trigger pull felt like a very crisp four pounds and the skeletonized trigger is adjustable with the included allen wrench.
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(featured image courtesy of spotterup.com)
