GSG 1911-22 At 27,000 Rounds

By BuckJM53 7/4/12

For those of you who currently own a GSG 1911-22 and are interested in what they can likely expect in the long term, or for those considering adding one to your collection, I thought I would post a quick history of how mine has handled the first 27,000 rounds as it celebrated it's 2nd birthday this past Monday.

1. I initially purchased the GSG 1911-22 on 7/1/10 ($330.00) as a training pistol since my EDC is a 1911.
2. At approximately 4,000 rounds the alloy barrel bushing broke.  ATI sent me a new steel barrel bushing along with the updated slide stop and magazine followers that were necessary on the early production models.
3. At approximately 17,000 rounds the firing pin broke and upon sending it to ATI they replaced the following:firing pin assembly, sear, recoil spring, guide rod rubber disc, recoil spring plug and installed an updated safety.
4. At the 27,000 round mark, the slide stop notch finally wore to the point that it would not consistently lock back after the final round.  ATI sent me a new slide under warranty (arrived in 3 days), and since it only took a few minutes to swap out the sights and slide block assembly from the old slide to the new slide, it's back up and ready to rock and roll.

In looking back over the past 2 years, my observations (both positive & negative for what they are worth) are as follows:

1. As I suspected from the beginning, the finish has been a little fragile and has shown wear in several spots.
2. While the alloy slide has held up reasonably well, and the slide grooves have not demonstrated any significant wear, the slide stop notch is clearly the weak spot as you can see in the picture below.   
   
3. The upgraded/replaced parts listed above have performed well without any additional problems so far.
4. The grip frame and internal components have been perfect with the exception that the sear required replacement when it was damaged by a piece of the broken firing pin.
5. The barrel and barrel liner have held up well with no perceptible wear or appreciable loss of accuracy (see target below).  Note here that I'm still using the original barrel fixing screw.
6. The original magazine is still functioning fine and has seen approximately 60% of the rounds (I didn't add a 2nd magazine till after about 6,000 rounds).
7. All things considered, while it would have been nice if this pistol had been flawless, I must say that I've been pleased with the overall performance of the GSG and certainly with the service that I have received from ATI.  Based on that experience, I would certainly recommend the pistol to anyone who is considering it as a fun little plinker or as a 1911 trainer.

As a final thought, while it was my initial goal to get at least 30,000 rounds out of this pistol,  I'm now hoping (with the addition of the new slide) that I can extend its' life to about 50,000 rounds (guess we'll see).

GSG 1911-22 At 40,000 Rounds

By BuckJM53 - 11/10/13

It hardly seems possible, but another 15 months (and 13,000 rounds) have gone by since my last GSG 1911-22 report.  While I know that some in the rimfire community who won't want to hear that this fine little pistol continues to work very well at the 40,000 round mark (as it doesn't fit with their steel only agenda), I post this update for all of you that may be interested in what they can expect from their GSG as time goes on and the rounds mount up, as well as for those who are considering the purchase of one.

At the 40,000 round mark, my thoughts are as follows:

1. All upgraded/replaced parts discussed on the two previous reports have continued to function perfectly.  
2. No additional service or parts replacement was required  during the current reporting period.
3. The accuracy remains very good (see picture below) with no appreciable wear in the barrel, barrel bushing or barrel liner.
4. The grip frame and slide mating surfaces are still in excellent condition with no appreciable wear.
5. The slide stop notch on the replacement slide has peened a bit (which was expected), but has not resulted in any issue with the lock back so far.  I'm certain that it will at some point in the future and is the one issue IMHO that GSG needs to resolve going forward.

All in all, given the fact that my initial hope was to get to the 30,000 round mark before a replacement pistol was required,  I am still very pleased with how the GSG has held up and performed.  It is now my intention to take it to the 50,000 round mark and beyond.  Will it ever rival my MKIII512 in terms of quality and durability ... of course not, but nothing would make me happier than to be discussing this pistol if/when it hits 75,000 round mark.  Will it get there .... Only time will tell.