Tisis 1911

kamml

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Aug 1, 2019
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608
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Knoxville
I bought a Tisis stainless 45 cal. Regency 1911 from Classic Arms this past weekend. Its a Turkish manufacturer, and reviews online are generally very favorable. The chief complaint is trigger related, poundage is too high. So I bought the tools from Brownell to slick up the frame and see if I can't lighten it up a little. The frame and slide are forged on this model, and I expect the small parts are all MIM (Metal Injection Molding). My Rock has a cast frame and forged slide so I expect better quality from the Tisis. I have been looking/shopping for a Kimber, Wilson, Ruger, Rem. etc. but they are usually all sold out or priced to high for my champagne taste but beer wallet. I will fool around with the ignition system on the Tisis to see I can reduce the poundage and slick it up safely while I wait on my American based 45s to come back to reality on price. My Turkish friends would be proud to know that I bought a Tisis. I spent quite a bit of my life in and around Istanbul years ago doing manufacturing surveillance on parts and pieces of the Bio Lvl. 3 lab that we built in neighboring Georgia during the US threat reduction effort in the Former Soviet Union. One of my favorite memories is about a resturant near the Istanbul Spice Bazaar where I used to sit, drink Raki, and watch the girls go by, and the ferrys come in.
 
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Paleopete

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Dec 14, 2020
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Visalia, California
Let us know how your mods go and what you end up with for a .45 because this sounds intriguing...... I was also LOLing your comments on building a Bio Lab Level lll in Georgia because of the implications of these in developing countries.....like a certain one in Wuhan that was level lV ...... ironic.....then again I also liked you comments of life in Istanbul. Never been there yet but would love to go someday.
 

kamml

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We built the Lab in Tbilisi out by the airport. We used a Princeton U design, it had both Human and Vet BSL2 & 3 facilities plus a state of the art strain museum. We had major problems with the BSL 3 air balance on both human and vet sides which took a bit of re-engineering. But in the end they finally made it work and achieved certification. If you look up Nunn-Lugar Biological Threat Reduction on the internet you can get a better idea of what we were doing across all the former USSR Stans. It was really scary what they were dong on their own. Russia never let us into their bio labs when I was in the program during the 2000's. They still are very bad actors. We built and paid for rail cars to transport retired nukes, a special secure facility for them to store them in. and even a new command center in Moscow for one of their armies. Oh yeah, we even decontaminated one of their bio weapon proving grounds in central Asia. But the place is still so crapped up you need bio-PCs to just walk around there.
 

Paleopete

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Joined
Dec 14, 2020
Messages
17
Location
Visalia, California
We built the Lab in Tbilisi out by the airport. We used a Princeton U design, it had both Human and Vet BSL2 & 3 facilities plus a state of the art strain museum. We had major problems with the BSL 3 air balance on both human and vet sides which took a bit of re-engineering. But in the end they finally made it work and achieved certification. If you look up Nunn-Lugar Biological Threat Reduction on the internet you can get a better idea of what we were doing across all the former USSR Stans. It was really scary what they were dong on their own. Russia never let us into their bio labs when I was in the program during the 2000's. They still are very bad actors. We built and paid for rail cars to transport retired nukes, a special secure facility for them to store them in. and even a new command center in Moscow for one of their armies. Oh yeah, we even decontaminated one of their bio weapon proving grounds in central Asia. But the place is still so crapped up you need bio-PCs to just walk around there.
Thanks for this information....not surprising but very insightful into the details! I am fascinated by places like Central Asia, like the 'stans'. Have a client in Tajikistan and the pics of the mountains there are incredible. Must be some great hunting there too.
 

kamml

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Aug 1, 2019
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608
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Knoxville
I brought the SS Tisa Commander home this afternoon. Tomorrow morning my buddy and I will begin dissasembly. That should go well, I bought a reduced trigger pull kit that is drop in. I will try that one first. Right now the trigger is about 6 lbs+ so I would like to bring it down to around 3-4 lbs. I hope this kit will do that. Otherwise I have another Ed Brown kit I will try. More later.
 

kamml

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Aug 1, 2019
Messages
608
Location
Knoxville
I have been assembling different parts, springs, pins, hammers, files, jigs, leather mallet, etc for the 1911 work. Having fooled around with various firearms since I was a teenager, you know maybe 50 years or so ago I thought I could start and do this project. I am somewhat afraid of the pistol's complexity and John Browning's genius, so I am hesitant to start. I was playing around with just the recoil spring thinking I could change it from a short rod to a full length recoil rod, nope that didn't work. It would bind when I tried to chocolate chip cookie it. So back to the drawing board. I have a matched trigger-sear-main-spring-sear spring-ejector kit I bought for the trigger pull issue. It will reduce the trigger pull down to 4.5 lbs from about 6 where it is now. And I have a new checkered mainspring housing and tapered magazine well to add too. I saw tonight how the main spring is held in place in the housing with the mounting pin on the frame compressing the spring slightly with another pin at the upper end of the housing holding the spring in place or allowing its internal disassembly when you remove it. This pistol is quite an elegant puzzle, I will enjoy its challenges once I work up the courage to start. BTW I am really impressed with the Tisas's machining quality, its quite well done with no errant burrs or machining marks. Bravo for the Turks this time. I have purchased two video books and three online 1911 books to help in the disassembly and reassembly. But if it ain't broke don't fix it still resonates in my brain quite loudly.
 

kamml

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Aug 1, 2019
Messages
608
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Knoxville
Saturday afternoon after company left I decided to do the modifications to the Tisis. I had watched a couple of disassembly and reassembly videos Friday night while the better half was watching her TV shows. It came apart with no trouble. The Cylinder and Slide trigger kit I purchased from Midway required me to use the original trigger strut. Well that pin is still in my old trigger since I could not tap it out. So I reused the old hammer with the new sear. I ordered a new strut and pin this morning from Midway and will assemble them on the new trigger later on this week. Then when I go back into the pistol for some minor tweaking I will replace the hammer assembly entirely. The only part that caused me any grief during reassembly was the thumb safety. For some reason it gave me a rather hard time going back together. I was not going to modify it in case the new sear was what was causing the issue. It wasn't, I placed the hammer in full chocolate chip cookie and the safety snapped into place. The new sear spring is giving me an issue since it has resulted in a very light grip safety. I prefer a little more pressure so when I disaasemble later on this week I will spring it back a bit more to give more resistance against the beaver tail. I tested the new sear and interrupter every which way per the instructions in the kit. So far the sear holds well on both the half and full chocolate chip cookie positions. I need to get to the range to see if it will double under actual fire. I throughly tested both safety's and they held in all configurations on the bench. I am confident the safety and sear will hold as designed but I would rather use the new trigger and sear together before I shoot the pistol since they have been machined for each other. After I get the strut on the new hammer I will change them out. The original hammer is IMM as you can see the mold marks. I learned today that a 1911 will fire a round every 1/10th of a second so using the new trigger is important to prevent any possible doubling. BTW the trigger pull now is around 3-4 lbs. So the project continues.
 

kamml

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Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Messages
608
Location
Knoxville
With the Ed Brown sear and hammer it has a 3.5 - 4.0lb pull. It is a really nice pistol to shoot too. Quite accurate off hand. The stainless steel is nicely polished. The Mecar and Sig mags worked very well with no FTF or Stovepipes during the first 200 rounds down range.
 

Sako

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Jan 19, 2005
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4,777
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Knoxville
I love mine... I have the government 1911 in 45... I have several friends who have bought them and everyone I know of is a good shooter.
 

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