I quit carrying a 1911 years ago, and I’m pretty sure I was one of the last hold outs. My love for 1911 ergonomics and triggers held on for a long time, but all good things come to an end, and 5 years ago I hung up “God’s Gun” and became a boring Glock person. But then the unexpected happened: suddenly double stack 9mm 1911s (generally called 2011s, although that name is technically a Staccato trademark) became the cool thing for the discerning pistolero, and all my arcane knowledge about 1911 extractors, feed ramp angles, and manual safety usage became relevant again, which is probably how I got roped into reviewing the Military Arms Corps 1911 DS, my second 2011 after the Apollo in just a few months.

I jest. I was pretty interested in this gun when it came out. Military Arms Corps (MAC) is a sub brand or something of Tisas, designing pistols and having them imported from Tisas in Turkey. I don’t have a lot of time on their single stacks, but every one I’ve handled in the store has been put together well, i.e. proper barrel fit, decent grip safety sensitizing, everything you typically take a glance at the first time you pick up a 1911. Plus, they have all metal parts, no cast or MIM. The other big tipping point for me came from my friends at Apache Solutions in Yadkinville, who mentioned they had several people from MAC’s US office attend classes with them, running their Turkish, Benelli M4 clones through the extremely demanding Rangemaster Shotgun Instructor course. Now, this might not sound like a big deal, but you’d be shocked at how few gun company employees shoot seriously. Sure, the pro shooters and social media people get around a bit, but I can count on one hand how many times I’ve seen somebody from a major gun company’s management or sales team show up to a class or match. I like running into serious shooters, so that, combined with initial good reports, piqued my interest, so I logged out a 4.25 inch MAC 2011, borrowed some magazines and gear from our very own Anthony “Beard”, and started thrashing the gun.

This is a commander 2011 with a polymer/aluminum frame, magwell, fiber optic iron sights with a blacked-out rear, and an optics adaptor plate cut for a Trijicon RMR pattern red dot included in the box, to which I mounted a Holosun 507 comp. It also comes with two 17 round magazines and a pretty nice range bag. Across my time with the gun, I put about 1300 rounds through it, including a Pistol Metrics class at Apache Solutions, a USPSA match, and two IDPA matches. It was lubed upon reception, and once more at 800 rounds for no reason other than I wanted to.

First off, the boring good news. The gun ran flawlessly… like, completely flawlessly. The gun never failed to complete the cycle of operations, it’s slide always locked back to the rear, and no screws or parts loosened during my entire time with it. The optic plate was mounted and torqued per instructions, with a small dab of Loctite. The ammo was a smorgasbord, a huge variety of Federal, PMC, Winchester, Sellier and Bellot, and Magtech was shot through the gun, spanning a variety of bullet weights and profiles. This was intentional, since 9mm 1911s have traditionally been picky with bullet profiles. I also shot a variety of defensive ammos, including 147 grain Winchester Silvertips, 115 grain Winchester generic JHP, Federal HST in two different bullet weights, Federal 115 JHP, and Koenig match ammo. I was really shocked by the reliability since there’s usually at least one little thing that goes wrong in these evaluations… but this one had nothing. The MAC also fit in every 2011 holster we sell at the store and worked with both supplied magazines as well as two 20 round Staccato-branded magazines. Honestly, by the time I got to about 1000 rounds, I was almost mad nothing was going on.

Now for the even better news: the gun was ludicrously mechanically accurate. Not everything shot spectacularly, but more than a few brands of ammo shot sub 1.5 inch groups, and honestly, discounting a few flyers, I think it would shoot even better… which is insane. (See attached pics). I can’t emphasize enough that this $1000 Turkish pistol shot better than some of the extremely high-cost guns I’ve shot. I know not many people care about mechanical accuracy in pistols, but I think it’s a good litmus test for how well a 1911 is put together. Even more impressively (you 1911 people, brace for this): the MAC DS passed the 10-8 extractor test, a series of short tests to see how well a 1911s extractor fit from the box, as well as a conventional extractor check. For those of you who aren’t 1911 buffs, extractor tension is crucial to this platform running well. Most 1911s, in any caliber, under the $2000 benchmark don’t pass the 10-8 test at all, and it’s even harder to do with the shorter 9mm round. I’ll tell you; I about dropped the gun in surprise when it passed.

In more mundane topics, the gun shot well in a practical setting. The MAC is heavily sprung (probably contributing to its reliability) so while it’s not the softest shooting 2011 out there, its still better than basically every polymer-frame, striker-fired gun on the market. The heavy-coned barrel seems to help with that. I shot 2.5 second bill drills with this gun with basically no effort, I shot a 97 on Hackathorns Test from the holster, I shot two sub 6 second FAST tests in a row, clean. If you’re not familiar with these drills, let me summarize: the MAC is easy to shoot. Most tellingly, I placed 1st and 2nd in two local IDPA matches, with the 2nd place finish coming at the excellent True North range, against more than a few people with “Expert” and “Master” in their names.

Complaints are minor. I wish the gun had some more traction on the grip, so I ended up using old chunks of talon grip tape to give it some. The trigger is good and clean, with a defined wall and clean break, but it’s just a hair heavier than I’d like, pulling at about 5 pounds on a Lyman digital scale, averaged across 5 pulls. Just like your dog, it could stand to lose a pound or so. The finish showed a little wear at the muzzle even with the limited draw strokes I had through the gun, so if you’re one of those people that thinks one scratch on your gun means you need to have it refinished, you might want to get a bluing pen for this one.

I liked this gun. I liked it a lot. I liked the texture and trigger on the Apollo 2011 more, but this gun got a lot more rounds through with nary a complaint, and I personally shot it slightly better. The Apollo 2011 I tested worked fine, but I like the optics cut, accuracy, and optics system in this gun better. The only other 2011s I can think of in this price range are other Tisas products.

I honestly don’t like writing rave product reviews, because I only have the one gun as a sample, and working at a gun store always raises questions of shilling. To be clear: these guns are never sent to us for a “review,” and while the store supplied me with a lot of ammo, I took my own time and match fees to shoot this for the article, purely for my own curiosity and enjoyment. I promise you that Military Arms Corps has never heard of little old DRS, but that doesn’t change facts: this gun worked flawlessly for a lot rounds, shot extremely accurately, and was easy to shoot well. If you want a budget 2011, I think this is the best way to go.

Do you have any experience with the MAC 1911 DS? Which of the new wave of 2011 style pistols is your favorite? Leave us a comment below, or shoot us an email at cj@fuquaygun.com Thanks for reading!