I'm impressed.

That's saying a lot, as I do not impress easily....

The gun's details can be found HERE.

The gun, out of the box, looked good. The finish was evenly applied, the grips appeared to be fitted nicely, and there were no machine marks or strange edges anywhere on the gun. There was a little rattle when I shook the gun, but no more than and certainly less than some military guns. The slide to frame fit is nice and the safety clicks on and off with a positive sound and feel. This pistol has all of the "good stuff" shooters want on their 1911's now. It has a beavertail with a memory bump, GI-type recoil spring and rod, an extended thumb safety (ambi), beveled mag well, lowered and flared ejection port, premium trigger (about five pounds), two 8-round Novak magazines, and dovetailed sights (my only complaint thusfar, I'll explain why later), all packed in a nice lockable plastic/padded box. With a MSRP of $589, this gun comes ready to go, attractively packaged, at an affordable price.

I took the gun apart and cleaned it in preparation for a trip to the range. Everything inside appeared to be in order. There were no obnoxious tool marks. I lubed the gun with my preferred CLP and went to my gun club's IDPA match. Info at www.michigancityrifleclub.com


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The first 50 rounds.

As previously posted, I took the CD1911 to an IDPA match for it's first shots. It was an indoor match, with a round count of exactly 50 if no additional rounds were fired. Perfect.

Ammunition used was CCI Blazer Brass, 230 grain FMJ. I filled the included magazines and one of my own to get started.

The gun ran perfectly. All 50 rounds fed and functioned smoothly, with ejected brass going a few feet to my right and rear. The Safety Officer commented that from a fixed position, it seemed to dump them all in about the same place each time. Examination of the fired brass showed no signs of abuse from the gun itself (dented cases, mainly).

Accuracy was fine. On-the-clock groups at 30' were the size of a fist, and neatly centered exactly where I wanted them. I'm not in the least surprised, as the gun locks up solid. The barrel to slide fitting is excellent.

I came home, cleaned the pistol, and inspected it for signs of abnormal wear. None could be found. I lubed the gun and put more ammo in my gunbag so it'd be ready for the next range trip.

I'm still impressed....I'm seeing a trend here.

Round count: 50

IDPA Night.

Wednesday Night's I can be found at Michigan City Rifle Club's Indoor IDPA Practice.

What better place to test a pistol than with my friends? Those friends all have ammo. A few phone calls brought three buddy's and an extra 200 rounds of test ammunition, in addition to the 50 rounds I planned on firing at the night's match.

Now I'm going to bring up my main complaint with this test pistol. The sights. They're black/black. Not my first choice for a pistol of this nature. My thought is that a high visibility sight (three dot) would better suit this gun's intended use (self defense or gaming). Inside our range, I had serious problems finding the front sight. All three of the other shooters who fired the pistol that night had the same complaint.

How'd the pistol shoot? Great! We fired 250 rounds with no malfunctions. (We did have a failure to lock back on empty, but that problem was directly attributed to a Wilson 47D magazine I've had for nearly 10 years).

Round count: 300 Malfunctions: 0

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IDPA night, take two.

Admittedly, I'm very happy with this pistol. It shoots nicely, is accurate enough in my hands to suit me, and has thusfar been reliable.

Last week was fun, so we'll do it again. A few phone calls gathered an additional 150 rounds and two extra shooters to test the pistol.

Again, the pistol ran problem free through the 50 round IDPA course.

It was in the extra rounds after that we had our first malfunction: a failure to return to battery. I'm fully convinced this was caused by an improperly crimed reload. I'm going to give this one to the ammo, and not the pistol.

We did have one minor problem...the rear sight came loose while firing and threw my 50' offhand groups well off their intended course. While the problem was easily solved with the correct size allen wrench, it did cost me points down in the match. Lesson learned, check your set screws.

Rounds fired: 500. Malfunctions: 0, kinda.

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Accuracy testing:

I decided to test fire this gun from a bench and sandbags. It's only fair to the gun to see what it's capable of doing with as much "human" removed as possible.

Again, the CD1911 impressed me.

At 50 feet (the maximum range available to me right now), with CCI Blazer Brass, this gun will easily hold palm-sized groups, and likely much tighter in a better shooter's hands. It does this consistently. If I had access to a Ransom Rest, I'd happily put this gun up against something twice it's cost, and wager on the EFS to either win or tie.

As I do not have a chronograph, I cannot give velocity numbers for the Blazer Brass I'm using to test this gun.

Rounds fired: 550. Malfunctions: 0

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A few random thoughts:

1. I'm not abusing this pistol, but I'm not going easy on it, either. Competition is a great way to test gear, as it allows fast-firing and accelerates wear on the guns compared to what most shooters do at the range. This gun seems to be holding up extremely well and I'd happily put it against a higher-dollar gun.

2. I still dislike the sights. If it were my gun, I'd change them to a fiber optics or three white dots.

3. The frontstrap is slick. Checkering or grooving of some kind would be helpful. Since the gun is not mine, I'm not going to put skateboard tape here and possibly damage the finish more than I have already. If the gun were mine, I'd definitely have something done here.

4. Everyone who handled or shot this pistol was universally pleased, especially after hearing the MSRP. It appears that Charles Daly has made great strides in their production quality. Several commented that this was nothing like the Charles Daly they'd heard about.

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More accuracy testing.

I decided to put 50 rounds of Wolf 230 grain FMJ downrange to see how it handled this very common, inexpensive ammunition. The theory behind this test being that many shooters are simply cheap and don't want to pay for a higher quality ammunition.

Indoor, 50 foot groups ran about the same size as CCI Blazer Brass, within a palm or about two and a half inches. There were no malfunctions of any kind. Ejected cases still found themselves neatly to my right and rear. The EFS gobbled the steel-cased ammunition up with glee and at the end of the test asked for more.

Rounds fired: 600 Malfunctions: 0

This will be my last post before the pistol goes back to Charles Daly...I've completed the tests I'm capable of doing.

Another 300 rounds put down range in various shooting drills gave me flawless reliability. This gun's level of accuracy is surprising and I cannot conceive of a more reliable 1911.

I did finally encounter one problem, however...magazines no longer fall freely from the pistol. They lock in rock solid, but will not come out without being pulled out manually. I'm certain it's something small and easily repairable inside the magazine catch assembly or frame, but as the gun is not mine, I'll not attempt to repair it.

In conclusion:

The Charles Daly EFS is an OUTSTANDING pistol and a great bargain in the busy 1911 playing field. It's full-featured and fully outfitted right out of the box, equipped with all the "bells 'n' whistles" most shooters want on their 1911, and it comes at a price that won't put you into bankruptcy court. The gun comes well-packaged with two quality magazines. I, personally, couldn't ask for more in a pistol.

Charles Daly gets two thumbs up from me. Total rounds fired: 900 Malfunctions: ZERO

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