Recently got to put another 300+ rounds on the apollo - this time with a full functioning slide stop.
The slide stop broke on the gun that I have before I even got it to the range - just disassembling it to oil it then reassembling it the bit that interfaces from the slide broke off the bit that pushes through the barrel link and frame. I emailed them on a friday - they responded first thing the following tuesday - it showed up nearly a week later sent via standard post from FL to TX.
The replacement part is quite obviously MIM - there is flashing and injection marks on the back of the slide stop (see photo)
All in - I quite like how the gun shoots - BUT - there are a few things. The frame/slide/slide stop clearly have issues - or potentially the grip / mag catch. I'm having issues getting last round hold open to work. With duramag followers - it's probably failing 3 out of 4 times. With Checkmate magazines - which it comes with - it's failing 1 out of 2 times.
Twice I've had stove pipes on the last case not ejecting properly.
The recoil spring is probably too light - just dropping the slide on a fully loaded mag - twice it choked trying to go into battery.
So far - with how the gun shoots - my only complaint is the blending on the manual safety on the left side hits the web of my hand in a way that will build a callous.
I have concerns that without reapplying the provided oil the gun won't carry up to 1k rounds without more issues. I'll do a paper towel wipe down of the internals and re oil it and get after it again to run rounds up - I hope on Sunday I can finish up my 1k and film my studio bit for it.
So there's it happening - it was a good stage up until that point . You can actually see the issue starting as the gun hangs out of batter entering the position which forced me to rack a round out to get it back into battery - which I handled well. This sequence was paper, mini popper, mini popper activator, distant open target, bobber (didn't engage), partial (didn't engage) - so I ate 4 mikes and 2 procedurals right there. And it still was a 3.44 hit factor.
The good news so now the guns working I look forward to two days of mayhem!
Below - you can see a shock buff - it's a washer, basically that threads onto the guide rod. The theory of what a shock buff does is it alleviates some of the impact when the slide opens all the way - they're usually made out of Delrin or rubber or whatever but this one is aluminum and was supposed to be maintenance free. It kind of compresses the spring a bit more since you don't trim the spring so it makes lighter springs work more like a higher poundage ...
I got this pretty epic slow motion in the range of the Deagle going off. that gun is silly fun to shoot. The fireball is massive - I started to chrono the ammo I have for it - it's not as impressive as the fireball would suggest. It's about 1200 FPS with a 300 grain projectile. For comparison - the 6" 10mm with a 180 grain Blazer Brass was doing 180 grains at 1200 FPS.
The 10mm 1911 is pretty tame to shoot - not wildly different form a 45.
I was going to do a video on 10mm ammo and then shoot water jugs and slow motion of them popping - but then the sky opened up on me.
Just wanted to share this with you guys as an option you might not have heard of. Good quality, good execution, good designs. I don't have any sort of business relationship with them nor have interacted with them beyond giving them my credit card information. Pretty legit.
So what I can say is - and I don't mean this literally but it's directionally true - you can't put lipstick on a pig.
What I mean by that is that the baggage the gun has as a budget gun comes with it with premium parts. Part of what you're buying with a 2011 is slide/frame/barrel fitment. Slapping drop in performance parts is akin to bolting on a high flow muffler on an economy car. Even the pin striping from Autozone doesn't make it a sports car. And that was true with the Romulus - but as it is now it's way nicer - it's just not as accurate. The miller precision grip and trigger are pretty transformative in feel however - those are excellent excellent adds to a 2011. The fitment on the trigger to grip is better than my Atlas - as good as my Fowler.
If you haven't swapped ignitions on a gun before - be ready to fit the thumb safeties over again - because a new sear and hammer requires new fitment on the safeties.
I had Chuck at TexStar tune up the small parts and the trigger and everything is great on it...
So the Venom is basically the same sight without the solar panel for about half the cost. So that's got my attention and where I'm going next.
If you're into it - it's on sale right now as part of their Black Friday door busters at Optics planet https://alnk.to/74xDu6U
- if you use code PBFD - it's like $154 which seems like stealing. If you're getting more than just the sight - my code HUMBF gets 14% off - so like an X300 Ultra is like $275
here's a video on the Defenser ST Enclosed
