Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns S&W Chief Special CS45

Glocks and high quality 1911's are popular now with Sigs coming in close to the pack.
<br>
<br>S&W semiautos have fallen out of favor. In my case my experience with S&W semiautos is good with the exception of an early Model 59.
<br>
<br>Recently I had a 1911 that I wasn't satisfied with even after a trip to the manufacturer so I took the gun to the dealer I bought it from to see if he had a .45 I might want to trade for.
<br>
<br>One I had looked at several times was still there so I asked to look at it. To shorten this story I traded for a S&W CS45.
<br>
<br>It was cold and the range was somewhat muddy but what the heck. The first range session with the CS45
<br>was enjoyable. I fired 117 rounds a few hardball and
<br>the following high performance type rounds.
<br>
<br>Cor-Bon 185 grain +p
<br>Cor-Bon 165 grain PwR'Ball
<br>Federal 230 grain HydraShok
<br>Speer Gold Dot 230 grain
<br>Taurus copper bullet 180 grain ammo
<br>Aguila 117 grain aluminum bullets
<br>
<br>First despite the significan differences in bullet weight the recoil differences were small. The CS45 functioned without any hitches whatsoever. And all the rounds were similarly accurate.
<br>
<br>All rounds were shot at 25 yards using the Weaver Stance. All rounds grouped nicely in the center or just down from center depending on ammo type.
<br>
<br>One of the arguments against DA/SA semiautos is the transition from DA to SA. I've never had a problem with this transition and the CS45 was no different.
<br>
<br>I like the manual safety and the fact that the gun can be loaded and unloaded with the safety on. Also, and here I'll get some comments I'm sure, I like the magazine safety.
<br>
<br>Today rather than lock the gun up I pulled the magazine and put it in my pocket. The gun with a round chambered was hidden on top of a book case.
<br>
<br>In my opinion a magazine safety is better and more effective that a key lock system.
<br>
<br>Next trip to the range will be to shoot from sandbags to see how accurate the gun really is but on first time out results I figure the gun is more than accurate enough for my purposes.
<br>
<br>Norm

"In my opinion a magazine safety is better and more effective that a key lock system."
<br>
<br>Agreed on that point! And you know how I feel about over engineering safety into firearms to excess.
<br>

T LEE,
<br>
<br>Yep, I don't want safety engineered in to excess for sure.
<br>
<br>Norm