There’s a new player in the 1911 world named Tisas. Manufactured in Turkey, these new 1911s feature good metal, excellent fitting and a degree of fit and finish I’m not used to seeing in an economy grade 1911. While they have worked very hard for the last couple years to secure their position among other 1911 imports, Tisas decided to develop a higher-end model to compete with more moderately priced domestic guns. A fortunate meeting with Dave Biggers, head of SDS Imports sales team, at Gunsite gave me a chance to handle and shoot their brand-new Bantam Carry pistol.
The Bantam Carry gun is approximately the size of a Colt Commander with a bob-tailed grip frame and mainspring housing. Tisas builds the gun on a Series 70-style alloy frame and uses a series of flutes to provide a secure shooting grip on the front strap and mainspring housing. The frame is undercut at the junction of the front strap and triggerguard and combined with an upswept beavertail grip safety allows the shooter to get a very high grip on the gun to help minimize muzzle rise.
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Tisas outfits the Bantam Carry with ambidextrous extended thumb safeties and a skeletonized commander hammer. My test sample possessed a very crisp, clean 4-pound trigger. I tested the Bantam Carry at 21 yards for accuracy and am pleased to report the Turkish import had a three-ammunition aggregate group size of under 1.5 inches. That’s great accuracy for a production gun from any country! Tisas has continued to impress me, and this Bantam Carry pistol is no different.
