Tisas B9R Double Stack 1911 — Is This the 2011 Staccato Killer?

Today we're looking at the Tisas B9R double stack 1911 — a 2011, if you will — in the carry version, which in 1911 terms is the 4.25-inch Commander size. I prefer this one because I can actually conceal it. A little history: Staccato popularized the 2011 with the P, C, CS, and XL at $2,000–2,500, then Springfield's Prodigy brought it down around $1,300, and Live Free Armory's Apollo hit about $1,000. At SHOT Show this year, Tisas — imported by SDS Imports — announced three double stack 1911s: this 4.25-inch, a 5-inch, and the tactical Night Stalker with a threaded barrel and that cool battleship-gray finish. I plan on picking up a Night Stalker too.

Here's the headline: I bought this the day it was released for $684. MAP is $799, and most places have them sitting in the high $600s to low $700s. Either way, that's an exciting price for a double stack 1911 — and Tisas didn't build it cheap to hit it. There are no MIM parts in this gun. It's all forged steel with real machining; when I opened it up, the internals were almost impeccable — no burrs, no marks. The grip is a polymer mold around the steel frame with a flared magwell, and the weight is perfect for its size.

Feature rundown: skeletonized trigger and hammer, with my pull tests averaging around 4.1 pounds — honestly it feels lighter than that. It's milled for optics in the RMSc footprint, so your Shield RMSc, Swampfox Sentinel, or Holosun EPS Carry, 407K, and 507K all drop on. I'm running the EPS Carry in the dot version, though I prefer the circle dot. The iron sights are Glock-compatible dovetails at almost suppressor height, so you can co-witness with your red dot. There's a big beavertail that lets you get way up inside it, a grip safety, an ambidextrous thumb safety, and a Picatinny rail for a light. It takes Check-Mate 2011 magazines, and the Springfield Prodigy mag I grabbed at Pickett Weaponry fits just fine too. Takedown is classic 1911 — bushing, slide stop, done — and it runs the old-style short guide rod with a full-length spring, which I actually prefer on a gun like this.

One holster note: that rail extends about a quarter inch past the slide, so buy 1911 holsters cut for a railed gun. A no-rail holster is not going to fit.

At the range, this thing shoots so smooth it's almost scary — especially for a gun this small. It took me a few minutes to get the red dot dialed, which was all me and not the gun, and then we were ringing steel boom, boom, boom. If I were going to improve anything, I'd drop an EGW kit in it — lighten the trigger a touch, lighter hammer — and at that point I think it'd outshoot a Staccato C2.

Final thoughts: Tisas has been known for producing quality 1911s — yes, they had a couple little problems recently — but this one is a knockout. It's going into contention for gun of the year, not because it's remarkably different from anything we've seen, but because they put what I think a Staccato feels like into a $684 gun. The 5-inch and Night Stalker are out there too. Go get one. You absolutely will not regret it.