[Bailey229]

Folks,

I have narrowed down my search for a 1911 to the Revolution Stainless, 5", no tactical rail. Here's the problem, the only one I can find at the moment within a 50 mile radius of my home in Dallas has a 5300 serial number. The threads I have read here and elsewhere tell me that I really want to get one with a serial number above 7000 to maximize the probability that I will avoid the quality issues associated with some of the earlier production runs of this gun.

However, this same store also has a Revolution Nitron, 5", no tactical rail with a serial number in the 12000 range. I really wanted a stainless model, but I keep thinking that the Nitron version actually looks pretty darn good in its own right!

Would anyone have a comment or two about the Nitron finish? Does it hold up?

Thanks in advance for any coaching you might be able to provide.

 

[Colt45guy]

Bailey,

I've got the same gun you're looking at, s/n in the 8700 range. It had a little trouble with a stiff extractor spring/slightly rough extractor edges and pathetically weak mag springs in the Novaks that it came with. Once I polished up the edges of the extractor and replaced the mag springs, it's been 100%. (round count is somewhere around 5500 now, and well over 4K since the last malfunction)

The Nitron didn't hold up nearly as well as I had hoped. I carry daily in a leather holster, and the high spots wore down to bare metal within a couple of weeks. The good news is that the GSR series are all stainless. If the finish gets too bad, you can always bead blast it and have the stainless finish you wanted in the first place.


before:

and after:

 

[Reconvic]

The Nitron Finish seems to be holding up on my SIGS. I do oil them a bit to make them shine about once a week, I carry one everyday and so far no signs of wear , roughlt about 2000 round thru the oldest

 

[Bailey229]

I found a thread on some other board where a poster claimed to have contacted Sig directly and had been told by a Sig sales person that the Nitron finish has no value as corrosion or rust protection; it is for cosmetic purposes only and wears off easily. This seems consistent with colt45guy's response.

 

[Reconvic]

This Nitron finish protects the slide from corrosion, rust and makes it more resistant to scratches. The Nitron finish gives the slide a greyish color which is evidently different from the color of the frame which does not have the Nitron coating. I am almost certain there will be after market manufacturers producing metal slides for this pistol. This gun really needs a metal slide to do it justice.

 

[El Pistolero]

Vic. What do you mean by metal slide? The sig 1911's, except for the alloy frame and a few carbon framed ones out there, have stainless slides and frames. They have nitron on both the frame and slide. The p series and alloy framed guns appear to have something different on the alloy part.

Nitron is not a tough finish. It's tougher than blued but wears off quicker than some of the best finishes.

 

[Reconvic]

It will last long on models like the Navy's P-226 Blackwater model, and more then plain blued models. The Kimpro seems to look better Jerry and stay's looking better then the SIGS, but the Sigs finish is not shiny, I would not want a shiny pistol to give away my position. My old P-6 finish is still holding up after 30+ years and my wifes pocketbook lol.

 

[Reconvic]

There was one US-based company that offered Melonite, but the temperatures exceeded the temper of 4140, 4340 and 416R (the common 1911 materials). That could be handled by retempering, but I was not satisfied with warpage concerns as described by the vendor. Perhaps I should purchase some Essex frames, measure before and after and cut and prepare the frames to study under a microscope. It WILL happen and two PVD vendors are "on the same page" as I am... But it won't happen tomorrow as the firearm industry is notoriously slow to adopt new methodologies for whatever reasons. For example, PVD coatings are far, far superior to any of the otherwise nice chemical and spray and bake coatings. SIG has seen the light ["Nitron" is Tungsten DLC] as has Kahr [BodyCote]and Magnum Research [MMI] as well as the DPMS AR-15 TiN bolt carrier and firing pin [MMI].

Yes, it's expensive in the manner it's being offered to you and I at the moment, but if YOU and I DEMAND such finishes then companies like MMI and BodyCote will have facilities within the plants of the mainstream mass producers and offer the service at much more reasonable rates to the semi-custom and custom manufacturers. But few have the engineering background to adequately explore the opportunities and the majority simply follow... so the industry is more than happy to apply GunKote (albeit, under different tradenames with small additions of Teflon) and charge a premium for it.

Tungsten DLC is far superior than any conventional coating if applied correctly.

Titanium Aluminum Nitride is superior to Tungsten DLC as a weapon coating.

 

[El Pistolero]

Vic, I wasn't talking about shiny or not shiny finishes. You said someone will make a metal slide for the sig 1911 and it has a metal slide. I'm not sure what you are talking about. Does yours have a plastic slide?:rofl: The 1911 is stainless top and bottom except the compact c3 models so they have the same nitron top and bottom.

Whether someone has a shiny pistol or not and being a ccw carrier the only time I will pull one is if my life is in danger and my position will long have been given away. I also know nitron is not very tough finish, I would say it's about the middle of the pack.

 

[Reconvic]

My bad it has a stainless slide on all GSR's Jerry. My air soft SIG now that has a plastic slide lol.

 

[El Pistolero]

Haha, when I asked about plastic slides I didn't know you actually had one.

 

[Reconvic]

My airsoft SIG lol. I shoot it indoors all the time lol.

 

[El Pistolero]

Yea, those are pretty cool.

I used to have a co2 pellet revolver I shot out of the acb-1 barracks at the marines. When I went home on leave I shot bottle rockets at them.