Iver Johnson Hawk

After one hundred and ten years you would think we would be able to get a singular handgun design down pat and that examples would always work correctly and function. As long as people desire a less expensive product and companies try to provide it, we will never have a perfect handgun. Then again, there are occasional problems with relatively expensive handguns as well. I was recently able to test and evaluate the Iver Johnson Hawk 1911, a Commander-type pistol.

This handgun lists for about $600 and may be found for ten to twenty per cent less on average. The pistol tested features a high grade blue finish and a matte blue finish version is available for forty dollars or so less. While offered by the American-based Iver Johnson Arms company, the primary components are manufactured in the Philippines. The impression is that the pistol is shipped from S. A. M. (Shooters Arms Manufacturers) in the Philippines and Iver Johnson does the final fit and finish.

The finish is nice throughout, with a dull matte on the stop of the slide and lower parts of the frame. There were no discernible tool marks. The sights are high visibility types dovetailed into the slide and giving a good sight picture. The rear sight features a Phillips head screw that may be loosened for adjustment; rather odd compared to the generally-used Allen head screw. Witness marks for setting the sights are dimpled into the slide.

The beavertail grip safety is well designed and well fitted, releasing its grip on the trigger about half into compression. Combined with the sharp slide lock safety indent, the fit of these parts is credible, even impressive. The grips are easily among the nicest I This harks back to 1980s designs in the author’s opinion. have examined. They appear to be cocobolo or the very similar rosewood, are checkered in the double diamond pattern, and feature Iver Johnson’s owl symbol.

The long trigger and flat mainspring housing are typical of modern This pistol uses a standard recoil spring and spring guide set-up. The trigger action, however, was far too heavy, breaking at 8.1 pounds. The primary fit and finish leave little to be desired. While the trigger is heavy, a trigger job would fix that. The safety is easily adjusted.

Problems came up when firing tests were taken. The extended slide lock safety lever of the Hawk was crisp and positive and did not present a difficulty. The beavertail worked properly. The extended slide lock lever was another thing. I have been of the opinion, tempered with experience, that extended slide locks are best reserved for competition handguns. During recoil, shooters tend to allow the thumb to drift into an extended slide lock lever and tie the gun up by pressing it into the locking slot in the slide.

This problem was encountered by several shooters firing the Hawk. It was difficult for them to adjust, even though they are long time 1911 shooters. These heavy slide locks tend to build up their own momentum and are far less suited to Com- The slide stop is actually larger than the Wilson Combat replacing this one. mander .45s than the Government Model. You cannot use the thumbsforward grip with this slide lock as that technique sends the thumb into the slide lock during recoil.

During the firing tests with Black Hills 185 grain JHP +P ammo the Hawk tied up when using a tenround Chip McCormick magazine, occurring on the tail end of a string with the ninth cartridge that failed to fire. A typical short cycle, however, when I switched to the supplied ACT MAG magazine there were no short cycles but the pistol failed to feed the all-brass hollow point twice in two magazines. In modern 1911s feed reliability is often taken for granted and the performance exhibited by the Hawk isn’t acceptable.

Even if you factor out the problems with the McCormick magazine and the 185 grain TAC bullet in the factory magazines, you still have the problem with the slide lock. Despite the good finish and fit, the poor choice of the extended slide lock and finicky feeding soured the firing experience. It is asking a lot for a magazine spring to feed along column of cartridges into a pistol with a short slide as a Commander-length has greater slide velocity and momentum.

The first chore was to order a Wilson Combat standard slide stop. At just over thirty dollars, this is a fair price for a great product but it did not fit right in. A quick check of Kimber, Taurus, and Desert Eagle handguns on hand showed the Wilson Combat slide stop to be a good fit. A bit of file work and then heavy polishing was needed to convince the slide stop to fit. Test firing with forty rounds of Black Hills Ammunition 230 grain FMJ in the factory magazines went without incident.

Feeling courageous, I also used two Mec-Gar ten-round magazines with the same load with no issues, however, while the pistol fed some hollowpoints it did not like the Barnestype all-copper bullets. While one solution is to just use standard JHP loads, well, fixing handguns is what I do and it seemed that the Iver Johnson Hawk deserved to be all it could be. I carefully examined the feed ramp. The proper 0.032" gap between the two pieces of the feed ramp were properly cut it seemed. This polish is the clas-

Far right The slide lock safety exhibited a crisp indent. Fitting was deemed good, perhaps even excellent. Note wear on this new handgun’s parts. sic application and minimalism is the proper approach. I never polish a ramp unless the pistol simply will not feed and I am certain the bullet nose is catching on the feed ramp and there are no other problems such as a poor magazine or poor handloads.

The process involves carefully removing tool marks or scratches from the feed ramp without removing metal without changing the angle of the feed ramp. There is a small stop about 0.032 inch between the top of Below center: Never change a feed ramp angle, only polish out the burrs and scratches. the ramp and the barrel throat that must not be changed. If that angle is changed the piece will not feed. A half round file is often suggested and they are usually the right size.

I have discovered, looking over the bench, that a Sharpie pen is just the right size. Tape apiece of fine grit sand paper over the Sharpie and carefully polish out rough spots and tool marks. A surprisingly small mark or burr will tie the pistol up. The feed ramp angle isn’t changed, only the effort needed for the bullet nose to feed properly. I use dummy cartridges put up on a Lyman press to check for feed and then I travel to the range to do alive fire.

In this case, the work was accomplished and the pistol fed chambered and fired normally. AG