The GSG 1911 .22

The world of 1911 handguns has a branch that doesn’t command the respect it should: .22 rimfire clones. While there are a number of inexpensive .22 caliber handguns that are far from well made, the GSG 1911 .22 is of good material and quite popular. The pistol is manufactured primarily of non-ferrous metal but this works just fine with the low recoil and pressure from the .22 Long Rifle. The finish is painted, either black, coyote tan, or olive drab.

Interestingly, many of the GSG’s internal parts interchange with standard 1911 parts. While fitting is often required of any 1911 part, the interchangeability is good and includes stocks, slide stop, slide lock safety, mainspring housing, grip safety, magazine catch, sear and sear spring, plunger tube assembly and the trigger. Theoretically, you could fit Wilson Combat parts if the 22 is a serviceable .22 pistol with much to recommend. owner wished a first class trigger job.

When you calculate the need for hand fitting, the percentage of interchangeable parts may not be that high but the possibility of fit with Series 70 parts is interesting. My personal short slide GSG pistol was fitted with a set of presentation grade grips from Zipps- Grips.com. And I do mean "fitted" as they were not a simple drop in. Although the grips were cut for an ambidextrous safety, the safety of the GSG pistol did not operate correctly when these were installed.

A slight relief of the ambidextrous cut out was necessary. Not a major chore but one that was needed. Of course, Zipps designed the grips for the 1911 not a 1911 .22 near copy, but they are certainly a close fit. The GSG 1911 .22 has the same safety features as a centerfire 1911. The grip and slide lock safeties operate in the same manner. The GSG pistol also incorporates a firing pin block of the Series 80 type. This firing pin block is an important feature of this handgun.

Another uncommon feature is the GSG magazine safety. The pistol will not fire when the magazine is removed. This is a safety device that may be beneficial for beginners using the pistol as a trainer. While more experienced shooters may not care for the device, it should never be removed. Feed And Handling Problems When working with the GSG 1911 .22 and other SIG .22 caliber 1911 clones, problems encountered are less due to design but more to ham-handed handling.

This is an inexpensive handgun but not a cheap one and the accuracy and reliability demonstrated are good. A number of cautions apply. The pistol breaks down in a manner similar to the 1911 .45 but not identical. The slide stop is removed and then the barrel pin pushed out to the left. Another pin must be removed using an Allen wrench. This pin screws out to the right. This system must be used with the 1911-22 as it is a blowback rather than a locked breech pistol.

The GSG gun functions with a very low power cartridge in comparison to the .45 ACP 1911. This system doubtless adds to the pistol’s rigidity and fine accuracy. Once the slide stop and the two pins are removed the pistol’s slide is removed from the frame. The barrel and slide are removed together. The recoil spring guide rod is removed by compressing the spring to the rear. The barrel lifts out easily.

Above center: Extra front sight blades area welcome addition to the handgun. Routine cleaning is simple. A problem I have seen is the barrel retaining pin in the frame has been over tightened and stripped out. The handgun was returned to the distributor and repaired. Another problem that occasionally occurs is the sight screws being stripped out. This is another case in which the pistol is returned to the importer as there is no cure as inexpensive as shipping the pistol.

When adjusting or changing the sights for a customer care must be taken not to strip these small parts. The front sight is held to the slide by a tiny set screw. The pistol, to the credit of GSG, is supplied with two alternative sights to allow the pistol to be properly sighted. The tiny set screw is easily stripped by applying too much pressure. The rear sight is adjustable, however, the same type of small set screw is used. The proper Allen wrench is supplied with the pistol to adjust these rear sights.

These are very small parts that would be easily stripped so caution is advised when working with the GSG sights. The sights can be changed out and regulated. When changing the front sight, simple rules are followed. If the pistol is shooting low then a taller front sight is installed to raise the point of impact. If the pistol is shooting high in relation to the point of aim the lower front sight is used.

The sights are easily changed by use of the supplied Allen wrench but caution must be used in tightening the tiny screw. When adjusting the rear sights in the standard manner, moving the sights left or right to move the point of impact, care must be taken not to strip the tiny screws. Feeding Issues In one case the feeding issue of the GSG pistol was solved by proper procedure.

The customer reported that the first round in the magazine was catching the top of the cham- Below left and center: The Wheeler screwdriver kit from Cheaper Than Dirt came in handy when working with the GSG.. A big plus. This is the BTP from Jeffery Custom Leather. ber and refusing to feed. After some working with the slide, once the first round fed properly the following rounds usually fed, chambered and ejected.

Unlike some .22 caliber self loaders the GSG feeds most high velocity .22 caliber ammunition just fine. I keep Fiocchi .22 HV on hand for the pistol, which has proven brilliantly accurate and reliable. So far, CCI Mini Mag, Fiocchi HV and Winchester M22 and Wolf are reliable. I fixed the issue by downloading the magazine, working to only three rounds in the magazine. The magazine fed perfectly up to eight rounds.

It would be very easy to strip. Above center: A threaded barrel is quite useful for hanging accessories on the barrel. This is the CW Accessories compensator. At nine rounds the bullet nose caught on the chamber. The cure is to keep the magazine horizontal when loading and to be certain the cartridges This .22 cartridge took a good whack from the firing pin. This is the bane of .22 caliber pistols. Below center: The supplied Allen wrench for removing the thread cover from the barrel.

The tiny set screws are spares supplied with the pistol. You may need them as they are easy to lose! are pressed into a nose down attitude. The bullets are loaded one by one, allowing spring pressure to catch each bullet, rather than holding the magazine follower and spring down and dropping the bullets into the magazine. This loading sequence produced better reliability. Another cure would have been to take a coil out of the magazine spring.

When the CW Accessories fifteen round magazine upgrade is used, function is excellent. On another occasion the magazine seemed to be orienting the cartridges in the proper manner but the bullet nose of every type of ammunition I attempted to feed in the pistol did not feed correctly. This was primarily a problem with the first cartridge although it also occurred during a firing string. In this case the cure was to very slightly polish the feed ramp.

When working with the .22 caliber rimfire cartridge everything is in miniscule scale and only a very slight polishing of the area was needed. A light touch is important. There was simply a slight ridge, seen under magnification, on the feed ramp. Apiece of 600 grit sandpaper was placed on a wooden dowel and worked over the feed ramp.

CW Accessories is offering GSG upgrades. Among the most interesting products offered for the GSG is their compensator. There are two designs, with one somewhat larger than the other. Chet Whistle’s compensators are well made of good material and offer a real advantage in competition shooting. Although the recoil of the .22 Long Rifle cartridge is modest, these compensators direct gas upwards and further reduce recoil to the point that there is a noticeable advantage in competition shooting.

During the evaluation of this compensator I took several images of a GSG pistol both with and without the compensator as the pistol was fired. The difference in the recoil arc was clearly noticeable with the compensated pistol. When fitting the compensator the first thought is that it is simple enough to simply screw the compensator on. The rub is that the ports must be oriented upwards. After several tries it was decided to get as close to the end of the threads as possible with a compensator with blue Loctite.

Just a tiny amount holds the compensator in place. A note on magazine modification. When loading the ten round GSG magazine there is some effort required but this is a first class unit. CW Accessories offers a well designed magazine loading button that makes loading the magazines much easier. With the standard magazine simply drill out the bottom foot of the follower to accommodate the magazine loader. A 1/8" drill bit is used. The magazine loading assist knob may then be used.

This loading assist may also be used to remove the barrel pin during disassembly. The most interesting product from CW Accessories is the fifteen round magazine conversion. By removing the magazine baseplate and replacing it with a deeper unit, special magazine spring and follower, the factory SIG or GSG magazine is converted to a fifteen round magazine. After extensive use the conversion has proved reliable, solving many of the problems with the original magazine’s loading problems.

The new follower is also American Gunsmithing Association

Above center: The barrel retaining pin is removed after removing the slide stop. The slide stop (center hole), barrel retaining pin (left hole) and slide retaining pin (right hole) is removed prior to disassembly. cut for the loading assist so this step isn’t needed. The new magazine conversion was proofed with some 200 cartridges from Wolf Performance Ammunition with excellent results. The original guide rod and recoil spring for these handguns is less than robust.

While the pistols have proven generally reliable the guide rod seems to give trouble after 500 rounds or so in some pistols. GSG Left above and After a bit of polish the feed reliability of this particular 1911 .22 was improved. Below center: The GSG 1911 features a Series 80 drop safety. has made them good under warranty but the situation isn’t ideal. The latest generation guide rods are better than the first but the best bet remains the CW Accessories guide rod.

This unit is specially engineered to improve function. The new guide rod is 0.010 larger in diameter and 5/8 inch longer than the factory recoil guide rod. The original GSG recoil spring was a tapered directional type. If installed backwards the original recoil spring would cause function problems. The new spring isn’t tapered, an excellent fix for a real problem. The new short slide GSG guns feature a removable light rail.

It looks as if it should be removed from the bottom but the slide must be removed to loosen the screws holding the light rail. The GSG 1911 .22 is a serviceable, well-made bargain but it does use quite a few small parts that may be difficult to handle. Care must be taken in working with these parts. The rest is traditional troubleshooting. AG