Watchtower Apache Commander Handgun

The release of the new Watchtower Defense Apache Commander caught my attention recently because I really like 4.25" 2011 style guns with full length dust covers. Watchtower has had some negative drama in the past due to quality control issues as well as financial issues that resulted in bankruptcy. Now that the financial issues appear to be over, the QC appears to have improved with their most recent production of pistols. 

Unfortunately, I feel like the new Commander is overpriced at $4000, so wrote it off until I recently came across a dealer on Gunbroker that I believe mistakenly listed this Commander with the specs and pricing for the newer aluminum frame Tactical Commander, which is priced at only $2700. So, I ended up with a $1300 discount on a brand new pistol. 😁

Photos from the Gunbroker auction

The pistol has a lot of features that I like... a wide steel frame, full length dust cover, aesthetically pleasing and usable front cocking serrations, an MJD Solutions grip module, a Dawson tool-less guide rod, and EGW internal components. While I would prefer an optic mounting plate for a Holosun 509T, I like that their RMR footprint optic plate has a thin rear backup iron sight like an Atlas optic plate that allows a Trijicon SRO or RMR HD to sit farther back on the slide so that it doesn't hang over the ejection port and potentially cause ejection issues. Unfortunately, like the Atlas optic plate, it does not position the optic very low on the slide.

The pistol has good fit and finish with nice chamfers on the front of the slide and frame and is done in Black Nitride, so I didn't feel the need to do my typical dehorn and Cerakote refinish work. While not yet installed when these photos were taken, I also upgraded the MIM thumb safeties and slide stop lever with hardened steel components from EGW.

The machined checkering on the MJD grip module provides plenty of good traction, but I prefer the look and feel of my RFV Tactical texture work on a polymer grip module. As I did with my Kimber 2K11 Pro's grip module, I only stippled over the factory checkered areas while retaining the Watchtower logos, added a smooth border at the bottom of the mainspring housing to match the magwell border, and did a step-cut grip chop to accept 16-round Staccato C2 magazines.

The EGW internal components made it easy to tune the trigger down from a little over 4 pounds to my preferred weight of just under 3 pounds. The recoil spring was heavier than I would prefer, but I understand that the gun is marketed as a duty pistol that is expected to handle high power duty ammo. I installed a medium weight Dawson recoil spring so that it runs my lower powered reloaded ammo that I use frequently for training and matches without any issues but will still work with defensive ammo. It has a little more muzzle rise than my non-ported Prodigy 1911DS and my Kimber 2K11 Pro, but it has a quick and consistent return to zero.

To be honest, the gun doesn't really have that much of a "wow factor" to justify its $4000 price tag, so I am a little disappointed with it in that regard, but I am definitely happy that I only paid $2700 for it. I think the gun would be a much better value if it actually retailed for $2700 and came with quality non-MIM external controls.

Kimber 2K11 Pro Handgun

I've worked on multiple Kimber 2K11 pistols for customers at RFV Tactical, and I was not really that impressed with them. Mainly due to the longer length of the slide and having a short dust cover frame. I also don't like that they use MIM internal components in a $2200-$2700 gun. When Kimber came out with the 2K11 Pro, which is a 4.25" version with a full-length dust cover frame, I got a little more interested in them. I randomly stumbled across an online retailer selling the "Stainless" version brand new for only $1750, which is about $250 cheaper than most other retailers, so I decided to pick one up. Then I got really excited when I realized that Kimber actually sells a 2K11 optic plate for the Holosun 509T that has an integrated rear backup iron sight. I have never seen a 2K11 with anything other than an RMR footprint optic and none of those had rear backup iron sights despite positioning the optic really far forward. Unfortunately, the factory front sight is too short to properly align with the rear iron sight on the 509T optic plate.

I specifically wanted the Stainless version, because I wanted the MJD Solutions grip module rather than their aluminum grip module and the Stainless version is the only one with the gold PVD barrel. I thought the gold barrel would look really good with the slide and frame done in a custom mix of black Cerakote. I also wasn't interested in any of the other fancy looking color options that they offer with the 2K11 Pro series.

The front of the slide and frame have a really nice chamfer, but there were still a few spots in other areas that needed some dehorning. Most notably was the left side thumb safety lever. This is a consistently complained about issue with all of the 2K11 pistols. Kimber had supposedly redesigned it with a better chamfer due to all the complaints, but I have yet to see the redesigned part on a production gun out in the real world. While reprofiling and dehorning the levers, I also thinned them down to work with my high grip as I do with most of my personal 2011 style guns.

Rather than go with my custom DLC Mimic color mix of Cerakote, I wanted to try a new custom mix of Graphite Black and Stainless with a 12:1 ratio of catalyst for a slightly higher gloss that would hopefully mimic Black Nitride. It doesn't really show up well in the photos, but there is a slight metallic flake in the black. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and the contrast of the gold PVD barrel looks great.

With the MJD grip module, I only stippled over the factory checkered areas and left the 2K11 styling lines in place, added a smooth border at the bottom of the mainspring housing to match the magwell border, and did a step-cut grip chop to accept 16-round Staccato C2 magazines.  I really like the step-cut grip chop because it gives you a little more concealability while still maintaining a full-size feel in the hand. Unlike STI/Staccato grip modules, the MJD grip still has a little bit of a magwell flare left after the grip chop as does the Prodigy 1911DS grip module.

The pistol had a decent trigger right out of the box at 3.5 pounds, but I tuned it down to my preferred weight of just under 3 pounds using the factory components. The trigger shoe itself is a little longer than my other 2011 style guns, but it's not a problem for me as I have large hands. No other tuning or refinements were needed. The gun looks great and runs great. The recoil impulse is just as soft as my non-ported Prodigy 1911DS with my reloaded training/match ammo, but is a bit snappier with off-the-shelf factory ammo. I'm really happy with this gun, especially for what I paid for it.

USPSA Action Pistol Match - 04/04/2026

USPSA action pistol match at the Southwest Shooting Center in Clovis, NM with the Southwest Performance Shooters club. I was shooting my Race City Defense RC9c from concealment (AIWB) in the Open division.

I haven't competed at an outdoor match for 5 months, and I had been sick with a pretty bad cold that I am still recovering from, so my performance at this match was certainly not my best as I have not been doing my normal 3 to 4 days per week practice for several weeks.

Stage 1: I ran this first stage pretty conservatively. I had all A-zone hits, but it was a slow time. I ended up in 9th place.

Stage 2: I was able to speed things up a little and did pretty well. I had three C-zone hits and ended up in 3rd place.

Stage 3: An unloaded start that led to a balancing beam, and then around a corner to another isolated shooting position. I again picked up the pace a little more and came in 1st place for this stage with all A-zone hits.

Stage 4: A two position stage with two paper targets, two steel poppers, and a Texas Star. I got through the Texas Star perfectly, but one of the poppers didn't fall when I hit it so I had to re-engage it. I also had a C-zone hit on one of the paper targets and ended up in 8th place.

Stage 5: A low round count classifier stage (25-03) that I got two C-zone hits on, which put me in 7th place.

Despite a lower score on several stages, the win on Stage 3 netted me 3rd place Overall out of 22 total. It felt good to get back to shooting a match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsevVwmHThc

Two (Three) New Budget 2011 Style Handguns

With all of the frustration and disappointment that I had with the Staccato HD P4, I decided to sell it and use the funds to purchase a couple of budget 2011 style handguns. The two that appealed to me the most, other than a Springfield Prodigy 1911DS, were the Alpha Foxtrot AF1911-Romulus 3.5" Comp and the MAC 9 DS 4.25" Comp. Update: I also acquired the new EAA/Girsan CMXX in March.

I like the overall aesthetics of these guns, but from my experience with working on customer guns I knew that they would need some trigger tuning and their grip modules would need some major work to make them look and feel good. I wanted to tune and refine these guns while retaining the use of all the factory parts just to see what could be accomplished with sticking to a tight budget. I also removed the included magwells so that they are more carry friendly, as I do plan to carry them occasionally. Since they are budget guns, I outfitted them with some of the newest optics and lights from Osight/Olight that have gained popularity recently. These budget optics and lights may not have the same long-term reliability and durability as the more well-known brands that I would normally go with, but you can't beat the performance that you get for their price.

AF Romulus - Pros

I went with the polished DLC version of the Romulus because it doesn't appear to be an available option anymore. I was impressed with the Romulus' overall fit and finish as well as how the thread-on compensator block is captured. The compensator is just loosely threaded onto the barrel, which is actually 4" rather than 3.5", and does not require thread locker or set screws because it uses an extended recoil spring reverse plug to keep the comp centered. With the 4" threaded barrel plus the compensator installed, this gun has an overall slide profile of 4.375", which is slightly longer than a traditional Commander length gun. The gun also came with a decent trigger pull weight right out of the box even with MIM components, but it had just a little bit of disconnector hang-up, which I was able to easily eliminate with some sear spring tuning. The included RMR and RMSC optics mounting plates fit so well that they have to be gently tapped into place on the slide. The front sight post is a Glock style front sight, so changing that out is relatively easy if desired.

AF Romulus - Cons

The thing that I don't like about the Romulus, other than the grip module's texture, is the cocking serrations on the slide. They aren't aesthetically pleasing to me, and they are very shallow and do not work well for racking the slide, especially with the slick polished DLC coating. It also came with some extra wide controls, which I don't really like with my high grip, so I just thinned them down and refinished them as I've had to do with most of my other 2011 style guns. I also had to properly fit the thumb safety to the sear as it was dragging slightly on engagement. The grip module appears to be a clone of the Prodigy 1911DS grip module with some subtle styling changes, but it's made out of a different/cheaper polymer than the Prodigy grip module and the factory texture is not very good at all. I was able to do my RFV Tactical texture work on the grip to dramatically improve its appearance and feel. I did notice that the grip module appears to be slightly shorter at the bottom compared to other 2011 grip modules, so a magazine appears to stick out more, which is mildly annoying to me. However, this wouldn't be noticeable at all with the magwell installed.

MAC 9 DS - Pros

The MAC 9 DS comes with a black nitride finish, which is an excellent finish for the gun's price point. The extended controls are just the right size and shape for me and are nicely dehorned. The coolest feature of the MAC 9 DS other than the barrel's compensator port is the front cocking serrations on the slide that have window cuts within the serrations. This is a very aesthetically pleasing feature that is also very usable for racking the slide. It also includes an RMR optic mounting plate that uses the same AOS optic mounting system as the Prodigy 1911DS.

MAC 9 DS - Cons

Compared to other 2011 style guns, the MAC 9 DS feels "clunky". It has a completely different sound and feel to it when you rack the slide back and forth, like it's made out of a cheaper metal. As with the Prodigy 1911DS, the AOS optic plate fits a bit loose onto the slide and uses very small mounting screws, so I mounted it using the same method that I use for the Prodigy to ensure that it stays secure. The grip module appears to be a clone of the Staccato Gen 2 grip module using cheaper polymer material with a less-than-ideal texture design, and it even uses a Gen 2 style mag release button. The mag release button was extremely stiff, so I had to cut a coil and a half off of the spring to make it feel normal. Instead of texturing the factory grip module, I opted to buy, texture, and install a factory Tisas grip module, which is virtually identical to the MAC grip module, but it doesn't have the large and deeply indented logos on each side. The trigger out of the box was not that good despite having non-MIM components and it had a really bad disconnector hang-up. It was also very hard to rack the slide with the hammer down, so I did my typical trigger tuning and installed a 19-pound mainspring to lighten things up.

With my trigger tuning and grip texture work, these guns look great and perform really well. Their comps reduce muzzle flip nicely (the Romulus is slightly softer shooting), and they are running reliably with my reloaded match ammo as well as with off the shelf factory ammo. Barrel fitment on both of these guns could be better, but it's not horrible for budget guns. I'm definitely happy with them, but it is obvious to me that they are lower quality guns when compared to my more expensive 2011 style guns, and I still rank the Springfield Prodigy 1911DS as the best "budget" 2011 style gun despite it needing a little more tuning work than these two guns did.

EAA/Girsan CMXX - Mostly Cons

The new EAA/Girsan CMXX had not yet been released when I picked up the Alpha Foxtrot and MAC, but I knew it was coming and planned to purchase one to compare with the AF and MAC. They were finally released at the beginning of March, so I picked one up...

Unfortunately, the CMXX has way more Cons than Pros. While the gun looks really good in marketing photos, the pistol appears to be about the same quality as an airsoft pistol as it is very cheap feeling in person. The frame of the pistol is aluminum, which likely contributes to the cheap feel of the gun. The barrel fitment is not good, as there is a lot of play at the hood and at the muzzle. The optic cut is direct milled only for the smaller RMSc footprint (no plate system), which limits your optic choices. The two small screws securing the factory optic cover plate stripped out the second I tried to remove them with the included hex key, but I was able to remove them by hammering a T9 torx bit into the head of each screw to break them loose. 

The gun has a modified Series-80 system with a firing pin block, so they decided to eliminate the grip safety.  But... you don't really need a grip safety when the factory trigger pull weight is 6 pounds! I was able to tune the trigger down to just under 4 pounds with the firing pin block in place, but I had to use a new EGW sear spring to accomplish it. By removing the firing pin block components from the slide (easy to remove with the optic cover plate off), I was able to get the trigger pull weight down to just under 3 pounds.

The polymer grip module feels super cheap as the material appears to be thinner than most polymer grip modules. The included magwell is made out of plastic rather than aluminum, which I removed. The mainspring housing, on the other hand is a checkered metal piece. The grip module's factory texture is actually really good. It is good enough that I won't bother re-texturing it. The thumb safety levers could use some dehorning, but I just replaced them with some thin safeties that I had lying around and previously dehorned and refinished. The gun does have a really good recoil impulse and return to zero, but it had several failures to extract, which I was able to resolve with some extractor tuning. The extractor fitment was not good either, so tuning it was a bit frustrating and I wouldn't expect it to be reliable long term.

The CMXX only comes with one 17 round magazine, and a hex key to strip out the optic cover plate screws. Nothing else. In my opinion, at $1100 it's not really that good of a value for a budget 2011 style gun, and it makes the AF and MAC look like high-quality pistols by comparison. If the street price eventually comes down to $900 or less, then I might consider it to be a decent value, but the MAC is still a much better value in my opinion.