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 shown below, and then a used Live Free Armory Apollo 11 Compact in July as another budget 2011 example.

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, which looks really good when wiped clean, but is a major fingerprint and smudge magnet. 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 due to 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 probably wouldn't be noticeable at all with the magwell installed.

Update July 2026: I recently decided to open up the ports in the comp to be a single large port, which is a modification that several firearms milling/machining companies offer as a service for the Romulus Comp pistols. I was able to do it at home with a rotary tool and a small file. The difference is not dramatic, but it is a noticeable improvement. It definitely makes the gun the softest shooting pistol of the three compared in this post.

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, so you have a lot of choices for optics.

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. The gun is also way over-sprung from the factory for a compensated gun, so I installed a 13 pound recoil spring.

With my trigger tuning and grip texture work, these guns look great and perform really well. Their comps reduce muzzle flip nicely, and they are running reliably with my reloaded match ammo as well as with off-the-shelf factory ammo. The Romulus is slightly softer shooting than the MAC, but neither gun shoots better than my Prodigy 4.25" Carry Comp. 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 tapping 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 that. 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 had previously dehorned and refinished. The gun had several failures to extract initially, 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. Once the extraction issues were resolved, I discovered that the ejection pattern was very inconsistent, with most of the brass going right into my face.  I had to re-profile the tip of the ejector to resolve that.

The surprising thing about the CMXX is that it shoots really good! It has a soft recoil impulse with very little muzzle rise and a consistent return to zero. It shoots almost identical to my Prodigy 4.25" Carry Comp, which is impressive considering the CMXX has a light weight aluminum frame. The pistol only came with one 17 round magazine in the case, 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 it had a steel frame, came with at least two magazines, and had an optic mounting plate system to allow for different optics, then I might consider it to be a good value, but the MAC is a much better value in my opinion.

My Personal Training Stage Is Now A Monthly Match

I've been using the same training stage for my outdoor action pistol training for several years. It consists of only two targets, two vision barriers (i.e. stacks of barrels), and 4 shooting positions. It's a very simple setup that allows me to practice a lot of different skills, and is very easy to setup the same each time I go to my outdoor range to train.

I've always thought that this training stage could actually be used for a match with a simple setup and I actually got the opportunity to do that. I've taken my simple training stage concept and turned it into a monthly indoor action pistol match at the private indoor range that I train at regularly. The match will be setup the same every month so that people can track their personal progress over time, and the simple layout will make it easy for me to set it up quickly and not get burned out from running the match every month.

Even though it's a very simple layout, it has several different challenges such as shooting on the move, reloads, moving into and out of shooting positions aggressively, and moving up range. The two targets are just re-engaged from each shooting position, and only the areas outside of the "A-zone" are taped up to reset the stage to save time and resources. The two targets are spaced 3 to 4 yards apart, the vision barriers and forward shooting positions are approximately 5 yards away from the targets and spaced 4 to 5 yards apart, and the center rearward shooting position is approximately 12 yards away from the targets. The stage layout can be run from 3 different start positions as shown in the videos below.

Update: We had our first match on January 8th, and it went really well. As I expected, the match was easy to setup/teardown and resetting the targets after each shooter was quick and easy. Everyone seemed to have fun, and I ended up winning this first match, which was a nice bonus. I'm not going to post any videos or notes from these matches on this blog since they will be the same exact stages every time, but I am looking forward to running and shooting these matches every month, as we are now going to have them twice a month!  😁

Race City Defense RC9c Handgun

After posting about why I really like the Springfield Prodigy 1911DS and mentioned Race City Defense in the post regarding high-end guns, I was actually able to acquire a lightly used RC9c for just slightly over my personal budget limit. Other than a few small scratches on the grip module, the gun was in excellent condition, and it came with a brand new Trijicon RMR HRS optic installed. I wasn't really fond of the Coyote Brown RMR, so I sold it to offset the total cost of the gun to fit well within my budget limit.

Photos from the Gunbroker auction

Race City Defense (RCD) started offering their RC9 pistols officially in late 2023, so they are a relatively new high end 2011 builder. Prior to the launch of their RC9 pistol, they were customizing Springfield Prodigy 1911DS pistols (as well as other guns), which I can definitely appreciate since I do that myself at RFV Tactical. The RC9c, which is their new dedicated carry pistol, was released in June of 2025. I've read multiple posts across the internet that equally compare the RC9c to the Atlas EOS, but the RC9c is about $2500 less than the EOS. Despite being a used gun, this one is the newest version of the RC9c with the updated optics plate that has four mounting screws instead of two, a pinned front sight to keep it from walking out of the dovetail, and lightly chamfered edges on the front of the slide and frame. 

One of the negatives to the RCD pistols in general is that they only come with a Trijicon RMR optic mounting plate that they make in-house. Currently, you cannot order mounting plates for other optics even though I've seen photos of older RC9 pistols with other optics installed (those may have just been prototypes). I seriously considered installing the new Trijicon RCR enclosed optic as an alternative to the Holosun 509T that I would normally choose, but I just can't accept how small the window is for how tall and bulky the RCR is. I ended up installing a Trijicon SRO that I took off of another gun for now, but I may end up installing an RMR HD on it at a later date.

The RC9c really appealed to me because the overall aesthetics are nearly perfect. It has functional angled serrations that are perfectly proportioned (five up front and five in the back), a tri-topped slide, a wide frame with a full-length dust cover, a pinned non-functional beavertail, and it is DLC coated. I do wish it was a little more dehorned as it has a lot of sharp edges and corners. The fit and finish of this gun is excellent. The slide to frame fit is very tight, and on par with my older STI guns that have the best fitment of all of my 2011 style guns. The DLC coating is excellent as well, and the polished flats on the slide is a very nice touch, but it is kind of a fingerprint magnet. 😜

Racking the slide is very smooth even with the tight fit. It also has a ramped cut on the front of the slide's stripper rail to eliminate any hang up on the disconnector. The trigger was also tuned very nice. The pull weight was right at 2 pounds from the factory with very little pre-travel and a positive reset. While I appreciate such a light trigger right out of the box, I felt like it was a little too light for a carry gun, so I tweaked the sear spring slightly to bring it up to just over 2.5 pounds. Unfortunately, I had to modify the slide stop lever, as the slide would consistently lock back with one round left in the magazine with multiple magazines that don't ever have that issue in any of my other 2011 style guns. Upon further inspection, it appears they did not remove enough material from the bottom of the slide stop when assembling the gun. The photo below shows the RC9c slide stop compared to a Staccato slide stop before and after I trimmed it.

While I prefer polymer grip modules on my 2011 style guns, so that I can do my RFV Tactical grip texture work on them, the aluminum grip module on the RC9c looks good and has a unique and aggressive texture. It was designed by Kovert Projects for RCD, and it is made in house at RCD. I really like that the grip has a step cut to accept shorter magazines (including the Staccato C2 16-round magazines) while maintaining a full-size feel, which is exactly what I've done to most of my full-size polymer 2011 grip modules. Unfortunately, the magwell opening did not have any kind of chamfer to it at all, so I chamfered it myself to help a little with reloads. I touched up the new magwell chamfer with some Aluminum Black, but it will get nicked up over time with reloads anyway. One of the things I don't like about aluminum grip modules is that they get nicked up or scratched pretty easily.

The extended mag release button protruded out of the grip so much that the magazine would get released when I inserted the gun into a holster. I tried installing a mag release button from a Prodigy and a Gen 1 STI, but the grip module is wider than the polymer grips in that area, so they didn't work at all. I had to trim the original button down to a reasonable height to be able to carry it in a holster. It also came with some really wide paddle thumb safety levers, which I don't like because of my high grip, so I replaced the factory safety levers with some EGW thin safeties that I fit, dehorned, and refinished in my custom DLC Mimic Cerakote color along with the modified mag release button. I think it is ironic that this "carry" gun comes with extended competition style controls and a really light trigger, but they don't bother to chamfer the inside edge of the magwell opening. 😒

The top inline barrel ports on this gun are very effective at reducing muzzle rise, and it's my preferred type of porting on any handgun, not just 2011s. Despite being marketed as a carry gun, the RC9c is a very heavy pistol and weighs slightly more than my non-ported Prodigy 1911DS, which was my heaviest 2011 style gun until now. The extra weight combined with the barrel ports make this gun very easy to shoot fast and accurately. It is hands down the best performing 2011 style gun that I own.

While the fit and finish, aesthetics, and performance of this gun are excellent, I am a little disappointed that I had to do some small fitment and detail work to bring it up to my standards. I expect to have to do some tinkering and tuning with a budget 2011 clone that costs less than $1500, but there should not be any issues at all with a gun that costs more than $4000. I'm also very skeptical that paying more than $6500 for an Atlas EOS would get you any better fit and finish or performance. There is definitely a point of diminishing returns when you pay more than $3000 for a 2011 style gun.

Update March 2026: While the factory aluminum grip module looked and felt really good, I decided to install an MJD Solutions grip module that I cut and chamfered to accept 16-round Staccato C2 magazines and textured it in a 360-degree wrap around configuration. I also filled in and contoured the grip to match the back of the frame. I prefer a polymer grip module over an aluminum grip because I can adjust the texture to exactly how I want it and the aluminum grip module gets scratched up way too easily.  I've refinished the aluminum grip module in my custom DLC Mimic color Cerakote mix and stored it away in case I ever decide to sell the pistol. I also installed a Trijicon RMR HD as I had planned to do. I am disappointed that Trijicon still hasn't implemented a shake-awake feature on this latest (and expensive) optic while every other manufacturer does it with no problem.