opinions on nighthawk custom guns

[towershot]

Fellas,
i was wondering what everyone's opinions were of the nighthawk custom pistols, a bunch just became CA legal and i like the way they look but don't know anyone that has one. does anyone here have one, if so what insight can you offer, thanks.

TS

[towershot]

come one, nobody has one of these or has shot one, ever, please give me some info. thanks.

TS

[rebby]

I've never shot one but I have handled a few. They appear to be well made, high quality, 1911's. I would be proud to own one. Nighthawk's a built by a team of smiths that at one time all worked for Wilson Combat.

I can't offer much more insight than that but it was more than what you've gotten thus far. ;)

[Trumpet]

I love mine. When I was shopping for a semi-custom, my choices were Les Baer, Rock River, and Nighthawk. Nighthawk has the shortest lead time and they made my Talon EXACTLY to my specs....and had it done in less than a month! The gun has been a dream to shoot. Accurate as all get out, and no FTF, FTE, or any other "FT_"s in 1000 rounds. Nighthawk has EXCELLENT customer service and I will surely buy from them again...

And now, a little gratuitous gun porn....

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y97/Trumpet1/IMG_0025.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y97/Trumpet1/IMG_0024.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y97/Trumpet1/IMG_0021.jpg

Rich

[gcmj45acp]

A CHL student brought a Predetor II into our shop yesterday in Houston. He complained that it wasn't functioning correctly and had failed to eject. He pointed to a bent ejector.

Admittedly, the ejector did look as if it had been bent inboard at the tip which I've never seen before. However, the pistol was accurate and reliable when test fired. We couldn't induce a stoppage when we tried so the opinion was that nothing was mechanically wrong with the gun.

Now the real question is, was the gun worth the $2600 price tag. That question remains to be answered. I'm not a big Wilson fan but I'll admit their guns are well built. That said, I didn't think this pistol was built any better than an entry level Wilson CQB. Actually I'd argue it wasn't even close.

The machine marks left on the slide and frame, plainly visible through the bake-on finish, would make me seriously question extra $1000 you have to pony up for this particular NightHawk. For $2600+, the slide and frame need to look like somebody cared about consistency and finish. I didn't see that in this pistol. The bake on finish also seemed to contribute to some stiffness in the slide's movement. So, I wondered how the pistol would act if I'd been able to spend a weekend burning it up with 1000 rounds in a less sterile environment.

Still, it's the first NightHawk I've seen up close and handled for any length of time and may not be representative of current quality. While it was very functional and seem to have some nicely executed touches like the breaking of hard edges, checkering of the rear of the slide and a nicely fitted cone, I just didn't see $2600 or work, or even $1000 worth of improvements over a Wilson CQB built by former coworkers of some of the guys at NightHawk.

To be fair, YMMV because I have come across the occasional Wilson, Baer, STI and Brown that wasn't as good as I would expect or as good as previous samples from the same manufacturer. So don't judge NightHawk purely by my relaying of this limited experience.