The Monsignor MAX

Basic Sig Sauer 1911 MAX

Most shooters don't think immediately of Sig when the discussion turns to the 1911 platform.  Sig Sauer got into the 1911 game a bit late and had some false starts with its early version of the venerable John Moses Browning design but corrected their shortcomings rather quickly, and today's basic Sig 1911 is as good as any production offering; and better than most.

To take it's already good product and tweak it to the max (pun intended), Sig had the captain of it's competitive shooting team, Max Michel, collaborate on the design of a "purpose built" gun for the competitive shooter - IDPA, USPSA, IPSC, and the like - who prefers the 1911 platform.  It also happens to work well for those who don't compete but do appreciate ultra accuracy and maximum ergonomics for marksmanship/bullseye exercises.

See our earlier review of the Sig MAX here:

http://thebunkerbunchblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/sig-1911-max.html

And now we have the "Monsignor MAX"

After putting a few hundred rounds downrange with the pistol just as it was received from Sig, we (The Bunker Bunch) decided it was a real winner but reasoned it could use a bit of trigger tweaking to make it perfect for our purposes.  The unit was spirited off to the secret engineering and customization lair of Monsignor Maddox for a little of his exquisite magic.  When the gun resurfaced from the depths of the wizard's workshop all any of us could say was: "Nirvana!"

Already a familiar number in our range-day repertoire, the MM (Monsignor Max) emerged from its elegantly padded velvet bag at the range to heightened expectations, and we were neither surprised nor disappointed with the result. The Bunker Bunch can be said to be "a tough crowd" when it comes to evaluating handgun performance because we all have enough shooting experience with lots of makes and models to appreciate a gun at the top of its class in a given category. Because we had hyped ourselves with a bit of dry-firing, and all have some experience with the piece prior to its upgrade, a few rounds each enabled us to conclude the session with comments like: "Yep, that's the Ultimate Shooting Machine!  You did a great job with this one, Monsignor."

We didn't set this gun up to be a "service," "every day carry," or "personal defense" weapon.  It is strictly a range gun that we expect to produce a very small group of holes in a paper target, and trigger feel is an extremely important aspect for this type of firearm. The shooter must be able to impart his skills to the gun's mechanism seamlessly and effortlessly if the bullets are to go where they should, and any defect in the design or craftsmanship of the gun imparts some degree of barrier to the perfection of that man-machine interface.

Trigger pull weight was reduced from an already "good" level of something like 4 pounds to an impressive 2.375 pounds; and the trigger reset was reduced to a bare minimum consistent with range safety. Because the Sig MAX is already a very high quality competition piece, our gunsmith didn't have to deal with any of the other sloppy trigger imperfections that are found in most production guns.

Upon intense debriefing, the Monsignor revealed that, in the case of the MAX, Sig had installed some extremely high quality parts from outside sources (e.g. the EGW sear) in areas where they mattered; eliminating the necessity of upgrading certain components to achieve a truly exquisite custom build. A bit of polishing was all that was really necessary to bring out the trigger performance we sought.  Of course, the "bit of polishing" comment is in the context of being spoken by a gunsmith that REALLY knows what he's doing - not one of the 90% who are wannabe hacks and use that use the "gunsmith" moniker all to loosely. Also, that "bit of polishing" has to be applied to just the right spots on just the right parts or it is either unnecessary, counter-productive, or downright dangerous.

If you want the equivalent of a $3 - $4,000 (or more) "custom" 1911 with a truly "wish-off" trigger for a WHOLE LOT LESS, get yourself a Sig 1911 MAX ($1,500 - $1,600 estimated street price) and have the AR Bunker's resident "magician", Monsignor Maddox, upgrade your beauty to his Ultimate Shooting Machine standard.  The dollars you spend on this gun and the upgrade will be the best shooting dollars you've ever - or likely ever will - spend.

Respectfully Submitted;

The Bunker Bunch
May, 2016