1911 Review: Wilson Combat Experior Commander Double Stack 9mm

August 09, 2021 By Joel J. Hutchcroft

In keeping with its name, Wilson Combat’s Experior Commander Double Stack has a match-grade, stainless-steel, 4.25-inch barrel with a reverse muzzle crown. The outside of the chamber is fluted to provide places for powder residue and crud to go so that they donÕt build up in areas that could slow down the slide's cycling.

The barrel uses a traditional bushing, and the pistol comes with a polymer bushing wrench. (It also comes with a small Allen wrench, a Torx wrench, a button-shaped backstrap takedown tool, and a very nice soft gun rug with two zippered outside pockets on one side and seven magazine-size pockets that are covered by a Velcro flap on the other.) Also, the barrel has an integral feedramp and a fully supported chamber. The pistol has a standard Commander-length recoil spring guide assembly.

The slide has wide, square-bottom grasping grooves up front and at the rear. The rear of the slide has fine horizontal striations to the tune of 40 lines per inch. The top of the slide also has fine striations between the front of the rear sight and the back of the front sight, and they are done 30 lines per inch.

The front of the slide is machined with a relief cut that is reminiscent of the Browning Hi Power pistol. It is designed to make one-handed holstering smoother. And the bottom edges of the slide are given a heavy chamfer to remove a potentially sharp edge that might cause wear on your holster, clothing, or hands.

The pistol comes with WilsonÕs all-black Battlesight rear sight that has a 0.145-inch-wide U-shaped notch. The face is horizontally striated, and the sight is both dovetailed into and screwed onto the slide with two screws. The front sight has a red fiber-optic rod, and it mates up perfectly with the U-shaped rear sight notch. The front sight housing is 0.128-inch thick and 0.198-inch tall (as best as I can measure them). The sight radius is 5.95 inches.

The Experior Commander Double Stack also features a Wilson Combat Concealment Bullet Proof hammer, a Bullet Proof magazine release, and a Bullet Proof thumb safety. The slide stop is countersunk on the offside.

wilson-combat-experior-commander-9mm — Key features of the Experior Commander Double Stack are the 4.25-inch barrel, Wilson Battlesight rear sight, red fiber-optic front sight, wide grip frame, and 15-round magazine. This top-drawer Model 1911 does not have a traditional grip safety. (Michael Anschuetz photo)

This Model 1911 does not have a traditional grip safety. Why? Well, Bill Wilson told me, "Like on a Browning Hi Power and a SIG P229 Legion, I don't consider the grip safety necessary." Enough said.

The black, solid trigger has a medium-length finger piece with vertical striations. The company says this pistol comes with a 3.5-pound to 4.5-pound, crisp trigger pull. Our sample gun's trigger pull averaged 3.69 pounds, and it definitely was crisp and consistent.

Again as its name implies, the Experior Commander Double Stack's aluminum grip frame is wider than a standard Model 1911, but even so, its circumference is still just 5.5 inches. The frontstrap and backstrap feature Wilson Combat's TRAK texture, which Wilson describes as "large asymmetric flat-top checkering." The grips are textured G10.

The gun comes with two Wilson EDC X9 magazines, and each one holds 15 rounds of 9mm Luger ammunition. They have polymer followers, numbered witness holes on the backs, and removable polymer base pads.

I always check how tightly a Model 1911's slide and barrel lock up. The Experior Commander Double Stack is tight! I couldn't detect any side-to-side movement in the slide when twisting it, and in lockup, the barrel didn't budge one tiny bit when I pushed down on its hood.

As for the gun's accuracy, its overall average was 1.92 inches. That is for three, five-shot groups each with 15 different 9mm factory loads at a distance of 25 yards, shooting from a sandbag benchrest.

The pistol comes with an accuracy guarantee of 1.5 inches at 25 yards, and I achieved that with the Wilson Combat Subsonic 147-grain loading. With averages of 1.53 and 1.58 inches respectively, Remington's Black Belt 124-grain Golden Saber and Federal's Personal Defense 124-grain HST came very close. I actually beat 1.5 inches with one load - SIG SAUER's 365 115-grain FMJ - which came in at 1.47 inches.

I’m not a champion-level match shooter, but with the Experior Commander Double Stack, I was able to shoot better than I normally do.