The Pistol's Features Up Close
With my appetite whetted, I arranged to have a review pistol shipped to me. What arrived was a simple and well-thought-out social pistol that immediately caught my fancy. The foundation for the Sheriff Jim Wilson model is one of Ed Brown's forged frames.

(Left) Dovetailed to the slide is a Novak rear sight. It is a plain, easy-to-read black notch--no dots, bars, asterisks, or any other type of extraneous markings. (Right) The Trijicon front sight has a large tritium dot outlined in white that ensures a usable sight picture will be available even in low light.

Hand-polished to remove tool marks, it sports 25 lines-per-inch (lpi) checkering on the frontstrap, a beveled magazine well, and an undercut trigger guard. Fitted to the frame is Ed Brown's lightweight Perfection hammer, sear, and disconnector, which are all machined from bar stock. They mate to a long aluminum trigger that features an adjustable overtravel stop. Trigger pull is set at 3.5 to 4 pounds.

An Ed Brown Memory Groove beavertail grip safety is carefully fitted to the frame. The mainspring housing is arched. To ensure reliable function the feedramp is carefully polished and contoured. Fitted to the left side of the frame is an Ed Brown extended tactical thumb safety. This piece is easy to manipulate without being obtrusive. To the front of this is a standard-length magazine release with 40-lpi checkering on the button.

Carefully mated to the frame is a forged Government Model slide with rear cocking serrations. It sports Sheriff Jim Wilson's signature on its right side in front of the ejection port, giving it a distinctive look. The ejection port is lowered and flared.

Per Sheriff Wilson this special 1911 has no forward cocking serration, squared trigger guard, accessory rails, or any other doodads that could hamper a smooth draw in a tight situation.

Carefully handfitted to the slide is one of Ed Brown's five-inch .45 ACP match barrels. Just as John Moses Browning designed, it features a 1:16-inch left-hand twist. The barrel is mated to the slide with a handfitted solid steel match barrel bushing. To increase reliability a handfitted and tuned extractor is mounted. Then, to keep things simple and reliable, a standard Government Model recoil system (no full-length guide rod) is installed. This model is intended for full-house self-defense loads, so an 18-pound recoil spring is standard.

Dovetailed to the slide is a Novak rear sight. An utterly practical design, the Novak is simple, rugged, and has nothing protruding to catch on clothing. It is also devoid of sharp edges that can dig into expensive clothing or flesh. The particular model Novak fitted to the Sheriff Jim Wilson pistol features a plain, easy-to-pick-up black notch. No dots, bars, asterisks, or anything else is included. The Novak mates to a Trijicon tritium front sight neatly dovetailed to the slide. The Trijicon front sight has a large, easy-to-see tritium dot outlined in white. The tritium front sight ensures a usable sight picture will be available even in low light.

The forged frame has been hand-polished to remove tool marks. Fitted to the frame is Ed Brown's lightweight Perfection hammer, sear, and disconnector.

I asked Sheriff Wilson about the sights he chose. "As I've said in print numerous times, three-dot sights are useless...maybe worse than useless. As a general rule, a fight, when it occurs, will be at close range and in dim light. Time is of the essence. You really don't have time to play with looking at little glowing dots and trying to line them up.

You'll be lucky to get one quick shot off. Your shooting stance, which you should have been practicing religiously, will get you pretty well on target even if you can't see the sights at all. And the single tritium dot in the front sight will help to true things up. There's only one glowing dot out there, so put it on the bad guy's chest...and do it quickly."