The reshaped mainspring housing keeps the gun from “printing” when carried concealed and doesn’t affect control during firing. The Ed Brown grip safety gets your hand higher behind the line of bore than any other. Fixed three-dot night sights are standard on the Special Forces Carry.

You can order an ambi safety for yours, but I find most just don't work for me, so the standard one-sided safety paddle is all I ever ask for. The sight selection is easier--you have your choice of night sights or night sights--which makes sense since this is a carry gun. The rear is a Novak-shaped wedge with gripping grooves on the side, and the front is the very stylish ramped Patridge seen on all the best guns these days.

The slide features serrations on the rear only, and here Ed might be out of favor with some of the "modern" pistoleros. Front cocking serrations are a competition item, used so competitors can check the chamber after they've loaded. Since you'll load and unload a pistol on each stage, and in some matches could be doing that a dozen times a day, some competitors like to check to make sure.

For a carry gun, I've worked out a different method. I load the magazine, insert it and close the slide and apply the thumb safety. I then remove the magazine. If there is a round missing, guess what? It is in the chamber, so there's no need to pull the slide back to check. I top off the magazine, re-insert it and get on with life.

For daily concealed carry, forward cocking serrations often perform only one function: to grind the leather or kydex out of your holster from daily wear.

The fit and function of a pistol (especially the 1911) is dependent on the fit of slide, frame and barrel. Some gunsmiths are fond of fitting a pistol so tightly that you have to "pop" it open when it is new. Yes, it will be more accurate and stay accurate longer, but how long is long enough?

I have pistols with more than 50,000 rounds through them that are still accurate. I have one that is over 100,000 and is still more accurate than I am. An Ed Brown pistol closes firmly and securely but does not require excessive force to open. I'm sure if I ever get to the point of that many rounds with an Ed Brown, it will still be accurate. And reliable.

All the internals are, of course, Ed Brown internals. He builds his pistols using his Hardcore internal parts. Each of them have been carefully spec'd to use the correct and best alloy and heat treatment, and they're made to exacting dimensions. These rugged, correctly made parts are all hand-fitted.

The result is a 100 percent reliable 1911, which is what you're looking for in a defensive pistol. Alas, I cannot report that I fired some imposing number of rounds through the Special Forces Carry; I had time and weather only to put a few thousand through it. However, not one of them caused a problem--not even the first couple of hundred, which is where, if you're going to have a problem with a new gun, you often see it.

No, right out of the box this was one well-behaved carry pistol, digesting any and all ammo I had to feed it. As you would expect from an all-steel pistol, recoil was a non-issue. Even the most energetic loads were easy to shoot, and the gongs at the club suffered mightily as a result.