New Ed Brown EVO Series 1911's Embrace Modern Optics

Sadly, the man himself is gone: The legendary Ed Brown passed away last year. But his company soldiers on, continuing a tradition of producing the finest 1911s and other platforms you’re likely ever to put your hands on.

Ed Brown Products’ line of 1911s has never rested on its laurels, always evolving to meet the needs and the tastes of its customers. This evolution is at the heart of the EVO series introduced in 2018, and two of the newest models fully embrace today’s pistol optics trend. The new EVO-KC9-G4-Holo and EVO-E9-LW come with a Holosun SCS 320, although the guns can be ordered simply optic-ready if you prefer a different type of sight.

One of the first things that stands out on these new EVOs is there’s no rear sight. There is a front sight, though—a black blade that’s removable via a screw, as opposed to being set in a dovetail.

Since the lack of a rear sight is not something you see every day, I reached out to Travis Brown, who has been running Ed Brown Products since his late father retired several years ago.

EVO Series Explained

Travis explained that because the EVO series is designed around the 9mm round, they wanted to make it as small and light as possible while still retaining the 1911 platform’s characteristics.

“To that end, nothing extraneous is added,” he said, referring to the lack of a rear sight. “We’ve also noticed in practice that the smaller window in the smaller optics, combined with the front sight, means you can still be accurate enough in the rare situation should your optic fail. Also, given the smaller window in the ‘micro’ optics, we felt it was better not to further obstruct the view with a rear sight.”

These two EVO models share a lot of other common characteristics. For starters they’re 9mms with full-size grips and four-inch barrels, splitting the difference between traditional Commander and Officer’s 1911 barrel lengths. Why four inches? Travis said the design goal was to go as short as possible without sacrificing reliability in the 9mm chambering, and they determined this length to be the sweet spot.

The stainless steel barrels are bull styles, no bushings, and they’re fluted and sport recessed crowns. If you’ve examined many 9mm 1911 barrels, you’ll have noticed that almost without exception they are ramped. Ed Brown’s 9mm barrels are that exception.

Function and Design

“A ramp is not needed for a 9mm,” Travis said. “Ramps have little to nothing to do with feeding. They were originally designed to give a .38 Super case more support so it could be loaded hotter for competition, without blowing out the case. Ed Brown was one of the key people involved in the early design of the ramped barrel for competition purposes. As the .38 Super and the 9mm share the same slide/bolt-face dimension, historically the ramp was ‘accidentally’ carried over to the 9mm.”

As Travis explained it, once the ramps got started, most makers simply assumed that 9mm barrels had to be ramped. And so the practice continues to this day even though, as he said, it’s not necessary—although if a 1911 frame is already cut for a ramped barrel, you have to stick with that design.

Internally there’s a full-length guide rod, and initially I winced because I’m not usually a fan. Being essentially lazy, I don’t want to have to keep track of a wrench or find the paper clip or other tool that’s typically required for disassembling a 1911 with such a rod.

But Ed Brown’s setup is a captured system, and it requires no tools; just field-strip it like you would a traditional short-rod gun. The company also sells this setup as a conversion kit ($50) that includes its flat-wire spring and will work with any 1911 in the four- to five-inch class without any modifications.

Solar Charging Sight

The flat-wire spring, which you’ll find on these EVOs and increasingly on other Ed Brown 1911s, packs more spring tension into a smaller space. Travis said this type of spring also lasts longer and is more consistent—enabling it to handle a wider variety of loads reliably.

As mentioned, the sight on these optic-installed guns is the Holosun SCS 320 green dot. The sight was chosen in part because its dimensions made it a good fit with the EVO’s thinner slide profile, but also because the company liked its features.

SCS stands for solar charging sight, and it has a solar unit in the top of the sight in addition to an internal battery, so it can run more or less indefinitely. The system powers a two m.o.a. dot, a 32 m.o.a. circle or a circle/dot combo. You cycle through the options simply by holding down the power button, and the brightness is automatic. It’s a direct mount on the EVO, so it sits low on the slide, which makes it quicker to acquire and is a big selling point for me.

The slides on both are black Gen 4-finished stainless steel, and they’re machined with a seven-top configuration that gives the guns a unique look. But more importantly, they’re only 0.86 inch wide, making them thinner and lighter than a typical 9mm 1911 slide.

Fit and Feel

There are six short, angled, flat-bottom serrations on the front of the slide. The five rear serrations are of similar design but longer.

Behind the ejection port you’ll find an external extractor, and this is what allowed Ed Brown to make the EVO’s slide so thin. It’s spring-loaded, so it can pop over a round in the chamber without damaging the extractor.

The trigger is an aluminum three-hole, and the pull weight on both guns averaged about 3.25 pounds. The pistols ship with a pair of nine-round magazines that have flat bases, and the company also supplies two sizes of black plastic base pads and the necessary installation screws.

Safeties are single-side only, although an ambidextrous safety is available for a $100 upcharge. The magazine release is a standard button, and the grip safety has a three-groove memory bump—itself an Ed Brown innovation.

Grips and Stylistic Differences

The grips are Ed Brown’s exclusive Labyrinth cocobolo. They boast an attractive light/dark latticework, and in addition to aesthetics they provide more traction than you get with smooth wood.

While that’s a lot of common characteristics, the two pistols do have some significant differences. Let’s take the EVO-KC9-G4-Holo first.

It’s a steel-frame gun weighing 36 ounces with the 1.35-ounce Holosun aboard. This model sports the company’s Bobtail cut on the back of the frame. An Ed Brown invention, the Bobtail rounds off the sharp frame corner where clothing can catch and print—revealing that you’re carrying a gun—and I’ve always thought it also lends a cool, distinctive look to a 1911.

Another classy touch is the recessed slide stop, which is not found on the other gun. Travis said the difference is simply because the EVO-KC9-G4-Holo is intended as more of a carry gun, and a recessed slide stop is commonly thought of as a high-end concealed-carry feature.

Good Control

The mainspring housing and frontstrap are treated to Ed Brown’s Snakeskin serrations. Not only do they look like snakeskin, they work in much the same manner. If you run your fingers in one direction, you’ll find the serrations relatively smooth, but run them in the opposite direction and you’ll feel them grab.

This translates to good control, as that same grab comes into play when the pistol wants to twist upward in your hand during recoil. I think the texture is also less likely to grab the fabric of a covering garment.

In contrast to the EVO-KC9-G4-Holo, the EVO-E9-LW is built on a lightweight aluminum frame, reducing weight by six ounces to 30 ounces with the Holosun. There’s no Bobtail cut on the frame, but it does incorporate a low-profile Chen magazine well—one that is so well blended it’s easy to miss at first glance.

Instead of Snakeskin serrations, this gun features 25 l.p.i. checkering on the flat mainspring and frontstrap. I’m a big fan of 25 l.p.i. because it splits the difference between the fairly aggressive 20 l.p.i. that can abrade your hands and the finer 30 l.p.i., which, while comfortable, doesn’t always furnish as much traction as I’m looking for—especially on a small, light gun.

Accuracy and Drilling

The EVO-E9-LW also incorporates a tactical thumb safety. It’s about 0.1 inch longer and wider than the standard safety on the other pistol.

Because these guns are so similar, I didn’t figure it would be all that helpful to readers to bench-test them both, so I chose the steel-frame EVO for accuracy testing at 25 yards. Results are found in the accompanying chart.

Accuracy was terrific with all five loads. I experienced two failures to chamber with the Lehigh Defense load, but these occurred early on in the test, and there were no further failures. Neither pistol had a malfunction during practical shooting.

For that I chose the Wilson 5x5 drill, a great all-around exercise to evaluate handling and defensive accuracy. It’s a timed drill fired at 10 yards from the holster on an IDPA target with the following stages: five rounds to the body; five to the body strong-hand only; five to the body, slide-lock reload, five more to the body; and four to the body and one to the head.

Reloading

For each run I used Fiocchi Defense Dynamics 124-grain hollowpoints and the two m.o.a. dot reticle on the Holosun. With the EVO-KC9-G4-Holo I left the plain base plates on both magazines because that’s how I would carry it. I added the supplied base pads—the shorter pad on the one in the gun and the longer one on the reload mag—to the EVO-E9-LW.

In terms of time, the biggest difference was in reloading, with the EVO-E9-LW’s Chen mag well and the extended base pads speeding things along. But also, mags dropped free easily from this gun while the magazine well fit was tighter on the KC9, and occasionally I had to physically rip magazines from the gun instead of just letting them fall out.

Actually, I was fairly slow in reloading both pistols. For my hand size and thumb length, I need either a relief cut in the left grip panel or an extended mag release—or both—to avoid having to rotate the gun slightly in my grip to access the release. That slows you down.

To evaluate handling outside of reloads, I stripped those times out of the 5x5 results. I was still nearly a second faster on average with the E9-LW. That surprised me, as I expected I’d be faster and more accurate with the heavier KC9.

Distinctions

When I later learned from Travis that the E9-LW is considered more of a range gun, it made more sense. One contributing factor was the tactical thumb safety on the E9-LW. My thumb rode it better than the standard safety on the KC9. That and the 25 l.p.i. checkering provided a bit more control.

The bottom line is both guns performed up to the level you would expect from Ed Brown Products. Yes, these guns live in rarefied air. The EVO-KC9-G4-Holo as tested sells for $2,995 and the EVO-E9-LW as tested for $3,945—the price difference stemming from the Chen mag well and aluminum frame on the latter pistol.

While I know we’ll get at least one letter complaining about high-priced guns and our coverage of same, I think it’s important to recognize handguns that are the pinnacle of the gunmaker’s art. And there’s a practical side to these EVOs as well.

Travis brought up an interesting point in our interview—namely that the trend of chasing capacity comes at the expense of sensibly sized guns and the undeniable reliability of single-stack magazines.

Popularity

“If you think you need more than 10 rounds, better to carry a second loaded magazine and have the ability to distribute that weight somewhere else—not to mention you’d have a backup mag on hand,” he said. “For those reasons we feel the EVO guns have yet to gain the recognition they truly deserve, even though they have been our most popular series.”

After shooting the EVOs a lot, I get why they’re popular. If you want the very best carry and/or range 9mm 1911 out there—and you’re all aboard the optics train—these two models will not disappoint.

EVO-KC9-G4-HOLO & EVO-E9-LW Specs

• Type: 1911
• Caliber: 9mm Luger
• Capacity: 9+1, 2 mags supplied
• Barrel: 4 in. stainless fluted bull
• OAL/Height/Width: 7.5/6.0/0.86
• Weight: 36 oz. (KC9), 30 oz. (E9)
• Construction: G4-finished stainless steel slide; stainless steel Bobtail frame (KC9), aluminum frame w/Chen mag well (E9)
• Grips: Labyrinth cocobolo
• Trigger: 3 lb., 5 oz. (KC9), 3 lb., 3 oz. (E9)
• Sights: Holosun SCS 320 (as tested), black blade front
• Safeties: grip, thumb (KC9); grip, tactical thumb (E9)
• MSRP: $2,995 (KC9), $3,945 (E9); as tested
• Manufacturer: Ed Brown, EdBrown.com

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