Nighthawk Custom Fire Hawk Review: Cutting-Edge 1911 Pistol

There’s no shortage of custom 1911 builders out there, but when you list the very best in the business, Nighthawk Custom in Berryville, Arkansas, is always on the list—and with good reason. “One Gun, One Gunsmith” is more than a catchy slogan; it’s an ethos that describes the attention Nighthawk pours into every pistol that leaves its doors, including the new Fire Hawk.

The Fire Hawk offers a long list of noteworthy features, but I suppose the most obvious is the single-port compensator at the muzzle. Compensators are more popular than ever, and while most of them work well, you’d hardly call them works of art. The Fire Hawk is different. It’s clear that the goal of this pistol was to gain the benefits of reduced recoil and faster follow-ups without sacrificing the gun’s clean lines.

The seam between the slide and compensator is hard to find unless you look closely. At first glance you’d likely suspect that the compensator port is machined directly into the slide, but you’d be wrong. This is as seamless a mating of two pieces of metal as you’ll find on any gun.

Best of all, the compensator offers real-world benefits without having to sacrifice looks. If ever you wanted a compensated 1911 but wanted to preserve the sleek lines of the original design, the Fire Hawk is what you’re after.

Design Concept

Because of the compensator’s design, the Fire Hawk pistol looks like a standard five-inch 1911 pistol. The bull barrel itself is only 4.25 inches, but with the compensator the gun fits in standard five-inch 1911 holsters. And if you’re shopping for a custom 1911 there’s a good chance you already own such a holster.

Although the Fire Hawk measures close to a Government 1911 in overall length at 8.47 inches, the Fire Hawk utilizes a mechanical design that is far removed from John Browning’s original concept. For starters, it uses a Commander-length spring that has been adjusted to accommodate the reduced weight of the slide. There’s no barrel bushing. In its place there’s a match-grade bull barrel with a full-length stainless steel guide rod and a reverse plug.

The overall concept may seem similar to compensated race guns of the past, but the Fire Hawk is, in my view, a far more sophisticated tool. I grew up in the 1980s and the era of “pin guns” designed for bowling pin shoots. I remember the first 1911 pin gun I saw because I couldn’t help but think the extended compensator fouled up the pistol’s profile. It was like a bad nose job.

As I said, the Fire Hawk doesn’t suffer the same aesthetic problem, but the concept remains the same: using escaping gases to prevent muzzle rise. However, the Fire Hawk attacks the issues of recoil and muzzle rise on multiple fronts.

Mass Reduction

First, by reducing the mass at the top of the muzzle/compensator and adding a bull barrel, the Fire hawk biases weight low at the front so gravity also counteracts recoil and muzzle rise.

Second, despite looking like a Government 1911, the Nighthawk’s shortened slide length reduces reciprocating mass and helps further tame recoil. Overall weight of the 10mm Fire Hawk I tested was 43 ounces, a bit heavier than a standard Government 1911 .45, and that contributes to recoil reduction as well.

The Fire Hawk has a long list of special features in addition to the compensator. The Fire Hawk’s frame is made from forged steel, and the slide and frame are hand-fitted for incredibly precise operation. The standard gun has slide serrations on the rear only and a black nitride finish. But this is Nighthawk Custom, so you can add front serrations or choose from a few different finishes at extra cost.

The barrel is made from polished stainless steel, which contrasts nicely with the black frame and slide. Grips are black RailScales Ascend machined G10.

Fine Details

Both the frontstrap and mainspring housing feature checkering, and the Ultra Hi-Cut frontstrap with beveling allows for a high grip on the pistol and even better control. The extended beavertail grip safety is nicely upswept.

The gunsmith who builds each Fire Hawk pistol gets to know his gun personally, performing duties that include hand-fitting the barrel and blending the mag well and grip safety, hand-fitting the firing pin stop, beveling the gun’s edges and polishing the ignition components.

Other small upgrades you might not notice include the French border, serrations on the rear of the slide and a beveled and recessed slide stop. That’s the magic of owning a Nighthawk Custom 1911, though. You’ll notice something new on your pistol almost every day. You also get a feel and function that can’t be replicated by machines, no matter how tight the tolerances.

The Fire Hawk incorporates a curved trigger that is factory set between 3.5 and 3.75 pounds. My test sample’s trigger broke at the high end of that range on average. There’s very light, smooth take-up, and the trigger break could be the envy of many production target rifles. This is among the best triggers you’ll pull in a 1911, smooth as only a custom tuned trigger can be.

Sights and Accessories

The test pistol came with a Heinie Black Slant Pro square notch rear sight and a 14-karat gold bead front sight that is dovetailed into the compensator, a sight combination I believe is superb. Rear sights with dots were all the rage for a long while, but the pendulum seems to have swung in the pistol market, and all-black rear sights are becoming more popular.

A night front sight with tritium and/or fiber optic would have worked on this gun but, functional as those are, I don’t think they can ever look as good as the gold bead. Besides, when you pay close to $4,800 for a custom 1911—or even more than that, depending upon how many boxes you check on the Nighthawk order form—you don’t want it to have the same front sight as the guy who bought a factory 1911.

If you’re interested in Nighthawk’s IOS (Interchangeable Optic System), you won’t find it stock on the Fire Hawk. But of course you can custom order it for about a $350 upgrade.

Each Fire Hawk ships with two metal magazines that have bumpers. Nighthawk’s website claims an eight-round capacity, but the 10mm mags included with my sample held nine rounds.

Reliability and Function

Over the years I’ve tested probably a half-dozen Nighthawk guns and shot perhaps a dozen more, and I’ve had zero malfunctions. Shocking as it may seem, that’s not always the case with custom 1911s. Nighthawk knows that no one who buys one of its guns wants too-tight chambers or unreliable slide operation, and the company makes sure its guns don’t leave the factory without being thoroughly vetted. Details like a finely polished feed ramp and a gunsmith tuned and polished extractor see to it that the Fire Hawk won’t fail.

Any custom 1911 pistol should be accurate, and the Fire Hawk 10mm proved to be capable of delivering very good groups at 25 yards from the bench, even without the aid of a red-dot sight. What impressed me most was not the group sizes—although they were very good with several loads—but rather the consistency with which the Nighthawk produced groups under 2.5 inches.

Sure, any semiauto will produce the occasional sub-two-inch five-shot cluster from the bench at 25 yards. But those guns will also routinely produce three- and even four-inch groups, whereas the Nighthawk routinely produced groups at or just over two inches, with a few groups as small as 1.75 inches.

The Fire Hawk is without a doubt the fastest, smoothest and flattest-shooting 10mm semiauto I’ve ever fired. Its combination of a functional compensator, nose-forward balance, slide design and overall weight tame the 10mm cartridge effectively. There’s substantial muzzle blast, but the actual recoil force is quite manageable.

Easy Shooter

It’s difficult to truly appreciate how much recoil the Fire Hawk absorbs until you shoot it side by side with a standard five-inch 1911 in 10mm. I did just that, loading the same ammunition into both the Fire Hawk and my Rock Island TAC Ultra FS 10mm and firing them in succession. The guns have similar overall weights and lengths, but the Nighthawk produces appreciably less recoil.

More noticeable than that is the speed with which you can get back on target with the Fire Hawk as compared to a standard 1911 10mm. As 10mms go, the Nighthawk is a real pussycat, and I’ll bet the 9mm version is a dream to shoot.

Because it approximates standard 1911 Government weight and dimensions, the Fire Hawk shouldn’t be completely left out of consideration for daily carry. I know people who carry a full-size 1911 every day, and with 10mm loads designed for personal defense you could certainly make the case that this gun offers more energy and greater capacity than a full-size 1911 in .45.

This pistol is even more attractive to the growing numbers of backcountry anglers, hunters and hikers who carry a 10mm pistol to settle issues with bears. Despite its lofty price tag and premium touches, the Fire Hawk is a tough pistol with a rugged finish, good sights and the level of reliability required of a backcountry bear-defense handgun.

Conclusion

Sure, there are lighter polymer-frame striker-fired 10mm pistols with double-digit magazine capacity, but let’s consider the realities of a bear charge. A 30-yard charge lasts perhaps three seconds. There’s a much better possibility that you can fire one or even two more aimed shots with a gun like the Fire Hawk in that space of time than you might be able to with a light polymer-frame 10mm—increasing the chances of stopping the charge.

Since Nighthawk offers all sorts of optional upgrades for your custom Fire Hawk, I tried to decide what I would change. I’d probably change out the grips. They’re functional, but I prefer something with smaller texturing in a color that doesn’t blend so much with the rest of the gun.

I’d go with the durable DLC finish option, and I’d certainly add the IOS system. These changes would put the gun over the $5,000 mark, but if you’re already considering spending in the mid four figures for a pistol, this is a Nighthawk “Custom” after all.

Nighthawk Fire Hawk Specs

• Type: 1911
• Caliber: 9mm, 10mm Auto (tested), .45 ACP
• Capacity: 9; two mags supplied
• Barrel: 4.25 in. stainless, bull, throated
• OAL/Height/Width: 8.5/5.6/1.3 in.
• Weight: 43 oz.
• Construction: black nitride-finished steel frame and slide; slide w/single-port compensator
• Grips: Black RailScales Ascend G10
• Trigger: 3.75 lb. pull (measured)
• Sights: Heinie Black Slant Pro rear, 14-karat gold bead front
• MSRP: $4,799 base; $4,899 (as tested in 10mm)
• Manufacturer: Nighthawk Custom, NighthawkCustom.com

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