With the Pachmayr Dominator. 
Actually, I won’t be dominating much of anything with it because I don’t yet have the complete gun as shown at right — all I’ve got is the 15″ barrel assembly “upper” (in .308 Win) that fits on a 1911 frame. I’ve got a T’SOB mount/ring combo, and Phil’s bringing the Burris scope I’m going to put on it, but even then — I don’t own a 1911. (This is a funny sort of BAG Day purchase, because I’m doing it in stages.) So hopefully Phil will remember to bring his 1911 so I can test this baby out.
Then you all can start giving me advice on which 1911 I should buy…. I know Joe swears by STI, but, STI won’t sell to California — and good for them! If more manufacturers followed suit, there’d be a lot more pressure on the Legislature to change our laws.
Still, there’s a legal loophole I could exploit to purchase an STI lawfully — of course, that assumes I could afford an STI in the first place. Considering I’d stick the .45 slide and barrel in a drawer as soon as I took it home, I think I need to be looking for something cheaper….
I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m stuck on STI. I like mine a lot but there are a lot of other very good guns out there. I push STI because they told the State of California they were unworthy.
Well… For BAG Day one of the pistols I bought was a Rock Island Armory 1911.
For $379 brand new, I just couldn’t pass it up.
There are lots of decent reviews for it also.
I put 50 rounds of Blazer Aluminum through it, 230 grain ball, without cleaning it beforehand. It had a single hiccup in that one round failed to go completely into battery by about 1/16th of an inch. Pushing on the rear of the slide brought it completely into battery, and it fired fine.
The local gun shop has had a bunch of Springfields and the occasional Para LDA, but they’re all too expensive.
Lo and behold, they got in a pair of Rock Islands last time I was in there. $495 before sales tax (which is 8.5% around here, I think) and DROS (should be $40 or so).
They look plain, but this sort of recommendation is just the kick-start I needed to research ’em. Thanks!
I’d go for a Caspian frame, but those are illegal in Cali (a frame can’t pass the drop test, LOL).
The shop closest to my house had the Rock Island for $495, but the one across town had the same for $379.
It pays to shop around, even by phone. On the phone I was quoted $379, $460, and $495. And the third place I called didn’t carry them…
That’s quite a pistol. You can always work on 80% frames for your own use, right?
I don’t think so. I’m not up on the 80% rule for 1911s, but I know the OLL FAQ strongly recommends against it for ARs and AKs. Maybe 1911s are OK because there’s no chance of them falling under the CA AWB?
Building up an 80% frame would be fun, and if it involved any significant machine work, it would give me an excuse to finally build that Dave Gingery machine shop I’ve been thinking about for a decade or so. (Or I could just buy a cheap Chinese mini-lathe. But no, that would be the rational thing to do — not proper when
feeding an obsessionenjoying a hobby.)And to think, I just recycled a barrel full of Pepsi cans as part of spring cleaning. Think of the aluminum I could have melted down to make a lathe chuck, or something!
(No, my wife didn’t buy it either. That’s why the barrel’s empty now.)
UPDATE: I love Google search. “80% 1911 frame California” brought me this Calguns thread. Short answer: no can do.
Probably for the best. I’ve just finished turning the garage into a library. My wife would probably not go for turning the guest bedroom into a machine shop.
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I own and shoot a Dominator, I purchased it new from the factory, I was on the wait list for the first batch, I have fired 1000s of rounds through it. it is surprisingly accurate, less tham 1 moa. I tried SEVERAL 1911s, most notably a colt whose frame collapsed on the 3rd round I damaged several others, I finally tried a Auto Ordinance and it has functioned flawlessly. as the recoil is massive and painful I have a few hints, rubber wraparoung grips, including rubber mainspring housing and grip safety and a trigger shoe nice and wide, thew first round resulted in a serious loss of skin on my triggerfinger where the hole in the adjustable trigger contacted it. when you get used to the recoil it is very easy to shoot accurately
Wow! I wondered if there were any other Dominator owners out there. Thank you for commenting!
If you don’t mind a few questions: How did the 1911s get damaged? Was it just from the recoil? Do you think the Rock Island Armory frame I intend to use for my Dominator will be strong enough?
I shoot .308 T/C Encores a lot, so I’m not too worried about the recoil pain. I’m used to it! But I do have a pair of grips with the rubber finger grooves and rubber backstrap. Where would I find a rubber grip safety, though?
the Dominator has a block with a small removable part that acts as a nut for the screw that goes through the mag well, where this block contacts the rear face of the mag well takes the brunt of the force.
the Colt’s mag well sides buckled in at the top of the frame, other frames bent in there and the slide no longer moved free, I had a friend that worked for Golden State Casting re heattreat my frame. they are the ones that cast tne 454 Cassuls. Pachmyer has all the rubber grips and back end parts for the 1911. a word of advice on ammo… I had poor results with a 150 gr bullet and Imr powders. I settled on a Hornady 130 gr spire pt bullet and Winchester 748 ball powder
I was able to Chronigraph it at 2906 fps with never more than 5 fps differences. I have taken several mule deer and some over 200 yds, it is always a 1 shot clean kill. strength of the frame as far as i can tell is a trial and error thing, I KNOW my Auto Ordinance frame holds up and shows no wear of damage
I have a 10mm slide and barrel for it as well, and it holds up to that as well. I have MANY firearms, if I had to let any go, the Dominator would be the last.
your TC is nothing like a Dominator. the TC is a break action and is VERY weak compared to the cannon breach of the Dominator the dominator will safely handle hotter loads than most rifles, because it has such small headspace, it has a shell holder that headspaces on the rim not at the shoulder like most 308s the recoil you will experience with the dominator is likely to surprise you, most who have fired mine are shocked, and do NOT want to fire a second shot those that do fire a second shot usually miss the target by 20 feet or more because os SEVERE flinching I have fired a TC Encore and its mild by comparison a word to the wise …… a friend of mine wanted to fire a full power 220 gr load, he did ….. the sprain took weeks to heal. stay with 130 Gr loads, I have 200 yd targets with 1.5 inch 10 shot groups. The Dominator is VERY accurate
Thanks very very much for the info, Randy! My Rock Island is apparently on its way back to me from the factory, so I should be assembling the Dominator in short order. Hopefully it’ll hold up…. When assembling, I may have questions for ya to make sure I’m doing it right….
only thing thats critical is the front allen set screw. if you adjust that wrong or fail to adjust it for your frame, you WILL cave in the recoil spring guide stop on the frameput lipstick on the set screw, install dominator, remove dominator, look for a SMALL dot of lipstick on the stop of the frame, move the set screw in SLOWLY 1/4 turn at a time till the set screw BARELY touches. if its in too far, ALL the recoil will be driected to that one tiny spot, if its not touching, the dominator will batter your frame mercilessly thats the ONLY thing you have to watch. you must readjust it EVERY time you use a different frame. once set for your frame you can put it on and take it off as many times as you want with out any need for readjustment, unless you use a different frame. PS… use LOTS of locktight when installing the scope, inside the rings where they contact the scope body, Scopes tend to slide.
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Anyone know where one could pick up a dominator?
I just picked up a second one. I’ve found mine on Gunbroker. Just check every few days and search for “dominator” or “pachmayr .223” or “pachmayr .308.” (I don’t think they came in any other calibers.
A fellow had one on there last month with the 1911 frame and scope included for a “Buy It Now” price of $2500, which I thought was a bit too steep. I ruled it out when I saw that the seller had only one prior transaction on Gunbroker, and that was as a buyer! No thanks, I’m not sending $2500 to somebody I don’t know who doesn’t even have a track record.
If he pops up again, you could I suppose get a recommendation on a FFL in his state (I think it was Texas) and have him escrow the Dominator while you paid the seller. Then at least you’d know the thing wasn’t vaporware.
They do seem to be fairly rare things. I’ve been watching the auction sites off and on for years, and I’ve seen maybe a half-dozen come up for bid. If you see one, I’d snap it up. I’ve got my two Dominators and I’ve been waiting to get them since I first saw one in a magazine in the mid-1990s. I suppose it’s kind of like hunting! Patience, young one….