The world of performance high end pistols has been humming along quite nicely in the past few years especially with a variety of double stack 1911 style of pistols. Double stack 1911s are much preferred by competition shooters and are chambered in 9MM. This is because of the less recoil nature of 9MM compared to other 1911 calibers and the ability to hold many more rounds than your standard 7 or 8 round 1911 magazine. The original style double stack 1911 pistol was actually the BP10 from Kimber, but it was a short lived design from the early to mid 2000’s. Then came along STI or Staccato as their now called who came out with their double stack 1911 style of pistol called the 2011. Staccato has dominated the 2011 or double stack 1911 until recent years when others have came up with their own design. One thing that’s always been a sticking point though is the magazines tend to be very very pricey and that’s where the topic of today’s discussion begins.

I had the opportunity to visit the Fusion Firearms booth earlier this year at SHOT Show in Las Vegas. Very impressed with their line up and the fact that Fusion firearms decided to do something a bit different with their double stack 1911 design and set it up to use the much much cheaper Glock 17 magazine. These magazines are standard with 17 rounds, but the sky’s the limit as to aftermarket magazines as well as a host of different extension options too. Recently Brownells decided to start carrying Fusion Firearms models so I picked up the XP Pro 4” non ported version when it came available. This particular pistol comes in a very nice carrying case with 2 generic…maybe KCI Glock 17 magazines, a cleaning kit some hardware to remove the Maxwell and 2 optic plates meant for the RMR and RMSc footprint optics. The pistol is very custom looking with custom slide cuts and port holes in the slide meant for their optional ported barrel. The pistol is also coated in a very strong Tennifer QPQ finish, but is also available in a hard chrome finish. All of this for right around $1000. Now Staccato did come up with their own version that also takes Glock magazines but it’s almost 3 times the price. How does Fusion Firearms offer so much at a much lower price point? Well they design them at their headquarters in Florida, but work with ErmoX in Turkey to manufacture them. Are they quite as nice as the Staccato? Not quite, but at the price point these are one heck of a great value considering how nice they actually are. 

To say that I’m super excited to have one of these fine pistols in my collection would be an understatement. I’ve had my eye on these for a while and as soon as Brownells started carrying them, I couldn’t order one quick enough. How will this pistol fair in the long run? Well I’ll let you know, but safe to say this one will get quite a few more rounds through it than other pistols if it shoots as good as it looks, so stay tuned for future updates.