At a recent Gunsite event I had the chance to fully test and evaluate an interesting duty-style 1911 from SDS Imports. The Turkish-made Tisas 1911 Raider B45RDG brings MARSOC inspiration into a full-size 1911 built to honor Marine Raiders.

Tisas 1911 Raider Details

“One thing that helps us greatly is that we have two American engineers that rotate time at the factory in Turkey,” said Dave Biggers, former Vice President of Business Development, SDS Imports. “Nothing gets shipped to us unless it meets our exacting specs. If there is a problem or we need to make a change due to customer feedback, we can make those corrections immediately. We’d like to think our guns get better every day!”

Tisas guns use forged slides and receivers for strength and their machine work is first class. Slide-to-frame fit is incredibly tight and the barrel lugs have been properly fitted. Samples I have reviewed in the past couple years have displayed an unusual degree of fit and finish.

A few weeks after the 2023 SHOT Show, SDS Imports shipped a Tisas Raider to me for evaluation. I had done almost all of my accuracy and field testing before the Gunsite event. The Raider uses a Series 70-style frame, and the stainless-steel barrel is hammer-forged. The barrel bushing is stainless, as is the recoil spring plug. The finish on the gun is a Cerakote Flat Dark Earth. But I wanted to get more details on the gun.

Strategizing

“I was trying to get a new distributor and we were talking about an exclusive,” Biggers said. “The CEO had too many sku’s and told me I could only change the finish and the grips. Then when I provided him with a sample he said, ‘Hey wait a second. This needs a lanyard loop and a stainless-steel barrel and barrel bushing to make it as close as we can to the Colt MARSOC gun.’ That’s why we called it the Raider–it is a tribute to the Marine Raiders.

“Funny thing–as soon as we started showing it people started buying it,” Biggers continued. “They are selling really well with virtually no press yet. For the most part, the people that love 1911s want one! MSRP is $759 and that means real-world pricing will be around $700!”

I just about fell out of my chair when Biggers told me the price. It sounded tremendously underpriced! But, Biggers said, “This is all part of my strategy. At this point of the game, I want to discourage other manufacturers from jumping into the 1911 business. Our pricing makes it impossible for others to compete with any degree of profit. I am basically buying shelf space while we establish the line. The quality of the guns is excellent, and nobody can touch us at that price point!”

Range Time with the Tisas Raider

Earlier in the morning I had looked out the window of my motel room. It had rained all night and I could hear the wind howling when I got up and dressed. It was going to suck! Just a few degrees colder and it would be snowing, and things may not have been so miserable!

We went out to Gunsite’s North Range with the covered firing positions at 25 yards. It was cold, still raining hard, with the wind blowing 20 knots. The range was filled with deep puddles and oftentimes the mud went over the top of my ankle high boots. I was wearing a long sleeve T-shirt, a pullover, scarf and a neoprene jacket and was still cold. Doubletap Ammunition provided us with plenty of 230-grain FMJ rounds and by the time I finished loading my magazines my fingers were numb. During the day we fired a number of different exercises starting at the 3-yard-line and moving all the way back to 25 yards. I used a very old Side Armor Kydex holster to accommodate the Raider’s railed frame.

After lunch we split our time between shooting man-on-man shoot-offs on steel and going through one of the shoot houses. I guesstimated that I fired another 300 rounds through the Raider that day. Despite the wind, rain and mud the Raider ran and ran! I was soaked to the skin, cold and worn out, but I was at Gunsite and that made me happy!

Prior to the Gunsite outing I tested the Raider for accuracy at my home range in southern Arizona. I fired all groups from a seated rest, utilizing a DOA Tactical portable shooting rest. Then I rested the Raider’s railed dust cover on a Millett BenchMaster for support to keep a stable sight picture as I added pressure to the trigger. I fired five shots to a group and at least three groups per ammunition with the best group listed in the accuracy chart.

Accuracy Results

Hornady’s Critical-Duty +P 220-grain Flexlock ammunition placed five rounds into a neat cluster measuring just 1.65 inches! After my Gunsite trip I tested the Doubletap 230-grain FMJ loads that we used on that rainy range day and found that they produced an average group size of 2.15 inches through the Raider.

The trigger pull on my Raider is a very crisp and serviceable 4 pounds. While the original Colt M45A1 pistol used Novak night sights, the Raider uses Novak-style, low-profile sights with the common three-dot pattern. One other difference that I found between the original Colt gun and the Raider is that the M45A1 uses a twin recoil spring set-up, while Turkish import uses a single spring. With close to 600 rounds through the Raider I have yet to experience any sort of stoppage. In fact, with 10 other gun writers on the line at Gunsite, I don’t recall any of them having any issues or stoppages. While the wind, rain and cold might have dampened our spirits, the Tisas 1911s ran flawlessly!

While the Tisas Raider isn’t an exact copy of the Colt M45A1 MARSOC gun, it is a perfectly reliable 1911 that is accurate enough to accomplish whatever you might ask of it. With a suggested retail price of $759 and real-world pricing closer to $700, the Tisas Raider is a heckuva lot of 1911 for the money! View the entire Tisas 1911 round-up at tisasusa.com.

Tisas 1911 Raider B45RDG Specs

• Caliber: .45 ACP
• Overall Capacity: 8+1
• Overall Length: 8.7 inches
• Height: 5.25 inches
• Overall Weight: 40 ounces
• Barrel: 5-inch, Stainless Steel, Hammer-Forged
• Sights: Novak-Style, Low-Profile 3-Dot
• Safeties: Ambi, Extneded Thumb Safeties, Beavertail Grip Safety
• Grips: Textured G10
• Accessories: Locakable hard case, two magazines, cleaning kit, bushing wrench, trigger lock
• Warranty: Limited One-Year
• MSRP: $759