BORELLI CONSULTING: Tactical Equipment Reviews

Mil-Tac 1911 Grips And An UZI... Watch?
28 August 2006

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A few months ago I received a pair of grips from Mil-Tac Knives & Tools for my 1911 .45ACP pistol, and just a week ago I received a new watch from UZI. Now, if you're anything like me you look at the two words "watch" and "UZI" put together and one of those confused looks pops up on your face. What does UZI have to do with watches? Brand name is everything I guess. At any rate, I've spent the last several weeks and several range sessions carrying / evaluating the Mil-Tac 1911 Grips. I've spent the last week wearing the UZI watch and I still haven't managed to get a controlled burst out of it. (Sorry: trying to be funny) This week's review is a look at the grips - and what else is available from Mil-Tac - and the watch. Here we go!

When I first got my test set of Mil-Tac Grips I couldn't get them on my gun and wrongfully assumed that there was something wrong with them. My 1911 has torx head screws holding on the grip slabs (don't all contemporary 1911s?) and once I'd removed all four of them I thought it'd be no problem to put the Mil-Tac Grips in place and screw back in the screws. Um... no. I couldn't get the slabs to go on. I lined them up and I KNEW they were in the right spot, but I couldn't get them to (easily) fit down over the studs. When I brought this to the attention of the Mil-Tac representative I was promptly told that out of the several thousand sets of grips Mil-Tac manufactured in the past few months only three didn't fit on guns. Was I just that unlucky? Not quite.

So, the Mil-Tac rep asks, "Are they just snug? Or won't they go on at all?" My reply was that I'm essentially worried about breaking them and am therefore only pushing so hard. His response: "Lean on them. They'll fit." And they did. They are snug with a capital S. I had to lead on the grip to get it to slide onto the studs... but once the screws were in place the grips were beautiful (picture shown above right).

This particular set of grips is black & gray instead of straight black. At first I wasn't sure I'd like the mixed color on an OD Green gun that had black parts, but it's grown on me pretty well. The Mil-Tac grips are CNC machined from G10 laminate which I consider an excellent choice for rugged tactical pistols that require an extreme duty grip. Corrosion resistent to solvents, heat, sweat, salt water or moisture, these grips offer a good option to rubber and other grip materials.

The Mil-Tac 1911 grip has an aggressive checkering pattern which felt secure even when my hands were sweating on some recent hot days at the range. The design pattern on the face of the grips feels like roughly done ten-lines-per-inch checkering... but not that abbrassive. The left side grip is grooved toward the magazine release. Since I have to adjust my grip to reach the mag release, this (for me) obviously isn't a feature designed to keep the grip out of the way as I extend my thumb to ditch the magazine. What it was apparently designed for is to add a point of reference for magazine changes under dark and/or stressful conditions.

While they retail for $69 and some might find that a bit much, I'd recommend that you take a look around at some other custom grips. Plenty of grip sets out there cost that much (and more) and aren't made from materials that are as abuse resistant as the Mil-Tac's are. I highly recommend them...

Moving on to this watch:

I received a press release about CampCo's "UZI" watches. Hmmm... Obviously the watch has nothing to do with the weapons, so this is brand name leverage. That's cool. I'm okay with that as long as the watch works and takes the abuse its name implies it will. So, I requested a T&E UZI Protector Watch and it came in a VERY timely fashion (no pun intended. It was about three days later).

Properly packaged - wrapped around a plastic brace and attached to a display stand - like any other watch, the UZI Protector resembles a Luminox. The black face surrounded by uni-directional turning bezel is deeply set behind the scratch-resistant mineral crystal. The markers at 12, 3, 6 and 9 are all treated with Tritium to make them glow. The 12 o'clock marker is double orange while the remainder are single green. The second hand, hour hand and minute hand all also are tritium treated. The second hand seems to glow more faintly than the rest in my observation, but that's probably a good thing. The FIRST impression you get on a quick glance at this watch in the dark is where the hands are amongst the primary time markers.

The date window, as shown in the photo, is centered diagonally between the 4 and 5. Setting the watch is done in the traditional way:

- Unscrew the crown

- Pull it out to the second click (first one changes date)

- Set time

- Push the crown back in and twist it clockwise to secure

As with any analog watch, measuring time keeping accuracy is an approximate effort. To the best of my measurements, the watch hasn't lost or gained more than one second in the past two weeks of steady wear.

Available with a rubber "dive" band or on their proprietary nylon band, the watch is suitable for scuba diving or any other water sport. It's listed as waterproof to 200 meters... Um, I don't dive that deep. 667 feet is a little beyond me (OK, a LOT beyond me). I DID test the watch to about 45 feet and it had no issues. Since recreational scuba diving ends at the 120 foot mark, I believe this watch will work for that. If you dive beyond that, you may want to get a watch more specifically suited to deep diving or the military work you're doing.

The UZI Protector watch has a suggested retail price of just under $90 and I consider it worth that. As with all things today, I imagine a good internet search will find it for you at a lower price. Check out CampCo online to learn more about this line of watches and other gear they have available.

BE SAFE!

I have a comment on or question about this article.

Don't forget to check out this week's Recreational Review about Magna's "Bargain Basement" 24" 15-Speed Mountain Bike.

This week's Training Article discussing how much a Trainer's drive to generate revenue can compromise his integrity in training delivery.

For a listing of all reviews in chronological order, GO HERE.

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