There’s a reason Sig Sauer is taking 1911 market share from gunmakers who have been in the niche for decades.  The Sig Scorpion Carry 1911 is just one example of the coming together of these reasons.  For Sig it’s the culmination of their many years of innovative pistol design combined with the timeless and classic John Browning 1911, but it’s more than that: for consumers it’s a full functionality, fully featured 1911 for a third of the price that most customs command.

Sig Scorpion Carry 1911

The Sig Scorpion Carry 1911 in my mind is about as perfect a companion for defensive handgunning as there ever has been from factory.  It’s got every bit of the traditional and comfortable feel of the 1911, combined with a bevy of features you can’t find on any other similarly sized gun for the price.  It’s about the same size as the classic Colt Commander, but the only thing classic about this gun is that it’s better than anything else in the price range.  The gun epitomizes tactical: it’s got a shorter barrel; all the usability features; custom modifications that actually mean something; the reliability we’ve come to love from Sig; and the special operations look.  This gun was built for fighting; built to bring the hurt.

Even the box is different from Sig Sauer, and when you open it you’re instantly struck by the flat dark Earth’s Cerakote that blankets this 1911 redesign.  The Sig Scorpion Carry 1911 has distinctive G 10 panels that it wears as grips, and their green and black reptilian look works well with the Cerakote that comes from factory.  In the box you get a couple of 8 round magazines and a cool looking 1911 that wears an external extractor.

But those aren’t the only changes made to the Sig scorpion carry 1911, the grip panels move past their normal position to form a magazine well which facilitates easier loading and reloading.  They are heavily textured with a unique inverted scale pattern which offers great grip without bothering your hands.  The mainspring housing mimics the grip panels in material and texture, and also forms part of this extended mag well.  With the Sig Scorpion Carry 1911 you also get really good looking Novak style dovetail low profile night sights, extended serrated thumb safeties (yes that’s plural, the safety as ambidextrous) and an extended magazine release.  The slide stop is checkered and just barely extended: enough to give you a better perch to release the slide for reload.  It comes standard with an accessory rail on the front dust cover, which itself cuts back aggressively as a unique styling cue.  The barrel bushing, safety, slide stop, Beavertail, extractor and other external parts are all finished with a matte black which gives a good offset to the flat dark Earth on the frame and slide.  The hammer is finished in matte stainless steel; the barrel is a stainless steel match grade barrel and the flat front trigger is finished as bead blasted aluminum in the raw.

Underneath the Cerakote is a stainless steel slide with front serrations and the frame is Stainless as well.  It is not the famous Sig alloy frame, but it is mated well together with the slide and has very little play.  Essentially Sig took the best of their semi auto handguns and paired it with many of the design cues in the style of the 1911 to produce what seems to be a hybrid gun at an excellent price.

What’s that price you ask?  The Sig Scorpion Carry 1911 is priced right at one grand.  That’s right $1000 for a gun that has features that most makers consider fully customized, and charge upwards of $2500 for.

You get a trigger pull of just under 5 pounds and of course it single action only, even with the firing pin lock, the break is clean and there is no extra play.  Unfortunately despite having a firing pin lock the Sig scorpion carry 1911 is not California or Massachusetts legal/compliant.

The Sig Scorpion Carry 1911 is a cool gun and has the following dimensions:

• 7.7 inches O.A.L. (overall length)
• 5.5 inches O.A.H. (overall height)
• 1.4 inches width at the outside grip dimension
• 5.7 inch sight plane
• Just over 35 ounces with an unloaded magazine
• 8+1 Capacity of .45 ACP

The magazines are high quality and have a flat follower with a second ledge, and did not malfunction when I shot the weapon.  The accuracy is typical of a custom 1911, with normal groupings going from 1” to 2.25” off hand at 20 yards.  I shot 15 separate groups at under 1.5” at 20 yards off hand, and despite being a relatively talented and experienced shooter, the consistency, floored me. The Sig Scorpion carry 1911 is a gun that begs to be shot, and it’s different than a standard 1911 custom, there is nothing finicky about it, and it works perfectly with a large variety of loads.  The Sig Scorpion Carry 1911 has perhaps, bridged the gap between ultra custom and production line, like many of the Sig Sauer’s did for their style, before it.

The best part of this gun is you get something that no one else has right now, a lot of custom features, an ultra reliable gun, the backing of a major manufacturer, and arguably the coolest looks on any mainstream pistol from any maker.  Furthermore, you get it at a price which is hard to beat for the value and one which is fixed wherever you go, so you aren’t ever going to be paying a premium over the MSRP, but you may well find a bargain for well under the MSRP.

The final word on the Sig Scorpion Carry 1911

The Sig Scorpion 1911 has style points, but it’s so impressive otherwise, that the style is the last thing on your mind: you just want to use the thing, and for the price, it’s not destined to be a safe queen.