I bought one of the Tisas Service 1911s a few months back so I had a .45 I could use for our idiotic CCW setup here in New Mexico. Here, you qualify with the “largest caliber” you might carry in revolver and auto. I use my old 1917 issue Webley Mk VII for the revolver, but had to borrow a .45 auto to qualify every two years. The Tisas was ludicrously cheap, I had the cash, so boom — bought one. Other than feed issues that turned out to be a bad magazine, it ran flawlessly.

So imagine my delight when I found out Tisas was doing a commander-sized, bobtail 1911 in 10mm — God’s own caliber. I’ve been a 10mm fan through the drought of 10mm love in the ’90s after the FBI agents couldn’t shoot it, so they moved to .40S&W. I had an original Glock 20, but the grip angle on Glocks is (for me) awful. I’ve had the Tanfoglio — a pistol that was much maligned until people actually shot it, and now you can’t touch them for a reasonable price. I have a Kimber Camp Guard (which I carry on trips into the woods, etc.) and a Chiappa Rhino DS40 that went to Aria Ballistics to bore the cylinder out to 10mm. So a carry-sized 10mm? Yes, please.

I’d seen the 9mm version of the Yukon in the local gun store, and it was superb. The 10mm is also top-notch quality. It’s a Series 70, and the fit and finish are on par with early Kimber — when they were excellent. Solid lockup on the barrel, fully supported barrel. No MIM parts, save the safety levers. Oh, yes — ambi safety standard. Thank you, Tisas; you’ve outdone most 1911 manufacturers, already. It’s got a gray Cerakote forgerd carbon steel frame and black forged carbon steel slide. The grips are G10 “sunburst” texture in gray. The slide stop and safety levers are black and complement the gray frame. The trigger and hammer are skeletonized and there’s a good beavertail. 25lpi texturing front and back on the grip, and an Ed Brown style bobtail.

It comes with an excellent hard case, cleaning rod and brush, bushing wrench (that you don’t need — it’s a standard spring cap set up), and two magazines — again, beating most of the other manufacturers there.

So how’s it shoot? Wonderfully. It’s accurate and presents as a 1911 should: very well. The U-notch rear and fiber optic front sight work well and allow fast acquisition. The recoil…is stout. Compared side by side with my Camp Guard — a standard Government model size — the Camp Guard soaked up the hottest rounds (155 grain, 1650fps) and was mostly comfortable to shoot and quick to do follow up shots. The Yukon has more muzzle flip than most 10s do, and the recoil is not uncontrollable, but it does take some wrestling to keep it on target for follow up shots and was slower to do so. Still, Mozambique drills allowed two in the 9 ring and a center head out to 10 yards with reliability. I did note, however, the safety on the right side of the frame was cutting up my thumb prettily after 50 rounds.

We ran 250 rounds of various loads — 135 grain frangibles that were more the short & weak style, 180 grain Blazer, the 155 grain Texas feral pig killer ammo. No malfunctions other than a few failures to go fully into battery that were definitely the operator getting tired (and bleeding all over the size of the pistol from his thumb). Weak on the locking rings and the slide rails was about what you would expect for a trip out like this. There was some.

Accuracy was top-notch, function was nearly flawless — and the flaws I suspect were me — and the fit, finish, and quality of manufacturer are as good as anything Colt, Springfield, or Kimber are putting out. At $720 before tax and shipping, is it worth it? Unequivocally, yes.