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Some time ago, we issued a “Safety Alert” for the Tisas / Regent BR9 because we broke parts in the Tisas / Regent BR9 Hi Power during our 6,000 Round Test that essentially duplicated the 1911 U.S. Military Pistol Trials. And, we’ve actually caught some heat and negative feedback for the way we reported our parts breakage experience as a “Safety Alert”. This Update will help explain why we did what we did, and hopefully, help to connect some additional dots about the Tisas / Regent BR9 malfunctions.During our 6,000 Round Test, we encountered function problems that did not resolve, no matter what changes we made. Function problems began after the Tisas had fired just over 100 rounds. Failures to Extract were the first problem encountered, later Failures-to-Feed were added to the list – and all malfunctions seemed related to heat……normally exhibiting these malfunctions after firing 80-100 rounds. The Tisas Extractor broke after less than 500 rounds and the Firing Pin Retaining Plate fractured into two pieces with one of those pieces leaving the pistol, in under 5,000 rounds. We decided to release a “Safety Alert” immediately after our testing concluded because of the Firing Pin Retaining Plate failure – metal that is pointed towards a shooters face, that fractures, is dangerous – and, god-forbid, the possibility of a firing pin leaving the firearm under spring pressure in the direction of a shooters eyes and face, is extraordinarily dangerous. We could not, with any conscience, delay in providing this information to our BHVeterans – it is a matter of safety – and this is the reason we did things as we did.
After replacing the broken Tisas Extractor with an FN/Browning Extractor, we expected the Failure to Extract problem to resolve – it did NOT. We continued having Failures to Extract and the malfunction problems continued with Failures-to-Feed. We tried 3 different FN/Browning Extractors. Eventually, we installed an Extractor that we, BHSpringSolutions, manufactured in 2017 – which has been in testing phase for almost a year. The BHSpringSolutions Extractor marginally outperformed the FN/Browning Extractors – and we had no additional breakage of any Extractors we tried. We tried everything in our own toolbox, for 6,000 rounds to resolve the malfunction issues – and we failed to find reliability.
Bear in mind, these persistent malfunction issues rarely presented until the Tisas had had 80-100 rounds shot, rapidly – – – so, a clue to us was that when the pistol got heated up, the malfunctions consistently surfaced.
Also bear in mind, that on numerous occasions, BHSpringSolutions has performed rapid fire 200 round non-stop tests with Browning Hi Powers, and clones – so we knew that experiencing malfunctions after firing just over 100 consecutive rounds is not normal, and indicates a problem, somewhere.
By process of elimination, we narrowed the possible problems down to only a couple possible problems.
We decided to see if the hole in the barrel is concentric – perfectly centered. To perform this test requires over two hours of set-up of specialized equipment involving a lathe and installing a centered pin in the barrel before measuring with equipment that measure more microscopic than a thousandth of an inch. And, we found at least one problem.
We measured the Tisas barrel at three key points – the Chamber, the Muzzle, and the Crown.
The Chamber is 0.022” off enter. The Crown is 0.028” off center. And the Muzzle is 0.004”. This means the Muzzle is good – and the Chamber and Barrel Crown are very poor.
The Chamber is off toward the 10 o’clock position which would distance the cartridge casing when chambered from the extractor. In other words, the entire extractor claw is not holding the cartridge casing. When the barrel heats up and starts to become more snug on the cartridge casing, there is not enough of the extractor holding onto the cartridge casing to really do the job. This “miss” of center in the Tisas barrel is also sufficient to cause Failure to Feed problems which, again, only surfaced when things got sufficiently heated up.
The Barrel Crown problem is sufficient to cause issues with Accuracy and Point of Aim.
We knew for sure, that there was an explanation for why we could experience reliability when the pistol was “cold” – and why reliability just became a train wreck when the pistol got heated up – and we found an absolute and verifiable reason. It took us a couple days because performing these kinds of tests requires specialized equipment set-up and testing methods.
WE CAN REPORT THAT TISAS IS TUNING IN TO THESE PROBLEMS FOUND BY BHSpringSolutions LLC
If you own a Tisas / Regent BR9, do not fly off the deep end because of these reports and reviews from BHSpringSolutions LLC. Even though BHSpringSolutions LLC and BHSpringSolutions.com has no affiliation with Tisas and has no stake in the success of the BR9, the leadership at Tisas has been watching our testing and is tuned into our reporting – and they are communicating productively with BHSpringSolutions LLC about our findings. It is not our intention to make life difficult for Tisas – we conducted a test, the entire testing process is videotaped to the tune of 78 Gigabytes of storage space, and we are reporting our findings to our friends and folks who follow us. We hope, of course, that Tisas addresses the shortcomings we continue to find and corrects them. We have a large number of Hi Power Optimization and Modifications that make any HP a much better handgun – but, we currently do not have a solution to a non-concentric barrel, short of manufacturing Hi Power barrels – which we may in fact do in the future – and we are prepared to do so – but that’s not going to be happening this month or next…….so we are very hopeful that Tisas gets these concerns corrected.
BHSpringSolutions’ FINDINGS DURING THE TISAS 6,000 ROUND TEST ARE CORRECTABLE CONCERNS
The BHSpringSolutions test of the Tisas pistol was an extreme test that duplicated the 1911 U.S. Military pistol trials when John Browning’s Model 1911 fired 6,000 rounds without a malfunction. We were hoping to experience the same reliability in the Tisas / Regent BR9. And though we did not, we can report that we did not have any kind of catastrophic Frame or Slide failure.
IT’S NEVER THE PROBLEM THAT’S THE PROBLEM
IT’S ALWAYS THE WAY THAT PROBLEMS ARE HANDLED THAT’S THE PROBLEM
The executives at Tisas have assured us in their written communication that they are reacting, rapidly, to the findings of BHSpringSolutions LLC in the Tisas / Regent BR9. A change in the design of the Tisas Extractor and a change in metallurgy in the Extractor and Firing Pin Retaining Plate is assured and spare parts are expected within the next month. Apparently, BHSpringSolutions is the first to make Tisas aware of a concern with the Tisas HP barrel, and this issue is also being investigated by Tisas. Tisas is reassuring that their pistols are covered by a Lifetime Warranty against parts defects and are Tisas is exhibiting attentiveness to these concerns found, and a willingness to professionally address them. That is all that anyone can ask.
Be assured – BHSpringSolutions LLC wants the Tisas / Regent BR9 HP to be a highly successful Hi Power – it is in the best interest of BHSpringSolutions for Tisas to succeed with the Regent BR9. We must give them the benefit of the doubt at this point. Issues with metallurgy are in no way unheard of in the firearms world – again, it is always in the way the problem is corrected, or not, that makes the difference in the long run and in the big picture. As far as the barrel hole not being centered – we have no way to know how widespread or frequent this problem may be – BHSpringSolutions has now found this problem in two out of two Tisas BR9 barrels. And, again – Tisas deserves to have legitimate opportunity to correct this kind of miss – because quite frankly, such a shortcoming can happen, anywhere, at any time. This is real life – and real life reality is that there are good work and bad workers everywhere – and that will remain true as long as the old saying “to error is human” remains true.
BHSpringSolutions LLC is not actively seeking any kind of association with, or partnership with, Tisas – we are willingly sharing information that has been produced by our testing and will continue to do so. If there is a way that our service department, BHServiceSolutions, can assist Tisas with install of their improved parts or barrels, we will be standing by to assist in that way for the benefit of our friends who already own the Tisas / Regent BR9. BHSpringSolutions LLC will not be taking any responsibility for the shortcomings of the Tisas pistol of course, but we do have resources and capabilities in the U.S. that already focus on the Hi Power design and therefore, will assist in any way possible.
More Updates about our 6,000 round Tisas / Regent BR9 Test will be forthcoming as the month of July progresses. And be assured – we have a long list of extremely positive outcomes from our 6,000 round test – and all those positives will not be overlooked.
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