Marvelous Marvel Nighthawk 1911 .45

In alphabetical order, our ammo consisted of:

Nosler Match Grade 230-grain JHP, which has proven extraordinarily accurate in some other pistols, but was not the Marvel test pistol’s favorite. Its 5-shot group ran 2.65”, but the 3-shot cluster measured 1.10” center to center—much more promising.

Remington Express 185-grain JHP has been around for a long time, establishing an excellent record for feeding and, with about a thousand foot-seconds of velocity, for ending violent encounters. Its jacketed hollow point, as produced today, normally opens well. The Marvel Nighthawk sent five of these bullets into 2.30”, with the “best three” cluster measuring exactly half that: 1.15”.

The front of the slide and recoil system are seamlessly “Bull Nose” tapered to reduce hard edges.
The front of the slide and recoil system are seamlessly “Bull Nose” tapered to reduce hard edges.

Winchester USA 230 grain FMJ is very likely the most popular training and practice round for .45 ACP. It’s known colloquially as “Winchester white box” and is sold in venues such as WalMart. This humble generic load turned out to be the tightest-grouping of the test, by both measurements. The round-nose full metal jacket slugs punched five puckered holes in less than two inches (1.95” to be exact), and the tightest trio were only about two-thirds of an inch apart: a group of a mere 0.65”. It was interesting to see that this champagne-priced pistol had beer-budget taste in the ammo it shot the tightest!

Carrying the Nighthawk Marvel

Doubtless due to its barrel design, this pistol was a couple of ounces heavier than expected. Factory spec unloaded weight is 38 ounces. Most in this all-steel configuration and barrel length, popularized originally by Colt’s with their Combat Commander, run closer to 36 ounces.

Nighthawk-4

Those two ounces went unnoticed on the belt by testers long accustomed to carrying full-size, all-steel 1911s and similar handguns. What reared its head immediately was a holstering problem: the leftward protrusion from the frame of that oversize slide stop lever kept the gun from fitting some tightly made holsters, including one of Nighthawk’s own house-brand leather scabbards. When John Strayer took the gun to a Mike Seeklander class, he had to loosen his Kydex Blade-Tech scabbard considerably to make it fit. After some trial and error, which included multiple holsters both leather and Kydex which would not allow the Marvel full entrance, I found it fit acceptably in a Mitch Rosen #5 belt scabbard.

he one- piece mainspring housing/magwell is aggressivel bev- eled on its bottom edge to reduce “printing” effects for those carrying concealed.
he one- piece mainspring housing/magwell is aggressivel bev- eled on its bottom edge to reduce “printing” effects for those carrying concealed.