.45 Comp Kits: Storm Lake Machine’s Unit Is A Best Buy

This drop-in product upgrades the 1911’s practical-shooting performance more economically than a similar Wilson device, and it works better than a comp from Ed Brown, we think.

Storm Lake Machine Tri-Port .45 Comp Kit sells for $205.50 and includes a match-grade barrel complete with link, link pin, barrel bushing, and a three-port compensator.

In the early days of IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation) competition, where power, accuracy, and speed of target engagement were equal elements rewarded by the scoring format, the .45 ACP in the familiar 1911 Colt-type pistol reigned supreme for many years. The basic 1911 evolved into a highly modified, but uncompensated, .45 Government Model typified by the Clark Pin Gun design, which featured a simple muzzle weight. The gun’s transformation into the fully compensated 1911 began when J. Michael Plaxco introduced the first compensator, consisting of a muzzle weight with a single expansion chamber and vertical porting to reduce recoil and muzzle lift. Even with these changes, however, the .38 Super began to dominate Unlimited or Open Class competitions in l987. The advent of supported chambers and heavier walled +P brass enabled shooters to safely handle high-performance loadings, and compensated .38 Supers offered greater reductions in muzzle lift because they operate at much greater pressures. Soon thereafter, the stalwart .45 was no longer the top dog in IPSC.

Though this still holds true, observant shooters still see many .45s on the line at local and regional IPSC matches. The bulk of these guns compete in the Limited or Stock classes, but many recreational-level shooters who want to sample Open Class competition still choose the century-old .45 ACP. The reason for this is simple: It is easy to load to major power factor without pushing maximum pressures. This results in long brass and barrel life, a high degree of accuracy with less expensive lead bullets, more latitude in producing safe loads on progressive reloading presses, and the additional benefit of using common bullets, brass, and powders.

With current .45 compensator kits available from a number of aftermarket sources, the recreational shooter can also turn his stock 1911 .45 into a base-level compensated, optic-sighted Open Class pistol or controllable bowling-pin gun without permanently altering the frame to accommodate a ramped .38 Super barrel. He can then change from its compensated form back to “stock” for use as a defensive carry pistol or Limited Class competition piece by simply removing the optical sight and mount and replacing the standard barrel and bushing.

Because they offer shooters enhanced shooting performance in value-packed form, we decided to test three “drop-in” compensator kits—one each from Wilson Combat, Ed Brown Products, and Storm Lake Machine. We wanted to see what they offered in accuracy, speed, recoil control, and convenience when applied to the 1911-format pistol in the popular .45 ACP cartridge. Here’s what we found:

Wilson Combat
Accu-Comp Dot Tracker Kit
One of the early combat masters on the IPSC circuit was Bill Wilson of Berryville, Arkansas. Early on, he saw an expanding field of accessories for the 1911-type pistol and soon set aside his career as a watchmaker to become a gunsmith. He began offering his own line of competition accessories for the 1911, including one of the earliest match barrel/compensator kits for the .45. Over the years he has revised his product to keep pace with current technology and currently offers the Accu-Comp Dot Tracker, a match barrel with three-port compensator, in kit form. The compensator was designed with the help of Jerry Barnhart to eliminate bounce and tracking problems he was experiencing with previous designs.

At $298.95 the unit comes packaged with a pre-threaded match barrel and matching bushing, compensator, front sight, split-bushing wrench, and a tube of Loc-Tite 271 to secure the compensator to the barrel. Missing is a barrel link and pin. Examination of the barrel and parts showed excellent finish on the stainless-steel barrel and blued compensator unit. The compensator has a brushed gloss finish on its sides and the top is bead-blasted to a matte finish. It is also dovetailed to accept the enclosed cross-dovetail Patridge front sight. If used with iron sights, this arrangement adds some practical accuracy by extending the sight radius by half an inch.

The direction sheet included with the Wilson unit states that the company accepts no liability for improper use or installation of the product and recommends installation by “a competent pistolsmith familiar with the 1911-style auto barrel fitting.”

The reason for these instructions soon became obvious. As we tried to slide the barrel into the slide of our test guns, it was obvious that this kit would require fitting in all the critical areas and would not be a simple drop-in. On the plus side, this results in a perfect match-quality fit if properly performed, unlike some units that give no better fit than a factory barrel. On the negative side, if the consumer is not intimately familiar with barrel fitting, it will best be performed by a good IPSC pistolsmith and will add an additional $75 to $100.

In this case, we could not test the unit until it was fitted. This process included removing material from the outside diameter of the bushing, sides of the slide-stop lugs, locking recesses, and the hood area of the barrel. The result was a pistol that locked and unlocked smoothly and precisely. Fitting the pistol at prevailing gunsmithing rates drove the package price to $373.95, and for that money, we had a pistol that could be expected to give consistent accuracy.

Storm Lake Machine
Tri-Port .45 Comp Kit
The Storm Lake Machine Tri-Port .45 Comp Kit sells for $205.50 and includes a match-grade barrel complete with link, link pin, barrel bushing, and a three-port compensator of very similar design to the Wilson. The barrel is of stainless steel and has very crisp rifling that should work extremely well with lead bullets. The compensator is blued carbon steel and is finished like the Wilson with brushed finish on its sides and a matte finish on top to prevent glare. The compensator has no provision for installation of a front sight.

Though it is said to be a drop-in unit, the Tri-Port Comp comes with no instructions other than the following: “Have a competent pistolsmith install this unit.…” There is also a liability disclaimer for improper use and installation.

The Tri-Port unit did, however, slide into place in our test pistols without any fitting and gave a good fit that was free of play at the bushing, lugs, and hood. Retracting the slide gave a distinct hesitation on unlocking. Though this might not be a problem after a break-in period, it does indicate a tight tolerance that can affect reliable cycling and accuracy. We felt that it was best to examine the fit and correct this hesitation before proceeding with live-fire testing.

Our examination showed the hesitation was caused by excess material on the left side of the barrel hood. We corrected the problem by removing .010 inch of metal with a flat file. This should not be considered a deficiency in the product design; instead, it is a trade-off. To make a unit accurate, it must have a tight fit at the critical areas that mate the barrel to the slide and frame. It may also be expected to “fit” a range of products from Colt, Caspian, Springfield Armory, Safari Arms, Auto-Ordnance, AMT, and Norinco with varying manufacturing tolerances. To achieve a good mating of parts with a drop-in fit (or a minimum of gunsmith fitting), it is better to have too much material to allow fitting rather than to sacrifice accuracy with a sloppy fit.

With its moderate price and high quality, we were very interested to see how the Storm Lake Tri-Port would perform in live-fire testing.

Ed Brown
Four Star Compensator
The Ed Brown Four Star Compensator kit sells for $289.95 retail in its stainless-steel version. Our examination of the unit showed a high-quality stainless-steel barrel and compensator. The compensator had four ports, as befits the name, and a matte bead-blast finish on all external surfaces. It came complete with a link and pin matched to the contour of the “feet” of the lower lugs that engage the slide stop. This provides a match-quality fit. The only aesthetic flaw—decidedly a nit-picking problem—was that the stamped “FOUR STAR” logo on the compensator was not of uniform depth and quality.

We also noted that the unit was supplied with rudimentary fitting instructions. While these instructions were not a complete explanation of custom barrel fitting, they did give good pointers to aid in fitting according to the way the unit was designed by Ed Brown Products. Notable in the instructions was this warning: “Do not remove material from the lower lugs.”

This unit, like the Storm Lake product, would drop into place. However, it had the same tight catch on locking or unlocking. Without the warning, an inexperienced owner might assume a faulty fit between the upper and lower lug dimensions as they are pushed into lock up by the bearing of the lower lugs riding onto the slide stop, and start by filing this area to relieve tightness.

We checked the overall fit without the link in place and found the locking and slide-stop lugs to fit correctly in their relationship to the slide stop and locking recesses in the slide.

We then used an indelible marker to “black” the chamber/lug area of the barrel and then put it in place and operated the slide by hand several times. This procedure showed us a tight spot at the left of the barrel hood that was forcing the barrel to the right and caused the binding. Several strokes with a flat mill-bastard file gave us a smooth fit with a firm lock-up.

In our view, the Ed Brown unit gave the best fit with the least amount of work.

Reliability And Function
After fitting to obtain a smooth feed and ejection cycle with dummy rounds, we decided to range test the units to see if any problems were present. All units had chambers measuring 0.479 inch to 0.481 inch and correct headspace dimensions as supplied and installed in our test gun. We felt that this should provide a good reliability factor with cast bullet loads that tend to foul the chamber with lead and wax residue and can fail to feed reliably in barrels with overly tight chambers.

On the range, shooting handloads with the popular 200-grain Hensley and Gibbs semi-wadcutter bullet, we found that the Storm Lake and Wilson barrels experienced stoppages when the bullet nose would hang up on the sharp lower edge of the chamber. This is typical of a barrel in which there is no “jump” between the point where the bullet nose rides from the frame ramp into the barrel’s throat. Generally, it is desirable to have about 1/32 inch space between the frame ramp and origin of the barrel throat. This can be accomplished by moving the throat forward slightly, then recontouring and polishing the area when done. After performing this procedure, both units fed rounds from the magazine to the chamber reliably. The Four Star did not require any additional changes to its throat to feed reliably, although, ideally, we would polish its surface as insurance against feeding malfunctions.

After ensuring that all units fed properly, we continued our testing. The Wilson and Ed Brown units were 100 percent reliable. We did experience failures to close fully on ammunition where the shoulder of the lead bullet extended beyond the case mouth with the Storm Lake barrel. Examining the ammunition loaded with the H&G 200-grain bullet to a minimum overall cartridge length of 1.250 inch for reliable feeding in the 1911 pistol, the shoulder extended slightly forward of the case mouth. We noted that the shoulder of the bullet ahead of the case was engraved by the lead of the barrel from Storm Lake Machine and was causing the failure to chamber.

The ideal way to solve this problem is to have the barrel lead area reamed out by a gunsmith to accommodate the bullet shoulder, or as an alternative, use ammunition that is suitable to the throat dimension. To forestall gunsmithing what was supposed to be a “drop-in” unit, we decide to try the second expedient. We used 230-grain round-nosed bullets without a shoulder and a handload with the 200-grain H&G 68 bullet seated deeper than normal to eliminate the protruding shoulder. The Storm Lake barrel responded well. It became 100 percent reliable with this no-gunsmithing solution. However, this solution could cause problems for the competitor who may need to borrow ammunition that was not loaded to take the barrel’s tight lead into consideration.

Reliability is the primary necessity in a competitive IPSC pistol. This shooting discipline rewards speed and allows no alibis. A competitive pistol must function reliably, and a single malfunction will cost enough time to keep a competitor out of the winner’s circle, even at a local match.

In our tests, the Wilson Dot-Tracker kit required complete gunsmith fitting to all critical areas, but once that was done, the unit rewarded us with 100 percent reliability. The Storm Lake kit needed the throat reshaped and polished, and we had to pay special attention to ammunition to allow reliable functioning. But when it was fed a diet of rounds appropriate to its chamber and lead dimensions, the Storm Lake product also performed reliably in our testing. As a drop-in unit, the Ed Brown Four Star comp was the winner in this category. It only required a small amount of metal to be removed from the left of the hood to fit, feed, chamber, and function at the 100-percent level with all rounds tested. We did not even polish the barrel throat, and experienced no hesitation in feeding in several hundred rounds.

Accuracy: Fitted Wilson Unit
Is The Best By A Nose
In testing, we decided to evaluate our test kits relative to the “equivalent elements” of IPSC competition to test their overall performance. Power is provided by the ammunition, and our testing was done with several IPSC major loads—a l80-grain cast-bullet load with 6.0 grains of Bullseye, a 200-grain H&G 68 competition load from Black Hills Ammunition, and a cast-bullet load with a 230-grain round-nose bullet with 4.9 grains of Bullseye. All the units gave a significant decrease in felt recoil, but it was not possible to differentiate between them due to the subjective aspects of felt recoil. However, our speed tests did give a valid comparison of how they handled full-power loads in rapid shooting sequences.

Accuracy is the result of barrel quality and correct barrel fit to the slide and frame. All of our test units provided a good fit and excellent quality bores, but in our experience many properly-fit barrels exhibit a marked preference for a specific bullet weight or design. Testing was done with three popular bullet weights to take this phenomenon into account. Accuracy results were based on five-shot groups fired at 25 yards from a sand-bag rest.

Though the Ed Brown Four Star unit was the easiest to install and most trouble free when it came to installation, it only produced minimum acceptable “match” accuracy of less than 2 inches at 25 yards with one load. The Storm Lake Machine kit produced sub 2-inch groups with all loads tested and gave an excellent group size approaching 1 inch with the 230-grain load. In accuracy testing, the Wilson unit gave the best overall performance with an average slightly better than the Storm Lake unit. Also, it shot the smallest groups with the 230-grain load—0.92 inches.

While the Wilson gave the best accuracy, we would expect a high level of performance from a barrel that requires full fitting by a competent pistolsmith. The Storm Lake barrel, on the other hand, approached the accuracy of the Wilson without custom fitting.

We assessed speed by testing shot-to-shot recovery times at 15 yards by firing six-shot strings from a draw, as quickly as possible, into the central scoring A zone of an IPSC target. This test is similar to the Bill Drill commonly used to evaluate firearm and shooter performance in accurate shot-to-shot recovery, but at a longer distance because of the optics. The greater distance also illuminates the ability of a compensator to allow more precise target reacquisition after recoil.

Speed Racers: Wilson Combat Dot-Tracker Wins
Next, we tested the ability of the units to allow tracking from target to target in a closely spaced speed shooting scenario by shooting Speed Plates, a series of six, 8-inch steel disks, 1 foot apart at 15 yards, from the draw. Though accuracy is a necessity, many competitors consider speed to be the essence of practical shooting. Time is what separates the Master Class shooter from an equally accurate B Class competitor. Shooting faster (with accuracy) is the factor that puts the spice in IPSC shooting.

When simply looking at the test units, we expected a similar level of performance. However, we found significant differences in their handling qualities.

The top performer here was the Wilson Combat Dot-Tracker kit. It essentially equaled the Storm Lake unit in the Bill Drill and significantly surpassed its performance on the Speed Plates. We noted its shot distribution in the Bill Drill was a round 5-inch-wide by 6-inch-high pattern. We could actually see the dot of the Tasco PDP 3 come to rest just as each subsequent shot broke, making it easy to call each shot with reasonable precision. This contributed to our shooter’s ability to hold a consistent group at point of aim at top speed.

The Ed Brown Four Star product, while offering a useful gain in high-speed performance over our stock test gun. did show a disturbing tendency to “bounce” as the slide slammed shut at the end of the cycle. This resulted in a shot distribution on target that was 5 inches wide and 12 inches in height when the pistol was shot at maximum speed while keeping the shots in the “A” zone. It gave the visual effect that the dot in the scope never stopped in the vertical plane and looked like a manic firefly buzzing from the top to bottom of the A zone as the pistol was fired. Though this was acceptable performance, it required the entire A zone to contain the group and allowed little margin for error.

The Storm Lake Machine Tri-Port compensator gave us better results. Its design was similar to the Wilson Dot Tracker. It contained three vertical ports and two side ports. While the dot’s movement on target in the 15-yard Bill Drill was not as manic as what the Four Star produced, we noted the gun still had some small tendency to bounce as the slide slammed home. This resulted in a shot distribution that was 5 inches wide and 7 inches high. This is well within the A zone’s vertical borders. We thought the Storm Lake comp made the gun significantly easier to control in both the Bill Drill and on the Speed Plates.

There are two factors that contribute to the bounce or dip of the muzzle after the pistol cycles. The main factor is the amount of reciprocating mass incorporated in the pistol, consisting of the slide and any attachments to it, as well as the barrel and the compensator. The other factor is the distribution of any mass away from the boreline. In this case, the scope and mount, weighing 12 ounces as a package, sat an inch above the bore.

During final closure of the slide after the feed cycle, the total mass of the slide, barrel, and compensator come to an abrupt halt in their forward travel. If this force is greater than that needed to bring the sight plane back to point of aim, it results in a dip or bounce at the muzzle. The scope above boreline adds to the inertia of the off-axis mass that must also be brought to a stop before the muzzle finds the desired point of aim and contributes to the muzzle bounce on slide closure.

Even though the Storm Lake unit appeared to be a close copy of the Wilson product, closer examination revealed that the walls and restrictor plates that deflect the gases upward were thicker and heavier, which probably prevented it from equaling the performance of the Dot-Tracker, after which it was modeled.

Performance Shooter Recommends
Thought the Wilson Combat Accu-Comp Dot Tracker Kit was the best performer overall, it was also the most expensive. With a retail price of $298.95 plus another $75 to $100 for a complete gunsmith fitting, we would expect the total to be from $375 to $400 to get up and running. We think the Dot Tracker kit, with its solid performance and accuracy when properly fit, would be an excellent value for an advanced “hobby” gunsmith who understood the intricacies of correct barrel fitting in the Colt 1911 type pistol and could perform the work himself. However, the Dot Tracker is not a “drop-in” unit that could be installed by the average shooting enthusiast, in our opinion.

The Ed Brown Four Star Compensator required an absolute minimum of fitting to achieve a solid and reliable mating to our test gun. But at $289.95, only $9 less than the Dot Tracker, it fell well short of the performance of the Storm Lake and Wilson units in our tests. It wasn’t as accurate off the bags or as controllable in rapid-fire strings, we thought. We don’t recommend it.

We think the unit that offers the most bang for your buck is the Storm Lake Machine Tri-Port .45 Comp Kit drop-in kit. It beat the Wilson in the Bill Drill by a small margin and gave excellent accuracy as well. The only work required to install the device was that the hood be fit with a few file strokes and the throat be recontoured and polished. The tight lead was easily remedied by simply choosing or loading appropriate ammunition to get 100 percent reliable function. At a retail cost of only $205.50, it is only slightly more expensive than some top-quality uncompensated match barrels, and was $84.45 less than the Four Star and $195.00 less than the Dot Tracker, if the services of a competent pistolsmith were employed to obtain a quality fit on the latter unit. Even if the fitting and throat work on the Storm Lake barrel was done by a gunsmith for about $35, it still represents a high level of performance at a very reasonable cost.

Also With This Article
Click here to view the accuracy results.
Click here to view the speed test results.
Click here to view the contacts and addresses.
Click here to view "Power Loads."

-By Charles Woolley