As I sit here and hammer out this review on the keyboard, we are nine days away from the one-hundredth anniversary of the adoption of the Colt 1911 pistol as the official sidearm of the United States Military. This year, several makers of 1911 style pistols are making commemorative models, and the 1911 pistol is more popular today than at any time in its history. Even with some excellent competing pistol designs available, the 1911, updated from the original design, is still the choice of elite fighters that have a choice of which pistol to carry into harm’s way. While it has been officially out of US Military service for over two decades, the 1911 continues to serve our military in specialized units. The 1911 style pistol is still the choice of champions who shoot competitively, because to this day, no superior pistol has been built that beats the classic Browning design for fast, accurate, powerful shooting. The 1911 is built on at least three continents and one island around the world, of which I am aware. In the US today, we have more manufacturers and importers of the 1911 pistol design than I can track, and more coming all the time.

Here we are looking at a variation of the 1911A1 design called the Regent R100. The R100 is built in Turkey, and imported into the US by Umarex. The Turks build some good guns, and this Regent looks pretty much like a GI 45 ACP 1911A1, with a couple of exceptions.

The Regent has a firing pin safety that is activated by the trigger. Unless the trigger is held to the rear, the firing pin cannot contact the primer of the cartridge, even if dropped. The entire pistol, with the exception of the grips, is made of steel. The grips are Hogue synthetic rubber. The exterior of the pistol is finished in a matte black, with the exception of the stainless steel barrel, which is left in its natural color. Another welcome feature that is common among modern 1911 style pistols is that the chamber is throated to accept hollowpoint ammunition, and the ejection port is lowered as well to ensure reliable ejection of the empty cartridge cases. The R100’s slide is CNC machined from bar stock, and the frame is a machined investment casting. The wide hammer spur is checkered for a positive grip, and the grip safety is of the long 1911A1 style. The sights are of military 1911A1 style also, with the rear drift-adjustable for windage correction. The overall appearance is very business-like.

Being of all-steel construction, the R100 has the welcome heft and feel that has become familiar to generations of shooters. The R100 is built to close tolerances, with barrel-to-slide and slide-to-frame fit very well done.

Critical dimensions are listed in the chart below. Weight is listed in ounces. Linear measurements are listed in inches. Trigger pull is listed as pounds of pressure.

The Regent R100 was fired for accuracy and reliability with several brands and types of ammunition. Reliability was one hundred percent. There were no failures or stoppages of any kind. Every cartridge fed, fired, and ejected perfectly. The Regent performed very well with my standard target handload. This load consists of a Rim Rock 200 grain lead SWC atop 5.5 grains of Hodgdon Titegroup powder in a new primed S&W 45 ACP case. This is a moderate load, and a very good general working load for a 1911 pistol. I have only recently started using the Rim Rock bullets, but they seem to be of much higher quality and consistency than the run-of-the-mill gun show bulk bullets. Accuracy was good, with most ammo grouping in the two and one-half to three inch range at twenty-five yards from my Ransom Rest. Accuracy from the handload with the Rim Rock bullets was excellent, grouping five shots into one and one-quarter inches at twenty-five yards, consistently. Velocities were recorded at a distance of ten feet, at an altitude of 541 feet above sea level, and an air temperature hovering around forty-three degrees Fahrenheit with moderate humidity. Velocities are recorded in the chart below, and are listed in feet-per-second. JHP is a jacketed hollowpoint bullet. EPR and AF are specialty premium bullets as loaded by Extreme Shock Ammunition. DPX is a homogenous copper hollowpoint. FMJ is a full metal jacket bullet. WCC is Winchester military hardball ammo. PB is Cor-Bon Pow’RBall.

As stated above, reliability of the R100 was perfect. The weapon cycled smoothly. The trigger released crisply, with no feeling of mushiness at all. The trigger pull weight was about two pounds heavier than I prefer on a 1911 for use on the target range, but is perfectly serviceable for a fighting pistol, and the trigger pull is easily lightened by an experienced gunsmith, if desired.

The Regent R100 is a good, affordable, well-built 1911 style pistol. It is built of steel, easy to shoot, and easy to shoot well. Being of 1911 design, there are hundreds of parts available, if you wish to customize the R100. For my use, with my old eyes, I need better, larger sights, and a laser if carried for defense, but other than that, the R100 is good-to-go right out of the box. Besides the variety of ammunition put through the R100 for function and accuracy testing, I ran a lot of Stryker 230 ball ammo through the weapon for fun. The heft of the pistol handles the ball ammo very well, and the R100 is easy to control and to get back on target quickly.

After a century of modern, high-tech weapon design, nothing has come along yet to knock the beloved 1911 from its lofty perch as the top choice of many experienced pistol shooters, and the regent R100 is a good choice for a well-built, affordable 1911. At the time of this writing, the R100 has a suggested retail price under $500 US, which makes it one of the most affordable 1911 pistols on the market.

Check out the Regent R100 online at www.regentarms.com.

Jeff Quinn

NOTE: All load data posted on this web site are for educational purposes only. Neither the author nor GunBlast.com assume any responsibility for the use or misuse of this data. The data indicated were arrived at using specialized equipment under conditions not necessarily comparable to those encountered by the potential user of this data.  Always use data from respected loading manuals and begin working up loads at least 10% below the loads indicated in the source manual.