Girsan Regard Yavuz Compact - long term review.

Only about 5k total through 6 mags. They should have lots of life left in them. I use other mags for dry fire. Followers don't appear to be worn.

It's a good thought though and I'm not ruling it out.
 
I have a Regard, and have 5k rounds through it on 5 mags and have yet to have any issues. Thing goes bang every time. Great value, actually considering one of their 1911's now as well....
I'd like to also note that the mec-gar mags for Berretta 92's work great, and that the promags are garbage (had 2 and they are horrible)
 
Clobbersauras said:
So we can officially call the 2000 round test a fail at 1260 rounds. It's just too brutal to suffer through the malfunctions. One can only drill malfunctions so much.:mad:
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Still using the 115 gr rounds or did you switch back to the 124? I'm really curious to see how it does after you clean all the carbon out of it.

As for Turkish guns being crap, Girsan 92 F clones are pretty far from crap. This thread pretty much backs that up, 1260 rounds without cleaning it is pretty good by any standard. The real question is how it stands up in the long run. There's plenty of people who own Girsan's here, not too many complaints.
 
Update:

I finally got around to cleaning the Girsan. It was filthy dirty and dry as a bone. I mean, there wasn't a hint of lubrication on the pistol. I had soaked it generously in G96 before the test but my daily dry fire and handling of the gun, coupled with the 1260 rounds resulted in no lube to be found anywhere, which was a little odd.

Here are some pics:





The rails have some wear marks, which I don't have on my Beretta, and the Beretta has many more rounds through it:





After it's dirty dirty photo shoot, I soaked in in G96 for 24 hours and cleaned it. I didn't remove the extractor and clean it because 1200 rounds should not be enough to dirty the extractor enough to cause the erratic problems I was having. I lubed the heck out of it and then shot it on a pistol course I attended last weekend. I put 300 rounds through it on the first day without any problems whatsoever.

Conclusion: I think the Girsan is a solid pistol. I like the size of the gun. If Girsan lost the finger humps, did some front and back strap checkering, made it a G model with a replaceable front sight...they would have one hell of a carry/competition gun. It likes to be wet, as most Beretta's do. I think my aggressive dry fire schedule, coupled with the lack of cleaning, caused the gun to become too dry and that caused the problems. I tend to believe that despite the filth, if I had simply lubed the gun every thousand rounds or so, it would still be chugging along. I think the rail wear on the gun indicates a tighter frame to slide fit than the Beretta, which tends to be unforgiving of light lubrication.
 
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I put another 200 rounds through the Girsan on the weekend. It's had 500 rounds since it's last cleaning. I had one failure to feed, which is mag related. I noticed the rounds were rattling in the mag before I loaded the gun and suspected the follower had bound inside the mag due to dirt. I decided to try it anyway and had a failure to feed. The mags were very dirty from two courses and one traning session, being dropped in dirt. Note to self: Clean Beretta mags every few range sessions.

I installed a Wilson Combat low profile safety and a WC oversize checkered mag release. The safety is awesome. It makes slide manipulations much more positive without having to worry about inadvertently engaging the safety. Mag release is huge, but I've had no issues with inadvertently engaging it, while holstered or otherwise. 13lb mainspring is still working great. I really, really like this gun, despite the more rigorous cleaning schedule.

 
It appears that with more regular cleaning and lubing, that any problems will not show themselves. Overall they appear to be a pretty solid pistol in that price range.
 
Magellann said:
It appears that with more regular cleaning and lubing, that any problems will not show themselves. Overall they appear to be a pretty solid pistol in that price range.
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I think they are a solid gun overall. I honestly think more lube, or perhaps a better lube, would have allowed the gun to get to 2000 rounds no problem. Beretta mags do require more more cleaning than Glock mags. Mine will be torn down every time I lube the gun from now on.
 
I put another 200 rounds through the Girsan on Sunday. I shot a variety of drills and also worked on shot cadence and sight tracking. I short stroked the trigger a few times, which was frustrating, and it messed with a couple of my Bill drills.

I also had the extractor pin walk out on me again today. It didn't fly off, and I tapped it back down a few times to finish the session.


I was shooting very snappy 124g Centaure re-manufactured ammo. Recoil is noticeably more pronounced with this stuff. I staked the pin again when I got home. It shouldn't walk out now.


This is what your mag well should look like if you are motivated to improve. I may break out the Dremel and bevel it at some point.


My preferred watch and pistol right now. Both well worth the money.
 
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I recently sold my Yavuz 16 Compact to raise money for the pistol I REALLY wanted. A Hi Power. Now that I have my dream pistol (and loving it) I'm surprised to find how much I miss my Girsan. Mine was the all black compact model with the rail, but essentially the same gun. Thanks for the writeup. I'm not enough of a shooter to do a 2000 round challenge at the moment, and this is good to let me know what to expect when (yes WHEN) I buy another one of these. New instead of used this time.

It's a gun I didn't think I'd like (being a first time pistol buyer, thinking I wanted a SA only Semi-Auto), and it turns out, I really like it.
 
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