July 26, 2019

FIRST LOOK: The Nighthawk Counselor Is a Concealed Carry Dream 1911

As a part of its new Ambassador Series, the 9mm Nighthawk Counselor is the smallest, lightest, and thinnest 1911 ever built by the manufacturer.

Personal Defense World

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Nighthawk Counselor

Nighthawk Custom Counselor 1911 pistol, deskj

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Nighthawk Counselor

Nighthawk Custom Counselor 1911 pistol, slide

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Nighthawk Counselor

Nighthawk Custom is one of the most well-known 1911 manufacturers on the planet. That “custom” aspect applies for each pistol, as it uses the “one gun, one gunsmith” mantra in full. Now the manufacturer just announced one of its most intriguing releases in the ultra-concealable 9mm Nighthawk Counselor.

According to Nighthawk, the Counselor is the smallest, lightest, and thinnest 1911 the manufacturer has ever built. Again, color us intrigued.

Boardroom, Meet Ambassador

The Counselor is the first model in Nighthawk’s all-new Ambassador Series; that’s not to be confused with the Boardroom Series.

Nighthawk exclusively unveiled the Boardroom series with Personal Defense World in 2017 when it announced the Chairman pistol. The manufacturer followed up that release in 2018 with the Nighthawk President. We, at Ballistic, got the scoop on that one.

Now, we have the Counselor as part of the Ambassador Series. So let’s get to it.

The Details

The Counselor is a 9mm, 3.5-inch barrel 1911 Officer Model based on a shortened, lightweight aluminum frame, complete with an aluminum MSH and grip safety.

Nighthawk added its new bobbed-concealment beavertail and hammer, which has a smaller footprint for concealed carry. The gun is standard in 9mm and has an 8+1 capacity. It also sports a brand new slide design. Most pistol slides have “negative” serrations. Translation: Material has been machined away from the slide to create slots for your fingers to grip. However, the Nighthawk Counselor has “positive” serrations up front that protrude out from the slide for a very unique look and excellent grip for a press-check.

Most importantly, the Counselor features the manufacturer’s patent-pending Flush-Fit Magwell. Nighthawk built the Counselor to have the same overall length of an officer frame, but with a magwell included.

To accomplish this, Nighthawk cut an officer frame even shorter, added a channel for its custom-engineered magwell, and the magwell slides in from the front while only adding back the length of the frame it removed. The magwell holds the searspring in place, a feat that has never been done before. This combo of a small gun with a magwell included is a nice solution for concealed carry.

Another feature included with this model is an ultra-high undercut triggerguard, so that most full size hands can still fit on the grip. Lastly, we have the G10 Scales, which Nighthawk says were custom engineered with Railscales for this pistol and “are thinner than the thinnest 1911 grips available on the market.”

Nighthawk Counselor Price

That leads us to the final part of the equation: MSRP. It’s $3,799. We can already hear the complaints. “A concealed carry weapon for $3,799? Who do they think they are?”

Well, we’ll tell you: They’re one of the greatest 1911 manufacturers on the planet. You can’t pay for a Chevy and expect a Ferrari; and that’s exactly what you’re getting here: The Ferrari of concealed carry handguns. As our friends at Personal Defense World say, stop complaining about gun prices. Not all guns are created equal.