YouTube personality, Graham Baates, gives us a video and photo breakdown and review of the Llama MicroMax .380 1911.
The Llama brand name is making a comeback.
Once known as a Spanish maker of 1911s, the company is now under the flag of Eagle Imports and being manufactured by the pistol-smiths at Metro Arms. This revival is exciting for handgun lovers as Eagle Imports is known for quality and interesting firearms and Metro Arms builds some of the highest-value guns on the market today.
In a previous article, we covered the Llama Max-1 full-size 1911 and were pleased with its performance. The MicroMax is the baby brother and scaled down to Browning’s other cartridge, .380 acp.
Llama MicroMax .380 1911 Pistol
Although the Llama MicroMax .380 1911 is small, it’s not light on features. An impressive amount of detail has been put into the build as one would expect from Metro Arms and Eagle Imports. Most pleasing to me as a larger-handed shooter was that the gun still fit comfortably in my hand with a full grip. This is in part thanks to a rounded back strap and finger rest on the bottom of the magazine.
Pistol handling is also pleasant thanks for front slide serrations, an extended beaver tail, and an external extractor which also serves as a loaded chamber indicator. Immediately upon first handling it became apparent that although small, the MicroMax is not a novelty gun. The video below provides a more detailed look at the gun.
Field stripping is the same familiar process as with any 1911 although this model is blow-back operated and so simpler to reassemble. Knowing that blow-back-operated guns require a careful balance of slide weight and spring strength I was curious what would function in the MicroMax. Most .380 acp loads are around 95gr in weight, so I assumed the standard ball ammo would work fine. What I wanted to test was how would the gun run with defensive loads. More than one dozen loads were gathered up ranging from 50gr to 102gr. The results can be seen in the shooting impressions video below.
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About Graham Baates
“Graham Baates” is a pen name used by a 15-year active Army veteran who spent most of his time in the tactical side of the Intelligence community including tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Post-Army Graham spent some time in the 3-Gun circuit before becoming a full-time NRA Certified defensive handgun instructor and now works as an industry writer while curating a YouTube channel on the side. Visit Graham on Youtube .
