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Strayer Voight Infinity Tactical Carry- Western Arms
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I was very excited about getting my hands on the Tactical Carry.
I like the SVI 6 Ltd greatly and found the Compact Infinity to be a fun gun to blast away with. The idea of a subtler hued Compact, combined with the menacing 'meat hammer' muzzle block promised to be good. In the Box Opening the box, the Tactical Carry looked blunt and purposeful.
There were no interchangeable triggers, but otherwise the contents of BBs, loader, manuals and gun were familiar Infinity fare. There were two Allen keys, one for the Hop-Up (adjusted through a hole in the top of the trigger guard) and the other to remove the interchangable trigger. There was no suitable Allen key provided to remove the muzzle block. First Impressions The Tactical Carry is a baby SV Infinity. The first things that strike you are the compact dimensions. As well as being short in length (the slide is 3.9" long, with the barrel from a 4.3"), the Tactical Carry has a shortened grip (like the Compact and Concealed Carry, which is just a Compact in black and silver.
Up front, is the 'meat hammer' muzzle block. The inner barrel extends into this. The idea, I am told, on a real gun is to provide somewhere for gasses from the barrel to go if the gun is pressed close in against someone's body. Lovely...
There's also a fixed panel in place of the grip safety and there's a rail, on the front of the frame, should you wish to fit a torch for tactical purposes. Closer Look The SVI Tac Carry is a typical WA Infinity in many ways.
The grip and trigger guard are a one piece plastic moulding, which bolts onto the metal frame. On top of the rail, is the typical Strayer Voigt bushless slide, cone barrel and recoil rod.
On the Tactical Carry, the frame is from a 4.3" barrelled version and has a rail built into it. At the very front a metal block, with a meat hammer like finish, carries the extra half inch or so of barrel that the 3.9" slide doesn't cover. This is attached to the frame buy an Allen bolt on the underside of the frame.
The Tac Carry is mostly black and carries few markings. The slide is marked "INFINITY" on either side and the, silver chamber cover bears "INFINITY .45 ACP" (as do most Infinities). On the frame, there is the SV logo on the right side, over the trigger, along with "WA" and "ASGK". The, shortened, grip bears the SV logo in silver.
There is a single (for a right hander) thumb safety and the usual grip safety is gone, replaced (as on the 3.9" Prokiller) with a fixed panel. Personally, I don't miss the grip safety, but the lack of an ambidextrous hammer safety is a pain for left handers.
The hammer is serrated and skeletonised and the black (very Prokiller like) trigger is also skeletonised. The manual shows this is interchangeable, but no alternatives are provided. The safety, hammer and slide lock are all black painted and the only relief is visible in the ejection port, where the silver chamber cover is visible, or with the slide open, when the silver barrel is visible.
The 24 round magazine (which will not fit bigger Infinities, although the 30 and 52 round magazines will fit the Tac Carry) is plain black on this model. The grip (10 CM long on this gun, rather than 11 on the full size Infinities) is black and secured with black Allen bolts. The magazine release is also black. Shooting Impressions This is where the Tactical Carry suddenly lost some of its appeal. Being about the same size as a KSC Glock, it certainly feels comfortable to shoot and lacks the Glocks irritating POP, but the actual performance, as I had found with the Custom Xcelerator Compact, was disappointing by the standards of the full size Infinities.
Carrying out my standard 5m/6 round, off hand test, I could not better a 3 inch (8 CM) diameter. Shown on the results above as squares (without crosses), these fell into a group of 3, just 1 inch (2.5 CM) across, directly below the target centre, a pair an inch apart further down and shot off to the right. I was expecting to need to master the little Tac Carry, somewhat, but repeated firing failed to produce anything notably better. Power wise, too, it failed to impress. Over 10 shots, the Tac Carry averaged 237 fps (using 134a gas) indoors (around 10C). This was some 50 fps lower than the 6" Infinity single stacker which I tested at the same time Take Down Take down is typical Infinity (basically a pain!), complicated (as on the Gigant) by the presence of the muzzle block.
With the magazine out, you need to remove the muzzle block by undoing the Allen bolt under the frame. Bizarrely, neither of the Allen keys provided fitted the bolt under the rail, which holds the muzzle block in place. That done, the slide must be pushed back to allow the slide lock to be pushed through the frame and then the slide and barrel can be slide off the frame as a unit. Further disassembly requires removal of the recoil rod front part. Conclusions Overall, I was a bit disappointed by the Tactical Carry. It's not accurate and it's not powerful, but I was not expecting either really.
The sense of disappointment is caused by something less measurable, but I suspect it is because it feels a little too much like a single action Glock to deliver much sense of 'specialness'. It lacks the impressive feel of the 5 and 6" Infinities and offers none of the tactile pleasures of the WA Berettas (or their accuracy!). Maybe I was just expecting too much of this little Infinity or maybe the Compact's riot of colour is what really made it so entertaining after all. John at Elite described the Tac Carry as 'Marmite'. You either love it or you hate it. It wasn't for me, but it might be just what you are looking for. Weight : 900g
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