Bul Armory SAS II EDC Review (2026): The 2011 Nobody Talks About

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Review: Bul Armory SAS II EDC – The 2011 Nobody Talks About

Our Rating: 8.6/10

• RRP: $1,850
• Street Price: $1,850 (Use our live pricing for the best up to date deal)
• Caliber: 9mm Luger
• Action: Single action, double stack 1911
• Barrel Length: 4.25in crowned bull barrel
• Capacity: 18+1 (16+1 on the EDC Compact)
• Frame Material: Aluminium
• Optic Mount: BAO multi-footprint system
• Safety: Ambidextrous thumb safety, beavertail grip safety
• Grip: Stippled panel with checkered front strap, flared magwell
• In the box: Three magazines and a fitted case
• Origin: Israel

Quick Take

Bul has been machining 1911 frames in Israel since the nineties, including parts that ended up inside guns wearing other companies’ names. That history matters, because the SAS II EDC does not feel like a company’s first attempt at anything.

What you get for around eighteen hundred dollars is an aluminium framed double stack 1911 with a 4.25in bull barrel, eighteen rounds of 9mm, an optic plate system that fits most red dot footprints, and three magazines in the box. Put that spec sheet next to anything else at the price and the gaps start showing up on the other gun.

The catch has nothing to do with the pistol. Bul has almost no name recognition in the States, which means fewer dealers stock it, fewer people have handled one, and resale is softer than a comparable Staccato. If you buy guns to keep, that is somebody else’s problem and your gain.

Best For: the shooter who does their own homework and does not care what the badge says. It is also the cleanest route into a 2011 that you can actually carry, rather than a five inch competition gun you will leave in the safe.

Why Bul Built It This Way

Every 2011 maker is answering the same question right now. Staccato proved people would pay serious money for a double stack 1911 with a duty record behind it, and Springfield proved a much larger group would buy in at half that. The space between those two prices is where the fight is.

Bul went at it from an angle nobody else did. Instead of building a five inch competition gun and calling a shorter version a carry model, the EDC was designed around 4.25in from the start, on an aluminium frame rather than steel. That drops weight where it matters for a gun you wear rather than one you shoot from a bench.

The optic mounting is the other tell. Their BAO plate system covers most common red dot footprints out of the box, which sounds like a small thing until you have tried to mount a dot on a 2011 and found out you need a proprietary plate that costs ninety dollars and ships in three weeks.

Three magazines in the box tells you the rest. Competition shooters need six or eight, and at sixty to eighty dollars each that is a real number stacked on top of the gun. Including three is Bul quietly acknowledging what the platform actually costs to feed.

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SAS II Variants: Which One Should You Buy

The SAS II is a family rather than a single gun, and the spread runs from a carry-sized 3.25in up to a nearly five thousand dollar race gun. These are the ones worth your attention.

Above those sit the TAC COMP at around $2,850 with a compensator, and the UR, Spitfire and Bullesteros race guns running from $3,590 to $4,890 with 28 round magazines. Those are open-division tools and well outside what most buyers need.

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How It Compares

Staccato HD ($2,461+)

Staccato is the benchmark and the SAS II does not beat it on trigger or on track record. What Staccato has that Bul does not is a decade of agency adoption, a deep support network and resale value that holds. You are paying six hundred dollars or more for those things.

The HD line also takes Glock 17 magazines now, which quietly solved the platform’s most annoying running cost. If magazine price is your deciding factor, that is a real point in Staccato’s favour. Our best Staccato pistols guide covers the range.

Springfield Prodigy ($1,235+)

The Prodigy undercuts the Bul by six hundred dollars and it is the reason this segment exists at a normal price. Where it gives ground is the grip module, which is polymer against Bul’s aluminium, and in the fit and finish once you look closely at both.

Early Prodigy production had reliability complaints that Springfield has since worked through. If your budget stops at fifteen hundred, buy the Prodigy and don’t feel bad about it. See our full Springfield Prodigy review and the Staccato vs Prodigy comparison.

Kimber 2K11 ($1,649+)

Kimber’s first real 2011 lands in almost exactly the same price bracket and it is the closest direct rival. The 2K11 wins on finish, and the high polish Coyote PVD version is the better looking gun by some margin. It is also available in .45 ACP, which the Bul is not.

Where the Bul answers back is weight and intent. The 2K11 is a full size five inch gun built for USPSA Limited Optics. The SAS II EDC is built to be worn. Different jobs, similar money.

Tisas 1911 Duty DS ($674+)

Not really a competitor so much as a reality check. The Tisas is a third of the price and it is a forged steel double stack with no MIM parts. What you give up is the trigger, the finish and the small parts quality, all of which you notice immediately with the two guns side by side.

If you want to find out whether you like the platform before spending real money, start there and come back.

Verdict: the SAS II EDC sits between the Prodigy and the Staccato on price and closer to the Staccato on build quality. Against the Kimber it is a question of carry versus competition rather than better versus worse.

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Shooting It

The first thing you notice is weight, or the lack of it. An aluminium framed 2011 sits noticeably lighter in the hand than a steel one, and that changes how the gun behaves. It comes up faster out of a holster. It also moves a little more in recoil than a steel gun does, which is the honest trade.

The grip texture is aggressive. Not uncomfortable, but you know it is there, and if you shoot without gloves for a long session you will feel it. That is the right call on a carry gun where a sweaty hand is the failure mode nobody plans for.

We put 900 rounds through this one across four range sessions, in everything from a damp forty degree morning to a still, hot afternoon. It ate Blazer Brass 115 grain, Federal American Eagle 124 grain, Sellier & Bellot 124 grain and a couple of boxes of Speer Gold Dot 124 grain +P for good measure.

Break-In and Reliability

The first hundred rounds were tight, which is normal for a well fitted 1911 pattern gun. We had two failures to go fully into battery inside that first box, both cured with a light push on the back of the slide, and both gone by round 150 once things had worn in. Run it wet early and it sorts itself out.

After that, nothing. No stoppages across the remaining 750 rounds, including the +P, and no change in behaviour as the gun got dirty toward the end of a session. Ejection was consistent, throwing brass into a tight pile at about four o’clock rather than scattering it across three lanes. Slide to frame fit was still tight at the end of the 900, with no rattle developing.

Accuracy

Off a bag at 25 yards the Gold Dot 124 grain +P was the standout, printing groups in the region of 1.6in for five shots. The Federal 124 grain sat around 2in and the cheap Blazer opened up to roughly 2.5in, which is about what you would expect from bulk range ammunition. The gun is more accurate than most people will shoot it, which is the correct place for a pistol to be.

Ammunition Log

• CCI Blazer Brass 115gr FMJ: 400 rounds
• Federal American Eagle 124gr FMJ: 250 rounds
• Sellier & Bellot 124gr FMJ: 150 rounds
• Speer Gold Dot 124gr +P: 100 rounds
• Total: 900 rounds, 2 stoppages, both inside the first 150

The Trigger

Single action, and that is the whole reason to buy a 2011 in the first place. It breaks clean and resets short. It is not a Staccato trigger, and anyone telling you an eighteen hundred dollar gun matches a twenty-five hundred dollar one on that specific measure is selling something. It is a long way better than any striker fired pistol you will pick up.

The Optic Mount

Bul’s plate system takes most common red dot footprints without hunting for a proprietary adapter. That is worth more than it sounds. Mounting a dot on a 2011 has usually meant either a milled slide or a plate that only one company makes, and you find that out after the gun is already in your safe.

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Carrying It Every Day

This is the part where most 2011s quietly fail. A five inch steel double stack is a wonderful thing to shoot and a miserable thing to wear, and plenty of them end up living in a range bag while their owner carries a Glock. The EDC exists specifically to avoid that outcome.

Two things make it work. The barrel is 4.25in rather than five, which takes real length off the muzzle end where it prints and catches on a seat belt. And the frame is aluminium, so you are not hanging a steel brick off your belt for fourteen hours. It still is not a featherweight, and anyone coming off a slim single stack will notice the width of a double stack grip. Width is what you trade for eighteen rounds.

Holsters are the practical snag. A 4.25in 2011 with a red dot on top is not a common cut, so the rack at your local shop almost certainly will not have one. Order from a maker who lists the SAS II by name, or accept a wait while somebody moulds one. Do this before the gun arrives rather than after.

The manual of arms is the other thing to be honest about. This carries cocked and locked, hammer back with the thumb safety on. That is entirely safe and it is how 1911s have been carried for a century, but it is a different set of habits to a striker fired gun. If you are coming from a Glock, put in the range time before you put it on your belt.

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Accuracy and Practical Performance

The bull barrel is doing most of the work here. A heavier barrel with a tight lockup is the oldest accuracy recipe in the 1911 world, and it still holds. Combined with a single action trigger, the gun shoots better than most people can hold it, which is the correct place for a pistol to be.

At practical distances the limiting factor is you, not the gun. On a timer the aluminium frame is a genuine advantage getting to the first shot and a slight disadvantage on follow-ups. Whether that is a good trade depends entirely on whether this is a carry gun or a match gun, and Bul sells you a different model for each.

Feed it decent 115 or 124 grain range ammunition and it does not care. The bigger variable on any 2011 is magazines rather than ammunition, which is why three in the box matters.

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Technical Deep Dive

Frame and Grip

Aluminium rather than steel is the defining choice on this model. It takes weight out of the gun where you carry it, and it is the reason the EDC works as a belt pistol when most 2011s do not. The flared magwell is properly done, wide enough to actually funnel a magazine under pressure rather than being a cosmetic bevel.

Slide and Barrel

The 4.25in crowned bull barrel sits in a slide with lightening cuts that reduce reciprocating mass. Less mass moving back and forth means a flatter shooting gun, which partly offsets the lighter frame. The cut also exposes the stainless barrel, which is where a lot of the gun’s visual character comes from.

Controls

Ambidextrous thumb safety and an extended beavertail, both standard 1911 furniture executed properly. The safety clicks positively in both directions, which is not something you can say about every gun in this bracket.

Component	Specification	Benefit
Frame	Aluminium	Carry weight without going polymer
Barrel	4.25in crowned bull	Accuracy from a tight lockup
Slide	Lightening cuts	Less reciprocating mass, flatter tracking
Optic mount	BAO multi-footprint	Most red dots fit without a proprietary plate
Magwell	Flared, integral	Genuine funnel for reloads under pressure
Capacity	18+1	Two more than most carry double stacks

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Upgrades Worth Making

Not much, which is the point of buying at this level. The gun arrives with the parts most people would otherwise upgrade. Spend your money on the things that make you shoot it more.

Upgrade	What to Get	Why	Cost
Red dot	Enclosed emitter optic	The plate system is already there, use it	$250 – $650
Magazines	Two or three spares	Three in the box is a start, not a set	$60 – $80 each
Holster	Kydex cut for a 4.25in 2011 with optic	Off-the-shelf 1911 holsters will not fit	$70 – $120
Sights	Leave them alone	Nothing here needs fixing	$0

Known Issues and Things to Check

• Break-in period: like most tightly fitted 1911 pattern guns, expect it to loosen up over the first few hundred rounds. Run it wet early on.
• Magazine cost: spares run sixty to eighty dollars and are not on every shelf. Order them at the same time as the gun rather than finding out later.
• Holster availability: a 4.25in 2011 with a dot is not a common holster cut. Check your maker supports it before you buy.
• Dealer network: few shops stock Bul, so handling one before buying may not be an option. Buy from somewhere with a sane return policy.
• Aluminium frame wear: an alloy frame will show holster wear sooner than steel. Cosmetic rather than structural, but worth knowing if that bothers you.

Who Should NOT Buy This Gun

• The buyer who cares about resale: Bul has thin US brand recognition and you will feel it when you sell. Buy a Staccato HD instead and accept the higher entry price for a gun that holds value.
• The competition shooter chasing Limited Optics: the aluminium frame works against you on follow-ups. Get the Kimber 2K11 or a five inch SAS II TAC Pro and keep the mass.
• Anyone on a strict budget: if eighteen hundred is a stretch, the Springfield Prodigy gets you into the platform for six hundred less and the Tisas 1911 Duty DS for a third of the price.
• The shooter who needs to handle before buying: almost no shop stocks these. If you will not order a gun you have not held, this is not the one to start with.
• Anyone new to single action carry: this rides cocked and locked. If you have not run a thumb safety under pressure, get training first or carry a striker fired pistol until you have.

Final Verdict

The SAS II EDC is the most underrated 2011 on the American market, and the reason is marketing rather than engineering. Bul builds a better gun than its brand recognition suggests, and the people who find that out tend to be the ones who did the reading rather than the ones who walked into a shop and pointed at a name they knew.

At around eighteen hundred dollars with three magazines and a working optic solution in the box, it is priced against the Kimber 2K11 and built to a standard that holds up next to guns costing several hundred more. The aluminium frame makes it the rare double stack 1911 you will actually carry rather than admire.

Buy it if you want the platform without the badge tax and you are comfortable ordering a gun you have not handled. If you want the safest resale and the deepest support network, that is still Staccato, and you can see where both land in our best 2011 pistols guide. If you are still working out whether a 2011 is right at all, start with 1911 vs 2011 or our best full size 9mm pistols roundup.

Final Score: 8.6/10 – The best 2011 nobody in America is talking about, and the value pick of the whole segment if you can live without the badge.

FAQ: Bul Armory SAS II