Your hypothetical 1911 build

[00 Buck]

BTW, if anyone here hasn't heard of it before, look into the EGW oversized square firing pin stop. It's a reproduction of John Moses Browning's original design which was altered because the U.S. Calvary found the gun too hard to **** with it. A FPS with a large radius was adopted instead, which makes ****ing easier but also effects the gun's timing. Many people report large improvements in felt recoil and muzzle flip from switching to the original design. You have to file a .002 inch radius onto it yourself or get a smith to do it, but IMO it's worth it--in fact it's mandatory if you want to shoot something hotter than .45 ACP through it.

I bet it also adds to the gun's durability as well.

My ideal build would be something like my springfield professional, without the checkering on the front-strap.

 

[Lug's Spear]

1911 Bear Gun

Caspian 6" Carbon-Steel Long Slide:
-Snakeskin Flat-Top
-Diamond front and rear serrations
-Recon radius cut
-Reverse plug cut
-Lowered and flared ejection port

Slide Options

Caspian Recon Race Ready Carbon-Steel Receiver
-Beavertail cut
-Diamond plate front-strap
-Integral plunger tube
-Hand fit to slide
-Cut for ramped barrel

Race Ready Recon Receivers
Receiver Options

Barrel:
Scheumann 1911 Auto Ultimatch Bull Barrel
-Threaded
-.460 Rowland converted
-Integral Ramp
-EGW Five-Chamber Compensator
-Hand slide/frame fit
-Random high-quality link etc.

1911 AUTO ULTIMATCH BULL BARREL - Brownells

1911 AUTO FIVE CHAMBER COMPENSATOR - Brownells

Misc Upper Parts:
-Wilson Combat "Factory Plus" Extractor and Ejector
-EGW Oversized Firing Pin Stop hand fitted to 2/1000 inch radius
-Wilson Combat 18 lb. Recoil Spring and FLGR (Only because I have to)
-Titanium firing pin
-Trijicon three-dot night sights
1911 AUTO OVERSIZED FIRING PIN STOP - Brownells

Receiver Parts:
-Ed Brown Memory Groove Beavertail Grip Safety
-Wilson Combat Extended Mag. Release and Ambi High-Rise Thumb Safety
-Masen Extended Slide Stop
-Ed Brown Sear Spring/Lightweight Trigger/Misc. action and receiver parts
-Cylinder and Slide Drop-In Triggerpull Set (bobbed hammer, sear and disconnector)
-Whatever flat non-serrated mainspring housing with a laynard ring I could find with whatever decent mainspring housing parts I could buy in a set
1911 AUTO HIGH-RIDE AMBI THUMB SAFETY - Brownells
MASEN 1911 AUTO EXTENDED SLIDE STOP - Brownells

1911 AUTO MEMORY GROOVE BEAVERTAIL GRIP SAFETY - Brownells

Misc.:
-Chip McCormick Shooting Star magazines
-Good tactical light to put on rail, pachmyr rubber grips

Finish: All gun parts and surfaces plated in Electroless Nickel/Boron Nitride composite

I don't think I forgot anything. This gun is obviously for if you get a mama grizz pissed at you, or need to really fuck some random large mammal/vehicle/god up

When you call this a bear gun, would you be using it for hunting bears? Just curious. Also, what made you go with the lanyard loop mainspring? I'm trying to pick out a mainspring for my new 1911 right now and I am having a hard time deciding to go lanyard loop or not.

 

[RevMrBlack]

I like the full sized Springfield Arms one I have but the Kimber ones are awful nice looking too:

Yes, I would love to have the Punisher Grip

I've got 'em on my Taurus.

 

[Gregolian]

Nice. My 1911 is Stainless right now but I would love to have a black one.

 

[Gallachobar]

When you call this a bear gun, would you be using it for hunting bears? Just curious. Also, what made you go with the lanyard loop mainspring? I'm trying to pick out a mainspring for my new 1911 right now and I am having a hard time deciding to go lanyard loop or not.

You could hunt bears with it, and people do, but I don't have plans to. This is just a build I really want to make the next time I have the extra money. AFAIK it's pretty much the most power you can get out of a 1911 platform--.460 Rowland is comparable to .44 mag but it's in a 1911 so it leaves D-eagles in the dust.

I really like the way the flat mainspring housings with a laynard loop look. It gives the pistol the classic lines of a WW1-era 1911 and almost nobody uses them.

The flat MSHs, at least for me, seem to give a better and more secure grip on the gun. As for the laynard loop, with a laynard they vastly improve weapon retention if for any reason you ever have to climb, swim, run etc. with your weapon. You can tie one around your wrist, onto a gunbelt, wear it around your neck--lots of uses. EDIT: I suppose it could also be used to prevent someone from taking the gun away from you in certain situations

 

[Gallachobar]

I bet it also adds to the gun's durability as well.

My ideal build would be something like my springfield professional, without the checkering on the front-strap.

Well now that you mention it since it works by increasing the amount of momentum the slide has to expend on ****ing the hammer as it moves rearward after firing it should theoretically improve the service life of the slide and frame.

I'm not a big fan of checkering either, though I wouldn't mind it too much if it was on a SA Professional.

 

[Lug's Spear]

You could hunt bears with it, and people do, but I don't have plans to. This is just a build I really want to make the next time I have the extra money. AFAIK it's pretty much the most power you can get out of a 1911 platform--.460 Rowland is comparable to .44 mag but it's in a 1911 so it leaves D-eagles in the dust.

I really like the way the flat mainspring housings with a laynard loop look. It gives the pistol the classic lines of a WW1-era 1911 and almost nobody uses them.

The flat MSHs, at least for me, seem to give a better and more secure grip on the gun. As for the laynard loop, with a laynard they vastly improve weapon retention if for any reason you ever have to climb, swim, run etc. with your weapon. You can tie one around your wrist, onto a gunbelt, wear it around your neck--lots of uses. EDIT: I suppose it could also be used to prevent someone from taking the gun away from you in certain situations

. Have you heard of the 50 GI round? There is a 1911 brand out there that makes a 1911 that shoots 50. They are called guncrafters industries.

 

[sethk]

Heres my Kimber.

 

[Lug's Spear]

Heres my Kimber.

She is a beaut, are those Esmeralda's grips?

 

[sethk]

She is a beaut, are those Esmeralda's grips?

Thanks and they sure are. She does some good work.

 

[Flexwave2003]

They're for making you come everytime you see your gun.

The first thing I noticed was how beautiful that 1911 is, I probably sat there admiring it for 20 seconds before I read your words above. Then I just started laughing my ass off.

Im impressed with Springfield 1911's, I would likely look towards Colt myself, but it may be true I am a Colt nut hugger.

 

[Gregolian]

I love my Springfield 1911 Flex.

 

[Byron Pechorin]

I would pick the most expensive gun on Les Baer's or some other high end custom shop's catalogue (non commemorative) and put a set of elephant ivory grips on it. Then I would never let it out of my sight.

 

[Byron Pechorin]

Personally, I wouldn't try to custom build one with parts. Finely tuned high end 1911's are more than the sum of their parts as their master gunsmiths take a lot of care and effort into the fit and finishing of the pieces. Also, if you build it yourself, you'll have no one to send your gun into for warranty if something goes wrong.

 

[Gallachobar]

. Have you heard of the 50 GI round? There is a 1911 brand out there that makes a 1911 that shoots 50. They are called guncrafters industries.

Yeah I think I saw that in a Guns and Ammo not too long ago. I'm somewhat wary of pistols that come with their own special round you can only get from the manufacturer, plus from what I've read despite being .50 caliber rather than .45 the round is actually weaker than the .460 Rowland in terms of energy and velocity.

 

[00 Buck]

Personally, I wouldn't try to custom build one with parts. Finely tuned high end 1911's are more than the sum of their parts as their master gunsmiths take a lot of care and effort into the fit and finishing of the pieces. Also, if you build it yourself, you'll have no one to send your gun into for warranty if something goes wrong.

I agree. Almost all of the parts on a 1911 must be fitted. This is not a simple parts swap or armorer's build.

Too bad most of the custom smiths have a huge waitlist. Some like John Harrison and Steve Morrison might still be taking new work, if you can wait.

Springfield's custom shop is great too since they build the professional and other high end 1911's there.

 

[Gallachobar]

Personally, I wouldn't try to custom build one with parts. Finely tuned high end 1911's are more than the sum of their parts as their master gunsmiths take a lot of care and effort into the fit and finishing of the pieces. Also, if you build it yourself, you'll have no one to send your gun into for warranty if something goes wrong.

Slide/frame combinations can be purchased which are already pre-fit. Beyond the slide/frame all the fitting which needs be done can be carried out with a good set of files/stones and a decent pair of calipers. Finishes are available which can be applied at home and are superior even to those found on most top-shelf custom pistols (ex. Electroless Ni/Co/BN composite plating). The quality of a 1911 has much more to do with the quality of the parts than who assembled it. Several points such as the slide/barrel fit are critical but can be done by people other than master gunsmiths, even people without smithing experience--assuming they do their homework and are careful.

All this can be done for much cheaper than buying a custom gun and is extremely satisfying. Also, if you can build a gun from scratch you likely won't need to have it worked on if something goes wrong--after your done you should understand the weapon well enough to take care of most issues.

Really a lot of "famous" custom smiths are full of shit to no small degree. It's not like anyone has a secret formula for making a superior 1911, for most purposes the original design is near impossible to improve upon. Given good parts even an adequate job will result in a gun that is more accurate than you could ever hope to shoot and is exceedingly reliable. A lot of the hype about x shop or another is just that.

 

[Gallachobar]

I agree. Almost all of the parts on a 1911 must be fitted. This is not a simple parts swap or armorer's build.

Too bad most of the custom smiths have a huge waitlist. Some like John Harrison and Steve Morrison might still be taking new work, if you can wait.

Springfield's custom shop is great too since they build the professional and other high end 1911's there.

You've got slide/frame fit on the rails, barrel upper lugs fit, barrel breechface fit, and barrel bushing/ bushing slide fit. If a prefit frame/slide combo is used and then the barrel fit to the slide then 90% of the fitting is already done. Bushings are ordered rather than hand-fit, as are most other parts. Chances are the vast majority of them will drop in and fit perfectly. Grip safeties are easy, especially if you buy a frame pre-cut for them. Sear/disconnectors should be bought in pairs and will be pre-fit, etc. etc.

Almost all of the "fine tuning" can be accomplished with a good 1911 gunsmithing manual, a cheap set of files and some stones.

It's really not that hard. A lot of parts manufacturers make what are called "semi-drop in" parts which are just slight over specification and can be easily fit to most frames/slides. Once you're done any issues should be easy to locate and fix. Maybe it's just because I fuck around with this stuff a lot but I don't see what the big deal is.

 

[00 Buck]

You've got slide/frame fit on the rails, barrel upper lugs fit, barrel breechface fit, and barrel bushing/ bushing slide fit. If a prefit frame/slide combo is used and then the barrel fit to the slide then 90% of the fitting is already done. Bushings are ordered rather than hand-fit, as are most other parts. Chances are the vast majority of them will drop in and fit perfectly. Grip safeties are easy, especially if you buy a frame pre-cut for them. Sear/disconnectors should be bought in pairs and will be pre-fit, etc. etc.

Almost all of the "fine tuning" can be accomplished with a good 1911 gunsmithing manual, a cheap set of files and some stones.

It's really not that hard. A lot of parts manufacturers make what are called "semi-drop in" parts which are just slight over specification and can be easily fit to most frames/slides. Once you're done any issues should be easy to locate and fix. Maybe it's just because I fuck around with this stuff a lot but I don't see what the big deal is.

Maybe. But I don't even have time to reload, let alone learn how to do all of that. And there might be details missed. I won't even trust a general gunsmith to put together a 1911. Must be a specialized 1911 guy.

I do have those Kuhnhausen shop manuals and sometimes read them though.

 

[Lug's Spear]

I agree. Almost all of the parts on a 1911 must be fitted. This is not a simple parts swap or armorer's build.

Too bad most of the custom smiths have a huge waitlist. Some like John Harrison and Steve Morrison might still be taking new work, if you can wait.

Springfield's custom shop is great too since they build the professional and other high end 1911's there.

I recently talked to John Harrison via email since his shop is about 20 minutes from me. Apparently he isn't taking orders for almost a year because he has so many right now. I also discovered that the only guns he will work on that he didn't make himself are Springfield and colt.

Honestly I don't think it's that big of a deal to learn how to fit parts. I have two manuals on building one at this point and the directions are quite simple. The way I see it is if some other jerk can do it then why not me? I do agree with previous posts about the barrel fitting for sure. If the barrel isn't fit just right you aren't going to be hitting what you are aiming at. Supposedly precision machining can fit a slide/frame and barrel far better than a human could by hand, so I would most likely leave that up to the pros.