ed brown's 1911 bench reference

READ THIS CAREFULLY!

We supply this information for informative purposes only. Thewriter does not assume any responsibility for any action taken as aresult of this information. If you decide to modify your gun your-self, you alone take responsibility for its safe operation. We rec-

ommend that all pistolsmithing work concerning the safeties or thesafe operation of the gun be done by a qualified pistolsmith.

Safety glasses are required wherever the use of dremel tools orbuffing wheels are involved, or the assembly/disassembly of parts

with springs under tension.

Introduction & AcknowledegementsMost of our ideas for new products come from our customers. Without a doubt, the most requested product we have everhad has been this book. When I made the decision to do one, I had no idea what I was getting into. This book is the mostdifficult project I have ever attempted. I am a machinist, tool & die maker, CNC programmer, designer, and pistolsmith.Somewhere along the way, I became an author. I don't know really how it happened as I certainly wasn't educated as one.My goal in this book was to present practical facts and photos in a format that one could acquire cheaply, and actually putto use immediately on the workbench. I sincerely hope that goal has been reached.

This book reflects our efforts to supply you, our most valued customer, the best information possible. Inside you'll findvaluable information accumulated from my 30+ years of working with the 1911. I did not go to some secret school orcollege to learn the information provided therein, but gained it the hard way. By doing, making mistakes, and redoing.The information presented here should by no means be represented as the only way to do a job. It's just one way we havefound that is successful, and will work for most of the people, most of the time. If you have a better way of doing a job,you have probably learned, as we have, the hard way - don't abandon it. I built my business by learning how to do thesame thing even better. Please do not think your way is wrong because we may have shown a different way. Althoughbooks on the 1911 are rare, there are others, and we do not profess to have studied them all. We may show a differentway of doing a job than another book might. Again, do not consider this book to be anything other than the way we dothings.

One might wonder why a book like this with so much valuable information should be sold so cheaply. After all, one tripto a pistolsmith can easily cost over a hundred dollars. This was my marketing idea. Why not sell the book at nearly cost,so that everyone can share in the information that we have made a business of? It is not our intention to make a profitwith the book, but to stimulate the sales of our parts through the inexpensive distribution of information. Now you knowwhy the book is so cheap, you should be able to afford to purchase some parts. If you need anything for the 1911, call us.

Ed Brown Products Inc.43825 Muldrow Trail

Perry, MO 63462Phone: 573-565-3261 Fax: 573-565-2791

www.edbrown.com

Copyright © 1997 by Ed Brown Products, Inc.All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission fromthe author. Inquiries should be addressed to Ed Brown Products, Inc.

Any project of this size cannot be accomplished without an enormous amount of help. I have been fortunate in thatrespect to have been surrounded by the best. I start with thanks to all of the employees of Ed Brown Products, who hadto make do without me while I spent time on this book, and took time off for various hunting trips around the world.

Thanks to my youngest son Wade, who has already shown such a mechanical aptitude for machine work it makes mewonder if there is anything he can't do. Wade is helping out where ever possible in the shop, printing all our packagingmaterials.

My only daughter, Wendy, who is already better at computers than I'll ever be, did most of the photo scans and handledthe actual computer assembly of the pages of the book. This required numerous rewrites and resetting covering over ayear. Thank you for your excellent work.

Thanks to my oldest son Travis, who is a better pistolsmith at the tender age of 21, than I was at age 30. When he is not incollege, Travis spends most of his time working on guns now, did all the gun work for the book, helped with the photos,and did much of the proof reading.

Thanks most of all to my loving wife of thirty-two years, Twylla, who has been so supportive of her young husband'shobby, that together we have turned it into a major parts business and CNC machine shop. We have gone far beyond whatwe ever imagined possible.

DISASSEMBLY CHAPTER 1 PAGE 1-1

The 1911 pistol does not require a major investment in tools for disassembly. However, there are afew specialized tools needed. Take this advice first - don't go to the hardware store. Purchase yourtools from a reputable gunsmith house. We recommend you contact Brownells, Inc. for a catlaog.They sell mail order and carry only the finest quality merchandise. They are experts in firearms andcan offer you technical service as their customer.

Brownells, Inc.200 South Front Street

Montezuma, IA 50171-1000www.brownells.com

515-623-5401

You will need a small plastic or brass hammer, a screwdriver for grip screws (or 3/32" wrench ifusing our hex head screws), an 1/8" wide flat screw driver, a 1/8" punch, a 1/16" punch, and a 1911

bushing wrench.

Before handling or working on any 1911 style firearm, ALWAYS follow theproper unloading procedure:1. Drop magazine FIRST2. Check chamber for loaded round.3. LOOK INSIDE CHAMBER!


Now wrap your left hand around the lower portion of the slide to prevent the recoil spring fromflying away. Then allow the top assembly to slip slowly forward until it clears the frame. Set theframe aside and prepare to release the recoil spring and plug. Be careful! Remove the recoil springand plug and set aside.

NOTE: If the gun has a one or two-piece guide rod installed, see page 1-14 and 1-15 for the slightdifferences in disassembly.

Field Strip Main ComponentsCheck for unloaded condition. Pull back on slide to align slide stop catch with the takedown notch inthe slide. Control the gun as shown in the photo with the right hand and push out the slide stop pinwith the left finger. Once it is popped loose, remove the slide stop completely while keeping theslide held back.


Depress the firing pin with a small punch so the firing pin stop can be removed. It should slipstraight down with little effort. Be aware this will allow the firing pin and spring to fly away, soprepare to keep them contained.

NOTE: Series 80 plungers need to be removed also. See page 1-16 and 1-17 for details of Series 80disassembly.

The barrel should slip forward easily so you can turn the barrel bushing 1/4 turn counter clockwise.Tight bushings may require the use of a bushing wrench as shown. Now the barrel and bushing canbe removed from the slide and set aside.

Normally, this is all the take down that’s necessary for routine cleaning. It’s called field stripping,but in all my years of shooting 45’s I have never needed to disassemble one in the field. I hope youdon’t try it either. I suggest a well lighted workbench with a clean, smooth floor.

If you need to disassemble the gun further, proceed as follows:


Grip Screws and Grips

Cleaning Tip:Near the bolt face is a common place forgrit to accumulate. If left alone, it couldbuild up underneath the extractor andcause a failure to extract. The bolt facecan be cleaned with an old toothbrush,and the extractor hole can be cleaned outwith a Q-tip and solvent.

Now use a small, flat blade screwdriverto remove the extractor. It should pullstraight out from the back of the slide.Be careful not to mar the sharp rearedge of the slide while doing this.The extractor should slip free easily.

Disassembly of the frame and all lowerparts should be done only on a well lightedworkbench. Do not attempt this procedurein the field unless you would like to orderreplacement parts! Begin by removing thegrip screws and grips. Use a proper fittingscrewdriver or hex wrench if the gun is soequipped. Stubborn grips may be priedloose by inserting a large flat blade screw-driver inside the magazine well and gentlyprying on the bottom just above the gripscrew bushing. Never pry on the gripsfrom their edges.

If you encounter difficulty removing thegrip screws, see pages 1-12 and 1-13.


Thumb SafetyTo remove the thumb safety, first cockthe hammer. Then place the safety inthe SAFE position. Gripping it firmlyand pulling straight out using a slighttwisting motion will usually get themout. Be watchful for the safety plungerand spring. Most of them will stay inthe plunger, but some may want to flyout and roll away.

The safety will not come out while it isin the fire position. If the gun isequipped with an ambidextrous safety,remove the extra side first. Remove itthe same way, gripping firmly andpulling while slightly twisting. Oncethe thumb safety is removed, let thehammer down. Do not simply pressthe trigger and let it slam the unpro-tected frame. Hold the top with yourthumb and let it down gently.

The plunger tube assembly inside the plunger tube can also be removed at this point. Pull it straightout toward the rear of the gun.

Hammer, Hammer StrutRemoval of the hammer is accomplished by simply removing its hinge pin and pulling it out fromthe top. Note that the pin will only come out one way as there is a slight head underneath the thumbsafety.


Mainspring Housing, Sear SpringThe mainspring housing is removed by removing the mainspring housing pin that holds it in placethrough the bottom of the frame. This is best done by lightly tapping on a punch that will fit insideof the slight countersink area on one side of the pin. It makes no difference which way this pin isinstalled, but we usually have the countersink side on the thumb safety side. In other words, the pingoes in, and comes out from left to right, as you are looking at the back of the gun.

As the housing is removed, you willnotice that the leaf type sear spring isnow free from its slot in the back of theframe.

Notice how the sear spring sets freely ontop of the sear and disconnector. It is notunderneath anything. Take this opportunityto examine how the sear spring interactswith both the sear and disconnector, andhow both of these parts are assembled intothe frame. You will need this knowledgelater during reassembly.


Internal Mainspring PartsThis is another area where the home workman has little need to disassemble these parts. If theyget loose they will fly at least twenty feet, and can cause serious eye injury. Examine your need todo this before proceeding. If you need to do the job, get a pair of safety glasses on and follow thedirections carefully.

Now, still holding the housing firmly, press the top of the housing down on the rag so the mainspringand its cap will be caught, and pull the 1/16" punch out. You should have the mainspring, cap, andthe mainspring lower plunger all safely inside the rag.

The mainspring housing is disassembled by holding it upside down against a rag placed on yourworkbench. Hold it firmly, and press a 1/16" diameter punch against the small retainer pin. Thisshould press the retainer pin through where it can be removed and set aside.

Sear Pin, Sear, DisconnectorThe sear and disconnector are removed by simply removing their pin. It is just like the hammer pin,only smaller, and comes out the same way.


Mag Catch, Lock, and SpringIf your gun is equiped with an EdBrown Oversize Magazine Button,remove it first using a 3/32" hexwrench as shown.

To remove the magazine release youwill need a small screwdriver thatwill fit well into the catch lock’s slot.

This completes the normal disassemblyof the gun. If you are a gunsmith andhave a few more specialized tools, thenyou can also disassemble the grip screwbushings, ejector, and plunger tube ifnecessary. See specialized disassemblyon the next page.

First, insert the screwdriver bladeinto the slot. Then depress the maga-zine button from the other side andapply a slight amount of pressurecounterclockwise to unlock the catch.THIS IS NOT A SCREW. It willcome out with no effort at all. Do notapply any force as it is not needed. Ihave seen dozens of mag catch locksruined by unknowing workmen tryingto unscrew the lock thinking it was ascrew.

Once the magazing catch is removed,the trigger will now fall out of therear of the gun.

If you want to disassemble the magcatch lock from the mag catch, simplygive it a 1/4 turn clockwise to release itfrom the retainer slot, and both it andthe spring will come out easily.


Tools Needed: Small brass or plastichammer, flat screwdriver for gripscrew bushings (preferably withspecial bit for grip screw bushings),pliers, 1/16" punch. Naturally, a welllighted workbench is necessary, anda small bench mounted vise is handy.

Specialized Disassembly

Be prepared to replace the bushings andpossibly re-tap the holes in the frame.Brownell’s stock the correct size tap if youneed one.

Grip Screw BushingsThe grip screw bushings will sometimescome out only with a well fitting screw-driver. I wouldn’t suggest their removalunless it is absolutely necessary.

Shown is a special bit made especially forremoving 1911 grip screw bushings. It is a wellfitted screwdriver bit, surrounded with a steeltube to keep the bit centered on the bushing.This is a very helpful item to have if you intendto remove or replace grip screw bushings. Theyare available from Brownells.


For years some bushings were assembled to the frame and then staked in place with a punch fromthe inside of the frame. Expect trouble if you have to remove this type. They usually can beremoved without ruining the frame, but frequently the bushing must be scrapped.

In our shop, we never stake the bushings, preferring to hold them in place with Loctite. Keep inmind the pistol was designed in 1910 and staking was the only way back then. Thankfully, todaywe have better means.If you encounter problems with removing the bushings, see pages 1-12 and 1-13.

Ejector Pin, EjectorThe ejector may be removed from theframe by pressing out the 1/16" diameterretainer pin. This is an extremely delicateoperation and is best done with a smallarbor press. However, if you are in a pinchand must remove it with a 1/16" punch andhammer, it can be done. Just be careful ofthe hammer hits, and drive the pin fromleft to right so it will get away from theejector pin as soon as possible. Anotherprofessional secret is to invest in several1/16" punches and cut them in differentlengths. Start with the shortest one, andonly after the pin starts to move, use alonger punch.

Usually, a 1/16" diameter punchwill not reach all the way throughthe 3/4" thick frame so you will beforced to remove the pin from theright with pliers or a vise. Carefulnot to mar the frame with the pliers!We prefer to hold the pin in a vise inour shop, but the pliers are shownhere. Many pins today are simplythe roll type, so pliers or a vise willruin them on removal. Be preparedwith a replacement pin beforeremoving the old one.


Specialized Aftermarket Parts

Scope MountsScope mounts of the grip replacement variety are fairly easy to get around. Sometimes they donot have to be removed at all. The type that bolts to the lower dust cover frequently must beremoved before you can get the slide off. That is, if the gun still has a rear sight installed. Ifthere are no sights on the slide at all, the slide may be able to slip underneath. Each installationwill have to be evaluated to make a judgement before proceeding.

Count on additional work of some type if the frame has a scope mount attached to it. If one doesneed to remove a scope mount count on it being difficult prior to beginning. Select only screw-drivers, or wrenches that are high quality, and that fit the fastener properly.

You will probably also need a clean soldering iron, or small propane torch to heat screws that areheld in with Loctite (TM). Three hundred degrees will soften any Loctite product and will nothurt the frame finish or gun steel if confined to the screw area. The soldering iron is great for thisspot work. If we use the propane torch, we keep it pointed directly at the screw in question, andhold it there for about 15 seconds. If that doesn't work, try another 15. Do not ruin the screw bytwisting its slot out before the Loctite has a chance to soften.

Thumb GuardsSome designs are simply held on by the grip panel. There are types that replace the entireplunger tube. They would not be easily removed, nor would there be any need to. Neither typeusually cause any problems in disassembly.

Custom SightsNormally, the home workman should not need to remove the sights for any maintenance work.Such work is best left to the gunsmith, or hobbyist work covered elsewhere in this book.

Slide BuffersThese polyethylene washers are sort of like a shock absorber on a car. At the point where theslide impacts the frame, they offer a cushion to prevent metal to metal contact. They simply slipover the spring recoil plug between the spring and head with a friction fit. The only caution hereis to make sure to check them often for wear or damage. Usually, they last over 1000 rounds, butwe have seen occasions where they split and come apart much sooner. If this happens, the loosepart could cause a malfunction by increasing slide friction, or worse, wedging in between theslide and frame.


Problems with grip screws or grip screw bushings

Frequently, the screws are tighter in the bushings than the bushings are in the frame, so both partscome out instead of the desired screw only. The wrong solution is to grab the bushing threadswith a pair of pliers and try to force the screw out with a screwdriver. This will ruin the finethreads on the bushing, making it unusable. The older Colts had the bushings staked in place,making them difficult, if not impossible, to remove. These guns seldom had the problem men-tioned above, but most gunsmiths prefer the newer type that can be easily removed.

There are two simple solutions for this problem. The easiest and cheapest is, of course, theslowest. It amounts to placing a drop of red Loctite on the bushing and simply screwing it backinto the frame. When you try to remove the screw a day or so later, the bushing should be held inplace with the Loctite, and the screw will probably remove easily.

If the screw still removes the bushing, stronger measures are needed, so we will refer to ourfavorite source of gunsmith supplies, Brownells, Inc. of Montezuma, IA. There we will find anifty tool called an Impact Driver. This little device is sort of like an industrial strength screw-driver. It is a 3/8" square drive so it can be used with your 3/8 socket set to break loose all typesof frozen nuts and bolts.

The tool has a dual cam inside so that a sharp twisting motion is transferred to the bolt/nut whenthe driver is hit with a hammer. This sudden motion is all that is needed to pop the most stub-born screw loose. Remember, the screwdriver bit must fit perfectly to prevent damage to thescrew.

For this job we need to adapt a screwdriver bit, so a socket drive adapter will be needed. Thislittle adapter has a 3/8 square drive on one end and a 1/4 hex on the other, making possible theadaptation of Brownell’s Magna-Tip (R) screwdriver tips. Incidentally, if you are trying to workon guns without a set of these screwdrivers, STOP! Do not ever try to work on any gun withoutthe proper fitting screwdriver. Brownells has a complete selection of dozens of interchangeableblades and several types of drivers. You need these for most any type of gun maintenance or yourgun will soon take on a butchered appearance.

Back to the problem at hand. Select the proper size bit to fit the grip screw andtighten up the stuck screw/bushing assembly in the gun. That’s right, I said tighten it up. Thescrew will not get any tighter in the bushing, but the bushing must be tight in the frame for thenext step. Don’t go overboard though, and strip out the threads.


Usually a single blow will do it. If one blow does not, try again after checking to be sure everythingis square and well fitted and there is no damage done. Once the stuck screw is out, the bushing canbe removed and reassembled to the frame with Loctite. Future disassembly should not be difficult ifcommon sense is used while reinstalling the grip screws. Never use Loctite on the grip screwsthemselves.

As for the installation of your new grips, use a little common sense here also. Many of the customgrip makers use a tighter tolerance on the bushing holes than the factory does. This makes the gripsfit tighter. This is desirable, but if they are too tight they cannot be installed and removed easily.The worst thing to do is to force the grips on with a thumb on each side of a snug bushing. I haveseen beautiful exotic wood grips broken in half this way.

The proper way is to set the grips over a single bushing to check for proper fit. If one bushing willnot go into the grip panel, it is for sure that the panel will never go over both bushings. If bothbushings will fit easily, but the grips will not go on the gun, there is a slight out-of-location problemthat can be easily corrected with a small rat-tail file, or miniature cutter in your Dremel tool. Goslowly here, you can always cut more later, but you can’t put it back. Identify the interference area,and only cut away the tight spots. Do not enlarge the entire hole if it doesn’t need it.

Ed Brown Products has available 1911 grip screws that are made with a hex head. They look reallynice even though that is not their purpose. They prevent screwdriver slips that could ruin a set ofnice grips, or mar the finish of the gun itself. Even if custom grips are not used, they speed up thegrip screw removal for routine cleaning.

Now assemble the impact driver with theproper fitting bit and turn the driver sothat a single hammer blow will pop thescrew loose. The driver will work bothways, so double check that a blow willloosen the screw, and not tighten it anymore. Press the driver down firmly onthe screw, with the gun held down tightlyon a piece of carpet. Then whack thedriver with a hammer.


Two-Piece Guide Rod equipped gun

Before you even start disassembly, the first step is to loosen the front end of the guide rod with a 5/32hex wrench as shown and remove it. Then follow the instructions for normal disassembly as de-scribed in the beginning of this chapter.

One-Piece Guide Rod equipped gunOne-piece guide rods are probably themost difficult to disassemble. Thisdifficulty is the reason for two piecerods in the first place. About the onlyadvantage they offer is the fact thatthey will never come apart duringfiring. A fact that two piece rods cannotbrag about. However, their difficultdisassembly procedure outweighs theiradvantages in my opinion.

Pull back on slide to align slide stopcatch with the takedown notch in theslide. Control the gun as shown inthe photo with the right hand andpush out the slide stop pin with theother finger. Once it is poppedloose, remove the slide stop com-pletely while keeping the slide heldback. This photo doesn't have aguide rod installed, but the procedureis identical.

Pull the top half off of the gun. Normally, itis impossible for the guide rod and spring tocome out of the slide at this point, but beready to catch it if there is an exception.


With the top assembly removedfrom the frame, the guide rod headwill now slip to the rear enough toallow the bushing to turn when therecoil plug is depressed. PLEASEWEAR SAFETY GLASSES. THEPLUG IS UNDER QUITE A BIT OFPRESSURE AND COULD INJUREYOU IF YOU LOSE CONTROL OFIT. The photo shows how to depressthe plug and turn the bushing at thesame time. NOT PARTICULARLYTHE WAY TO HOLD THE SLIDE.IT IS MUCH BETTER TO POINTIT AWAY FROM YOUR FACE.

Once the recoil plug is free from the bushing itwill come out. MAKE SURE IT COMES OUTWITHOUT FLYING AWAY AND HURTINGSOMETHING OR SOMEONE. Remove therecoil plug completely and set aside. Thenremove the recoil spring from the guide rodand set it aside.

Now the guide rod can be removed from the backof the slide, and the barrel and barrel bushing canbe removed from the front as usual. Continue withdisassembly as shown in the front of this chapter.


Here is a Colt Officers Model to dem-onstrate the additional parts that areincluded in all Colt Series 80 guns andalso the Para-Ordnance guns. Notice theround plunger and spring. This is whatwill block the firing pin at all timesunless the trigger is pulled. If you willlook beside the hammer inside theframe, you will see the lifter that willcontact the plunger and lift it up so thatthe firing pin will pass.

The first additional Series 80 step is todepress the plunger with a small screw-driver and hold it down while pressingthe firing pin fully down. As soon as bothare depressed as much as possible, let thepressure off of the plunger so that it willtrap the firing pin in a down position.Then you can remove the firing pin stop.

Series 80


With the firing pin stop removed, you can nowdepress the plunger again and the firing pinand its spring will now jump free. Make sure itdoesn't fly away, or hit you in the face. Withthe firing pin and spring out of the way, youcan now get the Series 80 plunger and itsspring out. Note that you will have to pull theextractor back just a bit because a lip insideholds them in place.

This photo shows about the amount youneed to pull the extractor back to get theplunger and its spring out. Once the plungerand spring are removed, the extractor can bepulled out. No excess pressure is requiredfor any disassembly procedure. If it will notcome out easily, you are probably doingsomething wrong.Reassemble in reverse order.

REASSEMBLY CHAPTER 2 PAGE 2-1

Trigger, Magazine Catch

We will assume the grip screwbushings, plunger tube, and ejectorare still installed on the frame. Wewill also assume the magazine catchlock and spring are installed into themagazine catch. Insert the triggerinto the frame and drop in the maga-zine catch.Hold a bit of pressure against thebutton while gently turning the lockwith a small screwdriver so it willline up with it's slot inside the frame.The little tab on the magazine catchlock should engage a small slot insidethe frame which will release thespring and hold the magazine catch inplace.

Disconnector, Sear, Sear Pin

Hold the frame in a muzzle downposition for this entire procedure. Dropthe disconnector into it’s hole in the topof the frame and make sure the bottomis resting on the trigger as shown, andnot underneath it. Make sure the searhas the polished sharp edge facingtoward the top of the gun and drop it ontop of the disconnector. The concavearea should be facing you.


Start the sear pin from the left side of the gunand insert it until it is stopped by the misalign-ment of the sear. Now take your small screw-driver and lift the tip of the sear slightly untilthe hole lines up. This will take a bit of maneu-vering, but is easy after you have done it a fewtimes. Press the sear pin through the sear, andmake sure it goes through the hole in the centerof the disconnector as well.

Mainspring HousingThere are two pieces that go into the mainspring housing in addition to the mainspring itself. Thetop one is the mainspring cap, and it’s concave area holds the hammer strut centered in the housing.The one with the pointed end is called the mainspring housing pin retainer. Its job is to hold themainspring housing pin centered into the frame when the whole assembly is together.


Install the mainspring housing pinretainer into the bottom of the main-spring and insert them both into thehousing. Insert the mainspringhousing cap in the end of the spring.Also, just start the tiny mainspringhousing retainer pin into the housing.Hold the assembly horizontal firmlyand depress the spring and cap intothe housing with your 1/8" punch.Quickly press the retainer pin inplace to hold the assembly together.This is another procedure that seemsdifficult until you have done it a fewtimes.

Set the sear spring in it’s location slot in theback of the frame. The left leaf should be ontop of the sear, the center leaf should bearagainst the disconnector, and the right leaf isfree for now. It will place tension on the gripsafety when it is assembled, so sticks out of theframe a bit right now. Making sure the searspring is in it’s lower location slot, slide themainspring housing into the frame. Stop justshort of flush with the bottom, and then installthe grip safety. Holding the grip safety inplace, press the mainspring housing home andinstall it's lower pin. This usually requires a tapfrom the brass or plastic hammer to seat itfully.


Hammer, Hammer Strut, Hammer Pin

Insert the hammer, assembled with itsstrut down from the top of the frame. Itshould go nearly to its final position. Ittakes a bit of trickery here to make thejob easy. First depress the top of thedisconnector to make sure the sear is outof the way. Then tilt the hammer towardsthe muzzle, drop it in, and press downhard on the back of it’s lower area toalign it with the hinge pin hole. Whileholding it in place, press the hammer pinin place. Don’t forget the pin should goin so its head is held in by the thumbsafety. Once the hammer is in place, cockit back and leave it.

To get it into the final position youneed to depress the plunger inside theplunger tube. That small flat bladescrewdriver is perfect for this. De-press the plunger and press on thethumb safety. Pull the blade out andthe safety should pop into place. Ifthe gun is equipped with an ambidex-trous safety, the right hand lever canbe installed at this time.

Thumb Safety, Plunger AssemblyInsert the plunger spring assembly intothe plunger tube if it isn’t already there.Hold the grip safety firmly into the frameand install the thumb safety. Rememberit will only go into the frame in theSAFE position, with the hammerCOCKED.


Insert the pin/spring assembly into the slideand hold it in place with your 1/8" punch.Replace the firing pin stop and the firing pinwill pop through the hole and hold it inplace. Again, be aware of parts under springpressure. Wear safety glasses and usecaution!

NOTE: Series 80 guns: see pages 1-16 and1-17 and follow the instructions in reverseorder.

Extractor, Firing Pin, Firing Pin Spring,Firing Pin StopInsert the extractor into the slide and align theretainer slot with your large screwdriver.Sometimes I even trial fit the firing pin stop tomake sure that it will fit easily. Make sure thefiring pin spring is secure on the firing pin.The small end of the firing pin spring shouldbe placed on the firing pin so it is secure.

Grips, Grip ScrewsReinstall the grips and their screws.There is no need to get the screwsany more than snug. You could causegrip screw bushing problems by overtightening the grip screws. Don’tworry about them falling out, theywill be right under your hand. If youhave snug fitting custom grips, pressthem on only by single thumb pres-sure exactly on top of the screw hole.I have seen them cracked by placing athumb on each side of the bushingand pressing.


Final Top AssemblyThis final assembly procedure differs considerably from standard factory manuals. It is the way mostall custom pistolsmiths assemble guns, and we feel it is a much more reliable method. Just one of theadvantages of this method is the fact that you never have to turn a tightly fitted match bushingagainst the barrel when it is locked up under the tension of the recoil spring. This one advantagealone is worth the hassle of learning to squeeze the recoil spring into the slide and assemble the gunin two major components.

Barrel, Barrel Bushing, Recoil PlugInsert the barrel and barrel bushing into theslide. Turn the bushing clockwise as far as itwill go to allow the insertion of the recoil plugfrom the front of the slide. Insert the recoil plugand turn the barrel bushing back counter-clockwise to it’s final location as shown below.

This photo only shows the slide with the barrel,bushing, and recoil spring plug in place, readyfor the addition of the recoil spring and recoilspring guide.


As the recoil spring and guide head getpressed into the slide, the other hand wrapsaround and holds them in place. The headagainst the folded up link is sufficient.

This step is the most difficult, but as wehave said before, once you have done itseveral times, it becomes extremelysimple. First, assemble the small end ofthe recoil spring over the guide portion ofthe recoil guide. Now cram the recoilspring down into the slide and hold boththe spring and guide in place against thebarrel. This is easiest with the muzzleheld straight down against a workbench.

Now holding this top assembly firmly,begin to slip it onto the frame. As itslides along the rails, the fingers hold-ing the recoil spring and guide headwill meet with the dust cover on thefront of the frame. At this point, pressdown on the top of the barrel hood witha spare thumb, or base of a finger. Thiswill force the barrel into a unlockedposition, and prevent the link fromunfolding past center.


Now look inside the slide stop hole to insure the link hasn’t unfolded. It should be easily visible init’s proper location. If it has somehow unfolded during the process, all is not lost. Continue to holdthe assembly in place and reach inside the slide stop hole with your small screwdriver and flip ittowards the muzzle.

Reinstall the slide stop in it’s hole and CAREFULLY press it in place. Do not use this opportunity toswing it on it’s radius and mar up the side of the frame. Occasionally, the plunger will not easilyretract into the tube to allow the slide stop to go home. This will require additional help by depress-ing the plunger with the small screwdriver.

Continue to release your fingers fromtheir spring grasp as they go past thedust cover, and continue to push theassembly onto the frame.

Once the frame has the spring com-pletely covered, you should now beable to hold the slide assembly andframe all with one hand. Adjust theslide location so that the slide stopnotch is aligned with the front of theplunger tube.

Additional Instructions for a two-piece guide rod equipped gunFollow the same instructions for normal reassembly with three additions:1. Make sure the two-piece rod is disassembled in two pieces.2. Be sure to use the special recoil plug included with the two-piece guide rod when the instructionscall for reassembly of the recoil plug into the slide.3. After the very last instruction on reassembly, be sure to reinstall the front end of the two-pieceguide rod using a 5/32 hex wrench as shown.


First of all, if you're gun is not equipped with a two-piece guide rod, we strongly recommend thatyou get one, as they make disassembling and assembling the gun much easier, faster, and safer.This following procedure is in my opinion the most hassle of any 1911 chore.

Additional instructions for a one-piece guide rod equipped gun

Install the barrel and bushing in the slide andfully turn the bushing clockwise .

Install the guide rod and head only from the rear.Note the spring cannot be in place at this time.

Install the recoil spring from the front andpress it down on the rod, then slip the recoilspring plug on the spring with the small endfacing outward.


Depress the recoil plug and spring into theslide. You will notice that this may be quitedifficult due to the spring tension. One easierway is to press the plug and spring into placeby pointing the assembly away from yourself,and pressing the plug against the edge of theworkbench until it is flush with the end of theslide. Then, while holding it in place againstthe workbench, tap the bushing over the edgeof the plug with a plastic hammer, or screw-driver handle. This will hold it until you canpress the plug down with the bushing wrench,and turn it into final position.You may need to manipulate the rod a bit onthe rear to get this accomplished. Please wearsafety glasses in case of a slip, and keep theassembly pointed away from your face.

Installl the slide on the gun by folding thelink up aginast the barrel and slipping it on.If the link wants to unfold before reaching itslocation, a bit of pressure on top of the barrelwill prevent this.

Hold the slide in place with one hand andreinstall the slide stop with the other, makingsure the slide stop goes through the hole inthe link. Refer to the photo on page 2-8 ifnecessary.

While keeping pressure on the plug, turn thebushing into a locked position. The guide rodwill slip far enough back against the barrel lugsto allow this.

Don't over do it! One drop inside eachside rail and one drop in the center ofthe slide will suffice for this area of thepistol. Lock the slide back and place onedrop on the barrel in front of the bush-ing. If the gun has a guide rod, one dropon it helps too.

Here are some photos showing a fewareas that need constant attention. Noneed to drench it. One drop in each areadoes better than a squirt in only oneplace. Attention to detail and commonsense are what's needed here.

PROPER CARE OF YOUR 1911Keep the pistol well lubricated. Break-Free, FP-10, LSA, andothers are specially formulated to keep your pistol lubricated.This is an area overlooked by many shooters, and they wonderwhy their gun operates poorly. Would you start your car enginewithout lubrication? Lube all parts that move against eachother, especially in the barrel fit area and slide to frame fit area.

Unfortunately, our guns don't have a crankcase, so the oil seemsto get away. If you overlube, a messy hand is the only problem.If you underlube, a worn and unreliable gun is the result.

MAINTENANCE AND PROPER HANDLING CHAPTER 3 PAGE 3-1


BARREL LEADINGAll bullet makers brag about how hard theirbullets are. Trouble is, almost all bullet mak-ers offer a bullet that leads the barrel. Noproperly hard cast bullet will lead a barrelwhen fired at 45 ACP velocities. See theloading chapter for more detailed information.When your barrel does get severely leaded, agood way to remove the fouling is with aLewis Lead Remover. This little item isindispensable for this particular job. The trickis a rubber plug which forces a brass screenagainst the bore. The plug is pulled throughthe bore in the same direction as the bullet andthe screen picks up the lead in only a fewpasses. There is no chance of damage to thebore. Lewis Lead Removers are availablefrom Brownell's and are a necessary item forany handgun shooter that uses lead bullets.

GENERAL CLEANING

A shortcut to extractor death isto never remove it for cleaning.If you will examine the design ofthe gun, you will notice theextractor fits into a round holein the slide. But, the extractorshape is somewhat oval, whichleaves a gap on the outside.This gap allows burnt andunburnt powder to enter andeventually work its way aroundin front of the extractor. If leftunattended long enough, thecrud forces the extractor hookaway from the bolt face and youget a failure to eject. Thesolution is simple. Remove itand run a cotton swab throughthe hole. You might be sur-prised what comes out.

I suggest cleaning the gun after every shooting session. I don’t mean a complete tear down, but asimple field strip cleaning will take very little time and add years to your guns life. A gun has noway to retain oil when it is being fired so be sure to replace what was lost during firing and cleaning.Oil all the parts that move against one another with a drop or two of your favorite oil.


GUN HANDLINGEven though the 1911 design has been around for over eighty years, there is a constant flow of newshooters who have not yet learned the few tricks that successful handling can contribute. Probablythe most important item to learn is how to save the all important trigger pull. Rule one is never todrop the slide without a round being fed from the magazine.

There are two important reasons for this.While the pistol is normally being fired,cycling takes place while the trigger isbeing pulled fully to the rear. This allowsthe sear spring to move the sear intoposition to catch the hammer and thusprevent fully automatic firing. The resis-tance of the cartridge moving from themagazine and underneath the extractor,also slows the slide somewhat and allowsit to feed the round and seat it in thechamber.

WRONG!

The biggest difference in loading the gun, and the gun loading itself during firing is the position ofthe trigger. During firing, the trigger is held back while the gun cycles and feeds itself. This pressesthe disconnector to the rear, and allows the sear to catch the hammer freely. During loading by hand,the trigger is free to bounce backward. And bounce backward it will when the slide slams home. Around fed from the magazine will cushion this action a bit better than slamming an empty gun, butnot as good as easing the slide quickly home by hand. If the gun is slammed shut, the trigger canbounce rearward and hit the sear, knocking it free of the hammer. Now the hammer is able to fall andwill hit the half cock notch. At least you better hope it hits the half cock notch. This could possiblyruin the precious sear angles and your great trigger pull. But if it somehow misses the half cocknotch, the gun will fire accidentially, and none of us want to talk about that scenario. Heavier recoilsprings only serve to aggravate this problem.

Lighter triggers have been recommended for many years as one solution to trigger bounce. A lightertrigger will accelerate more slowly against the same sear spring tension than a heavier one. The mostpopular material is light weight aluminum, and then holes are drilled in them to reduce the weighteven further. Colt has furnished a different sear arrangement with a buffer spring and lever to stopthe heavier Gold Cup trigger from bouncing. Jim Clark offers a special four leaf sear spring to assistthis problem. My solution is simple. Never slam the slide shut on an unloaded gun. Hold on to itfirmly, close it gently, and let the hammer down.


My suggested method of SAFELY loading a 1911 handgun goes like this. First, insert a loadedmagazine into the well and press it firmly home. An audible click can be heard as the magazine catchengages the magazine slot. I'll assume that you have the gun in your firing hand and your finger outof the trigger guard. Second, grab the slide rear serrations with the opposite hand and pull back todisengage the slide stop, and simply let it go forward. You can let it go completely, however, I havelong preferred to retain my grip on the slide while it is traveling forward because it eases the slam-ming just a bit more. It is simple to see if the slide is all the way home because the thumb safetywon’t go on if it isn’t.

CORRECT LOADING PROCEDURE

A frequently recommended loading practice is the suggestion to hold the trigger to the rear whilepressing the slide stop. I admit this does solve the problem of trigger bounce, but the sequence mustbe: Seat the magazine, press the trigger, and press the slide stop. If under the stress and pressure ofa missed reload, the shooter should reverse steps two and three, the result is an accidental discharge.

My suggestion is, first, never run your gun dry. If you don’t know how many rounds you have fired,you are already out of control. Second, load only by seating a magazine, then pulling the slide to therear and sliding it back home. It’s easy to see if it is fully seated when you flip the safety to the onposition. If you should happen to run the gun dry during an action match, keep trying and completethe match, but do so at a slower, more controlled pace. You will learn more by watching the frontsight than you will by slamming more magazines in the gun and wildly firing trying to make up time.


Another thing you should never do is drop around into the chamber by hand and drop theslide on it. This springs the extractor out ofposition and can ruin it. Always feed roundsfrom a magazine.

NEVER SINGLE LOAD A ROUND INTO THECHAMBER!

Another cause of malfunction is the failure of the shooter to hold on to the gun securely. The 1911,and most all other auto pistols are recoil operated. This means that the only thing the gun has topush on to unlock is the shooter himself. How many times have you seen a shooter whose gunseems to work perfectly in freestyle, croak during the weak hand stages. This is probably caused bytoo heavy a recoil spring, or too weak a grip. Make certain that your grip is firm. You should see theimprint of the checkering in your hand after releasing your grip.

Following these few principles of maintanance and proper handling will extend the life and reliabil-ity of your firearms for years of shooting enjoyment.

SWAGE ON FRONT SIGHT CHAPTER 4 PAGE 4-1

The original manufacturer, be it Colt or whoever, broaches a square or rectangular hole through theslide. Into this square hole fits the tenon, or lower part of the sight. This tenon is longer than neces-sary to reach fully through the slide and the excess is swaged, or peened over to prevent its removal.Sort of like peening a rivet.

In the early days it was customary to install target sights with a higher sight radius for bullseyeshooting. This required a higher front sight and thus more weight and stress was placed on the smalltenon. Sometimes they loosened, and sometimes the tenon would simply break off sending the sightflying away.

To complicate matters, some manufacturers never provided enough of a recess area to swage thetenon into, allowing the small swage to give up and only loosen the sight. You didn’t loose it, but youcouldn’t hit anything either.

Then in the late seventies, IPSC first became popular, and heavy loads were the norm for most 1911guns. Many pistolsmiths were only learning to install sights on 1911’s, and as you can imagine, theyhad a lot to learn. A lot of sights were lost due to poor gunsmithing.

Colt responded to the problem about 1988 with what we call the ‘wide tenon’ sights. Here, theybroach a square hole through the slide that is the whole width of the front sight. This has all buteliminated breakage, but occasionally there is some loosening due to insufficient swage on thebottom. Or more specifically, not enough countersink inside the slide to swage the tenon into.

All swage on front sights require special installation techniques, and require special tooling. Foryears I have used the MMC swage tool with excellent results. Brownells sell this tool and beforeyou get a case of sticker shock peeking in the catalog, let me warn you. The tool costs nearly 100bucks. However, mine has paid for itself many times over.

Most hobbyists will not want to spend this much money for the tool, so one could argue that thissection could be logically omitted from the book. On the other hand, you might just want to learnhow it is done thinking perhaps someday a bit of sideline gunsmithing might be in order.


First, one needs to know which type of frontsight is installed on the gun. To learn this,look inside the slide with the bushing re-moved and inspect the swaged area. Eventhough it has been swaged flat against theinside of the slide, one can still make out itsshape with a strong light. If it is square, it isprobably wide, and a rectangular shapeindicates the older style narrow tenon whichwill catch all the other guns.

The first gunsmithing step is to remove the oldfront sight. I usually grab the air grinder with a1/8" ball nose carbide burr, and grind away thecenter of the tenon from inside the slide. Don’tworry about bumping into the slide itself alittle around the sight tenon edge, we are goingto increase the size of this countersink lateranyway.


Once you are certain everything is square, begin tapping the high speed steel swage tool in the slide.As it goes in, it swages over the tenon better than factory, plus, now with the added advantage of adeeper countersink and Loctite. Remove the tool and inspect the job to make sure it is absolutelysquare. Nothing looks worse than a cockeyed 1911 front sight. If it is only slightly off, carefullyplace it in your smooth faced vise and gently straighten it. Recheck your barrel bushing fit. Some-times you need to carefully file the swaged lump down a bit.

After most of the swage is gone, place the old sight into a smooth faced vise and then pull straightaway with the slide. A little wiggling will pull most of them loose. If you should get one that willnot come out this way, a well placed tap with a 1/16" punch on the bottom of the tenon will pop itout. As soon as you get the old sight out, it is clearly visible how much of a countersink you haveinside the slide. Deepen it so that there is about .030 minimum on all sides. We want plenty of roomto swage metal into.

Now try your new sight on the slide and check carefully to see that the base of the sight will fitabsolutely flat on your slide. Most will not. Many slides do not have enough of a flat for the sight toset on. Now this is an absolute must. Either file a small notch on the rear of the sight to clear theslide, or machine a larger flat on the slide. Whichever way you choose, remember the sight MUSTfit absolutely flat on the slide.

The next trick is to fill the slot with Loctite. Use the best grade you can buy. We use Red 271.Install the new front sight and wipe out any excess Loctite from the inside of the slide. Now insertthe MMC tool in the slide and tighten up the screw on top of the sight. This will hold it firmly inplace while the tenon is swaged over. Make sure the tool is installed perfectly straight, and the frontsight is absolutely straight, or you can start over later with a new sight.

DOVETAIL REAR SIGHTS CHAPTER 5 PAGE 5-1

It might be pertinent here to mention again thatone always moves the rear sight the direction youwant the bullet strike to go. If the gun shoots to theright, you want the bullet to go to the left, so youwould move the rear sight to the left. Once youhave moved the sight slightly, reassemble the gunand get back to the range and verify the results.Don't be afraid to start over and adjust again.Seldom does anybody get it exactly perfect thefirst time.

Before attempting to move the sight, take note of exactly where it is on the slide. You have to knowif you have moved it or not. Sometimes it is possible to scribe a small mark on the dovetail where itwill be covered when the sight gets moved. This is the most foolproof way to get it right the firsttime.

Drifting or removing completely a rear sight isa common operation. Sometimes it is evendone correctly. More often however, it is not.The tools needed are a small brass hammer anda brass or aluminum punch. Brownells hasthese and I would suggest their purchase. Myfavorite punch is the steel one with the replace-able brass and nylon tips. One of these will lastyou many jobs and save the finish on the sideof the sight. You will also need a solid benchmounted vise to hold the slide properly.

Disassemble the upper half of the gun so thatall you have to work with is the slide. Mount itin a padded vise. You can use cardboard, shoeleather, or whatever to pad the jaws. Select amaterial that will not compress like rubberwould. Moving a sight with a drift punchdepends on the rigidity of the clamped slide.


As with the rear, retire to the range for another test session to determine the results of your work.Once the gun is shooting where you want it, refinish the sight with cold blue.

Remove the excess metal the best way you can. If a file is all you have, that will work satisfactorily,but be careful to keep it flat. You don't want a front sight that is out of square, or rounded off. Also,try to keep the front sight top surface angled toward the front. This will force the eye to see the toprear of the sight only, instead of the whole front sight.

If you want a fixed sighted gun to shoot higher or lower, it is a bit more work, but still possible. Oneneeds to keep in mind that the front sight adjustments work opposite of the back. That is, if you wantthe gun to shoot higher, the front sight needs to be lower. This is the easiest to adjust, because youcan remove metal. So that is exactly what you need to do. Reduce the front sight height by filing ormachining it down.

First, measure exactly what the front sightheight is. It makes no difference how this isdone, as long as it is done the same way eachtime. What we are trying to accomplish, is away to keep track of our progress as we file ormachine.


Assuming the gun needs to shoot lower, youwill have to remove the front sight andreinstall one that is taller, and then adjust theheight of it as this text advises. There is oneother way, and that is to reduce the height ofthe rear sight. This way is not especiallyrecommended, but you may find it usefuloccasionally, if the needed adjustments aresmall. Proceed as you would with adjustingthe front sight. Measure the height beforebeginning so you can see your progress, andfile carefully. This will be difficult to do,which is why I really can't recommend it. It'sfar better to install a higher front sight andreduce it's height.

Some guns have the rear sight held in place with a set screw, instead of dovetail pressure. This is theway we install fixed rear sights in our shop, and makes the job of adjusting them much easier, be-cause there is little or no pounding with hammers and punches. We have reprinted the fixed sightinstructions here.

STANDARD REAR SIGHT ADJUSTMENT

The fixed rear sight on your gun is held in place by the set screw only. We install them this way soyou do not have to hammer on the rear sight to move it in the dovetail.

Take a bottle of Loc-Tite and an Allen wrench with you to the range. Sight in the gun as you usuallywould. Now you can move the rear sight with only finger pressure, or perhaps a light tap with aplastic screwdriver handle. When you are satisfied the gun shoots where you want it to, carefullyremove the set screw and fill the hole with Loc-Tite. When the screw is replaced, the Loc-Tite willflow between the sight and dovetail, locking it in place. Shoot the gun once more before the Loc-Tite sets to ensure the sight is where you want it. We use Loc-tite's red 271 and have always hadexcellent results.

TRIGGER CHAPTER 6 PAGE 6-1

One of the finest shooters I ever knew was Mike Dalton. I recall a conversation we once had aboutthe subject of triggers. His opinion was that a three pound pull was the minimum safe, reliable pullfor the standard 1911 design. He felt that under the stress and pressure of IPSC competition, any-thing less was detrimental. As Mike put it, "With the increased adrenalin flow in a shootoff, it’s themanual dexterity that goes first. This usually causes extra pressure on the trigger leading to anaccidental discharge".

Serious shooters are probably fussier than anybody about trigger pulls. It has to be just so muchweight, just so crisp, and just so much overtravel. Most all shooters want the pull lighter than itshould be for the utmost reliability. Bill Blankenship once told me that John Browning’s originaldesign called for a 7 to 9 pound weight of pull. The NRA calls for a 4 pound pull minimum to belegal in the Service Pistol event for a Leg match.

Today’s top shooters cringe if their pistolsmith offers them any more than a three pound pull. I won’teven mention what some shooters are trying to use. The point is, do not pressure your pistolsmithinto doing an extremely light pull in an attempt to raise your scores. Generally such practices willbackfire on you at the most inopportune times.

The hammer/sear contact area is extremely small and subject to enormous pressure and wear. This isan area that should be examined closely during each cleaning session. Have your local pistolsmithpoint out the areas to watch, and examine them with at least 4 power magnification to spot wear.This practice will allow you to eliminate any problems before they even arise.

The installation of a long trigger is a common modification. Most all 1911 type autos, other than thenew “factory customs”, have the original short trigger installed. Since most shooters feel they canbenefit from having the trigger reach a bit farther out, the original trigger is replaced with a longerone.

Perhaps a more significant advantage to replacing the trigger, is that the aftermarket triggers all havean overtravel stop installed. This is simply a small set screw that will bear against the magazinerelease catch to limit the travel of the trigger. We want the trigger to have a limited movementbecause we intend to do a trigger job on the gun at a later date.


Most pistolsmiths require an adjustable stop be installed in the trigger if a trigger job is to be done.A greatly simplified explanation of a trigger job is as follows: On most guns, when a trigger job isdone the sear angles are changed slightly and the hammer hooks are trimmed. This gives the shootera crisper pull since the engagement surfaces are smaller.

In some instances the reduction of these two areas can allow the trigger to be pulled past the pointwhere the disconnector can function normally. In this case, the sear is prevented from freeing itselffrom the disconnector and doing its job of springing free and catching the hammer after a shot isfired. The result is a double discharge, or in extreme cases, the full automatic operation of the gun.Definitely not what we are looking for.

A longer trigger will not effect trigger pull. The trigger pull is determined mainly by the sear, ham-mer, and sear spring; not parts we will be changing at this time. On the other hand, a long triggermay FEEL so much better in the shooters hand, that a better trigger pull may be perceived.

One other thing I might mention is that most aftermarket triggers are made from materials likealuminum. The reason is weight. No 1911 pistolsmith would ever recommend that his customerpress the slide stop down and allow the slide to slam shut. On the other hand we all know that ithappens, and when it does, the slide hits home and the force causes the trigger to bounce in reverse,as if it was being pulled. Since the spring tension and sear angles have been reduced, the trigger canactually knock the sear out from under the hammer hooks and allow the hammer to fall. And when itdoes, the half cock notch slams down on top of the carefully prepared and stoned sear angle. Thiscould possibly ruin the trigger pull job. Therefore we want the weight of the trigger itself to be aslight as possible.

In the Gold Cup pistols which have a wide heavy trigger, Colt added a small part known as a depres-sor and a spring to a special sear. This depressor and spring act as a shock absorber to preventtrigger bounce.

Shown in the photo is a Videki longaluminum trigger with three holes drilledthrough, and an overtravel screw alreadyinstalled. There are many on the marketto choose from and Brownell’s cataloglists most all. The instructions thatfollow should work for any brand.


Completely disassemble the gun down tothe bare frame and remove the old trigger.Try to drop the trigger in place and note anyareas that seem to be snug. If you have a setof calipers, a quick comparison of thedimensions of both can be useful, but notnecessary. Do not force the trigger in anyway. The trigger bow is thin and easily bentout of shape. On most of the brands I haveinstalled, there is a bit of stock on theheight, and none anywhere else.

You will probably determine that the topand bottom surfaces will need a little metalremoved. Hold the trigger firmly, as shownin the photo, and slowly file some materialaway. Go slowly and keep the surface flat andeven. Remove about the same amount fromthe bottom and retry the fit.

You can check your progress by pressing thetrigger in gently, and holding the frame up to astrong light source. You should be able to seea slight crack on each side, and no light fromabove or below. Keep working and note anyareas which show that they are rubbing, orholding the trigger out of the frame.

Continue working until the trigger will movesmoothly in and out without any binding. Agood check for trigger operation is to hold theframe muzzle down and lift the trigger and letgo. It should drop fully forward under its ownweight without binding.


If the hammer will not go all the way down, or if you can feel the hammer rub the disconnector, theovertravel screw is too tight. Back it off. If nothing can be felt after the release, you can tighten theovertravel screw about 1/4 turn and try again. I usually tighten the screw until a slight rub is felt, andthen loosen the screw about 1/8 to 1/4 turn.

Now disassemble the lower housing and replace the grip safety and thumb safety. Since the gripsafety blocks the trigger bow, and this part has been replaced, we need to check for proper operation.Look inside the frame through the left hand grip panel to see that the grip safety will properly blockthe trigger bow. Some aftermarket triggers have slightly longer bows, so the foot on the grip safetythat blocks the trigger may need to be adjusted slightly. Again, go slowly in this area and be sure tokeep all the angles the same.

In the rare event the grip safety foot is too short to reach the new trigger bow, you may be able topeen the foot slightly, or bend a small area back on the end of the bow with needle nose pliers. Theareas that may need attention will become apparent to you as you look inside the gun with the gripoff. Remember, the point here is to return the gun to its original condition with respect to its safetyoperational features.

Finally, reassemble the gun fully and thoroughly check out the operation. All systems should operateexactly like they originally did, only now you have the benefit of a trigger that fits your hand betterand has an overtravel stop as well.

When you are satisfied with the fit, go aheadand install the overtravel stop screw with asingle drop of Loctite. A good starting pointis to have the screw protrude from the rearof the trigger about 1/16 of an inch. Installall the internal parts except the grip safety.Pull the hammer back and retain it with yourthumb as shown in the photo. Pull thetrigger and let your thumb follow it down.Do not snap the gun and let the hammer hitthe frame, keep your thumb on top.

As with most jobs, the first thing to do isgather all necessary tools. This particularjob only requires a good sharp file about 3/4" wide and a shot of Loctite. Naturally thescrewdriver that fits the grip screws, anotherfor the mag catch lock and a punch toremove the pins will be used.

ADJUSTMENTS CHAPTER 7 PAGE 7-1

Complete instructions are included with ourjig, but basically you stone the top of the searwith the medium Arkansas stone until thesurface is flat clear across. Do not take off anymore than necessary, and make sure the in-cluded shim is in place. Once the angle is set,rub it firmly with the fine India stone to get amirror surface. Note the left index finger isholding the sear securely against the adjustablescrew stop.

This is our sear jig. It is extremely simple andeasy to use. You will also need a medium cutarkansas stone about 1/2" x 1/2" x 6", and afine cut India stone. These are expensive, butwell worth the money and will last many yearsif you don't drop it on the floor. One slip andthey will break like glass. These are availablefrom Brownells.

A good way to learn about how the way thetrigger, sear, and hammer work together is toinstall them on the outside of the frame. Justlay the parts on the side of the gun, and holdthem in place with their pins. Now you shouldbe able to get a good idea of how the sear holdsthe hammer cocked, and how it will catch onthe half cock notch if necessary.

The hammer and sear spring are all shown inthis chapter because of their close relationshipwith each other. You really can't work on onewithout effecting the other. The thumb safety isalso effected, but is covered in another chapterdue to the fact that you can install a thumbsafety without effecting the trigger job.


Bend the sear spring to remove some of itstension. We always try to keep thedisconnector (center) leaf and the sear (left)leaf the same height at the top, no matter wherethey have to be. You need to always makecertain the disconnector snaps up positively,and the sear moves freely to block the hammerfrom falling. This will take a bit of trial anderror to find out what works best with yourparticular set up.

Stone the hammer sear hooks with the red rubystone only. This will smooth up the 90 degreehooks to a mirror finish. With the mediumArkansas stone, take the height of the hooksdown to .020". This is the height of the feelerguage (shim) that comes with the jig.

Set the clearance angle on the back of the searwith the medium Arkansas stone. It should beat 45 degrees to the top angle just established.This can be done by hand as explained in thejig instructions and should take up about 1/3 ofthe top flat surface. What this does is cause thetrigger to break sooner by eliminating creep.Don't take too much off, you can always takemore later if necessary. If you want to spendthe extra money, Ron Power makes a universaljig that will allow you to stone it perfect eachtime. This jig is adaptable to many other typesof pistols as well and is a very useful tool forthe pistolsmith. It will pay for itself manytimes over.


Trigger pull work is probably the most time consuming job in pistolsmithing. It usually always takesseveral times disassembling the pistol and reassembling it to try again. Try to keep this to a minimumif you are trying to make money on the job. Don't reassemble any more parts than necessary. Put apunch in the frame to hold the mainspring housing instead of pressing the pin in and out each time.Do not assemble the grip safety, it is not needed. Do not install the Thumb Safety until the job iscompletely done. You should install the slide to keep from snapping the hammer against the bareframe, but you don't need to install the recoil spring or plug.

Don't try for less than a three pound pull. In fact a good crisp four pound pull will last many years ofshooting and will be absolutely reliable. If you decide to do this type of work for others, be sure towarn them of the dangers of a .45 with a trigger job. Improper handling and slamming of the slide isnot only abusive; it can be dangerous as well. Proper handling procedures are reviewed in Chapter 3.

Last of all, be sure to check the thumb safety for proper operation. You have changed the height ofthe sear and hammer and the thumb safety may not block the sear properly. If there is ANY move-ment in the sear when the trigger is pulled, you need to install a new thumb safety, or weld up the oldone so it can be properly fitted again. See Chapter 8 for details on this operation.

Reassemble the pistols basic components and try out the new trigger. If it is still too heavy, try tobend the sear spring a bit straighter and reassemble and try again. If the trigger has too much creep,stone a bit more 45 degree clearance on the sear. Pull weight should be set by a trigger pull scale, orlifting a trigger pull set of weights. We use both in the shop, but I prefer to use the weights.

AMBI-SAFETY FIT, GRIP MODIFICATION CHAPTER 8 PAGE 8-1

With the hammer cocked, attempt to install thenew safety. With a sharp scribe, mark the pointon the button where contact is made with the sear.If your scribe will not reach it good enough, youmight make a new one by sharpening up a punchand bending it on an angle to reach between thesafety and hammer strut.

Install the old safety and notice how it stops thesear by blocking its movement. You should beable to see how the safety blocks the sear whenit is up, and allows the sear to pass when it isdown.

Replace the mainspring housing so that you cansee how the sear and hammer work with eachother.

Remove magazine and unload gun. Remove theslide and barrel assembly from the frame.Remove the old safety, safety plunger spring,right hand grip panel, and grip safety from theframe. Refer to Chapter 1 if you have any doubton how to do this. Reassemble the frame andessential lower parts similar to the photo shownhere.


Remove the new safety and remove metal insmall amounts until the safety installs flushwith the frame and works freely. Keep inmind the old machinist rule, you can alwaystake more later, but you can't put it back. Ifyou take too much off, the safety is ruinedand you will have to start over on a new one.

Most all thumb safeties need a bit of adjustingto get the feel required by the user. This iseasily done with a 1/8" burr in a Dremelgrinder, or in a small air grinder. Look at thedetent in the safety as it comes (lower right)and simply make it the same shape, only largeras shown on the right.

Some shooters like to slightly change the contactarea of the safety and the spring plunger to alterits 'feel'. Proceed very carefully in this area. DoNOT proceed unless you declare the safety is tootight, and then go very slowly, as a little heremeans a lot, and you don't want a safety that willpop on when you are firing.

AS MANUFACTURED MODIFIED FOR A DIFFERENT "FEEL"


We normally cut this with a 1/4 inch end mill in a milling machine. In this way, you can assureyourself of a sharp corner for the safety foot to rest on. If you are forced to use hand equipment, dothe very best job you can. This is an important area for function as well as looks.

Mark the underside of the right hand gripwhere the safety touches it. Carefully carvethe wood or plastic away for a free sliding fit.

PLUNGER TUBE INSTALLATION CHAPTER 9 PAGE 9-1

Make sure the plunger tube is installed prop-erly with the small hole toward the muzzle. Itwill go on backwards. Next, fit a .109 to .110drill bit or rod inside the rear of the plungertube to prevent it's being crushed. Make certainthis rod is a bit larger than the plunger that willbe expected to fit when the job is finished.

The 1911 plunger tube installation is a job that most hobbyists have no need to worry about. Like thefront sight, this requires specialized tools. It is included here for informational purposes so that thereader may become more educated in this particular area and converse with the gunsmith intelli-gently should the need arise.

First of all, removal of the plunger tube generally requires that it be ruined. The two posts that hold iton are swaged inside the frame and normally require considerable force to remove. This force couldbend the pins, crush the tube itself, or bend it beyond repair. The hobbyists should never need toremove this part, but should check the part frequently to make certain that it is secure. If the plungertube ever came loose, the spring loaded plunger inside could slip past the thumb safety on the out-side, locking it in a safe position. This would not be dangerous, unless of course you wanted to usethe gun to defend your life. Then the consequences would be disasterous.

Replacing the tube is done by first opening upthe inside of the chamfer of the holes inside ofthe magazine well. I like to use a 1/8" carbideball burr in a high speed air grinder, but aDumore hand grinder and a small grindingwheel could be used. This increase of chamfersize allows more metal to be swaged on theends of the posts to offer a more secure instal-lation.

Removal of the plunger tube is accomplishedby clamping it in a smooth faced vise andpulling it off. A bit of wiggling and pryingmay be required, but make sure the frame isnot marred in the process. This will no doubtruin the tube requiring its replacement.

The plunger tube, supported inside, is alsoprotected outside with a piece of steel. Pressthe plunger tube firmly against the slide, andthen clamp the pliers. Repeat for the other pin.Check for swaged posts interfering with themagazine and file off, or reswage to eliminateany problem here.

EJECTOR CHAPTER 10 PAGE 10-1

Brownells sell a large screw slot file. One ofthese is perfect for filing a groove in thelocation pin to allow the ejector retainer pin tobe installed. Go slowly and remove the markyou just made with the punch. Remember it isbetter to have the slot a bit too close to the topof the frame as you can always lower it. Filedtoo low the first time, you have a scrap part.Whatever you do, DO NOT try to just as-semble the ejector on the frame and run a 1/16"drill bit through to size the hole. This will notwork due to the fact that the ejector is heattreated and the frames are not. You will have abroken drill bit, or perhaps worse, a ruinedframe due to the hole leading off.

NOTE: Do not modify 9mm ejectors - leavethem long.

Mark the front location pin groove with a1/16" punch. We just take the punch andtwist it firmly so that the pin is markedwell inside the frame. Now remove theejector and hold it sideways in a vise sothat your punch mark is upright.

Make sure the ejector will fit into the holesprovided in the frame, and not overhang theback of the frame. A sloppy fit in the framewill prevent the part from working properlyand could cause malfunctions. Cut the front ofthe ejector down to an angle that will matchthe back wall of the magazine well. This canbe easily done by letting the file ride along theback of the well. File until a magazine can beslammed into the gun and will barely miss theejector. Of course, this could leave file marksinside the mag well of a blued and finishedgun. Keep this in mind if you do not intend torefinish the gun. If the ejectors are installed asmanufacutured, or left long, the gun will bedifficult to extract a loaded round. The bulletwill catch on the ejection port

EJECTOR CHAPTER 10 PAGE 10-2

Now you should have a flat on the front of theejector that appears to the eye to be rectangularin shape. Break the corner of this square on theside that the brass needs to roll off of duringejection. This also eases the transition of thebrass from the hooked position on the bolt faceto an ejected round. See the drawing for clarifi-cation. Be aware that this applies only to the.45 ACP.

Normally, the correct .45 ejector will fit a .45 slide, and the .38 ejectors will fit .38 Super slides, aswell as 9mm and 10mm. This fit needs to be checked for correct clearance. Do this by installing theslide on the frame and looking past the ejector into a strong light. You should be able to see light oneach of the three sides. If there is any interference, the gun will probably not work.

Once the groove is finished, you should be ableto install the 1/16" punch easily, while stillholding the ejector in place firmly. Thisinsures that the 1/16" retainer pin will go ineasily. If you have a 1/16" roll pin, which iscommon these days, it is best to drill the holethrough the frame with a .067 diameter drill, asthe roll pins are .005 oversize. They are alsovery difficult to install in a .062 hole.Reinstall the ejector retainer pin. It is best touse an arbor press if you have one available. Agood vise could be used in a pinch. If youchoose to merely hammer the thing in with apunch, you run the risk of slipping off andmarring the frame, or the slide rail groove. Becareful!

File a small flat on the front of the ejector sothat any sharp corner is removed. Make thisflat exactly perpendicular to the frame top. Ifa sharp corner was left here, it could mark thebrass, or get pushed over where it couldpossibly contact the moving slide. I suppose itis not impossible to speculate that such asharp corner could fire a loaded round.Stranger events have occurred.

EXTRACTOR CHAPTER 11 PAGE 11-1

Here is what the finished chamferrelief cut should look like. Notice howsmall it is, and how it is perpendicularto the area where the rim will fit. Thissmall chamfer will ease the rim of thecase into its firing position, and alsohelp prevent the ejected brass fromhitting you in the face.

Most extactors need a bit of improvement byfiling a chamfer on the bottom of the hook.Imagine the cartridge feeding up into thechamber. The rim needs to be free of the sharpcorner on the bottom of the extractor hook. Weuse a sight base file, or three corner file to getinto this area and file the sharp corner off. Donot overdo it and try to keep it perpendicular tothe hook itself. Only a very small chamfer isneeded, .015-.020.

This is a very short chapter. Do not make the mistake of assuming that it isn't very important. It isextremely important that the extractor be adjusted exactly right. If you have a Series 80 pistol, see thedisassembly instructions at the end of chapter one for the additional work you will have to do.

EXTRACTOR CHAPTER 11 PAGE 11-2

After the adjustments have been properly madeand checked, reassemble the components backinto the gun. Test your work by dry cyclingdummy rounds through the gun, and then latergo to the range and test fire.

Insert the extractor into the gun and makesure it is aligned properly by temporarilyinstalling the firing pin stop. The extractorshould be tensioned to just barely hold aloaded round flush up against the bolt face.Any less tension, the gun might not extractproperly, any more and it might not feedproperly. Many barrels have been ruined bythroating them deeper, when the feedproblem was really the extractor.

Here are two ways to bend the extractor to getthe right tension on the cartridge rim. Thephotos also show the point where the bendshould be made. It's at the edge of the vise, justin front of the center lump on the extractor.

If you don't have a vise, a crescent wrench willdo nicely. Just make sure to force the bendnearer to the wrench jaws, and not near theslide. Do this by twisting the wrench andholding the slide straight.

BARREL FIT CHAPTER 12 PAGE 12-1

Many functioning problems of the 1911 pistol occur after fitting a new barrel. So much so, that Ihave actually heard rumors that a match grade barrel is never as reliable as the factory barrel. Thetruth is that many aftermarket barrels have been so poorly fitted as to make them unreliable. Thisdoes not have to be the case.There seems to be a lot of gunsmiths who have not had any instruction on barrel fitting. No wonder,there is little written on the subject, and even fewer pistolsmiths will take the time to help. Thefollowing is a drawing and instructions that I have shared with many people in the past, and it shouldbe required knowledge to anybody who works on the 1911 design pistol.

Shown is a sketch of the lower half of a 1911 barrel. This is the most critical part of function andaccuracy and must be given the extreme attention that it deserves.

1. Focus your attention to point ‘A’. Assume that the slide stop pin is here and the gun is unlocked.As the gun begins to cycle forward, the barrel must be completely free of the slide stop at this point.Only the link will touch.

The slide moves forward and picks up a round from the magazine while the slide stop pin is approxi-mately at point ‘B’. This is the most critical point. A smooth transition must be made from ‘A’ to‘C’. If there is any binding between these two points, a malfunction is SURE to occur at least oncein a while. This binding is sometimes referred to as ‘barrel bump’ because of the dent that can beseen on the front of the poorly fitted lugs after the gun has malfunctioned several times.

Notice that the .183 to .193 radius is moved back .020 from the center of the link pin. This is thelittle item that assures you of a smooth feeding cycle. If you don’t have a rotary table and millingmachine to cut it perfectly, you can at least now install a link and know what to look for while handfiling. The goal should be for the slide stop pin to make a smooth transition between points ‘A’ to‘C’. Now focus your attention on the .030 flat from ‘C’ to ‘D’. The barrel is locked at zero at point‘C’, and its further movement on to ‘D’, sort of wedges everything except the link in position, whilethe gun is locked. More impor-tantly, this .030" allows the slideto move almost .100" backwardbefore beginning its downward,unlocking sequence. This hasthe effect of reducing recoil andallowing the slide to gain speedfor proper cycling. By studyingthe print, you should be able tosee the theory of operation. Asthe gun comes into battery the.010" offset radius gently easesthe barrel into a consistentposition for a secure lockup.This movement is one thatMUST be smooth, because thebullet is making the transitionfrom the frame feed ramp to thebarrel feed ramp at this time.


3. Install barrel in gun with a sloppy fit bush-ing and fit the upper locking lugs until the gunwill lock with only thumb pressure. Be sure toremove equal amounts of metal from eachlocking groove in order to keep the barrelcentered. The photo at right shows both theareas to adjust, and the correct file which isavailable from Brownell's. Go very slowlyhere. A little makes a lot of difference. Try thebarrel in the gun frequently and don't be afraidto use toolmakers spotting ink to see whereyou are at. I usually whack the back of the slidewith a composition dead blow hammer to seatthe barrel firmly in the slide and mark thebarrel. Keep an eye on the hood sides fittedearlier. They should remain cleared.

4. Once the slide will nearly close, install thelink and pin and reassemble slide, barrel, andframe. Any change in barrel fit can now beblamed on a too tight link.

IMPORTANT: With slide upside down inyour hand and barrel installed, you should beable to still move the link slightly while theslide stop is pressed firmly to the rear. If not,open up the stop pin hole slightly on thebottom side.

2. Cut barrel hood sides to clear .001/.005on each side when barrel is straight up anddown in the slide. These areas are bettercleared than attempting to fit them to theslide sides. Note that this hood is not cen-tered on the barrel, but is offset to the right.You can check the slide with dial calipers tocheck the maximum width of hood you canhave, and then compare this to the barrel toat least check out the hood size, even thoughthe exact location of the hood is difficult topin down. The photo also shows where aGold Cup or Enhanced model needs to benarrowed.


If you see any marks on the barrel lugs in the'A' to 'C' area, as shown in the print and in thephoto, this area must be removed! Evidence ofthe slide stop pin hitting here is called barrelbump and will cause you grief beyond belief.

Adjust the radius at area 'A' to 'C' and make itlike the print. Do it as shown in the photographand make sure you keep the area perpendicularto the bore.

5. Now the barrel should be rough fitgood enough that the slide will cycleback and forth and lock reliably. We areready to install our match bushing.Any change in barrel fit can now beblamed on a ‘too tight’ bushing. Adjustby increasing the ID of the bushing.

6. A properly fitted barrel will hit hard on the back of the hood, hard on the ‘C’ and ‘D’ area and onto the rear, and evenly on each side of the top locking grooves. It will NOT touch any place elseexcept the bushing. You should now be able to press the gun into locked position with only thumbpressure, but the barrel will not move in any direction.

In the event the slide overhangs the back of the frame after the new barrel is fit, do not worry. This iseasily fixed. Once you are satisfied with the barrel fit internally, go back and recut the back part ofthe barrel where the slide stop is hard fitted. This will have the effect of moving the entire assemblyforward. Here, nearly a one to one fit is found. In other words, if the slide overhangs the rear of theframe .015", take another .015 off of the back of the barrel lugs where the slide stop pin preventsforward movement. After this adjustment is made, go back and check the link again for play (step 4).Do not cut or take out of line the other barrel fit areas already done.


After the barrel is locked into the slide, consistent accuracy is possible due to the fact that the sightsare mounted on the slide. Consistent reliability is possible due to the fact that the barrel cannot everdeviate from its intended path. It is wedged into the locking grooves in the top sort of like a V-block, forced forward by pressure of the bolt face on the rear of the hood, and held vertical by theproperly fitted lower lug. Artificial rests usually do not show the true accuracy potential of any autodue to the fact the slide and barrel can move while the frame is held firmly. However, hand heldaccuracy, or as I prefer to call it, practical accuracy, will be fully realized.

A long link also causes an extremely long arc for the barrel to travel during the locking process. Alonger travel means more chance for trouble to occur.

Due to the demands of mass production, many makers have strayed from this dimension perfectionover the years, but I have had the privilege of examining a few of the guns from the very early years,and this is how they were done.

The top barrel maker Irv Stone III of Bar-Sto Precision agrees with this theory 100% and cuts theirfine drop-in barrels this way using an expensive machining operation. But they too need a littleperfecting occasionally due to the variations in mass production. We have cut our own drop-in-barrels this way for years with outstanding success.

I came up with these dimensions and the print that I have shared with many pistolsmiths over theyears. But John Browning figured this out over eighty years ago from a blank sheet of paper. Theold boy was a real genius.

BARREL FITTING CHECKLIST, ASSUMING A FINISHED AND FITTED SLIDE.

1. Cut lugs at the bottom like the print so that a standard hole spacing link will work.

2. Cut barrel hood sides to clear .001/.005 on each side when barrel is straight up and down in theslide.

3. Install barrel in gun with a sloppy fit bushing and fit the upper locking lugs until the gun will lockwith only thumb pressure. Be sure to remove equal amounts of metal from each locking groove inorder to keep the barrel centered.

BARREL WORK CHAPTER 13 PAGE 13-1

THROAT

Throating a 1911 barrel is one of the most popular modifications. It is also one of the most com-monly botched jobs that frequently results in ruined barrels. The reason is that most people have noidea of where they are going, or what it is supposed to look like when they are finished. They justkeep grinding until the gun works. Sometimes they never do.

Shown in the photo is a Dremel grinder and a simple guage to check your work. The print for makingyour own is shown later in this chapter and I would suggest that you make one before starting. Thewheel is a fine grit 3/8" diameter and is sufficient for this purpose. Make the cut all around thebottom of the chamber and make it taper out near the sides. Remember, you can always take morelater, and leave some for the finish wheel. The angle is 35 degrees from vertical. Do not stray fromthis angle.

Shown here is a 1/2" sandingdrum which works well as asecond step. This larger wheel willsmooth up the grinding wheelmarks because of its larger diam-eter and its finer grit. Use around a220 or 240 grit here.


A very small radius can be polishedbetween the throat and the cham-ber. Just enough to break the sharpedge. Finish with a felt wheel andpolish or a very fine sanding drum.We use a polish wheel called MXin our shop, but I'm afraid they arenot available except for commer-cial applications.

Most all reliable 1911s have aslight gap between the feedramp inthe frame and the throat in thebarrel. One hardly ever has to doanything to a frame feedramp, otherthan to smooth the cutter marks outof it with a very fine polish wheel.Never grind or sand this area as itwill surely ruin the frame.

Check your work frequently with yourguage to make sure you don't go toodeep. If you go too deep, you run therisk of a case blowout with a heavyload.

If your gun won't feed now, it is probably bad ammuntion, or the extractor needs adjustment. It couldalso be a bad magazine, or recoil spring. Never under any circumstances continue to cut the throatdeeper in the barrel. You will ruin it.


Shown is a barrel held in a vise by thelower locking lugs so that we can turn afinish reamer by hand. Finish reamersare generally owned only bypistolsmiths, but it is included herebecause of the growing number ofhome craftsmen who are gainingexperience using professional tools.Finish reamers are available fromBrownell's. The home craftsman willhave no use for a rough reamer. Youwill need however, a GO guage and aNO GO guage for checking the fin-ished chamber. These are also avail-able from Brownells.

Operation is simple. Turn the wrench with a bit of pressure and it will deepen the chamber. Try theGO guage and try to set it about .002 to .005" below the barrel hood. This assumes the barrel isalready fitted and the hood is already cut. If your barrel is not fitted, you need to fit it first, andchamber it last.

Finish chamber reamers may be held in asimple tap handle, and work best with alight application of cutting oil. As al-ways, go slowly, you can always takemore later. Even though the barrels areheat treated, the reamers cut amazinglyfast.


Shown is a barrel crowning toolavailable from Brownells. It is apiloted chamfering tool that willallow the home craftsmen to cuta perfectly centered chamfer inthe bore. It is hand held, cutsquickly, and is pretty much idiotproof assuming you use theright pilot.

Here is a blueprint for a simple throating gauge. Make from1/16" aluminum, or sheet metal. Pay close attention to the dimensions and never throat a barreldeeper than the gauge.

Brownell's have the pilots sized to fit mostbarrels. If yours seems too tight, do notforce it, but get the right size. A slighttwisting motion is all that is needed. Weusually cut about a .025" to .035" chamferon the bore. This allows the bullet to leavethe bore with the base absolutely aligned.Otherwise, a crooked crown could allowgas to escape from one side sooner andyaw the bullet adversely effecting accu-racy.

BEAVERTAIL CHAPTER 14 PAGE 14-1

First of all, why a ‘Beavertail’ Grip Safety? Most people will tell you it is to prevent hammer bite.That is the nasty strawberry that the loose skin above the web of your hand receives when the ham-mer pinches it on top of the factory grip safety. However, there is more to it than that.

Much of what I have learned about the practical use of the 1911 pistol has come from the RayChapman Shooting Academy. During the early days of my pistolsmithing career, shooters from theacademy would bring their guns over during the evening for a bit of repair of some sort. Thesewould be mostly the 1911 design, but in the factory configuration, rather than custom pistols. Theseshooters would have fired anywhere from 200 to 500 rounds during the day performing the variousexercises taught at the academy.

Loose front sights is a common problem, poor feeding of SWC reloads another, too heavy triggerpull was a common complaint. But most all shooters had one huge complaint. The doggone gripsafety had actually worn a hole in the top of their hand!

As any shooting school will tell you, it is the grip that is most important to the accuracy. A weak gripwill never produce any accuracy or reliability. You must use a firm grip to become one with thepistol. Naturally, the better you can get your hand into the pistol, the better this bond becomes.However, the harder you get your hand into a factory pistol, the more pronounced the grip safety digsinto your skin. With the normal recoil pushing this area deeper, it is not long before the skin be-comes irritated and broken.

To solve these problems, grip safeties have been designed that expand the safeties width to matchthat of the entire back of the gun. The back of the safeties are rounded, rather than square, thus thename ‘Beavertail’ was born. Since the frame of the pistol was part of the problem, and the fact thatthe original safety was fitted inside the frame, provision needs to be made on the frame to allow thenew Beavertail safety to fit around the outside, or even with, the outside of the frame.

Please be aware that there are grip safeties on the market that do not require any frame modifications.This is sort of a half way fix and may be suitable for some shooters who want a cheap fast way to geta wider part on the gun. Listening to the market demand, Colt has offered an improved type gripsafety on their Enhanced Models. King’s, and Wilson’s also offer various types of ‘drop-in’ gripsafeties. One point of clarification here. The word ‘drop-in’ refers to the fact that no frame modifi-cation is necessary. It is still a grip SAFETY and needs to be fitted to the trigger bow to insure safeoperation.


For installation, assuming a stripped frame is athand, is to first install the installation jig. Thejig consists of two file hard buttons 1/2" indiameter. This will allow the installer to cutthe 1/4" radius necessary for the installation ofthe part. See photo 1, and notice how the frameis held securely in a vise, and the finish cuts tothe 1/4" radius is being made. If the installer isexperienced in production metal work and hasaccess to faster, easier ways of moving metal,(milling machine) then he will know of easiermeans and employ them to save time andwork.

At the time these Beavertail grip safetieswere designed, most shooters wanted toinstall a Commander style rounded hammer.Its sexy rounded shape, and the fact that it fitso well underneath the aftermarket adjustablesights that were also popular, seemed tomake it a natural option. Therefore, most allBeavertail grip safeties are designed to beused with a Commander style hammer. Notto say that a standard hammer could not beused with a Beavertail, that just wasn’t inmind when it was designed.

Usually, the modifications necessary to thestandard hammer to make it work with aBeavertail are more effort than a trigger joband a new hammer. I mention this only for theconsideration of the fact that it is generallymuch easier for a gunsmith to install aBeavertail Grip Safety, Hammer, and ExtendedSafety all at one time, than it is to install eachpart separately. Take these facts into consider-ation prior to ordering any work on your owngun.

But back to the job of installation of theBeavertail itself. The frame cut necessary forinstallation is handled in different ways by thedifferent manufacturers of safeties. Ours usesa 1/4" radius centered on the thumb safetyhole. This design is the easiest to install andget right the first time.


This book is written assuming you only have simple tools to work with, so we will continue withwhat is available. Once the 1/4" radius is cut on the rear of the frame, the new Beavertail can now befitted to the frame as shown in photo two. Notice in this photo how the part fits inside the frameslightly at the area where the inside of the web of your hand goes. These areas are shown beingtrimmed down to the new Beavertail level in photo three with a pneumatic grinder holding a 3/4"sanding drum.. This is what makes this part work so darn good, it really gets your hand deeper intothe gun.Removal of these protruding areas is what allows the gun to set lower in the hand, and as we allknow, the lower the gun and barrel axis in relation to the hand, the less the felt recoil and the morenatural pointing the gun is. Notice that even the thumb safety has been slightly trimmed for morecomfort. The back of the frame, newly contoured, now fits the hand much more comfortably, withthe entire width of the frame in contact with the hand evenly. No better fit or comfort can be had!

Fitted properly, an UNLOADED gun can be checked by pushing the thumb safety to the fire posi-tion, and after checking the chamber to make sure the gun is unloaded, and pointed in a safe direc-tion, attempt to pull trigger. The hammer should not fall because the grip safety foot will block thetrigger bow from rearward movement. While keeping slight pressure on the trigger, depress the gripsafety, and the hammer should fall. Do not use the gun if the grip safety does not function properly.

Further, do not let anyone talk you into deactivating the grip safety even if you think you know how.Do not ask your gunsmith to deactivate your grip safety. The risks in society today are simply notworth it. In the firearm industry we have problems enough with the liberal attack on firearms owner-ship, without the additional burden of liability lawsuits.

If the reassembled gun passed all safety tests; the frame, Beavertail, and Thumb safety are ready tobe final polished and then glass bead finished and reblued. Glass beads in the grade BT-8 will matchthe factory finish perfectly.

We can’t forget the all importantarea that contacts the trigger andactually blocks its movement. Thisis a grip SAFETY, and is supposedto function as such. When thesafety is released from hand tension,as if the gun was dropped, the righthand leaf on the sear spring pushesthe grip safety back and allows thefoot on the grip safety to block therearward travel of the trigger bow.The photo shows the proper angle(parallel to the bottom of the gripsafety) for fitting the foot to blockthe trigger bow. Most aftermarketmanufacturers supply .005 to .015extra material for fitting to any typeaftermarket trigger.

PORT CHAPTER 15 PAGE 15-1

Lowering the ejecton port is one of the oldestmodifications to the .45. You should be able toperform this modification with simple tools ifyou are a careful worker. Lowering the ejectonport will allow the fired cases to eject from thegun a bit easier and let their path be lower andfurther away from the shooter's face. The thickportion of the slide on the rear of the port isfrequently scalloped in the shape of a halfround cartridge.

The photos show the difference and the specificdimension of the Gold Cup (top) and the Gov-ernment Model ports. Many pistolsmiths cut theport dimension even lower than the Gold Cup.Don't go below .400 or you might get intostrength problems. I've cut hundreds to the .464Colt dimension and never had any trouble.

Before cutting, lay out a guide line with a scribeto the dimension you want to cut to. Remember,if you can draw it, you can cut it.

This is not only attractive, but helps preventdenting of the brass as well. Probably the bestway to guide you without taking excess spacewriting full instructions, is to have you borrowa friends Colt Gold Cup. Simply duplicate themeasurements of his slide on your port and youwill be in pretty good shape.


Begin cutting with a 3/8" diameter hard stonemounted in your Dremel tool. Go slowly andcarefully. You only get one chance to do thisright. The photo shows the Dremel tool angledslightly. It seemed to look better this way, butit may not cut best unless it is held straightperpendicular to the slide. Another trick thatwould spoil the photo is to cover all the areasyou do not want to cut with several layers ofmasking tape to protect the finished surfacesin case of a slip. Cut down to your guide lineand leave the full radius of your 3/8" wheel inthe corners.

Now hold the Dremel at a 45 degree angle andreplace the chamfer inside of the slide. This willeliminate the sharp edge which would effect theway brass could come off of the bolt face. I liketo leave a small flat at the top of the port of about.020".

Cutting the scallop is accomplished with a 1/2" drum sander in a Dumore grinder. The slideis held at about a 30 degree angle and thegrinder held parallel to the workbench. Thethickness of your fist under the slide, as shownin the photo, is approximately 30 degrees. Govery slowly here. The rotation of the grinderwants to pull you over the edge of the slideand this will ruin it for sure if it does. Don'tforget the protective tape, several layers! Wedidn't show it in the photo for clarity reasons.


Here is the finished product compared with a factory Colt Gold Cup. Done properly, the only area thatis very visible that needs to be reblued is the scallop. This can be touched up with cold blue. It's finelysanded surface will take the blue very well.

SERRATE REAR CHAPTER 16 PAGE 16-1

SERRATION OF THE SLIDE REARThis is a very popular custom addition and isfairly easily accomplished by the careful work-man. First we need a checkering file from ourfavorite gunsmith supply house, Brownells. Getthe #2 cut which is 50 lines per inch. They canbe done coarser, but they really look like Mis-souri corn rows. There also is a #4 file avail-able. This is 75 lines per inch and is better suitedfor serrating front sights than the rear of slides.You will also need a padded vise to hold theslide, a flat bar of steel to use as a guide, and astrong light to see what you are doing.

Clamp the slide only in a leather padded vise.Hold a flat bar of steel against the bottom of theslide and begin a light cut. This will guaranteethe lines are parallel with the bottom of the slide.

Go slowly and keep the file straight! I can'ttell you how to keep the file straight, just doit. Carry the lines on toward the top of the slidekeeping in mind that the back of the slide iscut spherical, like a bowling ball. Make cer-tain that the top line matches up parallel withthe cut for the rear sight if this is what yourgun has.

SERRATE REAR CHAPTER 16 PAGE 16-2

Now do the same operation on the other side of the slide. Nothing is different except you are work-ing on the far side. Keep the lines parallel with the bottom of the slide and your work will lookprofessional.

The finished job will look very professional and serve to eliminate glare from your sight picture.Normally, this would get a light glass bead finish and complete reblue. If you are a home craftsman,cold blue finish until you can get the gun to a gunsmith for a hot blue.

A slight 45 degree chamfer on the edge looks nice and prevents burrs. This is easily done with a finecut file. Now you can examine the edges of your grooves and see if any need to be cut any deeper.

FIRING PIN STOP CHAPTER 17 PAGE 17-1

There's not a lot to say about a firing pin stop other than the fact that it needs to fit snug inside theslide and tight against the extractor. If you have one from Colt that has a '2' on it, it is oversize, andyou may have problems fitting another.

As always, when fitting a firing pin stop, go slowly, you can always take more later. If it will not goin easily, you will need a sharp fine cut file that is safe on one side. Try to determine where theexcess material is and remove it with firm strokes. Do not file just anywhere and expect it to maybework next time. It won't. Find the area that is too tight by tapping it in with a brass punch, and thenremove metal in the tight areas only.

The smart way to do this job is to only work with the slide and firing pin stop. Once the stop will fitinto the slide completely, then remove it and install the extractor and attempt to install the stop again.If it won't reinstall, the problem is the extractor. Once those three parts will all install, remove thestop again, and this time install the firing pin and spring. Don't forget to try the whole assembly onthe frame to check for interference with the frame mounted ejector.

If your gun is a Colt or Para-Ordnance Series 80 with the additional firing pin plunger, you will haveto modify the firing pin stop to allow additional clearance for the plunge lifter. See the chapter onSeries 80 parts.

SPRINGS CHAPTER 18 PAGE 18-1

SPRINGSAt a recent match I helped a shooter through a fit of malfunctions his gun was having. He hadchanged both bullets and powder charges and was now having failures to feed. He was swappingrecoil springs for all he was worth, but still an occasional failure to feed occurred. He was trying tofigure out which spring to use with a lighter bullet. One of his buddies said heavier, another saidlighter. I ignored the spring question and looked for the feed problem. I noticed his ammo had a tooshort overall length, and a strip of lead around the mouth.

All three shooters had overlooked the ammo as a cause for the malfunctions, and went straight forthe mechanical parts of the gun. It was assumed that swapping springs would make the gun worksomehow no matter what the ammo looked like. Always look first to the ammo as a cause of mal-function. Only after ruling out any ammo problem, should you attempt changes in the mechanicalparts of the gun.

Springs are a source of great controversy everywhere pistol shooters gather. Heavier, lighter, re-placement time, etc. Lets reduce it down to what really matters, reliability. Usually it’s best to gowith your pistolsmiths advice on replacement weight and time in a custom gun and keep a spare ortwo on hand. Another suggestion is to check the length and wire diameter of any different recoilsprings and write it down in a safe place. This information will be useful when you mix up thesprings. Also note the length of the springs when they are new. If the recoil spring show signs ofcollapsing with use, it should be replaced. If it has fired 5000 rounds, but is still the same length asyour new replacement, then there would be no reason to change it.

What weight recoil spring should you use? This will vary with bullet weight, velocity of the load,and shooter strength. Usually, the spent cases should land anywhere from five to fifteen feet away.If the empty cases are falling on your feet, sooner or later you will have a failure because the recoilspring is too heavy, or the load you are using for that spring is too light.

People with small hands or weak wrists can help their gun function by building up muscles in thisarea. You should hold on to the gun so tight that the checkering makes an imprint in your hand.Another bonus, when a shooter holds on to a gun this tight, the trigger pull seems lighter. If youapply these principles of reliability, your scores are sure to go up and your malfunctions will godown.

This gun probably has a heavy spring thatworks perfectly well since the gun has theresistance of both hands of the shooter. Whenthe gun is held by only one hand, or heldweakly, the arm absorbs some precious slidevelocity, and the gun has a malfunction knownas a smokestack, or stovepipe. This is wherethe spent case is caught by the slide before itcan clear the gun. This is simply a failure toeject by insufficient slide travel.

SPRINGS CHAPTER 18 PAGE 18-2

I don't ever remember having to replace a sear spring because it was worn out. They are pretty muchgood forever. They are frequently ruined, however. The same goes for magazine catch springs. Thethings are just not stressed enough to ever cause any problem. Mainsprings, do wear out due to ageand use and should be replaced. The best way to determine if your spring is any good is to justpurchase a replacement, and then compare the new one with your old one. If the new one is morethan 10% longer than the old one, replace it. If they are almost exactly the same length, there is noneed to replace it at all. Firing pins are subject to failure. I have seen many break, and in my opinion,they are all too weak to begin with. Most experienced pistolsmiths suggest a heavy duty firing pinspring, and replace them also if they start getting too short.

MAGAZINE CHAPTER 19 PAGE 19-1

One advantage of a revolver is that if you have any of it, you have all of it. Not so with an autopistol. None of the doggone things will work without the magazine. By the way, I always prefer tocall the removable portion a magazine, rather than a ‘clip’. To me, the term ‘clip’ brings to mind theold M-1 Garand clips that flew out of the gun immediately after the last shot. A magazine, by mydefinition, is an assembly of components that when used together, will feed the pistol fresh rounds asfired cases are ejected from the gun. A clip is exactly what the name implies, a single component thatwill hold rounds together until needed.

The fact that a magazine has components suggests the need to maintain the assembly. A magazine isprobably the most overlooked part of an auto pistol, and possibly the most abused. Magazines arefrequently dropped, either accidentally, on purpose, or during rapid reloads. Sometimes they aredropped with rounds still inside. This will compress the rounds on top of the spring on impact, andduring decompression, the rounds are slammed into the delicate feed lips, possibly deforming themforever. Try to avoid dropping magazines that still have rounds loaded in them.

Usually, they pick up a bit of dirt or sand, or even small gravel particles during their stay on theground. Sometimes, heaven forbid, they are stepped on and ground into the dirt. They are frequentlyleft loaded, compressing their springs to the max, and left unattended for up to years. And nearlyalways, the practical shooter will slam them into the gun with authority. All these actions can beabusive to what could rightly be called the most delicate part of an autoloading pistol.

I have known many shooters who cared for their guns with the greatest attention, but never oncethought about disassembling a magazine. Once I asked a shooter, who was looking for a cause ofmalfunction, if he ever disassembled and cleaned his magazines. He replied he had the type thatcould not be disassembled! Friends, I have never seen a magazine that couldn’t be disassembled.

Here is how to disassemble a standard magazine with a welded on base. I selected the welded onbase for three reasons. One, it’s our brand and was easily available. Two, it represents most types.And three, if your magazine has a removable base, you will probably know it and can easily figureout how to take it apart.

First, assemble a few tools. You will need a punch or nail that will fit into the holes in the magazine.You will also need a blunt object to depress the follower. I have used a magnetic screwdriver with nobit installed, but a pencil would do. A length of heavy wire to make a hook type tool will be neededas well. Follow the photo as a guide for making your own.


To disassemble the magazine, depress the follower with the blunt object and press it down to a pointwhere it can be seen just below the third hole from the top. Then let it raise back up until you cancapture the spring just below it. Insert the punch completely through the magazine and release thepressure on the follower. Now the spring is captured and the follower can be removed.

You should be able to reach in withyour homemade hook and grab thefront of the follower. It will take abit of tugging and manipulation, butthey will normally come out with-out any force. In fact, you wouldnot want to use any force for fear ofbending the follower.


Once the follower is removed, turn the maga-zine upside down, so the spring doesn’t flyaway, and pull the pin out to release the spring.

Note the position of the spring before youremove it from the magazine! This is veryimportant. Notice that the spring is bent tohave a definite angle when installed properly.This angle should be placed in such a way asthe high point is facing forward, so as to lift thefront of the follower. All magazine springs areintended to be installed this way, no matterwhat the brand, and it is necessary they beinstalled this way to hold the follower up infront. This will feed the rounds nose up, acondition essential to good feeding. Once youhave closely inspected the proper springinstallation, remove it completely.


Clean the spring, follower, and inside of the magazine tube thoroughly with solvent and reassemblein reverse order. Install the spring first and make sure the raised portion of the spring faces towardthe front of the magazine. Then depress the spring into the tube with your blunt object so that it canbe captured with the punch the third hole down.

Now install the follower by angling it through the front of the open feed area, and work it under thefeed lips themselves. Do not force anything, or try to spread apart the feed lips. All followers willreinstall with no force! Once inside the magazine, press it down on top of the spring with your bluntobject and then pull out the punch holding the spring. That’s all there is to it!

Lubrication is up to the individual user. Most magazines will work dry. I prefer a bit of very lightlubrication, but would suggest passing it up if you frequently shoot and drop magazines in a sandyarea. Richard Heinie shoots on a range in central Illinois that is covered with sand. They neverlubricate their magazines and must clean them after every match. I shoot on a one inch gravel cov-ered range and hardly ever bother to clean a magazine, but I do lightly lube the followers frequently.

However, all magazines will accumulate burnt powder and bullet lube residue, therefore they shouldbe cleaned regularly. Now that you know how, you don’t have an excuse not to.

OFFICER'S ROD & PLUG CHAPTER 20 PAGE 20-1

You will need a place to work, a tool bench, orsuitable substitute. A padded bench vise, avertical mill would be nice, but a file completewith elbow grease will do, and enough knowl-edge to disassemble the top half of the gun.

Now you should be able to see how thefactory recoil spring plug fits into the smalltab on the bottom of the slide. Notice howit protrudes far enough forward to blockthe barrel bushing from rotation. Grab thereplacement recoil spring plug and exam-ine the differences. The first thing youshould notice is the shoulder on the back.The design is intended to replace the smalltab with a shoulder that will absorb thepounding better. So you need to removemetal from the slide equal to the thicknessof the shoulder. In other words, the shoul-der has to go somewhere, you can’t just letit stick out the back of the slide.

The reverse plug is furnished in stainlesssteel only and is intended for gunsmithfitting to the Colt Officer's Model.

1. Unload gun and remove slide. Of coursewe only work on unloaded guns. Don’t justdrop the mag and jack the slide. LOOK insidethe chamber. Once you are certain no ammoexists, remove the slide and top half of thegun. Go ahead and strip the slide of the barreland bushing, but there is no need to disas-semble further.


2. The slide should be cut off on the rear of the plug area an amount equal to the thickness of theshoulder. The plugs are furnished with a .062 thick shoulder. I usually cut about .065 off of the slideto make sure that the plug shoulder will clear slightly and not contact the frame during firing. Re-move metal from the rear of the slide spring area equal to the thickness of the shoulder on the newrecoil plug. This is where the vertical mill would be handy. You could simply clamp up the slideupside down in a mill vise, and make a straight cut across the back equal to the thickness of theshoulder. Assuming the vise was mounted on the mill, five minutes max. However, if you are abench workman without a mill, never fear. You can do just as good a job, it will just take a littlelonger.

Using what ever measuring device you have, mark the slide an amount equal to the thickness of theshoulder so you will have a line to file up to. Clamp the slide in a vise padded with cardboard orleather. If I have to do any filing, I prefer to press down, rather than any other way, so I suggestclamping only the muzzle of the slide in the vise, allowing the rest to stick straight up.

File carefully and be sure to keep the rear end square in all directions. If you have done a good joblaying out your guide line, this should be no problem. Don’t forget, you can always use the newrecoil spring as a check gauge by trying its fit often. Once you get very close, you will begin tonotice a slight interference with the radius between the body of the recoil plug and its shoulder.

3. Round off the inside of this area so that no sharp corner can cut into the radius in the recoil plugshoulder area. The radius on the recoil plug needs to be there, so the slide needs to have a slightlylarger radius cut on it for clearance. This is best done with a small hand grinder and about a 1/8" to3/8" grinding wheel. Try to make it even all the way around, and do not grind away all of yoursquare area. Properly done, there is a small flat left all the way around the back of the slide.

4. Make sure the plug fits flush without binding and will lock the bushing in place. I can’t say muchmore about this line other than not to be afraid to tap on the back of the bushing shoulder with aplastic hammer to make sure it is seated fully. You could also reinstall the bushing and make surethe new plug will lock the bushing in the vertical position.

5. Assemble the spring on the rod and the plug on the spring. The closed end of the spring goes onthe rod first. Don’t put it on backwards, it is the sign of a real amateur.

6. Compress the plug and spring down and hold in place with the take down pin. There is an easyway to do this. Put the recoil spring in the slide backwards, and place the assembled rod and springin backwards. Now you can use the slide as a handle and press the head of the guide rod into yourwork bench. As you do this, check out one important point. Make sure the recoil spring will col-lapse FULLY into the recoil spring plug. More than one gun has been tied up, or broken by theshooter using an oversize recoil spring that will not collapse into the recoil plug. Upon firing, theforce usually pushes the front out of the recoil plug and ruins it. Once satisfied that there is actuallyroom for the spring, insert the take down pin into the guide rod and let the pressure off the assembly.If the take down pin is centered, you should be able to remove the assembly from the front of thegun.


7. Assemble barrel, bushing, and slide, and insert guide assembly in place. Now you can reinstallthe barrel and bushing in the slide. You will notice that there is just room to install the new guideassembly underneath the barrel.

8. Assemble complete top half on frame of gun and reinstall slide stop. Self explanatory, but payattention for this last step. It is most important!

9. Make sure recoil plug is fully seated into the slide, then pull back slide to release take down pin.By now you are familiar with the recoil shoulder on the new recoil plug. It is most important thatthis shoulder be seated fully home. It is easy to check, because the barrel bushing will not belocked, and there will be a large gap where the shoulder should be. MAKE SURE THE SHOUL-DER IS SEATED FULLY. If you fire the gun with the shoulder unseated, the force of the slide willseat the plug for sure. Of course it won’t be lined up and will cut a neat divot in the side ruining itfor good. If the worst does happen, don’t forget we sell replacement plugs.

Now that the installation is complete, you can shoot in complete confidence and enjoy a bit ofadditional muzzle weight. You should also notice that the action of the gun is a good bit smootherdue to the fact that the short recoil spring is not binding inside the slide any more.

TROUBLESHOOTING CHAPTER 21 PAGE 21-1

FAILURE TO EJECT FIRED CASE FROM GUN, ALSO CALLED STOVE PIPE OR SMOKESTACK MALFUNCTION.

POOR GRIP. Recoil operated pistols require a firm grip to make them operate. Solution, makecertain the gun is fired with a locked wrist, holding the gun with sufficient strength.RECOIL SPRING. The recoil spring may be too heavy for the power of the ammo used. Solution,replace recoil spring with correct weight for ammo used.LOSS OF SLIDE VELOCITY. Check for anything that could be slowing the slide down on itsrearward stroke. I.E. thumb rubbing on the side, lack of lubrication on slide rails, recoil springbinding inside the slide, etc. Solution, correct drag problem.EXTRACTOR TENSION TOO LIGHT. Solution, replace or adjust extractor.BROKEN EJECTOR. Solution, replace ejector

FAILURE TO FEED AMMO INTO CHAMBER, CARTRIDGE STILL VISIBLE.

BAD AMMUNITION. Poor reloads, improper overall loaded length, ammo that is not taper crimped,cartridge rims that are oversize. Solution, change ammunition, improve reloads, see reloading chap-ter for correct ammo specifications.BAD MAGAZINE. Draggy or bent follower, worn out spring, dirty magazine tube, bent or poorlyshaped feed lips. Solution, replace magazine or correct problems with magazine.EXTRACTOR MISADJUSTED. Check to see if the cartridge rim is getting to the extractor, if it is,the extractor may be causing the problem. Solution, replace or adjust extractor tension and hook. Asharp corner could be catching on the cartridge rim.RECOIL SPRING. Worn out, cut down too short, or improper spring weight for ammo power. Solu-tion, replace recoil spring with correct weight for ammo used. See chapter on springs.BARREL NOT THROATED. Older Government models are not throated and need to be. Newerguns come factory cut, but many times can be improved. See chapter on barrel throating.BARREL FITTED WRONG. Check for signs of binding on the barrel lower locking lugs. This iscalled barrel bump. See the chapter on barrel fitting.BROKEN PARTS. If the gun has previously been reliable, the link, slide stop, or barrel lugs may bebroken.

FAILURE TO FEED, AMMO NOT VISIBLE, BUT SLIDE STILL NOT COMPLETELY CLOSEDSO GUN WILL FIRE.

BAD AMMUNITION. Poor reloads, improper overall loaded length, ammo that is not taper crimped,cartridge rims that are oversize. Solution, change ammunition, improve reloads, see reloading chap-ter for correct ammo specifications.CHAMBER LEADED, OR CLOGGED WITH BULLET JACKET MATERIAL. Solution, cleanchamber.WEAK RECOIL SPRING. Solution, replace with correct weight for power of ammo used.


GUN DOUBLES OR FIRES MORE THAN ONE SHOT FOR EACH TRIGGER PULL.

TRIGGER JOB POORLY DONE. This could be the hammer hooks stoned below .020, the searangle stoned wrong, or too much clearance, or the sear spring leaves misadjusted. Solution, redo thetrigger job correctly, or replace the bad parts.DISCONNECTOR STICKING DOWN, AND THE SEAR DRAGGING. This could be a combina-tion of problems that can only be solved by examining each part and verifying its proper function.BROKEN SEAR. Solution, replace sear.BROKEN HAMMER. If the half cock notch broke off of the hammer and the hammer fell from thesear, the gun would double. Solution, replace broken parts.

HAMMER FALLS, BUT GUN FAILS TO FIRE.

BAD AMMO. Primer missing, primer improperly seated, or oil soaked preventing ignition. Solution,replace ammo.SLIDE NOT CLOSED. If the slide failed to close completely, the hammer could hit the firing pinstop and not hit the firing pin with enough pressure to cause ignition. Solution, check ammo, checkfor complete slide closure before firing the next round. Chamber could be leaded in the case moutharea.MAINSPRING WEAK OR BROKEN. Solution, replace mainspring.BROKEN FIRING PIN. Solution, replace firing pin.BROKEN FIRING PIN SPRING. Solution, replace broken spring.

GUN FEEDS BUT HAMMER WILL NOT FALL TO CAUSE THE GUN TO FIRE

TRIGGER STUCK BACK. The trigger may be stuck in the rearward position due to a lack of lubri-cation, dirt, or a poor fitting job. Solution, check the trigger fit and correct. See the chapter on triggerfitting.DISCONNECTOR STUCK DOWN. The disconnector may be stuck down due to dirt, or a lack oflubrication. Also, a sear spring that has the middle leaf too long may cause the same thing. Solution,check the disconnector for free operation, and check the sear spring middle leaf. It should not be ableto come above the disconnector's rear angle.THUMB SAFETY IMPROPERLY FITTED. If the problem occurs intermittently during firing, thethumb safety could be riding up and blocking the sear, even though the slide is still free from thesafety. Solution, increase the tension on the safety plunger by modifying the safety. See the chapteron thumb safety fitting.


SLIDE FAILS TO LOCK BACK AFTER LAST ROUND FIRED.

RECOIL SPRING. The recoil spring could be too heavy for the ammo used, limiting slide travel.Solution, check to see if the slide will lock back manually, if it will, the spring is too heavy for theammo used. If it won't, look elsewhere for the problem.SLOW SLIDE VELOCITY. The slide could have been slowed down limiting its travel to the rear.Solution, check for interference.WEAK MAGAZINE SPRING. The magazine spring should push the follower up into the slide stopto cause it to lock in place and hold the slide back. Solution, check to see if the slide will lock backmanually, if it won't replace the magazine spring, or the magazine.BENT, OR WORN MAGAZINE FOLLOWER. Solution, replace magazine follower, or magazine.BROKEN OR WORN SLIDE STOP. The tip of the slide stop that contacts the magazine followermay be broken off or worn where it will not touch. Solution, replace slide stop.BAD ANGLE ON THE REAR OF THE SLIDE STOP. The slide stop rear angle should not exceedone degree from vertical, measured from the slide stop bottom. If it is more, the magazine may notbe able to lift it. Solution, check for drag marks on the rear of the slide stop. Replace if necessary.ROUGH SLIDE STOP REAR. Check for a smooth surface on the rear of the slide stop. Solution,make it smooth, keeping in mind it needs to be at one degree off of vertical. Set your square at 91degrees and place it on the bottom of the slide stop.

MAGAZINE WILL NOT EJECT FROM THE GUN.

BENT MAGAZINE FEED LIPS. If you frequently drop magazines with loaded rounds in them, thespring reaction can bend the magazine feed lips outward to a point where they will drag on theoutside of the frame. Solution, disassemble magazine and bend feed lips inward to clear the frame, orreplace the magazine.BENT, OR WORN MAGAZINE FOLLOWER. The follower could have jumped over the slide stoplocking the magazine into the gun. Solution, replace magazine follower, or magazine.BROKEN OR WORN SLIDE STOP. The follower could have jumped over the worn slide stoplocking the magazine into the gun. Solution, replace slide stop.BULGED MAGAZINE DRAGGING ON THE FRAME. This would be apparent by the drag markson the outside of the magazine. Solution, replace magazine.IMPROPERLY FITTED TRIGGER. Trigger bow may be bent in so bad it will drag on the magazine.Sometimes this will show up as a horizontal mark on the slide of the magazine. Solution, refit thetrigger. See the chapter on trigger fitting.


LIST OF VITAL CHECKS TO DO ON THE 1911The wise 1911 shooter has a sharp eye when it comes to his favorite design handgun. Here is my listof things that are frequently gone over on all guns as a matter of course. One should always runthrough these checks prior to purchasing any used gun, or letting a gun out of your shop. All thesechecks assume an UNLOADED GUN! DROP THE MAGAZINE AND LOOK INSIDE THECHAMBER TO MAKE CERTAIN THE GUN IS UNLOADED BEFORE PERFORMING ANY OFTHESE CHECKS!

FUNCTION CHECK:Holding in on the trigger, withdraw the slide and let it fly forward. Hammer should stay cocked. Letoff the trigger and the disconnector clicks as it engages the sear. Let off the grip safety and pull thetrigger, it should not fall. Engage the safety catch and try to pull trigger. Check for right and lefthanded ease of operation. With the trigger pulled, withdraw and release the slide. Keeping triggerpulled, let go of the grip safety, when you release the trigger, the grip safety should come out. Try todrop slide with finger off the trigger, but gun held firmly. The hammer should stay cocked. Insert anempty magazine and pull slide to the rear. Check for full engagement of the slide stop.

CRACK CHECK:Look on the frame, just in front of slide stop on both sides. Look in the corners of the square holethat slide stop fits in. Look inside the slide to the rear of safety slot, and inside slide front at therecoil spring opening. Look inside the slide at the top rear of ejection port. Check all places aroundwhere the sight cuts are made and on the frame at the slide rail sharp corners. Check for batteredlocking lugs on the lower part of the barrel.

WEAR CHECK:Look over the magazine follower and make sure it engages the slide stop fully. Check over the framerails and slide rails for excessive wear and slop. Check the magazine release for positive engagementof the magazine. Look at the upper barrel locking lugs and check for a rolled over condition indicat-ing a poor fit. Check the front barrel bushing for a snug fit.

BARREL LUGS:The large hole in the barrel link should be above the surface of the locking lugs until it moves intothe area of the flat, immediately in front of the stop. If the slide stop pin rubs evenly on both sideson the flat, that is perfect. If it misses both flats and hits evenly on the bottom out area, that is OK.But if one side or the other hits unevenly, scrape or file that side down until the evenness occurs. Ashort link will bump the lugs while unlocking. Adjust this condition by swapping for a longer link orremoving metal from the lugs. Also the lower portion of the large link hole can be opened up. If youchange to a longer link check for a too long link by assembling barrel and frame and pressing barrelinto unlocked position. It should bottom out on the frame in the dished out area in front of themagazine. If necessary some metal can be removed from the rear of the lugs.


FEED RAMPMake sure the angle in the barrel is the same as the feed ramp in the frame coming out of the maga-zine well. This is done by holding the slide back far enough to see, but not far enough back to lockinto the open position.

SIGHTSLook at the sights and inspect for anything that might indicate a problem. Such as, a front sight thatis far lower than any other you have seen. This could be an indication that the barrel fits far too highin the gun, or is fitted wrong. Another dead give away is a far off centered rear sight. This couldmean that the slide is bored off center, or merely that the owner is a poor shot and knows nothingabout how to sight in a gun.

EXTRA WORK DONE ON THE GUNBe especially wary of a gun that has had a lot of work done on it, and no makers name. Most allquality pistolsmiths are proud of their work and will put their name on the gun in some fashion.However, there are instances where the customer wants no additional names added and it is left off.If these guns are for sale, the owner should be prepared to show a copy of the original invoice show-ing not only the price of the work done, but the serial number of the gun. I have noticed in my expe-rience that most of the bogus guns sold come from gun shows. I have found many quality guns atgun shows in my life, but the number of bogus guns is greater by at least a margin of ten to one. Ifyou choose to purchase used guns at gun shows, be careful.

MISMATCHED PARTSAlways pass a gun that appears to be stock, but has had other stock parts obviously swapped. Thesetype of guns will be apparent for instance, by bright blue parts installed on a glass bead finishedframe, or nickel parts installed on a blue gun. Grips are not included as mismatched parts becausethey are frequently swapped and have little to do with the function of the gun.

RELOADING CHAPTER 22 PAGE 22-1

AMMUNITIONReloads are the rule for most shooters because the cost of factory ammo prohibits most of them fromdoing the amount of shooting they would like. The reloads themselves are not the prime cause ofmalfunctions, but poor workmanship from the person doing the reloading.

The shooters in this country are very lucky to have just about any kind of reloading componentreadily available to them. This applies to reloading books as well. These books should be treated asthe Bibles of reloading and the ammo assembled exactly as recommended. Especially concerningthe outer diameter and overall length.

Auto pistols have been designed to feed with a certain diameter and length cartridge and the smartshooter will stick closely to these dimensions with a good pair of calipers close by for frequentchecks. (See photos on page 3 of this chapter) Always taper crimp autoloader cartridges gently tothe spec shown in the manual. Do not overcrimp thinking if a little does good, a little more doesbetter. Over crimping reduces bullet diameter, hurts accuracy and could be the cause of malfunctionby swelling the case below the crimp.

Primers deserve close attention because they are the spark plug of the cartridge. You probably thinkI’ll mention a favorite brand, but to tell you the truth, I’ve never noticed much difference. The smartshooter will not switch brands without checking the chronograph results. You may not be able to tellany difference by shooting, but the chronograph will point out even the slightest change. Handlingof primers is very important and is one small area that should never be overlooked.

Never handle primers with your fingers! Even the slightest lubricant can affect primer performance.Carefully dump the primers into the flipper tray and load them into the primer tube from there. Seatprimers carefully and try for the same pressure each time. If the seating pressure feels light or heavy,there is probably something wrong with the case. Better drop this round into the practice jug.

Bullets are always a problem. Bullet casters are facing stiff competition and are trying to cut theircosts any way possible. The most important component in a cast bullet is tin. Tin alloys the lead andantimony and allows a hard bullet to take the rifling without soldering to the bore.

Unfortunately, tin is the most expensive part and therefore the first place to look when costs need tobe cut. Hard bullets are an absolute necessity in an autoloader. The bullets must not deform on thefeed ramp, solder to the bore, or lead the chamber. They must never be loose enough to move duringthe feeding cycle. To do so acts exactly like an automobile shock absorber and really brings things toa halt. The only suggestion here is to keep trying different makers until you find one that satisfiesyou.


You all know the makers and what the favorites are, but do you know exactly what your gun will dowith another brand? Don’t be afraid to try another combination because the results might surpriseyou and besides that, the practice will do you good. Frequent chronograph checks here can help yourscores. Different lots of powder seem to have slightly different results so frequently check thevelocity of your ammo. Don’t check just two or three rounds. To have any meaningful data aboutyour loads, at least 40 rounds need to be checked.

One time the best recommendation was to shoot the lightest load that would consistently make theIPSC power factor. This advice should be slightly modified as we have learned that some pistolsshow a very favorable accuracy gain with only a slight increase in the powder charge. A slightlyheavier load would have unnoticeably more recoil, but the accuracy gain will be realized with higherscores on the longer targets.

Frequently new reloaders make poor choices of powder, especially of the burning rate. Choose apowder that will fit into your velocity needs. Use a fast burning powder for light loads, a mediumburning powder for 45ACP IPSC major loads, and a slow powder for heavy loaded 38 Super, 10mmor hunting loads.

What about your brass? Everyone in all the shooting games scrounges brass, but how good is it?One can go overboard trying to save money by shooting his brass until it splits, but there is no needto buy all new brass either. All the smart shooter needs to do is inspect the brass BEFORE it’sloaded and look for any problems. Now is a good time to sort brands as well. I always prefer toshoot all one brand at a match, saving the miscellaneous rejects for practice.

What do you look for? Split necks, badly beaten rims, and other problems like the oversize primerpockets mentioned earlier. If there is a black smudge around the primer pocket, it is a pretty safe betthis round should be discarded. 45 ACP rounds have a tendency for the rim to grow in diameter aftermany reloads. This is probably due to the bolt face on the big Colt mashing them over during feed-ing, thus increasing their diameter. When the diameter increases to a point where they will no longergo into the slide, you have a failure to feed. What a shooter should do is sort all his brass and keepall the best stuff for matches, then use everything else for practice ammo.

The first thing you need to compete in IPSC is a reliable pistol! These words of wisdom werespoken to me several years ago by the first IPSC World Champion, Ray Chapman. He had learnedlong ago the importance of reliable equipment and how to make it even more reliable by proper use.The DVC symbol in the IPSC logo is Latin, and stands for Speed, Power, and Accuracy. Also, itshould include something about reliability, for without that important commodity, winning is impos-sible.

Everyone’s goal should be complete reliability, but with action type shooting growing as fast as it is,there are many new people who have not yet learned how to get the most out of their equipment.These suggestions center on the popular 1911 design, but the basic ideas apply to any autoloader.Have you ever noticed that the best shooters never seem to have any malfunctions, and new shootershardly ever finish a match without one? There are several reasons for this. Lets look at the reliabil-ity problem in detail concerning ammunition.


RECOMMENDED LOADS FOR IPSC,45 ACP.

Use any high quality name brand commercial cases exceptMilitary crimped primers. The favorite bullet is the H&G#68 Semi-Wadcutter or RCBS 201KT cast out of a very hardalloy. Do not take your bullet maker's word that his bulletsare sufficiently hard. If your barrel or chamber EVER leads,your bullets are too soft. 900 fps will not lead a good barrelwith hard bullets. Sort brass by manufacturer for the utmostconsistency. Use the best bullets available and inspect themclosely while loading.

Powder is another area where the smart shooter can reallyhelp his accuracy and reliability by trying different brands.As with the primers, there is no need to mention any specificmanufacturer.

My favorite powder is Winchester 231, 5.4 to5.7 grains. A chronograph is essential fordeveloping the most accurate and consistentloads. Start low and keep raising the chargeuntil a 25 round chronograph test shows noloads ever below the power floor. This finalMajor caliber load will still need to be checkedfrom time to time as powder and bullet lotswill vary slightly.

Keep in mind, it is to your advantage to shootthe lightest charge allowable. Taper crimp allloads to micrometer check over the mouth .470to .471 diameter. Overall loaded length shouldstay between 1.250 and 1.255.


PROPER RELOADS VITAL FOR RELIABILITY

It would be interesting to know exactly how many pistols are ruined annually by poor reloads. Howmany overloads are fired by unknowing, or uncaring shooters. How many handgun barrels are ruinedby lodging a bullet in the barrel and then firing a live round immediately after. Certainly it would bein the hundreds, perhaps thousands.

In this office alone we hear of a couple a week. The stories never vary much. They have a .45 or .38Super case that has the back of the brass blown out where the feedramp is cut into the barrel. Thegrips are broken, and possibly blown off the gun. In some cases the magazine was blown out of thegun. Usually, they have had a bit of blast, and possibly brass imbedded in their cheeks or nose.Thankfully, most all were wearing their safety glasses, thus avoiding eye injury.

Another similarity is that nearly all the shooters were sure that they had made no errors reloading,but of course, all were shooting reloads. The fact is, most of the cases held double charges. However,there are rare cases where a case can blow without a double charge being thrown.

The first instance that comes to mind is a high primer. Should a careless loader fail to seat a primerfully into the pocket, this high primer can fire on feeding. They usually go when the gun is nearly,but not quite fully, locked. This unlocked position of the slide and barrel nearly always results in acase blowout because the brass cases taper rapidly in the critical lower internal area that is requiredto hold the pressure. The wise shooter should think of a brass case as merely a gas seal betweenhimself and the pressure. The gun will easily hold the pressure, but the darn thing is not leakproof.The brass case provides this leak seal and it is very thin in all areas except the head itself.

When I was younger, and a lot dumber, I tried to duplicate this ‘fire on feeding’ problem once toprove that it could happen. Armed with a motorcycle helmet, goggles, and heavy gloves, I went tothe range with a pile of ammo that had poorly seated primers. Lucky for me, this silly stunt wasn’tsuccessful. That is, I couldn’t make the gun fire on feeding, but on the other hand, I was successfulby not blowing my hand off either.

Still, I believe that a high primer can fire on feeding in an automatic pistol. Famed pistol instructorRay Chapman once told of a Smith & Wesson 44 Magnum firing when the cylinder was slappedshut. There was no explanation, and any gun expert will tell you that this is impossible, citing thehammer block safety, and other mechanical devices that would prevent such an occurrence. How-ever, it did happen. Fortunately, the muzzle was pointed in a safe direction, with only the nerves ofthe shooter severely shaken.


A later inspection of the reloaded ammo revealed several pieces of brass that had high primers. Youdon’t have to be a rocket scientist to speculate that the primer probably was ignited when it hit thebolt face of the revolver.

Another frequent cause of blowups in autopistols is unbelievably, the result of a failure to feed. Let'ssay that the shooter is having a bit of difficulty feeding a round. At least two of the shooting schools Iknow of instruct you to slap the back of the slide whenever a failure to feed occurs. The thoughtbeing that this is the quickest way to close the gun so that it can be fired. However, this trick worksbest when the round is already fed into the chamber and the slide is lacking only a little bit fromclosing.

But far too often, the slides are slapped from the rear, or simply pulled back and let go several times,while a round still has the bullet in contact with the FRAME feedramp. In these cases, the bullet isusually crammed further into the case, instead of the desired result of forcing it into the chamber.This situation of a bullet crammed back into the case can be disastrous to you as I will soon explain.A better solution, although more time consuming, is to lock the slide back, and then slap the bottomof the magazine. This action should pop the stubborn round up into a better position for feeding, andthen maybe the slide will take it in the chamber properly.

Or maybe not. Full reliability will not be found until the real cause of the ‘nose down’ condition isfound. Usually, it is due to a bullet being seated too deep causing a short overall length problem, butif the problem occurs with factory ammo known to be reliable, the cause could be the magazine. Anydrag on the follower will reduce the spring pressure and will cause the first cartridge to nose downand will contribute to a failure to feed. Always check the follower for freedom of movement when anose down condition is found, and the ammo is known to be the correct length. Also, excessivespring pressure could cause a nose down condition. This condition is found on high capacity maga-zines such as the ten round type where the spring pressure must be high to feed the last round suc-cessfully.

Several years ago the ‘American Rifleman’ did a test on the pressure effects of a .38 Special roundwith the bullet being seated too deep. Several pressure tests were run, some with the bullet seatedhard against the powder charge. Sadly, I couldn’t find the issue for researching this article, but mymemory tells me that pressures escalated tremendously. Far more pressures were generated than whatwould be required to blow up a handgun. Some powders were more sensitive in this respect, but theeffect that air space has in a handgun cartridge should not be underestimated.

As I recall, the writer was trying to duplicate a blowup of a .38 Special revolver with a doublecharge. Although a double charge is a nasty situation, 148 grain wadcutters loaded one on top ofanother was far worse, and a bullet pressed tightly against a powder charge was worse yet as far as apressure spike was concerned.

Back to the cause of an auto’s poor feeding problems with a ‘nose down’ condition. This is usuallycaused by the bullet being seated too deep, or too short an overall length. I might expand a bit on thatas I seem to run into a lot of confusion there where the 1911 is concerned.


These figures apply to the 1911 .45 ACP round, but the principle applies to other auto rounds as well.

In the beginning the .45 ACP round was originally designed for the 230 grain hardball load. Thisload had a rounded nose and the specification was 1.275 -.020". In layman’s terms this means thatround nose ammo that falls anywhere from 1.255" to 1.275" would be correct. It also calls for a .473MAX dimension over the case mouth, but we all know that .470 to .471 works best in the matchgrade barrels and chambers we all like so much. But the point here is that this is the overall length ofa round nose hardball round, and the hardball round doesn’t hit the feedramp on its end where onewould measure it with a pair of calipers.

Since the feedramp is angled, and the round is angled up a bit, (hopefully) the round hits on the edgeof the bullet. If you reloaded a Semi-Wadcutter bullet, which most of us do, the overall loaded lengthwould be different. It would be shorter due to the fact that the SWC bullet has a flat nose, and a pairof dial calipers measures this flat nose, not the edge of the bullet that hits the feed ramp. Thus thecartridge length will be shorter with a SWC bullet, but the point of impact on the feedramp needs tobe the same as the hardball round if we expect the gun to work perfectly.

Question is, how do we easily find this new loaded length? It’s pretty simple with a CAD drawingsystem. Just draw up a hardball round, and draw your bullet with its nose diameter inside thehardball round. The point where the two diameters are identical would be approximately the pointwhere the SWC round should be loaded. Never mind if you don’t have a CAD system. I have one,and have already done the drawing for you. Examine the drawing and see how different lengthbullets will hit the feedramp in the same place. And in fact, should hit the feedramp identically forproper functioning.

The wise shooter will guesstimate where the front diameter would fall if it were superimposed on theprofile of a hardball round, and set his overall length here. As you can see from the drawing, thisSWC length is always shorter than the length of a hardball round, and could be considerably shorterthan the 1.250" length specified. Although, 1.250 is a commonly accepted length for a SWC round.Never seat the larger diameter of a .45 SWC round flush with the case mouth. This almost certainlyresults in a failure to feed.

This correct length guesstimate could be made by first noting the diameter of the SWC bullet youintend to use at its nose. Then holding the calipers at this position, lay them on a standard hardballround. Then note the amount of distance from the end of the bullet to this diameter. This distancewould be subtracted from the 1.275" hardball length.

As one might imagine, the same principle applies to the popular hollow point rounds. One should notseat a hollow point round at 1.275", because of the fact the hollow point produces a flat point, theoverall loaded length would be shorter in order to place the feedramp strike point at the same place.In any case, you would do well to keep a hardball round nearby your loading bench and compare itcarefully with your reload.


Another problem I frequently run into is the poor choice of powders. Greatest reliability of the entiresystem results in the proper balance of the load. I always suggest using a fast burning powder, suchas Bullseye or 700-X, for light loads, a medium rate powder for medium loads such as 231 or AA#5,and a slow burning powder, like Blue Dot for the heaviest loads. It seems the tendency is to use onepowder for all to eliminate confusion. However, when a powder such as 231 is reduced to a load of4.0 grains, the result is usually undesirable. In fact most reloading manuals suggest a minimumstarting load that is higher than this. A far better light load would be 4.2 Bullseye, and use the 231 fora medium/heavy load of 5.5 grains. Same goes for the heavier loads. 6.3 grains of 231 would giveabout the same pressure as 10.5 grains of Blue Dot, but the Blue Dot would give 150 feet per secondmore velocity. All of the above loads are using 200 grain bullets directly from the Speer manual, andare illustrated here not as loading data, but merely as comparative data to make a point.

It is important to recognize here that the bullet velocity is directly relational to the resultant slidevelocity, which directly affects functioning. Chamber pressure, in itself, has little to do with slidevelocity. I suggest keeping bullet velocity high, and chamber pressure low. Accomplish this bychoosing your powders wisely, and matching the powder with the velocity you are trying to achieve.Also, improve reliability by seating the bullets to an exact length, that will match the feedramp strikepoint on a hardball round.

Many barrels are ruined by firing a reload with no powder at all. The force of the primer alone willpush the bullet a few inches down the bore. The unaware shooter can’t figure out just what hap-pened, so he pulls the slide back to reveal a case that looks like it has been fired. When the slide isreleased, a new round is fed from the magazine and the stage is set for a blow-up.

When this new round is fired, the air pressure between the two bullets ruins the barrel instantly. Bothbullets are blown out the muzzle usually, and it is possible that the shooter could continue withoutknowing anything is wrong. It all depends on the particular point where the barrel is bulged. If it wasbulged near the front, the barrel bushing will not go over the barrel, and the gun is seized. However, Ihave seen cases with the .45 auto, and with all revolvers where the gun would continue to functionand shoot as normal. The only cure is a new barrel and a strong reloading lesson.

The moral of the story is: Be careful to the extreme when reloading pistol ammunition, and wheneverany doubt is realized, scrap the whole lot of ammo and start over. It is far cheaper to scrap ammothan a good gun. Also, whenever a failure to fire is experienced, stop immediately, unload the pistolcompletely and examine the barrel for any obstruction. You’ve got no excuse not to while practicing,and there is no match worth ruining a good pistol over.


Correct overall loaded length must take into account the shape of the bullet, so that the strike point ofthat bullet on the feedramp will be similar to a hardball round.

DROP-IN PARTS CHAPTER 23 PAGE 23-1

I’ve noticed that you and other manufacturers offer many parts that are advertised as ‘drop-in’. Can Ibe certain that these parts will fit and perform on my gun without fitting?

Outstanding question, and I’m glad you asked. The 1911 design has been around since, of course,1911. Actually 1910, but why quibble. There are darn few other items that can brag that they havebeen in production as long. Mere longevity speaks volumes for this design of handgun.

Known as the ‘Chevy Short Block’ of handguns, there is little that hasn’t been done with the gun.And since the gun has been made throughout several different time periods, and by several differentmanufacturers, a few differences exist.

These differences are hard to document, but we can discuss a few areas and hopefully the reader willbegin to get an idea of what to expect on the particular piece he owns. For instance, years ago, thegun factories employed workers that were probably qualified to be gunsmiths for the assembly of theguns. These workers could take a sear and hammer and do a fairly decent trigger job on assembly,knowing how much metal to remove from each part for a safe and proper fit.

In my collection, I am fortunate to own several pieces from the fifties where such evidence of handfitting is the norm. The mere fact that these pieces have survived the test of time without tamperingis amazing. These guns feel much like a custom pistol feels today after someone from thePistolsmiths Guild has spent countless hours over them. The slide and trigger fit and hammer fallsound far different from todays production gun, and a vigorous shaking reveals no noise of a looseslide clanking against the frame.

The firearm manufacturers, at least those still in business, realized that in order to make a productcheap enough to sell, they had to cut costs. One of the highest costs of any business is hourly labor,so that was a logical starting place. The parts needed to be manufactured so that they could beassembled into a working gun with little or no hand fitting.

The advent of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines helped tremendously. These machineswill turn out nearly the same part time after time. Also these machines can be programmed to runseveral different parts merely by switching tools, program, and holding fixtures. Such installationsare known as flexible manufacturing systems.

But to insure that, for instance, every barrel would fit every slide, and that assembly would fit everyframe, most companies adopted a policy of Statistical Product Control, or SPC. A quick explana-tion of SPC goes like this. First accept the fact that no manufacturing process makes exactly thesame product twice. If you think so, your inspection system needs help.

Realizing this, one needs to set up a tolerance system to establish limits to work within. A fairlytight tolerance would be inside a barrel where one might expect a .45 barrel to be .4515 inside thegrooves. However, the manufacturer would not throw away a barrel that was .4512, or .4519.Therefore the tolerance could be possibly +/- .0004. A fairly loose tolerance would be the slide fit tothe frame. Here +/- .003 might be acceptable. The outside of the barrel might be +/- .003, and theinside of the slide might be +/- .003.

DROP-IN PARTS CHAPTER 23 PAGE 23-2

Now when this sample pistol is assembled, it might have the largest slide (+.003), on the smallestframe (-.003), with the smallest barrel (-.003). Add up all the tolerances and never mind the fact thatsome are plus and some are minus, and you have a 1911 with a lot of slop in the barrel. Since barrelfit is 75% of the accuracy in a 1911 design, you see why a factory gun may not shoot as well as acustom hand fitted version.

Those of us in the custom part business try to make our parts oversize in the areas that need to befitted, and to a high tolerance fit in the areas that don’t need special fitting. Now we get into an areawhere we need to decide what dimension to make, for instance, a pin. A new Colt might make thehole .157 diameter, and use a .1562 pin for .0008 clearance assuming everything is perfect. Theywould accept a pin .1558 or up to .1568, or +/- .0005. The hole would be toleranced .157 +.0005, -.0000. But then another manufacturer makes a copy and uses a standard 5/32 reamer (.1562) tomake his hole.

Now perhaps you can see the problem. A standard pin within tolerance at a .1568 diameter wouldnot fit into a .1562 hole.

These tolerance problems are repeated for every dimension in the whole gun. Some are more impor-tant, some make no difference at all. Now you should be able to see why over eighty years of manu-facturing, with different machines, different companies, different managers, and different tolerancesmakes the same gun not the same at all.

I have used the popular 1911 design as my example above, but the problem is by no means limited tothat gun. I have known factories in this day and time to hand fit certain parts on a gun. The case Iam speaking of involved a small production run of revolvers (2000) that had a cut in the frame comeout slightly short. This prevented the cylinder latch, normally a drop-in part, from releasing thecylinder.

This problem was discovered in inspection, and the factory chose the easiest solution. Simply fileoff a small amount of metal from the front of the latch and the gun will work. This solved theproblem and eliminated the disassembly and refixturing of the frames for remachining. But whatabout the poor devil who wants to later add an aftermarket oversize Thumblatch? And one that themanufacturer has assured the customer that it will drop-in with only one screw? You get the idea.

So what can you as a consumer expect in a drop-in part? I believe you should expect it to drop inand perform better than the factory part. 1911 parts that rarely fail to work include Magazines, GripScrews, Slide Stops, Guide Rods, Firing Pins, Mainspring Housings, add on Magazine funnels, andMagazine Releases. You can usually expect to install replacement grips without assistance. Partsthat frequently need a bit of adjusting include the drop-in comp assemblies, extractors, and ejectors.For a general rule, remember any part that has to do with the safe operation of the gun, Grip Safeties,Thumb Safeties, triggers, hammers, barrels, etc, will always need gunsmith fitting, and most frontsights will require some professional help.

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ed brown's 1911 bench reference

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