1911 Smith Wanted

[444]

I have owned a number of 1911s over the years from several different manufactuers. I have used them for everyday carry, IDPA, and IPSC. All were unmodified, straight out of the box 1911s and I never experienced the slightest bit of trouble. Then along came the Springfield Armory. I got a lemon. Out of the box I had two problems. #1 the rails are not straight (?). When you retract the slide you can feel high and low spots. As a result, the slide often does not go into battery. #2 It wasn't accurate at all. I mean like dinner plate sized groups at 25 yards. Just to prove it wasn't me, I fired it side by side with one of my Colts. Same ammo etc. I would shoot a very respectable group with the Colt, then spray the target with the Springfield. So, I bought a Bar-Sto barrel and sent the whole gun to Bar-Sto to have the barrel fitted. I got the gun back a week or so ago. It is a real tack driver; super accurate, but the slide still fails to return to battery like 3-4 times/mag. I have had enough. I want to send it to a smith to have it fixed. What I am looking for I guess is an action job. I want the thing to be totally reliable, smooth, and have a decent trigger. I am not interested in armchair commando gadgets , or making it into a bullseye gun or race gun. I just want what I have now with reliability and shootability. And I want this done by someone that really knows 1911s, not some guy working out of his kitchen. By the same token, I don't want to send it to a race gun maker who will give me a year and a half ETA. Who do you recommend ? Advice needed.

 

[CastleBravo]

There are alot of good pistolsmiths who could do that work in a reasonable time frame. Those huge waits you hear about are for complete guns by the biggest-name pistolsmiths, not smaller-scale work.

Some names off the top of my head:

Cylinder & Slide

http://www.cylinder-slide.com/

Dane Burns

http://www.burnscustom.com/

George Smith EGW

http://www.egw-guns.com/

Ned Christiansen

http://www.m-guns.com/

Novak's

http://www.novaksights.com

Ted Yost

http://www.tedyostguns.com/

Teddy Jacobson

http://www.actionsbyt.com/

I had a Delta Elite heavily customized by Dane Burns. I can recommend him highly. You can read about it here:

http://www.geocities.com/mr_motorhead/deltabcp.html

 

[John Forsyth]

Here are some more you can try.

Don Williams
actionworks@oldwest.net
Chino Valley, AZ

Scott D. Mulkerin
www.sdmfabricating.com

John Harrison
Precision Gunworks
Canton, GA
johnbharrison@alltel.net

Bob Londrigan
Brazos Custom Gunworks
254-622-2245
http://www.brazoscustom.com

Bob Hunter
Hunter Custom
(816) 675-2340
www.huntercustoms.com

All and those in Castle's post have excellent reputations. I have personal experience with Bob Lundrigan and Bob Hunter. No nonsence type of people and would use them again.

 

[Jim V]

I would recommend Ned except he has posted at the 1911 Forum his waitlist is now in the 2 - 2 1/2 year range. He does good work, pretty darn good work at that, so his client base is growning.

 

[CastleBravo]

I would recommend Ned except he has posted at the 1911 Forum his waitlist is now in the 2 - 2 1/2 year range. He does good work, pretty darn good work at that, so his client base is growning.

Let me address a general misconception about pistolsmiths here (not to correct Jim V per se, he'd probably agree with what follows): just because they have lead times in the years to build a full custom gun from scratch doesn't mean you will wait years for work like the poster is asking for (which is basically a trigger job and reliability package). Even for the busiest pistolsmiths, the waits are proportional to the amount of work in question, and I'd guess that even the bigger names out there would only take a month or two for that sort of thing. I know that's about how long Dane took do do comparable stuff for me on my Delta Elite (which was completed in stages), and his waits are something stupid like 2-3 years for complete guns, too.

My advice is to not rule out the bigger names for seemingly little stuff; in my experience they are happy to do it, the prices are about the same when you add up what you get at the end, and while the waits are longer for the smaller stuff (and for these guys making a gun reliable & have a good trigger is small stuff ), they aren't NUTS, either.

Work by well known pistolsmiths will also increase the value of your gun, which can't be said for the unknowns. The work might be as good, but if you have to sell it later (like I did ) the resale value won't be there if nobody heard of who did the work.

Don't get me wrong, the guy who got in the gun magazine WILL take longer to get around to your gun than somebody who is unknown, regardless of the scale of the work. But the waits for well-known guys to do lower-dollar work (e.g. reliability and trigger jobs) are in the weeks and months in my experience, not years like for their full-on custom jobs. And you can always just ask Ned about how long X job will take if you want to know... I don't think he'd slip an extra year in there on your trigger job.

 

[CastleBravo]

Oh yeah, another name to look at:

Victor Tibbets
http://www.classichandguns.com/

I've seen a couple of his guns, and WOW they look nice. IIRC even his waits for fairly extensive work aren't too long, either, though that might have changed of course.

 

[tetchaje]

Pardon me if this is a stupid question, but if you got a lemon from the Springfield factory, why don't you just send it back with a complaint that the rails aren't straight? Maybe they'd give you another gun and you can be on your merry way with a reliable, accurate gun. It would be a lot cheaper too...

 

[John Forsyth]

CastleBravo is telling you right. You might be surprized how fast your gun could be turned around. Smiths need more work than just building guns. Trigger jobs, installing new sights, etc. are quick jobs that they can turnaround quickly to bring in cash. Heinie may be the best 1911 smith out there with a wait measured in years for a complete pistol, but he can turnaround sight installation in days if he has the sight in stock or two weeks if he has to make it.

444, what you want done can be accomplished in a few dedicated hours by a good smith. It doesn't hurt to call them on the phone, ask what needs to be done, how log it will take, and how much will it cost.

 

[444]

Thank you for the replies. I guess I will just get on the phone and start calling.
tetchaje: I thought about that. But I have owned the gun for several years. I have now had it worked on by two different smiths and have fired several thousand rounds through it. I don't think it is kosher to now send it in to them and tell them it was defective from the start. Another thing is that I think I would feel better about it to have a good smith go through it and make everything right rather than gamble on getting a good one from the factory.

 

[cliffb]

A few years ago I sent a Colt 38 Super to Wilson Combat for their reliability package.

It was only gone about 2 weeks and has worked great ever since.

Best $80 I ever spent on a 1911.

 

[Mark IV Series 80]

I recommend Terry Tussey.
http://www.tusseycustom.com/

He did nice work on the Commander.

The turn-around time was 5 weeks.

Terry's shop is in Carson City, which may be within driving distance for you.