ostrobothnian
New member
Hello Gentlemen I wanted to share with the shooters here a story which may be interesting for the folks that own or intend to own a 1911A1 type pistol. I will keep manufacturers names out of this post as I don’t intend it on being a manufacturer bashing thread. Just a few words to the wise and the yet to be. I will call the pistol I brought for the day pistol X and my good buddies pistol Y. OK here goes…
The other day a good friend of mine called up and wanted to go shoot his new pistol Y. We decided to make it a 1911A1 day. All is well. We met at our “shootin’ spot “ and he proceeds to show me his new acquisition. He’s the kind of guy gun dealers love. He will drop a load of cash on whatever suits his fancy at a dealer/gun store. Me on the other hand, I’m quite poor by comparison. I usually read too much about a given firearm and then build (or in the case of the AR “assemble”) it. This is the case with my pistol X.
Anyhow my friend shows me this gleaming stainless steel 2009 factory manufacture 1911A1 style pistol. Pistol Y looks just like it did on the website and I checked prices earlier so I knew he paid probably a couple more hundred over a grand for it. Cool. Lets go shoot…
He brought some bowling pins and I brought a bag of moldy oranges for targets. First thing he noticed about the pistol was that it had a notchy trigger feel and the pull seemed to have way too much creep and a higher trigger pull than advertised. I said, “Here bro, try mine.” Mind you my friend has a nice collection of firearms from .22LR to .50 BMG. All high quality and he has always been a better shot than me. The look on his face when my pistol fired was priceless.
He says, “Can we make my trigger like yours?” I replied with a no problem. I’ll be over the next evening with my tools.
Now my friend isn’t married so thankfully there isn’t a wife factor involved so we took a couple towels, laid them out on the kitchen table along with gun mat and vise and went to town. M had never been into a 1911A1 pistol before so I showed him how to disassemble it to the bare frame and slide. We were very surprised at what we found to say the least.
First thing I noticed was that the barrel link was MIM. Uh oh. A barrel link I thought. Heaven above why? M had heard all the negative press (especially on the interweb) about MIM components and was quite upset that this manufacturer would use the MIM process for such a critical part in the pistol…. But wait, that’s not all! For $19.95 we will throw in… I digress. Any how here’s the scoop on Mr. Pistol Y.
These are the internals I noted that were MIM and M watched as I showed him. You see, he was under the impression that none of the internals were MIM either because of the manufacturers name on the slide or because the salesman said, “No way. No MIM in this pistol.” I didn’t ask.
MIM for sure (visible ejector pin marks. some with cavity numbers)
Barrel bushing
Barrel link
Disconnector
Sear (One reason for the strange trigger feel was that there were still burrs on the center slot from machining)
Hammer
Magazine catch
Grip safety
Plunger tube
Firing pin stop
Cast or possibly MIM:
Slide stop (Had heavy casting parting lines. Polished on front , rough casting surface everywhere else. Not well machined)
Extractor (Had visible parting lines. Not well machined)
Ambidextrous safety (Parting lines, seemed to be polished and then lightly clear coated)
Mainspring Housing (parting lines)
“Whew” I thought. Is that all? After that brief moment, two other things about the pistol came to attention. One was the sear spring. The first leaf for the sear had a weird bend to it. The second showed itself when my friend asked me if we could remove the “idiot scratch” he put on it. “Not a problem”, I replied. It’s stainless! Went to my car grabbed a small surface plate and a few different sheets of varying grit wet or dry emery cloth. Always good to be prepared for such an emergency dontcha know.
He scratched it so good that the scratch ran down into the “finished” portion of the trigger scallop. He suggested I take the scalloped portion down to metal to match the rest of the frame. No problem. As I’m working on the left side scallop I notice that there are some strange (what look to be) casting flaws? They could have been machine marks but I don’t think so. Immediately the frame is under scrutiny because the manufacturer identifies the frame as forged where to me it looks to be investment cast. Did the manufacturer change their processes to reduce overall cost? Possibly. Of course manufacturers do this all the time.
At this point my buddy isn’t ready to take the thing back or have a sledgehammer party, he wants to upgrade everything inside. Cool. Brownells and Ed Brown are about to be his best friends.
I took the burrs off of the sear and showed him how to reassemble the pistol. I let him do the slide. We identified all the parts he would like to replace and made a shopping list. Ordered a pizza later and it was a good evening. I knew his checking account would have less in it today. LOL.
So the moral of the story is really for the new to 1911 guys. Kinda like a woman, a 1911A1 might look flashy and expensive on the outside while sitting in a showcase but you always have to look at the insides first.
The other day a good friend of mine called up and wanted to go shoot his new pistol Y. We decided to make it a 1911A1 day. All is well. We met at our “shootin’ spot “ and he proceeds to show me his new acquisition. He’s the kind of guy gun dealers love. He will drop a load of cash on whatever suits his fancy at a dealer/gun store. Me on the other hand, I’m quite poor by comparison. I usually read too much about a given firearm and then build (or in the case of the AR “assemble”) it. This is the case with my pistol X.
Anyhow my friend shows me this gleaming stainless steel 2009 factory manufacture 1911A1 style pistol. Pistol Y looks just like it did on the website and I checked prices earlier so I knew he paid probably a couple more hundred over a grand for it. Cool. Lets go shoot…
He brought some bowling pins and I brought a bag of moldy oranges for targets. First thing he noticed about the pistol was that it had a notchy trigger feel and the pull seemed to have way too much creep and a higher trigger pull than advertised. I said, “Here bro, try mine.” Mind you my friend has a nice collection of firearms from .22LR to .50 BMG. All high quality and he has always been a better shot than me. The look on his face when my pistol fired was priceless.
He says, “Can we make my trigger like yours?” I replied with a no problem. I’ll be over the next evening with my tools.
Now my friend isn’t married so thankfully there isn’t a wife factor involved so we took a couple towels, laid them out on the kitchen table along with gun mat and vise and went to town. M had never been into a 1911A1 pistol before so I showed him how to disassemble it to the bare frame and slide. We were very surprised at what we found to say the least.
First thing I noticed was that the barrel link was MIM. Uh oh. A barrel link I thought. Heaven above why? M had heard all the negative press (especially on the interweb) about MIM components and was quite upset that this manufacturer would use the MIM process for such a critical part in the pistol…. But wait, that’s not all! For $19.95 we will throw in… I digress. Any how here’s the scoop on Mr. Pistol Y.
These are the internals I noted that were MIM and M watched as I showed him. You see, he was under the impression that none of the internals were MIM either because of the manufacturers name on the slide or because the salesman said, “No way. No MIM in this pistol.” I didn’t ask.
MIM for sure (visible ejector pin marks. some with cavity numbers)
Barrel bushing
Barrel link
Disconnector
Sear (One reason for the strange trigger feel was that there were still burrs on the center slot from machining
)Hammer
Magazine catch
Grip safety
Plunger tube
Firing pin stop
Cast or possibly MIM:
Slide stop (Had heavy casting parting lines. Polished on front , rough casting surface everywhere else. Not well machined)
Extractor (Had visible parting lines. Not well machined)
Ambidextrous safety (Parting lines, seemed to be polished and then lightly clear coated)
Mainspring Housing (parting lines)
“Whew” I thought. Is that all? After that brief moment, two other things about the pistol came to attention. One was the sear spring. The first leaf for the sear had a weird bend to it. The second showed itself when my friend asked me if we could remove the “idiot scratch” he put on it. “Not a problem”, I replied. It’s stainless! Went to my car grabbed a small surface plate and a few different sheets of varying grit wet or dry emery cloth. Always good to be prepared for such an emergency dontcha know.
He scratched it so good that the scratch ran down into the “finished” portion of the trigger scallop. He suggested I take the scalloped portion down to metal to match the rest of the frame. No problem. As I’m working on the left side scallop I notice that there are some strange (what look to be) casting flaws? They could have been machine marks but I don’t think so. Immediately the frame is under scrutiny because the manufacturer identifies the frame as forged where to me it looks to be investment cast.
Did the manufacturer change their processes to reduce overall cost? Possibly. Of course manufacturers do this all the time.At this point my buddy isn’t ready to take the thing back or have a sledgehammer party, he wants to upgrade everything inside. Cool. Brownells and Ed Brown are about to be his best friends.
I took the burrs off of the sear and showed him how to reassemble the pistol. I let him do the slide. We identified all the parts he would like to replace and made a shopping list. Ordered a pizza later and it was a good evening. I knew his checking account would have less in it today. LOL.
So the moral of the story is really for the new to 1911 guys. Kinda like a woman, a 1911A1 might look flashy and expensive on the outside while sitting in a showcase but you always have to look at the insides first.
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