History of 1911 Customization

[Tabasco]

When did people start replacing parts and customizing their traditional 1911 pistols? I remember as a kid in the 80's, decent sights, throat jobs, extended safety/slide release and eventually beavertail grip safeties were all the rage. Eventually the extended slide release went away, the rest remained. I also remember seeing pictures of custom revolvers from the 30's 40's and 50's with bobbed hammers and cut away trigger guards, so I figure custom revolvers were a thing before autos (probably since revolvers were seen as more reliable).

[Jim Watson]

My King catalog #19 that I have read was from 1939 shows their sights, triggers, and accuracy work on GMs.
It makes a big deal out of the arched mainspring housing which indicates they may have been offering those parts and work for some time.

[okie john]

When did people start replacing parts and customizing their traditional 1911 pistols? I remember as a kid in the 80's, decent sights, throat jobs, extended safety/slide release and eventually beavertail grip safeties were all the rage. Eventually the extended slide release went away, the rest remained. I also remember seeing pictures of custom revolvers from the 30's 40's and 50's with bobbed hammers and cut away trigger guards, so I figure custom revolvers were a thing before autos (probably since revolvers were seen as more reliable).

It depends on the purpose. Customizing for bullseye shooting probably started the day the first one left the factory. Customizing for reliability probably started the day after that. Colt started selling the National Match 1911 in the 1930s, which would have given bullseye shooters 20 years to figure out which mods actually mattered.

Leatherslap started in 1956, so customizing for what we think of as practical shooting probably started there.


Okie John

[Daniel Watters]

My blog posts tend to be data dumps and outlines rather than fully-fleshed out articles, but you might find something interesting here. I have three of four parts up.

https://scatteredshots.com/2021/11/17/notes-on-the-history-of-custom-competition-and-carry-pistols-pre-ww2/

https://scatteredshots.com/2021/11/19/a-brief-history-of-custom-competition-and-carry-handguns-1945-1975/

https://scatteredshots.com/2021/11/21/a-brief-history-of-custom-competition-and-carry-handguns-1976-2000/

[Tabasco]

My blog posts tend to be data dumps and outlines rather than fully-fleshed out articles, but you might find something interesting here. I have three of four parts up.

https://scatteredshots.com/2021/11/17/notes-on-the-history-of-custom-competition-and-carry-pistols-pre-ww2/

https://scatteredshots.com/2021/11/19/a-brief-history-of-custom-competition-and-carry-handguns-1945-1975/

https://scatteredshots.com/2021/11/21/a-brief-history-of-custom-competition-and-carry-handguns-1976-2000/

Awesome! That'll keep me busy.