blr- Beautiful!
Is that some sort of "half-depth Hi Power cut"?? Very interested to see what you think after you get a chance to run it side by side with the CQB.
blr- Beautiful!
Is that some sort of "half-depth Hi Power cut"?? Very interested to see what you think after you get a chance to run it side by side with the CQB.
Yep, they call them "Carry Cuts"
Some side by sides:
BTW, I love 1911s. Especially well made ones
Originally Posted by blr
Yep, they call them "Carry Cuts"
Some side by sides:
Oh yeah, I know that.... in your first few pictures of the TSG the cut didn't appear to be quite to normal depth. (must have been the angle of the shot, plus lighting or something, it just didn't look like their normal carry cut). I wondered if you'd ordered some weird "half-depth" carry cut or something...
Personally I'm not a fan of Carry Cuts, but that's the great thing about 1911's... you can customize them the way YOU want them. That's still a beautiful piece, for sure!
Gotcha (was a little thrown by the question, I figured you knew...).
To be honest, I'm not much of a fan either. They populate less than 10% of my 1911s, but I figure I needed a few with, and I like these more than some.
As I'd mentioned some months ago, I have a 1968 Colt LWC that I'd asked Steve Morrison of MARS Armament to do some work on. The gun was reliable (to a 200 round test) and the trigger acceptable, but I had a desire to have a 'retro' looking LWC. While my motivations were largely aesthetic the piece was intended for carry. The only significant issues with the pistol were a nasty set of MGW sights that had been stuck on by a previous owner, and a bad match of the slide to the frame at the rear.
I asked Mr. Morrison to get that trued up, which would involve both blending the slide and fitting a new barrel (since that match is driven by the engagement of the slide through the barrel's link). I asked him to mount a National Match style rear sight and a tritium front; gently dehorn the grip safety and tangs; high cut and matte the front strap and matte a flat MSH to match; black oxide the slide, and hard chrome the frame.
Mr. Morrison communicated very well throughout the project, often just calling to check in. He had two concerns during the completion of the gun. First, he had deep-seated apprehension regarding the hard chrome; it sounded like a recent run of bad luck with his plater. We discussed several options, but in the end decided that at least temporarily we would go with a 'tungsten' gray cerakote. I'm quite happy with the result. While it's not perfectly retro looking, it's attractive in an industrial sort of way, and practical.
Second, he was very concerned about what is probably an original factory defect -- the frame's port side, in the area of the mainspring housing, is not a straight line; if you look carefully at the attached picture, you can see that the MSH exposes itself in a taper. He discussed ways to fix this but I declined to pursue them, given the cosmetic nature of the issue.
The pistol was delivered with ample warning in an amount of time I considered perfectly reasonable. I could not be happier with his customer service -- it was simply a great gunsmith experience.
Lockup is very tight; if eased forward, the gun does not go into battery. Today I put 100 rounds of WWB hardball through it, and experienced a single FTF; I'm quite sure that after a detail clean and relube the gun will easily pass a 2000 round challenge. However.... either I'm a pansy all of a sudden, or it's extremely foolish to attempt to run a .45 LWC without a beavertail safety. Mr. Morrison had a gentle hand on the grip safety, but I think even if it was much more aggressively rounded it would have cut me. This is just not going to be a 200 round per session gun, or a gun I would take to a class. Without the beavertail, recoil is sharper and harder to control, and it's significantly more challenging to establish a good grip on the gun in the holster. It probably slowed my draw by 0.8 seconds, and it for sure impacted splits. Plus, it hurt, which wasn't any fun.
I waited until after I'd cut up my hand before attempting to shoot it for groups, so I won't report those since I'm pretty sure the gun will do better. I only attempted to feed the gun ball (the aforementioned WWB, 20 rounds of ASYM Match HB, and 15 rounds of PPU) and some match 185 SWC loads, federal gold match and Winchester. Those were miserable failures -- the gun absoultely will not feed them, neither as the first round nor the second. I will have to try LSWC reloads and hollowpoints later. If it doesn't feed those, I'm sure MARS will make it right; I'm not too worried either way.
In short, I have a pistol that I consider intensely aesthetically pleasing (in other words fly), that can probably be carried with a good degree of confidence. However, it slows me down (versus my size-equivalent .38S LWC or my similar though heavier P35); it hurts to much to practice enough with (a very J frame problem); and I will never be as fast or accurate with it as a minor caliber gun.
It is time for me to take another serious look at the current vogue for 9x19 plastic pistols. I will work with Curiosity a few more times, but when funds become available I am likely to pick up either a P30 or G19 and spend a year getting comfortable with it.
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Attachment 1090
Sharkskin ensemble. Wilson Pro.
In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
Flawless checkering. Perfectly centered (often the diamonds on one side of the grip are different than the other.)
Perfectly blended - running your finger nail over the seam yields only the faintest indication that the chute and frame are not one piece.
All off this gun: My Wilson CQB-E in 10mm.
Was my back up gun, which was pressed into service when the P35 got a bullet stuck in the throat.
I don't want to get all high-n-mighty shooting-professional on you, but using a 10mm 1911 to clear a stuck bullet in a BHP is not a good idea.Was my back up gun, which was pressed into service when the P35 got a bullet stuck in the throat.
No no no! That's the biggest advantage of steel framed pistols - when you need a hammer, it's right there!!!
No, Todd's right. You should have used a /smaller/ caliber to shoot the stuck bullet out of the P35 barrel.
Wait, do they make smaller calibers?
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