Springfield Army Trophy Match Customized by Aquilla Custom Guns

[Sensei]

I bought this pistol back in 1995 as my first 1911. As you can see, it was fairly no frills:



Normally, I send my 1911s to Wilson for rebuilds, but I happen to live 10 minutes from a local shop that has built a stellar reputation around NC. So, I sent it off to Ryan at Aquilla Custom Guns in East Bend, NC for a rebuild and fit with top notch parts including:
1) Smith and Alexander Mag well
2) Wilson thumb safety, extractor, guide rod, spring, plug
3) Ed Brown Grip Safety, mag release, slide stop
4) Dawson tritium front sight
5) Harrison tritium rear
6) Tune and reliability package
7) Stiple front strap and mainspring housing, complete dehorn, and hard chrome
8) Flush cut and reverse crown the existing national match barrel
9) VZ grips
I left the stock national match trigger because it was excellent

This is the result:




I took it to the range twice since I picking it up 2 days ago. Day one was a 100-round breaking with 230 grain FAE. Yesterday was another 125 rounds including 16-round 10-8 Extractor test (passed) and 25 rounds of 230 grain HST. No failures so far and all rounds fired from either 8-round Wilson ETM or 47DE magazines.

[NPV]

Most excellent.

[Totem Polar]

Most excellent.

This, clearly.

[HopetonBrown]

Looks nice. Is this an earlier SA with the funky dustcover, and if so what's the holster situation like?

[Sensei]

Looks nice. Is this an earlier SA with the funky dustcover, and if so what's the holster situation like?

Dust cover seems pretty standard. The gun fits my JM Custom OWB-2 fine.

[Robinson]

Nice.

[Nephrology]

Beautiful pistol!

[JonInWA]

Very nicely done, both from a professional/operational standpoint and an aesthetically tasteful standpoint.

It's pretty rewarding breathing fresh (and enhanced) life into an old friend, isn't it?

A nice way to commemorate previous memories and experiences, and viably create new ones.

Best, Jon

[Sensei]

I’m now up to 500 rounds as of today; 95% of that was 230 grain FAE. No failures so far. Accuracy is excellent. I plan to go another 200 rounds or so and then apply some more lube.

I’m very pleased.

[SoCalDep]

Wow... That's a great looking gun! The older picture and "first 1911" in 1995 is cool as well. Fast forward 23 years and what an update! Thank you for the pictures and the backstory. I loves me some 1911s!