The Art and Science of Keeping Your 1911 Running

[SW CQB 45]

this is what Rob emailed me as to the bowtie cut.

I did see that you were concerned about the barrel. It's a valid concern. Springfield frames don't have a "bow tie" cut at the top of the vertical impact surface. This causes the bottom of the lower lugs of the barrel to hit that spot forcefully which eventually cracks the lower lugs off the barrel. I usually add a bow tie cut to all the Springfield frames I do barrel work on. If a Springfield is just here for normal work I relieve the back of the lower lugs at the bottom so they no longer make contact.

it was based on my barrel which I thought showed signs of cracking. It was not cracked, just heavily used.

[SW CQB 45]

Well Alrighty Then!!!!!

I got my SHEEEE OTTTT back in my hands.

New plunger tube, new 10-8 slide stop with custom tear drop dimple (BAM!)

I might have said this before, but before it went for a new barrel and optic.... its started to hiccup and the culprit was likely heavy wear.

The slide stop was dinging up my slide rail as it was being pushed out.

The new Ed Brown slide stop installed with the fresh springer barrel had issues, sticking the mag, and being pushed out too on an empty mag. Ratio 10+ in 150.

I tried a new 10-8 slide stop that I dropped in and the issues were the same but to a much lesser degree. Ratio 5 in 150.

Dimensionally the 10-8 slide stop is much beefier than the Ed Brown.

My plunger tube was the original that had seen over 18K of firings and countless more dry manipulations.

Rob fitted a new plunger tube, the 10-8 slide stop and dimpled the slide stop to minimize movement. It feels very solid but yet installs with ease.

I feel my issue is related to putting a new engine in 100,000 mile muscle car but doing nothing to the transmission.

I hope to sneak to the range this weekend. I would like to put about 300 rounds (both FMJ and Duty GD) through it.

Rob asked me if I wanted the parts finished. I said nope, they need to match the gun's condition.

It should also be noted the front of the 10-8 lever had a definite corner which made contact with my support hand thumb grip. I asked Rob to round off that corner, so that's the reason the front edge of the lever is shiny.







I got moved from the streets back to a desk job

Believe it or not, the streets is 100% easier than my current assignment.

I ruined my old faithful non lighted perfect desk driving holster by cutting it for a Commander length only to sell that gun when I wanted an ACW.

Being somewhat crafty (I did not say good though) I took a piece of thick Kydex and made a bottom that I had removed. I did not like how it fit (felt sloppy). Remember, I am crafty and took a piece of Delrin rod and rolled in a drill and formed a muzzle spud. I cut the holster for the optic. I have my desk driving holster back. Safariland sent me a brand-new rotating hood and internal tensioner.

while this holster was once a Level 3 6360... I ended up cutting out the ALS attachment making this a Level 2 6280. I had an old sentry lock laying around, so if I need to lock it down to a Level 3... I can.

I also formed the kydex around both thumb safeties where it would only holster with the thumb safeties on (up)











Fingers Crossed !

[Elwin]

I didn’t know an ALS holster could be cut for an optic as a mod. I do know you can cut an SLS only holster to work, which is essentially what you did here. Are you sure the ALS parts will go back in? Not doubting, actually just wanting to know what all my optic equipped 1911 Safariland options are.

Also glad to see the old gun is hopefully back up and ready to go.

[CSW]

Recently traded into a DW Guardian in 9mm. The pistol came with some 40 plus or minus 9mm mags. Mecgar, Chips, Checkmates, Ed Browns, Wilsons, and a few unknown. Part of me vetting the gun is also testing mags. Every mag went in the ultrasonic for cleaning, then lube.

So far, of the 15 mags I've tested, only 4 mags that were questionable. They were bound with painters tape and put aside until further testing.

The gun has been reliable save for those mags. 300 rounds of 124 S&B, and defensive so far. No issues.

[SW CQB 45]

I didn’t know an ALS holster could be cut for an optic as a mod. I do know you can cut an SLS only holster to work, which is essentially what you did here. Are you sure the ALS parts will go back in? Not doubting, actually just wanting to know what all my optic equipped 1911 Safariland options are.

The ALS attachment screw is right where the optic goes on the older holsters.

This is one of my older 6360s prior to the RDS on the MCOP.



to put a light on my MCOP

I rolled the dice and took a chance on a modern 6360RDS for a S&W M&P 5" and with some heat it worked.

It was a huge pain to remove the ALS on this one (its tight and not much room to work with). IIRC, the instructions were to remove the ALS and then apply heat to fit the holster to the 1911.

At $200 from RDR gear, it was a costly chance, hoping I did not jack this up.



note the location of the ALS attachment is on both sides of the holster.





I want the open top version of the same holster (I think 6395RDS) but at $200, I am saving my pennies.

[thatguybryan]

As a follow up to my earlier issues about the Wilson ETM I’m testing, I’m still having issues with it. Last range trip it was mostly smooth until the end where I had a FTLB. I’m not sure that this was necessarily the ETM, as it could have been me riding the slide stop which happens.

However, I dropped that mag on a reload and boom, stuck plastic follower over the feed lips. It’s such an expensive mag to have these issues. My 47Ds, on the other hand, continue to run flawlessly.

I’m going to send the stock Springfield mags in for the Ed Brown mag exchange program to test some of those. I believe they are checkmate mags, but I used them in my Colt 9mm commander exclusively and they were fantastic.

I’m also debating buying the +p flatwire and follower for the ETM to try that to see if it makes a difference.

[thatguybryan]

Well Alrighty Then!!!!!

I got my SHEEEE OTTTT back in my hands.

New plunger tube, new 10-8 slide stop with custom tear drop dimple (BAM!)

I might have said this before, but before it went for a new barrel and optic.... its started to hiccup and the culprit was likely heavy wear.

The slide stop was dinging up my slide rail as it was being pushed out.

The new Ed Brown slide stop installed with the fresh springer barrel had issues, sticking the mag, and being pushed out too on an empty mag. Ratio 10+ in 150.

I tried a new 10-8 slide stop that I dropped in and the issues were the same but to a much lesser degree. Ratio 5 in 150.

Dimensionally the 10-8 slide stop is much beefier than the Ed Brown.

My plunger tube was the original that had seen over 18K of firings and countless more dry manipulations.

Rob fitted a new plunger tube, the 10-8 slide stop and dimpled the slide stop to minimize movement. It feels very solid but yet installs with ease.

I feel my issue is related to putting a new engine in 100,000 mile muscle car but doing nothing to the transmission.

I hope to sneak to the range this weekend. I would like to put about 300 rounds (both FMJ and Duty GD) through it.

Rob asked me if I wanted the parts finished. I said nope, they need to match the gun's condition.

It should also be noted the front of the 10-8 lever had a definite corner which made contact with my support hand thumb grip. I asked Rob to round off that corner, so that's the reason the front edge of the lever is shiny.







I got moved from the streets back to a desk job

Believe it or not, the streets is 100% easier than my current assignment.

I ruined my old faithful non lighted perfect desk driving holster by cutting it for a Commander length only to sell that gun when I wanted an ACW.

Being somewhat crafty (I did not say good though) I took a piece of thick Kydex and made a bottom that I had removed. I did not like how it fit (felt sloppy). Remember, I am crafty and took a piece of Delrin rod and rolled in a drill and formed a muzzle spud. I cut the holster for the optic. I have my desk driving holster back. Safariland sent me a brand-new rotating hood and internal tensioner.

while this holster was once a Level 3 6360... I ended up cutting out the ALS attachment making this a Level 2 6280. I had an old sentry lock laying around, so if I need to lock it down to a Level 3... I can.

I also formed the kydex around both thumb safeties where it would only holster with the thumb safeties on (up)

Fingers Crossed !

These are legit mods but make my OCD hurt

I hope you get your gun back running well. I love your posts.

[Elwin]

Got it. I misread your first post - I thought that saying you could bring it back to level three was suggesting you could put the ALS mechanism back in. I glossed over the point that you would do that by adding a sentry lock.

NBD - back where I was before planning on getting a 6280 and cutting space for the optic.

[Elwin]

Been meaning to post this here and I finally have some time today.

This started off as a 2010-ish vintage Les Baer Premier II that was pretty much stock with approximately 5000 rounds through it. I was able to do the following:

- Reprofile strong side safety lever (previously wide "match" style), break edges on both levers
- Relieve bottom of front strap to allow all of my 8rd mags to clear
- Addressed spotty ejection by fitting EGW firing pin stop (also have a spare fitted extractor on hand now)
- Broke a bunch of corners and edges since it was getting refinished anyway
- A handful of drop in parts (grip screws, VCD grips, all new springs and plunger tube detents)
- Post optic milling, filed front sight down to properly cowitness with integral EPS Carry rear (the dot is milled low due to the previous Bomar cut)
- Replaced the roll pin in the front sight after doing that because the old one lost tension and fell out
- Install 10-8 trigger (poorly - my lines aren't straight so it looks gap-toothed - cosmetic issue that I'll fix with a redo when I get around to it)

Impact Machine did the dot milling on this and on my old Kimber Team Match II that's serving as a trainer understudy to this. The matte blue finish was done by a place in Waterloo, IA called Craftguard.

I also did a lot of messing around with proper mounting procedures and screw lengths and now have the optic (hopefully) set and good to go on both guns. There was also a trip back to Holosun in there to address a bad elevation adjustment screw (hard to turn and no clicks on adjustment). This has been a long journey since deciding at a June No Fail class that I wanted dots on my pistols...

This forum in general and this thread in particular were a huge help in providing the resources that made this work. I can't afford to have a smith do all of this, but having a gun set up exactly to my preferences is possible when I know how to do most of the work.



The matte blue just by its nature isn't the most durable finish in the world, so I'm already hard at work scuffing this up in kydex holsters to add character...

[Robinson]

I’m going to send the stock Springfield mags in for the Ed Brown mag exchange program to test some of those. I believe they are checkmate mags, but I used them in my Colt 9mm commander exclusively and they were fantastic.

I have a bunch of the Ed Brown 45 mags I bought using the exchange program. They have worked pretty well for me, with just one of the dozen or so mags occasionally exhibiting failure to lock back on empty. No feeding problems with those mags yet.

My ETMs have worked fine too.