The Art and Science of Keeping Your 1911 Running

[RJ]

...I need to get some treatment (Cold Blue?) so it matches the slide, but it doesn’t look too bad as it is.

Just to finish this out, my Grobet USA 6" cut 4 file arrived, so for my second attempt, I used the file on the Wilson Combat Bullet Proof slide stop I'd bought. It took about 30 minutes of steady filing, stopping to check the fit from time to time. After I got it close, I rounded the pin free hand, just gave it enough of a bevel to allow it to insert easily into the frame.

I blued the pin ends of both parts with some Birchwood Casey Presto Mag. I inserted the WC BP slide stop because it seems a bit more robust than the factory SA part, and it has the pre-filed logman / idiot scratch prevention divot where the plunger tube sits, making assembly easier.

I am pretty happy with the end result; the blued color, even with just the one application, seems to match the frame tolerably well. (*)



(* This was my first exposure to using Gun Blue. It was pretty interesting to learn how this stuff works. I felt like an Alchemist. )

[45dotACP]

That looks outstanding Rich

Sent from my SM-A326U using Tapatalk

[DDTSGM]

I chamfered my frame a little to make it a tab bit easier to remove the slide stop (sorry for the bad photo):

[SW CQB 45]

The ETM-V Vickers mags also have the bump in the follower...I have a bunch of the HD/+P mags, in both 7 and 8 round formats, but for 8 rounders I'm only going to buy the ETM-V Vickers with the bumps in the followers from now on. I'll keep the rest around for practice and other uses but I'll eventually replace the 8 rounders with the Vickers mags. The 7 rounders I'll keep as-is simply because they're shorter and stick out less..

Howdy Sir,

I was doing a search on the Vickers Duty mag and came across your post from well back.

I am scheduled to attend a one-day Vickers 1911 Operators Course (Feb 2023) and have always wanted to try these mags.

They are on sale right now but wanted to check in with you on your experience with the WC Vickers Duty Magazines in .45 ACP?

anyone else with experience with these mags in .45 only can chime in too.

TIA

[dsa]

Howdy Sir,

I was doing a search on the Vickers Duty mag and came across your post from well back.

I am scheduled to attend a one-day Vickers 1911 Operators Course (Feb 2023) and have always wanted to try these mags.

They are on sale right now but wanted to check in with you on your experience with the WC Vickers Duty Magazines in .45 ACP?

anyone else with experience with these mags in .45 only can chime in too.

TIA

They are stout, overbuilt is a better description. Mags are a consumable item, the tubes on the Vickers duty mags have a lifetime warranty. The flat wire spring is rated for the life of the tube. Replace followers on an annual basis for a high volume shooter and you are good to go. I reload like a gorilla; I've had problems with the feed lips spreading on every .45 mag out there. I heard about the Wilson Combat warranty on these mags and called to verify and they confirmed. So far I have not needed to test the warranty policy. FWIW I was averaging 25k/year of .45 when I bought these mags (I have 16 of them). I have not been shooting as much the past 18 months.

[Evil_Ed]

Howdy Sir,

I was doing a search on the Vickers Duty mag and came across your post from well back.

I am scheduled to attend a one-day Vickers 1911 Operators Course (Feb 2023) and have always wanted to try these mags.

They are on sale right now but wanted to check in with you on your experience with the WC Vickers Duty Magazines in .45 ACP?

anyone else with experience with these mags in .45 only can chime in too.

TIA

I haven't had a chance to put much more than maybe 100 rounds through each of the mags; the last year or two my shooting has come down a bit as ammo's gotten more expensive and I've run out of time...

If I were told I needed to stock up on 8 round mags and could expect to have to rely on them for some time by themselves without replacements or parts, I'd stock up on the ETM-Vs in 45acp and not even think twice or wonder "what if". I'm not LE or Military; I don't have near the trigger time or experience as most of the posters here do on square or other types of ranges...but speaking for me, as a 1911 student who's fingered just about every type of mag I could find for one...it's one of the few I'd spend my money on and if one malfunctioned, I'd actually try to fix it or contact WC about it, vs just throwing it away and chalking it up to "well, it was a cheap crappy mag, who cares". These things are nice, they work, leaving one loaded for 12+ months then emptying it at the range; it's just as stiff to reload as it was on day one. I've moved away from using a 1911 as a suppressor platform, but it's also one of the few mags I'd be comfortable with in that scenario, too.

[SW CQB 45]

thanks for the info. Good enough for me.

[03RN]

Vickers are my EDC magazine

[DDTSGM]

Vickers are my EDC magazine

They are almost as expensive as his books.

[JTQ]

I think of the Vickers mags as mags for folks that have a specific need for a mag to perform in some special circumstances. You probably know if you need a mag for those special circumstances. For my uses, there are more economical options in the Wilson mag line-up that fit my needs.