SA Range Officer 1911 45 vs 9mm manufacturing tolerances

[Oukaapie]

I had the 9mm Officers Compact, it was not accurate. I also had a 9mm Springfield Custom Shop, that was absolutely amazing.

[M2CattleCo]

I prefer barrels that have a slightly smaller diameter behind (towards the chamber) the surface on which the bushing rotates. Then all one needs to do is have the battery out of battery to rotate the bushing without worrying about needing a bushing wrench or damaging the bushing/barrel interface. That works well with the way I take down the 1911 as I first pull the slide stop, remove the upper from the frame, remove the recoil spring guide rod and spring, push barrel out of battery, rotate bushing, remove bushing, and remove barrel. Assembly is in reverse order.

A tight bushing should need a wrench because it's tight to the slide and slip fit to the barrel. You should turn the bushing with the barrel out of battery on any 1911.

[M2CattleCo]

How was your reliability experience with the above?

Different guy, but in my two decades of customs...

The tighter they are, the better they run. But I only have the best of the best 'smiths make anything tight.

Not a nary a one single big name builder really does tight right.

[Trooper224]

A lot of 1911 makers advertise NM barrels. While the barrels may indeed be NM, that doesn't mean anything if it isn't fit up to NM specs, which none of them are.

I've owned two RO's, one in .45acp and one in 9mm. These are the original RO configuration. The .45 was my competition gun for a number of years and was exceptionally accurate right out of the box with a very good trigger. The 9mm required a trigger job after purchase to achieve optimal results. I recently sent the .45 down the road, but the 9mm remains as my wife's gun. Both were/have been stone cold reliable. I shot the .45 enough to have to rebuild it once with new internals. I couldn't see a difference between the two in overall fit.