New SA "Service Lightweight" Full size .45 ACP

[Denali]

I'd been looking for one of these for a very long time, for whatever reason I could never land one via my regular haunts/sources, they either couldn't get one, or had just sold the one they had sort of a thing if you get my meaning!

While I'm usually quite traditional when it comes to 1911's, specifically preferring steel frames, I've always been enthralled with the concept of a full size light weight(aluminum)framed service piece, preferring as I do the 5" barrel with .45 ACP.

As I said I looked for a long time, three plus years for one of these pistols , so I'm quite happy to have finally landed one. On the surface, and at it's pricepoint, this is a very decent production piece with fit & finish being about as good as I expect from Springfield Armory, the stainless slide has been nicely done in satin as opposed to the ugly bright stainless I've seen from them in the past, the frame very nicely finished in a gloss black...

Fit is very good for one of these pistols with no real weak points per se, no real sharp edges, or over or under machining, frame to slide fit is again about as good as I expect from SA! Things I'm not thrilled with are the two tone finish#it's the only way it comes#, and the full length, two piece recoil guide rod which complicates disassembly and in my estimation imparts virtually no practical benefit to the design.

I am waiting on the rain to break, when it does I am going out back and I will feed this nice looking full size 1911 1500 rounds of ammo over the course of this afternoon and first half of the weekend....I'll get back with how well it performs....

[Rydiak]

Very nice! That is actually my favorite 1911 from SAI. At 33 ounces, it is almost 3/4s the weight of a regular 1911.

[Denali]

Well I've never been a real big fan of SA pistols, here's a big reason as to why! I was going to shoot this thing over the weekend, however I noticed a bit of jiggling along the bottom right grip(grip screw)and upon closer inspection I saw that the steel screw insert was free of the alloy frame, it was still firmly attached to the hex head screw which also happened to be completely stripped!

An absolute disgrace that this shipped from the factory, though I bought it from Bud's they never actually had it in their physical possession, it shipped direct from SA.....Really disappointing....

[samuse]

If the threads in frame aren't boogered up, replacing a bushing takes about a minute. Tops.

Use a little blue loctite and check to make sure the bushing isn't hanging out into the magwell. If it is, file it flush.

I've had good luck running bushings like that, though some people want them staked also.

You'll need a bushing socket.

[Denali]

Originally Posted by samuse

If the threads in frame aren't boogered up, replacing a bushing takes about a minute. Tops.

Use a little blue loctite and check to make sure the bushing isn't hanging out into the magwell. If it is, file it flush.

I've had good luck running bushings like that, though some people want them staked also.

You'll need a bushing socket.

Alas the problem is that the frame threads are stripped out, this pistol is being returned to SA for replacement....