On pistol-forum, there is a poster looking for a good candidate to go high round count and super reliable 1911. I pointed him to this thread. I can sense an update coming on the operator soon...
On pistol-forum, there is a poster looking for a good candidate to go high round count and super reliable 1911. I pointed him to this thread. I can sense an update coming on the operator soon...
As long as the frame doesn't crack, someone like Mr. Christiansen can probably keep one going indefinitely.
I was fortunate to have been mentored a bit by Ray Chapman, though more from one of his proteges, but Ray had an old Pachmayr built 1911 with 140,000 rounds through it that would still put 8 rounds offhand inside the 4" Bianchi x-ring at 50 yards. His protege, my pistol-shooting mentor, had 75,000 through his Les Baer many years ago. He was a 1911 gunsmith and properly maintained it, too.
I can't imagine some of the round counts through the old MEU(SOC) 1911s prior to their retirement. In 2014, we still had one built on a 1943 frame that was deployed.
Those polymer guns are great, and generally replacing 1911s in most professionals' holsters, but I bet you won't find an original frame in service 80 years later like the 1911 has done over and over!
Lucky you to have known Ray and I'd love to hear more about you and his protege.
I'm currently working intermittently with a WWI Colt. There barrel looks terrible inside but it "don't shoot that bad". When I get time I'll make a real study of it..... kinda hate to do it but I'm going to fit a new barrel I think -- but will definitely keep the old one. This gun is far from collectable but I promise it's never going to get any treatment that takes away from its "wow that's an old one" look.
Mr. Christiansen,
Looks like your inbox is full and my private message will not go through. I'd love to send you a response, is your M-guns.com email address still the best place to address it?
I saw that and cleared it. Email is always better for me.
This has been an incredibly interesting and informative post......Ned you do some wonderful work! Been carrying a 1911 for almost 40 years in law enforcement and other government activities..... very fond of them. I know an older gentleman who shot for Winchester for 20 plus years, and on average he shot 100,000 rounds a year....a combination of 38, 45, and 22...... a total of 2.5 million rounds total in his shooting career. I enjoy visiting with him and hearing his stories of when he started shooting and being a lawman in Hildago County, Texas on horseback...... He said he had 3 1911s he regularly used - in rotation...one in the shop for rebuild, one primary for shooting and the other a back up. Its good to know the 1911 will stand up to a lot of shooting!!!! Again this post has been a wonder and I always looked forward to the next segment and Ned's comments! Regards to everyone.
Ned,
You mentioned that you put an EGW extractor in one of the guns you worked on in this thread. I had an HD EGW put in one of my 1911s plus an HD firing pin stop, so I am curious about what you think of them.
Thanks!
I've used quite a few EGW firing pin stops, mainly because they are oversized so a 'smith can get one fitted juuuuust right. It helps keep the extractor located so it doesn't rotate like from 11:00 to 1:00 (so the call it "clocking"). I don't think clocking is a real problem but it's nice to have the extractor positively located for/aft too, especially when the rear of the slide has been perfectly matched so the extractor is flush, and maybe the whole area has been serrated or textured. It also helps keep the firing pin stop from dropping in that moment when the firing pin is bounding back and forth--- the firing pin being what is supposed to keep the stop in place. Of course if everything is right (especially a strong enough firing pin spring) that's not supposed to happen, but.... it does.
The EGW extractors seem to be working. To me they seem like a logical "improved" way of making them-- cheaper and easier but also probably genuinely better, at least in theory.
Welcome to the conversation guys. Missourshtr, lucky you to be acquainted with that interesting old gent, maybe you could become his chronicler and get all those stories preserved for posterity.
I just saw Joe Chambers commenting about how hard it is finding good extractors.
Well my knee-jerk on that is to not agree, since I'm used to pretty much any and all needing some bit of work somewhere to be optimal. But then it's true that with a lot of them I wish had a little more meat in the locating slot for perfect fitting. I think Joe is a meticulous guy, he could very well be looking at the extractors in greater detail than I am.
Bookmarks