SIGHTS To have the greatest choice of sights, look for a slide already cut with Novak dovetails, front and rear.
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If you can't afford new mags, at the very least, you must get baseplates for your factory mags to help seat them during reloads. Vickers advises that you simply throw away the mag that comes with your gun and get Wilson, McCormick or Tripp mags. Factories save money by providing cheap mags with new guns. MAGAZINE When it comes to mags, 1911s are notoriously finicky. Skateboard tape with a strong adhesive is an alternative. Hand checkering a pistol is time consuming and expensive, so get it at the factory or pay a gunsmith dearly for it later. Coarse checkering for duty use is 20 lines per inch, suitable for gloved hands (17 lpi shown) while 30 lpi works for carry guns. It's one of the main grasping surfaces, and it's common to see it roughed up or checkered. įRONT STRAP CHECKERING The front strap runs down the frame from the trigger guard. Aside from the height of the mag release, look at the shape of the button. If you're carrying concealed, the slimmer profile of a standard mag release will work well and may be more comfortable. MAG RELEASE Competition or duty shooters may want an extended mag release. Any lighter, and it's a competition-only gun. As far as pull is concerned, a practical, safe trigger for a 1911 is no lighter than four pounds for practical use. Flat triggers have become popular because they work without regard to finger placement. Short is good for small hands, long is good for big hands, but be careful - long triggers can crowd the trigger guard when used with gloves. The length has less to do with the length of pull and more to do with the size of the trigger as measured from the rearmost point of the trigger housing to the forward end of the trigger. The most popular trigger options are long, medium, short and flat. The 1911 has the most crisp and tunable trigger of all handgun designs. Like the word "snow" to the Inuit, there are many ways to describe the break of a 1911 trigger: glass rod, icicle, carrot breaking. Vickers says it offers a little more comfort, may help control the pistol and can be overdone. UNDERCUT TRIGGER GUARD Also called a high grip cut, this contouring of the grip below the trigger guard allows a higher grip, more in line with the bore, and may improve control of the pistol. It'll end up costing less and will be one less thing to worry about. Aftermarket rails can be welded, clamped or bolted on, but if you're going to go that way, just get a frame with an integral rail. MIL-1913 RAIL If you want to run a light or laser, or want the option of doing so down the road, go for a rail. He calls out Smith & Wesson alone as doing it right, but advises shooters to go with the proven internal extractor in all other cases. But most people - Vickers included - will say the designs never worked correctly. The external extractor is a theoretic improvement over the internal design because its spring pressure doesn't need to be tuned. Later designs introduced the external extractor in an attempt to make the gun more reliable with less tinkering. Browning's original design has an internal extractor, like these shown on the Colt and Springfield guns. ĮXTRACTOR This one is a religious argument.
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Same goes for shock buffs - your gun can chew them up and cause malfunctions. Pass on these until you know what's involved in their use and service. These remove the barrel bushing and rely on exact machining to fit the barrel with the slide's barrel opening.
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You might see bushingless designs (also called "bull barrels") out there. The bushing is another part from the original design that can be tinkered with. The added weight up front may reduce muzzle flip, but it's a personal choice. Full-length guide rods purport to give the spring more guidance by increasing its length, but there is no evidence they do anything but make the gun harder to field strip. The spring runs outside the rod, and as the action slides, the rod keeps the spring in line as the slide moves rearward. The original 1911 guide rod guides the recoil spring inside the slide. If you go that route, get the barrel blued or parkerized for corrosion resistance. Even popular chromoly Kart match grade barrels will rust. Stainless barrels can be abused and will always come back for more. 45 caliber will offer fine performance, reliability and corrosion resistance. While it won't gall, it will eventually rust under certain conditions." īARREL, GUIDE ROD & BUSHING A 5-inch stainless steel barrel chambered in. "The way they did it," says Vickers, "is by adding carbon to the steel.