My first 1911 Update again - beavertail

[Aggie01]

Well here it is, about a month after I bought it.
Between me and Jerry Kuhnhausen (Books) I got it together.

I haven't decided on a finish yet, and I may have to add a beavertail safety/loop hammer, but I'm gonna shoot it first.

It's ready for test firing as soon as I decide what I want to feed it.
The sides of the slide were a little wavy w/ maching marks, so I smoothed them up and left them in the white for the time being.

[nobearsyet]

Looks good, and I'd start off with a steady diet of 230grn. FMJ RN at about 850fps. as that's what was originally loaded in the 1911

[AxeHandle]

RUN1 RUN! RUN!
You are sitting at the tip top of an iceberg here.... I fell off in the 1911 abyss about 30 years ago and have never fully recovered... Dollars will leave your account in chunks large enough to buy nice 3 screw Rugers... At times the checks will rival a custom Ruger or retail priced FA.... In fact I am supposed to stop to look at one the way home today....

[Aggie01]

I have $435 + sweat equity tied up in the above piece.
(I'm not counting the $80 in Kuhnhausen books)
The parkerized frame and the purple slide are gonna get to me sooner rather than later, I'm afraid..
I thought the $25 Bargain Cave grips really topped it off nicely.
Same bargain cave trip neeted me a 4 piece Lee die set for the .45 auto (with factory crimp die) for another $25. It felt meant to be.

[Aggie01]

Stopped by Cabelas today and they had 4 boxes of winchester white box 230 grain FMJ.
Me and Dad went out and killled a few beers, then killed the cans.
I was impressed. 20+ rounds with flawless feeding from a $13 triple K mag. All the brass ended up in a 2 ft diameter pile 4 feet to the right of the shooter. Definite minute of beer can accuracy.

Axehandle, I feel myself slipping off the tip of your iceberg here. I'm wondering what a .45 auto necked to .41 with a 210 XTP could do...

BTW - the hammer bit me - now its ok to change....

[Flatlander]

If you like the looks of the spur hammer ... just bob it. It may fix the hammer bite.

[Deleted]

It screams for a Commander hammer! Not the newer slotted hammers... the older Colt style with a round hole. Chrome the frame and blue the slide and you will be all set. Oh, and stags. And, and, and..................

[nobearsyet]

If you're thinking about necking down the 45 to a 41, you might want to think about the 400 cor-bon, 45 necked to a 40, shoots well, even in the borrowed bullseye gun I was shooting this morning (went to the local range to do some more testing on the silhouette gun and discovered Tuesday is bullseye morning, so I did what anybody else would do, borrowed a gun, bought 2 boxes of very expensive Cor-Bon ammo, and shot the match)

[twbryan]

Make sure it's reliable and has good sights,then shoot it to your heart's content.

[AxeHandle]

Roll the fleshy part of the web of your hand under when you grip the gun... Shoot enough and the skin in the web will thicken to the point it won't get under the hammer...

The quick immediate fix is to get one of the wide drop in grip safeties... Not kewl looking like the fitted beavertails but very functional.

[Aggie01]

I actually already made the call that a poorly fitted GS would still probably look better than a drop-in GS.

I'll keep you posted on the details.

[Markbo]

Congrats on your first build. You will soon be perusing catalogs to find all the right replacement parts. Alan Harton's assistant John does very nice work on 1911's.

Just FWIW... one of the very first things I learned about shooting when I was way to young to even think of it was that drinking and shooting is a bad, bad combination. One beer it too many.

Save 'em for after the shoot.

[Aggie01]

Added a Beavertail and loop hammer over the weekend. Pics at work turned out too badly to post closeups, so I'll try later.
It still needs final detailing. I got to the point where it all functioned and decided to test fire before I worry about shaping and blending. (Also my half round file had walked off)

It really wasn't a bad project, as long as you lose your fear of sticking a file to a fine tool. Picked up the hammer and safety as used take-offs on GB. Project sits at $500 after mag purchases.

Not bad considering that I was able to speak to a friend for an hour or more on the finer points of his own 1911. Coming off as an expert amongst respected friends is near priceless.

[zeus]

How brave are you?? I have a 25 LPI file and a checkering guide you can use to checker that frontstrap...........So, just how brave are you? Its really not a big deal, just start slow and set the first lines and work from there. Just takes time and patience for those of us that don't do it for a living or have a mill set up for it. Unlike a lot of guys though, I do prefer my 1911 frontstraps checkered and have found that 25 is just about the perfect number. 20, like you find on the TRPs and such from SA is just a little too harsh and the 30 that you find on a lot of the Kimbers if I remember correctly, seems too fine, hence my liking of the 25 LPI checkering.....Anyway, its here is you want to try it

[AxeHandle]

Ha, You can tell a man who works with his hands by the checkering on his guns.... When I worked on ariplanes I loved 20 LPI.... I'd even keep a file around to keep the points as sharp as possible.... Now days that Kimber 30 LPI is nice... The 25 LPI on the DW isn't bad... The 20 LPI that I see on the Springfields is killer to my pansy hands....

One more thing to note on the 20LPI.... If you put it on a carry gun it will eat through anything in short order....