[Tecolote]

I spotted a used Springfield MilSurp for sale. It looks clean with some holster wear on the high areas but in all stock condition.

It's an older model with the thicker dustcover than standard 1911s.

Is the Springfield MilSurp a good platform for custom work? Are the frames, slides and barrels of good quality? What about the other parts?

I'm thinking of doing minor mods like a beavertail safety, throating, lowering the ejection port and some trigger work. But I don't want to sink money into something that's not worth it.

[cratz2]

I don't think I would use an older MilSpec as the basis for a custom gun. If it's a really good price, then you could buy it, enjoy it, and later buy another gun to customize or just buy a caspian frame and send to a smith for a build up.

The more recent MilSpecs have been very good esp. if you look at a few and get the best. It also seems that the guns with an 'NM' serial number prefix are the choice ones to look for. I've had three 45ACP MilSpecs from Springfield over the last couple years and, while almost all that I've handled have been decent, the most recent 2 months with tehe 'NM' serial numbers have me very impressed and would be a fine basis for a little custom work - few parts changed, new sights, reliability work etc... the MilSpec is as good as any to start with.

On the other hand, if you are wanting a true custom gun built, I think it would be very hard to talk me out of starting with a Caspian frame and slide and going from there. One thing to keep in mind if going the full custom route is that you will want to obtain and send the frame to the smith so that he isn't the manufacturer... This will save you an 11% excise tax on the gun-minus-frame cost. From most of the notable smiths, this will start at about $1,900 incuding purchasing the slide and frame.

Good luck.

[Tecolote]

Thanks for the info. I should have said that I'm on a pretty tight budget so I plan to make the changes one step at a time.

If I may ask what's wrong with the older Springfield MilSurps? Is there something inherently wrong with the frames/slides?