Looking For comments about Sarco 1911 Slide And Roto-forged Barrel

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expat_alaska

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Let me back up in time a bit, if you will bear with me...

In 2013, I built a 1911 from a stripped steel frame for the sole purpose of creating a dedicated .22 pistol using a 1992 Ciener Conversion top end (when they were excellent). I used SARCO, Numrich, and Wolff parts for the build, and it worked out just fine with quite a bit of fitting on the MSH. I did the build because I tired of swapping uppers on my clone .45 just to shoot .22 LR.

The SARCO parts kit I used worked very well with the frame parts, and some were MIM, which I had no problem with.

Fast forward to this post, and a turnaround. I have enough parts from the SARCO kit left over to create another .45 and am thinking about doing a complete upper, but I need a slide and barrel to add another .45 ACP to the stable on a Government Model frame, using a minimum amount of pistols as I am retired and living on SS. I will be only shooting standard velocity cartridges.

I am looking at a SARCO 1911 .45 Commercial slide with all of the forward slanted finger grooves (fore and aft, not that I like it so much over the Military grade) but it comes with much better sights than the original military mini-sights (C45172 @ $140) and a SARCO Roto-Forged .45 ACP 6" barrel (C45013 @ $60.70). The total price would be just north of $200 plus S&H.

I can do all of the fitting at home, including throating the barrel (Kuhnhausen), which I have done before on my other 1911 .45 clone, and it shoots all manner of HP ammo.

My Q: Does anyone here have any hands-on experience with this slide and barrel?

If so, please comment before I spend the money!

Regards,

Jim
 
I had to look Sarco up, the kits I see don't look bad but I never seen Sarco brand before, do you know where are they made at?
 
Sarco=Armscorp/Rock Island Armory
Not entirely Sarco has been around since before Armcor/RIA had a presence in the US as a large vendor of surplus gear and gun parts. They seem to be a large RIA dealer/distributor now, as well an selling many other guns and related things. http://www.e-sarcoinc.com/

They still are a "go to" source for Thompson sub-machine gun parts and other WW-II era gun parts along with new and used guns.

Back before the Internet, if Numrich or Sarco didn't have the part, you were going to have trouble getting that old gun running again. Northridge was probably the the other of the big-3 surplus gun part vendors back in the day. Sarco seems to have expanded into most things firearms related, Numrich became Gun Parts Corp and specializes in parts for obsolete guns, and Northridge seems to have largely disappeared.
 
Not entirely Sarco has been around since before Armcor/RIA had a presence in the US as a large vendor of surplus gear and gun parts. They seem to be a large RIA dealer/distributor now, as well an selling many other guns and related things. http://www.e-sarcoinc.com/

They still are a "go to" source for Thompson sub-machine gun parts and other WW-II era gun parts along with new and used guns.

Back before the Internet, if Numrich or Sarco didn't have the part, you were going to have trouble getting that old gun running again. Northridge was probably the the other of the big-3 surplus gun part vendors back in the day. Sarco seems to have expanded into most things firearms related, Numrich became Gun Parts Corp and specializes in parts for obsolete guns, and Northridge seems to have largely disappeared.

Back in the 60's-70's my Dad used to use Numrich for a lot of repairs to older firearms (he replaced the firing pin on my old 1940's Rem 510A Targetmaster .22 single shot, for example) and that was the only source, IIRC.

I have used SARCO as a parts source since 1992 for various guns and have never been disappointed with the parts or the service.

Just curious as to the quality of the barrel and slide mentioned in my first post. If they are not top-of-the line, that's fine. I just don't want them to be the absolute bottom-of-the-line parts. They don't have to be match quality, just dependable.

This is the pistol I am referring to. (The frame is parked so it might have to be run wet for a bit with the new .45 ACP slide, the slide/frame rails might have to be lapped a bit, and the barrel link might have to be changed if the barrel lugs do not lock up sufficiently into the slide recesses.) It presently has a Wolff 19# mainspring to accommodate any .22 LR cartridges from Rem Subsonics to CCI Mini-Mags. The Ciener top-end also works well on my .45 clone with a standard 23# mainspring but only for HV .22 LR rounds. I feel that the 19# mainspring will suffice for standard velocity .45 ACP ball and HP rounds. If not, I have spare 21# and 23# mainsprings.

1911Project020_zps7e0aab0c.jpg


This my 1911 .45 ACP "Gold Cup" clone. I bought it in the parking lot outside of a gun show in 1992 with 2 factory stainless mags for $150. I had followed the owner around several tables and all of the dealers would not touch it for any price after doing all of the safety checks. Got it home and with the empty gun cocked and locked a pull of the trigger would drop both the thumb safety and the hammer. Completely disassembled it and after about 1/2 hour I noticed the sear pin was bent. I replaced all of the soft steel pins/parts (firing pin, extractor, hammer pin, sear pin, thumb safety, firing pin stop, and hammer strut with blued carbon steel parts from SARCO and Numrich. Throated the barrel and it has run very well since then (25 years) as my HD/SD/truck gun. It's not pretty, but I only have about $350 plus sweat equity into it.

And yes, it is a Frankengun. :)

1911Hardballer006_zpsb444b2dc.jpg


Any guesses?

Here's the giveaway...

1911Hardballer005_zpsd2df296e.jpg


SARCO runs ads 3 times per month in Firearm News (formerly Shotgun News, which I subscribed to for decades just for the ads) with all of their latest deals.

http://www.e-sarcoinc.com/Firearms-News-Ads.aspx

Thanks and regards for your interest in my project (as small as it is),

Jim
 
I did the thing you are talking about here with Sarco, but with a different caliber. I put about 1500 rds including some extremely hot handloads through a Roto barrel and link set, and it looks almost new. The old Para Ordnance slide I got from them turned out to have a tight rail on one side, but that was cleaned up by a gunsmith for $50.

I am considering doing the same thing over in .400 Cor-Bon, but I'm not sure they still have all that stuff in stock. I ordered a barrel about 3 months ago, and it turned out it was listed but sold out. About that time the same sort of inventory showed up on Midway under the Swenson brand. Good luck with your project.
 
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