Work-in-progress: 9mm 1911

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Where this idea came from is a looong story, but it's been licking around in my head for a few years and, after extensive consultation with The Mistress of Finance I decided to go for it. I have a Detonics Combat Master .45, and since the 1980's I have been impressed with the guns capability to double-tap and deliver rapid follow-up shots. The light reciprocating weight combined with a fast lock-time, bull-barrel etc. means that while these guns have significant recoil they come back on-target very, very quickly. The downside is the short grip and short sight radius. A full-size grip should make it even more manageable, and Kimber did this with their Pro-Carry a good few years back (lLinda's all-time favorite .45.)

The thought was to get the benefit of the short, light slide, bull-barrel etc. without sacrificing full-size and sight radius while keeping the weight as close as possible to a standard 1911. Oh, and make it a 9mm for even less felt recoil and a couple extra rounds. After carefully going over pricing I bought a Tisas Duty B .45 as the donor gun. These are a very well-made 1911 with many of the bells-and-whistles I wanted at an excellent price. I replaced the slide and barrel with 3.5" units from RIA bought off of eBay, and an EGW Flat-spring recoil system. I got some dust-cover cut-offs from Caspian ($5 each) and enlisted a friend (who is an excellent welder) to extend the dust-cover. I made a fixed aluminum weight to attach to the extended dust cover and mounted the front sight on it. I hand-filed a dovetail for a Novak rear sight and the basic set-up was done.

I also blended the flat mainspring housing, then cut 20 lpi checkering on that and the front of the grip-frame. I also deepened and refined the undercut at the base of the trigger-guard, and a bit of this-and-that here and there. I tried to blacken the weight with Birchwood Casey Aluminum Black, but that worked poorly. Eventually I plan to have the gun and weight refinished and coated. The result is just about exactly what I wanted; a rapid-fire range toy/competition pistol that puts rounds on target in a hurry.

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There's still work to be done, but it's coming out and, more importantly, performing as I wanted, and has been surprisingly inexpensive to put together. Now I need to make a holster for it...
 
I love the idea and your ingenuity. Glad to hear that it performs.

Where I am a bit confused, or maybe my reading 101 is poor; is the desire for a longer sight radius when your goal is faster follow up shots. A shorter sight radius is QUICKER and easier to pick up. That is what I loved about the Combat Masters I started shooting in the 80’s. Now with even better sights on the market that’s a another plus.

Having said that, I would love to compare (side by side) your gun to an identical one with front sight on the slide rather than the weight.

Regardless, impressive work!
 
Where this idea came from is a looong story, but it's been licking around in my head for a few years and, after extensive consultation with The Mistress of Finance I decided to go for it. I have a Detonics Combat Master .45, and since the 1980's I have been impressed with the guns capability to double-tap and deliver rapid follow-up shots. The light reciprocating weight combined with a fast lock-time, bull-barrel etc. means that while these guns have significant recoil they come back on-target very, very quickly. The downside is the short grip and short sight radius. A full-size grip should make it even more manageable, and Kimber did this with their Pro-Carry a good few years back (lLinda's all-time favorite .45.)

The thought was to get the benefit of the short, light slide, bull-barrel etc. without sacrificing full-size and sight radius while keeping the weight as close as possible to a standard 1911. Oh, and make it a 9mm for even less felt recoil and a couple extra rounds. After carefully going over pricing I bought a Tisas Duty B .45 as the donor gun. These are a very well-made 1911 with many of the bells-and-whistles I wanted at an excellent price. I replaced the slide and barrel with 3.5" units from RIA bought off of eBay, and an EGW Flat-spring recoil system. I got some dust-cover cut-offs from Caspian ($5 each) and enlisted a friend (who is an excellent welder) to extend the dust-cover. I made a fixed aluminum weight to attach to the extended dust cover and mounted the front sight on it. I hand-filed a dovetail for a Novak rear sight and the basic set-up was done.

I also blended the flat mainspring housing, then cut 20 lpi checkering on that and the front of the grip-frame. I also deepened and refined the undercut at the base of the trigger-guard, and a bit of this-and-that here and there. I tried to blacken the weight with Birchwood Casey Aluminum Black, but that worked poorly. Eventually I plan to have the gun and weight refinished and coated. The result is just about exactly what I wanted; a rapid-fire range toy/competition pistol that puts rounds on target in a hurry.

View attachment 1043055 View attachment 1043056

View attachment 1043057 View attachment 1043058

There's still work to be done, but it's coming out and, more importantly, performing as I wanted, and has been surprisingly inexpensive to put together. Now I need to make a holster for it...
A most excellent combination you have there. With the added weight of the compensater you will get the advantage of less muzzle rise which will transition into faster shots. A little further sight radius will help with accuracy.
 
A shorter sight radius is quicker, at shorter ranges. A longer radius is still preferred in USPSA. You can widen your rear sight window, to get speed back, but you'll be trading long range precision.

The deal breaker is grip. If your grip allows that front sight to only recoil straight up, and it returns to exactly where you started, then long radius, absolutely is better.

I think the non reciprocating front sight may be an advantage. But usually, sight blocks are attached to the barrel, not the frame.
 
Where this idea came from is a looong story, but it's been licking around in my head for a few years and, after extensive consultation with The Mistress of Finance I decided to go for it. I have a Detonics Combat Master .45, and since the 1980's I have been impressed with the guns capability to double-tap and deliver rapid follow-up shots. The light reciprocating weight combined with a fast lock-time, bull-barrel etc. means that while these guns have significant recoil they come back on-target very, very quickly. The downside is the short grip and short sight radius. A full-size grip should make it even more manageable, and Kimber did this with their Pro-Carry a good few years back (lLinda's all-time favorite .45.)

The thought was to get the benefit of the short, light slide, bull-barrel etc. without sacrificing full-size and sight radius while keeping the weight as close as possible to a standard 1911. Oh, and make it a 9mm for even less felt recoil and a couple extra rounds. After carefully going over pricing I bought a Tisas Duty B .45 as the donor gun. These are a very well-made 1911 with many of the bells-and-whistles I wanted at an excellent price. I replaced the slide and barrel with 3.5" units from RIA bought off of eBay, and an EGW Flat-spring recoil system. I got some dust-cover cut-offs from Caspian ($5 each) and enlisted a friend (who is an excellent welder) to extend the dust-cover. I made a fixed aluminum weight to attach to the extended dust cover and mounted the front sight on it. I hand-filed a dovetail for a Novak rear sight and the basic set-up was done.

I also blended the flat mainspring housing, then cut 20 lpi checkering on that and the front of the grip-frame. I also deepened and refined the undercut at the base of the trigger-guard, and a bit of this-and-that here and there. I tried to blacken the weight with Birchwood Casey Aluminum Black, but that worked poorly. Eventually I plan to have the gun and weight refinished and coated. The result is just about exactly what I wanted; a rapid-fire range toy/competition pistol that puts rounds on target in a hurry.

View attachment 1043055 View attachment 1043056

View attachment 1043057 View attachment 1043058

There's still work to be done, but it's coming out and, more importantly, performing as I wanted, and has been surprisingly inexpensive to put together. Now I need to make a holster for it...
Very interesting project. The metal work on the dust cover extension looks flawless . I love the look of full length dust covers . I will definitely be trying that . I can’t see any ports on the sight block from the picture was there any particular reason why not ? Not criticizing at all , just wondering .
 
Very interesting project. The metal work on the dust cover extension looks flawless . I love the look of full length dust covers . I will definitely be trying that . I can’t see any ports on the sight block from the picture was there any particular reason why not ? Not criticizing at all , just wondering .

Basically because ports would remove weight and without this being a proper compensator it wouldn't redirect gas efficiently enough to be worthwhile.
I didn't go with a 5" barrel because I like the way the bull-barrel indexes super consistently and, for a range toy, the extra velocity really doesn't add to the gun's utility.. Oh, and the officer's-length slide doesn't work with a bushing, which would mean fussing about with the bushing being a part of the weight. That would introduce serious mechanical complications without imparting any useful benefit.
 
While I can visualize how to make a 5" barrel work, if you don't feel a need for full velocity, I see why you didn't bother.

Your aluminum welder did a really good job. I saw a search for one on another board... unless it was you under a different alias.

I bet the short barrel in that Front End Thingy makes it sound odd.
 
Basically because ports would remove weight and without this being a proper compensator it wouldn't redirect gas efficiently enough to be worthwhile.
I didn't go with a 5" barrel because I like the way the bull-barrel indexes super consistently and, for a range toy, the extra velocity really doesn't add to the gun's utility.. Oh, and the officer's-length slide doesn't work with a bushing, which would mean fussing about with the bushing being a part of the weight. That would introduce serious mechanical complications without imparting any useful benefit.

Officer length slides do work with bushings. That's how Colt makes theirs.
 
Officer length slides do work with bushings. That's how Colt makes theirs.

Colt's Officers Model slides work with bushings combined with a coned 'bull-barrel' because they needed to have one avoid violating Detonics patents when the gun was introduced. No one (except Colt?) has done them with bushings since those patents expired because it was a crappy work-around.

Your aluminum welder did a really good job. I saw a search for one on another board... unless it was you under a different alias.

I bet the short barrel in that Front End Thingy makes it sound odd.

It wasn't me. The frame is steel, BTW; only the weight is aluminum. No, the noise sounds like a normal gunshot.
 
Very nice job. It looks to me like a dust rail cover with the aluminium weight could be made as a separate piece that could be bolted on to the dust cover
of basically any 1911 even a 5in. It wouldn't look as professionally done as yours but might work.

Does this addition make your pistol the size of a 5in or 6in 1911?
 
Blend the aluminum "weight" to the slide contour and blacken it or "paint" entire gun . You could drill out weight leaving a couple baffles to make it a brake .
 
Blend the aluminum "weight" to the slide contour and blacken it or "paint" entire gun . You could drill out weight leaving a couple baffles to make it a brake .

Blending and blackening is the plan. Not going to do the baffles though; given the overall design I suspect there would ne no perceptible benefit.
 
It's been an interesting couple of weeks. 124gr RNL bullets were keyholing badly and I spent like a week trying to figure out why and fix it. Then I figured out the problem; I'm an idiot. After beating my head against the problem for days I tried the 124gr loads out of another gun... and they key-holed out of that gun too! Tried another gun, same result. Well crap. I just don't expect bullets to be bad from the start! They look fine, they are the correct weight etc. Can't see any reason they don't work, but they don't.

I got some Berry's 115gr TMJs, loaded them over 5,5gr of Unique and they worked fine. OK then. The aluminum weight had now been reamed out, ported etc. and basically didn't weigh anything anymore, so I made a steel weight to replace it. This time I had about 2mm of standoff between the weight and the end of the muzzle. Tried it out at the range and it works a treat. Need to adjust the sights, but that's expected and easy.
Double-taps at 5 yards- very quick!
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Borrowed a buddy's trigger-pull gauge (I'm terrible at guessing) and three readings averaged just a hair under two pounds. Nothing more to do there! I'll adjust the sighs and perhaps tweak this or that, but the gun is basically done. It needs to be properly refinished of course, and some nicer grips would be good, though I have to say the stock plastic grips actually work really well.
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