1911 Magazine dimensions question?

[mastiffhound]

I would like to know if the magazine for a .45 acp 1911 is the same size as a .40 S&W magazine (will a 1911 .40 S&W mag fit in a .45 acp 1911) besides the feed lips. I would like to know if all I have to do is buy a new upper (barrel and complete slide with the firing pin, extractor, etc.) and magazines like with my ar-15? I don't know much about 1911's yet and I like the way you can do these kind of things with glocks and ar-15s. Thanks for any help guys.

 

[JTQ]

The mag well of a standard, single stack, 1911 is the same size regardless of the caliber. The magazines are the same size, but the mag makers use some "magic", such as a spacer at the rear of the tube or an indentation at the leading edge of the mag tube to make the 9MM/.40S&W round fit snugly in the tube that is designed for a .45ACP/10MM/38Super length round.

Now whether or not you personally could do the following

all I have to do is buy a new upper (barrel and complete slide with the firing pin, extractor, etc.) and magazines like with my ar-15?

is a matter of your skill level.

The 1911 is not a "Leggo set" like the Glock and AR. Those two firearms are "assembler" guns, while the 1911 is a "gunsmith" gun. There are so many different makers of 1911's and 1911 parts, over so many years, that "tolerance stacking" has made it an adventure to get parts to fit. I've seen it written on forums the only drop-in parts on a 1911 are springs. A professional gunsmith could do any of the modifications you want, and there are probably some guys on this forum that aren't gunsmiths that could do it too, but my guess is you would need to budget a bunch of money for tools and "trial and error parts" to accomplish it yourself.