Coltdriver
Member
First let me give credit where its due and that's to 1911Tuner. I have searched out, read and applied 1911Tuner's posts and the result has been excellent. Serious and grateful tip of the hat to you sir!
I saw this post: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=658405&highlight=1991a1 and got 1911 fever again after having sold my last one over 10 years ago.
Many years ago I bought a Kimber Ultra and it had such horrible recoil it got sold three days later! I was a little nervous about this with the 1991A1 so a lot of homework got done before proceeding.
After enough homework I picked up a 1991A1 compact model on Gunbroker and ordered in a bunch of parts before it arrived.
When it arrived I installed an EGW guide rod with the flat wire spring. This was more to induce a bit of friction in slide return to help in slowing the slide down. As 1911Tuner notes the slide spring only incidentally and marginally slows down the slide. But in one of his posts he had mentioned that this guide rod set up might help and I am suspecting its because of the induced friction from the rod.
But the real tweak was to put a 24 pound main spring in it and to get a square bottomed firing pin block from Brownell's. If you do this just get some sand paper for metal and plan on spending some time fitting the part. Took me about one enjoyable hour using a pair of digital calipers and putting a little clp on the sand paper and very slowly adjusting the part. Ended up taking about 1 thousandth off the backside and about a thousandth off of the right and left side of the part. It fits perfectly and has just the tiniest amount of friction sliding in place. I barely broke the sharp edge on the bottom. Just smoothed it off with less than 5 light passes over the sand paper. I figured if it was too "square" and some feed or eject issues resulted I could always take off more later.
Let me emphasize fellow High Roaders' this is a glimpse into the genius of 1911Tuners understanding of these pistols.
The other part that was put on was the drop in beavertail from Wilson. I had installed one of these on a Colt Government many years ago and they are easy to install. The part needed a little filing to make it work. Another enjoyable hour of calipers, a file and some sandpaper and it works perfectly. Oh yeah picked up a pair of nice checkered coco bolo grips too.
So the big test was taking it to the range today. I used some Winchester 230 grain hardball that they market as target ammo. I also ran 20 rounds of Speer 230 grain gold dot through it.
Fired one test round to make sure it would hold together and lock back. It did. I hit one inch low of the bulls eye single handed at just 15 feet.
Loaded up a mag and it runs fantastic. The only recent comparison I can give you is my Glock 36. Actually has less recoil and is easier to shoot than my Glock. I ran 70 rounds through it, 50 Winchester and 20 Gold dots. Not a single hiccup and my hand is not worn out as it would be with the Glock. I love the Glock but this Colt has better handling characteristics. Double taps were easy and within an inch of each other. I am not a big fan of sights and taught myself to point shoot many years ago.
So there are a couple of more parts on order, a melt barrel lug, a blue steel MSH and an aluminum trigger. Then I am going to have my favorite smith do a light melt to it and send it off to make it black and pretty.
Quite honestly I prefer the totally stock trigger and will make no changes to make it lighter, its just not necessary. I am going to pay a lot of attention to my install of the new trigger and make sure I don't mess up the firing pin block timing.
So search out 1911Tuners' posts and you can accelerate your understanding of these great old pistols.
I will post again when I get it polished up and blued.
I saw this post: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=658405&highlight=1991a1 and got 1911 fever again after having sold my last one over 10 years ago.
Many years ago I bought a Kimber Ultra and it had such horrible recoil it got sold three days later! I was a little nervous about this with the 1991A1 so a lot of homework got done before proceeding.
After enough homework I picked up a 1991A1 compact model on Gunbroker and ordered in a bunch of parts before it arrived.
When it arrived I installed an EGW guide rod with the flat wire spring. This was more to induce a bit of friction in slide return to help in slowing the slide down. As 1911Tuner notes the slide spring only incidentally and marginally slows down the slide. But in one of his posts he had mentioned that this guide rod set up might help and I am suspecting its because of the induced friction from the rod.
But the real tweak was to put a 24 pound main spring in it and to get a square bottomed firing pin block from Brownell's. If you do this just get some sand paper for metal and plan on spending some time fitting the part. Took me about one enjoyable hour using a pair of digital calipers and putting a little clp on the sand paper and very slowly adjusting the part. Ended up taking about 1 thousandth off the backside and about a thousandth off of the right and left side of the part. It fits perfectly and has just the tiniest amount of friction sliding in place. I barely broke the sharp edge on the bottom. Just smoothed it off with less than 5 light passes over the sand paper. I figured if it was too "square" and some feed or eject issues resulted I could always take off more later.
Let me emphasize fellow High Roaders' this is a glimpse into the genius of 1911Tuners understanding of these pistols.
The other part that was put on was the drop in beavertail from Wilson. I had installed one of these on a Colt Government many years ago and they are easy to install. The part needed a little filing to make it work. Another enjoyable hour of calipers, a file and some sandpaper and it works perfectly. Oh yeah picked up a pair of nice checkered coco bolo grips too.
So the big test was taking it to the range today. I used some Winchester 230 grain hardball that they market as target ammo. I also ran 20 rounds of Speer 230 grain gold dot through it.
Fired one test round to make sure it would hold together and lock back. It did. I hit one inch low of the bulls eye single handed at just 15 feet.
Loaded up a mag and it runs fantastic. The only recent comparison I can give you is my Glock 36. Actually has less recoil and is easier to shoot than my Glock. I ran 70 rounds through it, 50 Winchester and 20 Gold dots. Not a single hiccup and my hand is not worn out as it would be with the Glock. I love the Glock but this Colt has better handling characteristics. Double taps were easy and within an inch of each other. I am not a big fan of sights and taught myself to point shoot many years ago.
So there are a couple of more parts on order, a melt barrel lug, a blue steel MSH and an aluminum trigger. Then I am going to have my favorite smith do a light melt to it and send it off to make it black and pretty.
Quite honestly I prefer the totally stock trigger and will make no changes to make it lighter, its just not necessary. I am going to pay a lot of attention to my install of the new trigger and make sure I don't mess up the firing pin block timing.
So search out 1911Tuners' posts and you can accelerate your understanding of these great old pistols.
I will post again when I get it polished up and blued.
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