If you could change one thing about the 1911 design...

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Soulless Pistols

I dunno HD...My old, OLD Colts speak to me. I can tell the difference between a USGI pistol...pick your contractor...and a commercial by pickin'em up blindfolded. They've been places and I wish they could talk.;)

Some of'em got a soul...Some of'em don't. Color me sentimental. Color me romantic...but I can feel the difference.:cool:

Standard grip thickness...Flat housing(with lanyard loop, please)...long, steel trigger with smooth face, as in original WW1/pre-A1 type...but I can make do with short trigger/arched housing just as well. No ducktail grip safeties, mill file frontstraps or extended appendages for me, and hardball will do if it's placed well.
 
45auto said:
DT GUY:

The "World" of 1911's has everything. ;)

Soon, Springfield will have their 45 GAP 1911 which is, I believe, about a 1/8"
trimmer...front to back.
Click to expand...


Kewl...don't know if I could bring myself to try the GAP, but if they offer it in 9MM it might be the perfect 'gamer gun' for IDPA!


Larry
 
I've got to admit to finding down-sized 1911-ish pistols interesting. I've got a Colt .380 Government Pocketlite that I CCW often and like it very much.

I've often thought that a 9mm slightly larger than the Pocketlite would be a fun variant.
 
I will agree with that. A 75% scaled copy of the full size 1911 would have a lot of appeal to me. Everything would have to be scaled though. I have a gov 380 also and think it is great. To bad the steel is soft though.
 
No offense guys, but I'm surprised how many of you are taking text and pictures off of other people's websites and not giving credit for the source.
 
springfield armory used to sell a gun called the omega. it had a lockup similar to the glock or sig. it had a linkless ramped barrel.

that would be the two things i would like changed. lockup similar to the glock sig, and a linkless (like glock and/or hi-power) barrel.
 
I admit that I didn't credit the photos I posted, however, if you right click and select properties you can see exactly where they came from.


The real reason I didn't give credit is because they're in the public domain.
 
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Linkless

If you study the linkless design...of which there a few made for the 1911 floatin' around somewhere...you'll see that it works exactly like the link.
There are certain advantages with the falling link.

The advantage that the link has is when it comes to installing a hard-fit barrel that turns out to need a longer than standard link. Sometimes the front radius of such a lug has to be altered a bit to let the barrel drop a
little earlier/faster after it unlocks. With the linkless design, the operation seems like it would be a mite tedious in comparison, plus it'd probably be a real sunny beach to weld up and recut to tighten the vertical lockup. I've never dinked around with a linkless barrel, though...and it could be that somebody has sorted that issue out in neat fashion.
 
i like the linkless design 'cause re-assembly can be a PITA with the link design. i am by no means an expert, not even close. but.... it looks like the linkless design, with the lockup design like sig or glock use, would be easer to fit. the link would make the barrel hood 'cam into' the slide, resulting in a tighter fit with less fitting.
 
Pita?

bdhawk said:
i like the linkless design 'cause re-assembly can be a PITA with the link design. i am by no means an expert, not even close. but.... it looks like the linkless design, with the lockup design like sig or glock use, would be easer to fit. the link would make the barrel hood 'cam into' the slide, resulting in a tighter fit with less fitting.
Click to expand...

Nahhhh...Not if ya know how.;) Helle's Belles...you can do it with your eyes shut once ya figger it out...

On the fitting...It depends on the vertical tolerance stackups between slide, frame, and slidestop pinhole location. Either the lug is tall enough to lock it up tight or it's not.
 
Tuner picked the only two improvements I would think of,
The Plunger tube and the Grip screw bushings.

Every 1911 I get I just solder them down and forget it. :D

Sam
 
If permitted to change more than one thing, I'll probably have it look like this:

star_p.jpg
 
Star

Gabe said:
Arrrgh, stupid link.

There was a pic of a Star 45acp.
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention that, Gabe...When the .45 GAP made its debut, I immediately thought of the Star PD with the grip frame length slightly reduced...something on the order of the Star BM...and felt like it would be the perfect format for the cartridge. Neat little carry package with the same manual of arms as the 1911. 'Course...even if some sharp entrepreneurish company resurrected the gun, they'd probably stick a complex firing pin safety in the thing...:rolleyes:
 
What Gabe posted was a stock pic of an early Star Model A from Max P's World of Guns site.

It's pretty much a 1911A1 copy except that it doesn't have a plunger tube, it has an external extractor and a slightly reshaped forestrap. And since it's an early model it doesn't have the grip safety. The later models did.

They were well built pistols.
 

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i'd like DA/SA with a decoker, and higher mag cap, but not so the frame gets wider.

and that's about it. i'd like the trigger to still be the same style it is (not ones like on, say, a revolver. the solid triggers.)

~TMM
 
1911

Double-Action...Decocker...No grip safety...Plastic frame...Double-stack mag...more passive safety features...If ya did all that, it wouldn't BE a 1911
any more.:rolleyes:

A 1911 is:

A 39-ounce, all steel, 5-inch, single-action, 7-round (Not 8!) pistol with a slide-locking manual safety and a pivoting grip safety with an inertial, spring-loaded firing pin that doesn't NEED a blocking device if the spring is changed every few years. It has a barrel bushing and a single, linear-rate recoil spring, and an internal extractor made of good, spring-tempered steel, and if it has a true, captive half-cock, it can be carried in Condition One for a hundred years as safely as a loaded gun can be carried. It is also more durable and probably more functionally reliable than anything you can buy...assuming that everything within the gun is correct and in-spec...and halfway decent ammo is loaded into good magazines.

A Colt Commander is NOT a 1911. Neither is an Officer's Model or Defender.
Ditto for a Para P-14 or LDA. If ya wanna get really picky, the 1911-A1 isn't even a 1911...but I ain't gonna get that picky.

Cheers!:neener:
 
It is an interesting point about what makes a 1911. That is one reason that I asked if you could change one thing.




1911Tuner,

Do you know of a good source for a used 1911 type frame? I've got a .22 conversion kit that I'd like to put on a frame to avoid having to swap it out.

Thanks in advance,
James
 
Except for the excellent Seecamp DA conversion, you completely lose that excellent 1911 trigger pull when you change a 1911 pattern pistol into a double action.


Which is probably why the Colt Double Eagle was a failure. (and the fact that there was no cocked and lock ability)


As Tuner has so astutely illustrated, the term 1911 is horribly misused.
Even more so that the term Series 70.
 
LoadedDrum said:
I would like to see some one come up with a way to simplify the way the barrel locks up. Perhaps a design with all fixed parts the way a Glock locks up.
Click to expand...
Imbel, in Brazil (the same folks who actually manufacture the Springfield Armory 1911s), have done this.

In Brazil, common citizens aren't allowed to own "military" caliber weapons, so they can't onw either .45 ACP or 9mm. So Imbel builds a Commander-size 1911 in caliber .380 ACP ... both single stack and double stack versions. But ... it isn't really a 1911, because instead of a barrel link the under-barrel lug is deeper, and the slide stop pin goes through a hole in the barrel under lug. So the barrel is pinned in place. Then, since the slide moves and the barrel doesn't, they eliminated the locking lugs on the barrel and slide, making it a direct blowback pistol.

www.imbel.gov.br

It'll come up in Portuguese. Scroll to the bottom of the opening page and at lower left there's a flag you can click on for English. Then go to "Weapons" then "Pistols"
 
DT Guy said:
The 1911 would be perfect (for me, now..) if its grip was about 1/8" shorter, front to back.

Just got short fingers....


Larry
Click to expand...
Keep your eye on Springfield, and Para Ordnance
 
BluesBear said:
Except for the excellent Seecamp DA conversion, you completely lose that excellent 1911 trigger pull when you change a 1911 pattern pistol into a double action.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you haven't tried a Para Ordnance LDA series. Not a "true" 1911, but IMHO a lot more so than the Colt Double Eagle. Trigger runs 4-1/2 pounds out of the box, typically, and breaks very cleanly. It does feel different, because it's a swinging trigger rather than a sliding trigger, but after half a dozen magazines you almost don't notice the difference.
 
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