Scratching the 19111 frame

[MoreIsLess]

I saw a tool that you can buy on the web, it's called an idiot tool or something like that to keep from scratching the frame of your 1911 when putting the slide stop pin back in the frame after cleaning the gun. I've also heard of people using a piece of electrical tape for this.

Any suggestions for protect the frame while putting the slide stop pin back.

 

[Jim Watson]

You can use a strip cut off a defunct credit card to hold the slide stop plunger back as you insert the slide stop.

The 1911 forum has shown a groove cut in the slide stop to guide it past the plunger without much risk of a scratch.

Of course if the slide stop lug bevel and the plunger tip radius were to actual Colt and Army specification, you could snap it back into place without artificial support.

 

[9mmepiphany]

The cheap way is to use an old credit card, the correct way is to have the slide stop correctly fitted...it isn't a warranty item

 

[Walkalong]

As Jim posted, if the parts are made properly, it is easy to pop them back in. Since many are not, the credit card thing sounds good.

 

[cuba]

Most seam to want to engage it from the bottom then in, if you push it straight in you will avoid the frame scratch, this is a modification to the slide stop that Log Man has come up with, and posted it on the other forum and Jim Watson mentioned



shoot safe, shoot straight, and have fun

 

[xring]

If you know how, and why it gets scratched, all you need is 3 seconds of careful attention, and it won't happen. I bought the Wilson tool when I was a 1911 newb, and I've never used it for that purpose. It's come in handy for many other uses though.

 

[BYJO4]

A small piece of duct tape on the frame will work fine.

 

[Skylerbone]

As others have mentioned, take your time. The time to look at the parts, where they interact, how they interact and where to hold them when assembling. I snapped a few pics of the "log man" mod for the forum here: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=654073 as the originals are log's property (note to above poster).

Has little to do with being new, my father shot his first 1911 at 17, carried it for many years, owned several and put his first idiot scratch on the last one he bought. 43 years without a goof but it happened. Even after buffing and 5 more years of use he swears he can still see that blemish. Modifying the slide stop makes things easier, especially practicing field stripping in low light (you never know).

 

[Ludasmith]

I just bought a Ruger 1911 and am baffled at how people screw this up. Shove the pin straight in and be done with it.

 

[HisSoldier]

What gets me in these discussions about idiot marks is that someone always comes along and says something like "It's just a tool guys! stop babying your tools, marks and scratches are signs of use, and are totally honorable."

I assume that after reading that some one else will toss their new 1911 in a rock crusher to show what a great pistolero he is.

There is something to be said for honest long term careful use wearing any gun out, finish wise, and that would indeed be honorable and no shame at all. But scratching the frame with the slide stop is a sign of something else entirely, carelessness and incompetence.

I have a theory. Most handguns are not in fact carried every day, except one's carried by military and LEO's, hence most idiot scratches happen to guns that should have gone 50 years without any carelessness marks. Most guns get shot a few times a year, are probably disassembled and cleaned way too often for the amount of shooting done with them. Kind of a shame, seems to me.

A good machinist's tools look slightly used after thirty or forty years, you can tell that they have seen daily use, but not abuse. A bad "machinist" can't make his tools last a year.

Guns are very much the same.