Who makes a repro of an old style Government Model thumb safety?

[Old Fuff]

The very idear! Seen real USGI parts and didn't even git me none of'em.

Oh it's worse then you know...

Suposedly a lot of stuff on the table (and he had a lot of it) was surplus from a USMC base next door in California. The only way I could get near him was to yell FIRE!! to clear out the other lookers.

I did grab two extractors, but suffered grevious wounds in the process. One should never reach for such stuff with their bare hands... Also an ejector, even though it appeared to be used. At $12.00 I took a chance because it appeared to be O.K. The hall was unheated, and indoors it was close to, or maybe below freezing. Thus impaired I overlooked the safety locks, but he had them.

Them A-10's come in to visit and gas up about 4 miles from where I sit. Neat aircraft, but when the come in for a landing or takeoff they go over the highway, and if you happen to be there at the time they will scare the... out of you. I keep having to clean up the car seat...

 

[lindermant]

try here: http://www.amherst-depot.com/gunparts.45.htm

they don't have pics for every item; call them to see if what they stock is what you're looking for...

 

[1911Tuner]

Worse

Fuff...The A-10s will be comin' in for a strafing run sometime today. And here all this time I thought you was lookin' out for me...

waaaaaaaaa

 

[Old Fuff]

Now wait a minute....

I froze my tail off getting the little bit I did. Risk my life just getting near that table...

Maybe we could work a deal. Your Smith & Wesson's for a few of these super-valuable 1911 parts...

 

[1911Tuner]

Dealin' with the Devil

The pigs should be approaching in attack formation by now...

A word on the "USGI" safety on ebay...It may be the real deal, and it may not. Kahr Auto Ordnance is using cast replicas of that safety on some of their basic GI clones. Hard to tell until ya flip if over and see if there's a parting line or machine marks. Caveat Emptor.

http://www.tommygun.com/ao_front_pi.html

 

[Bill Hale]

kahr/auto ord thumb safety

fwiw: I spoke to Auto Ordnance today about their 1911A1 thumb safety. The person I talked to said they have gone to all series 80 style safeties on all their models and for parts sales. Seems odd, but I guess their employees know what they are talking about...
Bill

 

[1911Tuner]

Kahr

Quote:

>fwiw: I spoke to Auto Ordnance today about their 1911A1 thumb safety. The person I talked to said they have gone to all series 80 style safeties on all their models and for parts sales. Seems odd, but I guess their employees know what they are talking about...<
************

I wouldn't bet on it. There's no basic design difference between Series 80, Series 70, and pre-Series 70. They'll all interchange. The S-80 grip safeties are slightly different. Maybe that's what they meant...

 

[Bill Hale]

Kahr safety

I asked Auto Ord. about the style, as in appearance. They may not have understood what I was asking.
Like "The Real Hawkeye" I like the look of the old G.I. safety.
What I'd really like is to find or make an ambidextrous version of the old G.I. style. Sorry world, I'm left-handed.
I wonder if one of those wide "tactical" safeties could be modified to look like one? May be another project to add to the list.
Bill

 

[tmaca]

OK, Late in the game

But I hadda put in my 2 cents worth about that reddogalaskan guy. I have no idea if his stuff is any good for the modern, more accurized 1911s, but for a real military gun, which, admittedly, has looser tolerances (which is why it's so dependable even when it's dirty), his stuff seems to work fine, including a barrel that's had about a zillion rounds put through it by now.

 

[Magnumite]

I shaped a commercial thumb safety to close to early 1911 configuration on my last build. I have a real GI one I am sandbagging for a future build.

I've swept the bottom up some to blend with the EB grip safety. The paddle itself it shaped to my liking, you can see it is not as rounded as the real early GI. Pardon the dog hair...the doggie likes to help.

 

[Drail]

About 15 minutes work with a file and you can make a GI style from a modern Colt safety like Magnumite shows. I made a couple after getting tired of looking for the old GI parts. And the doggies do like to help - especially in the kitchen.

 

[Magnumite]

"And the doggies do like to help - especially in the kitchen"

Yes, they do. Never a dull moment, that's for sure.

 

[tmaca]

New GI 1911

I just noticed that nobody has mentioned this. The folks that first brought us the Thompson .45 subgun, Auto Ordnance-Thompson, have a really nice, about as identical to a WWII 1911 as you can get, .45ACP now.

When they were owned by Numrich they put put some pretty crappy stuff. Some think they just got components from Numrich and then assembled them, without much concern for fit and what not.

Since Kahr took over, they seem to have gone back to basics, putting out a really nice and reliable 1911 .45 ACP which is a dead ringer for the WWII GI gun, except they're using the post-WWII thumb safety.

Besides the outstanding reviews the new 1911 has gotten from testers, I compared mine with a Numrich era A.O. 1911, and, even visually, they're two different guns. The Numrich version is slimmer, and just looks less military overall. One of the easiest ways to tell immediately if it's one of the ones made under Numrich or one of the new ones is that the Numrich 1911s have slanted grooves on the slide, while the new ones have the original 1911 vertical ones. Also, the new one has the lanyard loop in the right place, on the bottom of the butt behind the mag well, instead of on the mainspring housing.

I haven't had a bit of trouble with mine, and the only problem I could find in any of the reviews was that one reviewer ran into some occasional feeding problems with JHPs when using the factory magazine, but using normal 1911 mags cured that.

The earliest test and review I could find of A.O's current 1911 used a straight from the factory gun in 2007. Anything made from then on will be the good one. But although Kahr bought the company in the late '90s, the Numrich version apparently kept being made for some period of time, and I have no idea when they actually changed over to the new pistol. I do know that there are still Numrich A.O. 1911s in some gunstores, so you have to be careful about which one you're buying.

Another good thing about this pistol is its price. I saw where the '07 was quoted at about $425, but they've raised it some since. I'm guessing they sort of low balled the price at first to overcome the lousy rep A.O. developed under Numrich. But I was still able to get one for just over $500 a year ago. This thing is absolutely the closest to an original military 1911 that I've seen in any from the factory 1911 nowadays.