Last year I picked up a used, customized Colt Commander. It has some nice worksmanship, but was made up of parts - the slide for example read Combat Commander, when it was a alloy Lightweight Commander frame, early Series 80 vintage.
Along the way I got a hankering for a 9mm 1911. Those in the Cult of the 1911 know that Colt Commanders use the same ejectors between .45 and 9mm/.38 Super models, unlike full size pistols. This fact means one can theoretically swap parts at the range - slide assembly and magazine, to switch between calibers.
The 1911 Government Model is nicely scaled to the .45 and 10mm calibers, but a little big for the 9x19, in my opinion. A LW Commander makes more sense for the Parabellum.
I found a used Combat Commander slide, a 9mm barrel, and a couple of Colt 9mm mags, and got busy. The barrel ramping was a big question, but in the end I got it running this evening.
I only had .45 recoil springs on hand for the Commander, which proved too strong. In any case, it fed ball ammo just fine, just too many FTE. I think a little more tuning and it will be fine.
Considering the slide is sloppy as hell on the frame, accuracy is pretty darn good. I wasn't expecting much out of the barrel, as I suspect it's an offbrand, but it shot quite well. No bulged or overexpanded cases. I didn't try any hot loads in it, just Win white box 115 gr ball and JHP. The group shown was shot indoors at 20 yards, from a rest.
More work is needed before this gun is anything more than a curiosity, but it shows a lot of promise.
Along the way I got a hankering for a 9mm 1911. Those in the Cult of the 1911 know that Colt Commanders use the same ejectors between .45 and 9mm/.38 Super models, unlike full size pistols. This fact means one can theoretically swap parts at the range - slide assembly and magazine, to switch between calibers.
The 1911 Government Model is nicely scaled to the .45 and 10mm calibers, but a little big for the 9x19, in my opinion. A LW Commander makes more sense for the Parabellum.
I found a used Combat Commander slide, a 9mm barrel, and a couple of Colt 9mm mags, and got busy. The barrel ramping was a big question, but in the end I got it running this evening.
I only had .45 recoil springs on hand for the Commander, which proved too strong. In any case, it fed ball ammo just fine, just too many FTE. I think a little more tuning and it will be fine.
Considering the slide is sloppy as hell on the frame, accuracy is pretty darn good. I wasn't expecting much out of the barrel, as I suspect it's an offbrand, but it shot quite well. No bulged or overexpanded cases. I didn't try any hot loads in it, just Win white box 115 gr ball and JHP. The group shown was shot indoors at 20 yards, from a rest.
More work is needed before this gun is anything more than a curiosity, but it shows a lot of promise.
