Springfield 1911 9mm build for wife

[Spurshot]

Well it got finished in time for Christmas. She was tickled that I spent the time to build this gun for her. She had been coached by our self-defense shooting instructor that she should get a 1911 after him having stopped our class and taken my Gold Cup NM and given it to her and gave me the Sig, then resumed the class. I was publically poked at over the range PA system about giving my wife the second rate equipment, including the holster she had. So, I went overboard.

 

The gun started as a 9mm Springfield 1911 shown above. The frame, slide, barrel, full length guide rod, thumb and grip safeties, were all that remain factory. Although all have been modified, shaped, blended, etc., in some way.

 

The functional mods are: Dawson Precision fiber optic front and LPA rear sights, custom fitted barrel bushing, o/s slide stop, polished feed ramp, 30 degree crowned barrel, fitted/tuned EGW extractor, fitted o/s EGW firing pin stop, Cylinder & Slide Ultra Light tool steel ignition kit (hammer, sear, disconnector, sear spring and hammer spring), STI short trigger, OEM Springfield titanium firing pin, titanium hammer strut, titanium mainspring cap, Wilson extended magazine release, Wilson semi-extended slide stop,

 

The "gingerbread" mods include: checkered front grip strap, weld-on custom shaped magwell, flat topped slide with diamond checkering, reshaped thumb safeties for comfort, blended and reshaped factory beavertail grip safety, fully chamfered corners on the whole gun, custom thin grips with monogram in glitter, custom mixed purple metallic Cerokote on the frame, and black graphite Cerokote on the slide and controls. The purple metallic frame and glitter monogram grips are a bit of tongue-in-cheek fun after hearing my wife and another gal at the range talk about "girl guns" and equipment.

 

I did all the work except for the frame front grip strap checkering, which was done by Dave at Evolution Armory in New Hampshire, who stepped up to turn it around in short order to make it in time for Christmas.

 

In addition, she got a new custom made leather steel reinforced combat holster and mag carrier, their Gunsite Omega model from Davis Leather in Arizona, purple gun rug and range bag, and 4 extra Wilson ETM magazines. She made out pretty well this Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeNH]

Damn that came out nice!

[Spurshot]

Damn that came out nice!

 

Thanks. I think so too. I hadn't worked on a 1911 in 20-25 years, but this was my best effort. The gun feels really good in hand. Her hand fits well with the thin grips and short trigger. When I do the next one for me, I'll go with standard thickness grips and a long trigger. I'll probably skip the purple metallic and glitter monogrammed grips.

[MikeNH]

 

Thanks. I think so too. I hadn't worked on a 1911 in 20-25 years, but this was my best effort. The gun feels really good in hand. Her hand fits well with the thin grips and short trigger. When I do the next one for me, I'll go with standard thickness grips and a long trigger. I'll probably skip the purple metallic and glitter monogrammed grips.

 

 

Haha yeah I was referring to the overall build and not the wife-specific bits. Purple isn't my color either. haha

[Spurshot]

 

 

Haha yeah I was referring to the overall build and not the wife-specific bits. Purple isn't my color either. haha

 

Yeah, that purple was the only thing that kept me from keeping it for myself. LOL

[AZone]

That is awesome bravo..........the picture of your custom 1911 and the SS Camaro made my heart skip a beat!

[BlackZ71Silverado]

 

Thanks. I think so too. I hadn't worked on a 1911 in 20-25 years, but this was my best effort. The gun feels really good in hand. Her hand fits well with the thin grips and short trigger. When I do the next one for me, I'll go with standard thickness grips and a long trigger. I'll probably skip the purple metallic and glitter monogrammed grips.

 

Seems like you know your way around the 1911 and can do some time consuming custom work.

You should try doing a complete build using a 1911 kit. It takes a ton of time but the final result is well worth the effort and you get to use whatever parts you wish. You get a true custom, one of a kind 1911 built and shaped the exact way you want it. I've done a couple over the years, first one was built during a class and I kind of became addicted. It's a great skill to have and there's nothing like having a pistol that you got to design/build with your own two hands..............Look into it, I think you would enjoy a complete build of your own.

[Spurshot]

 

Seems like you know your way around the 1911 and can do some time consuming custom work.

You should try doing a complete build using a 1911 kit. It takes a ton of time but the final result is well worth the effort and you get to use whatever parts you wish. You get a true custom, one of a kind 1911 built and shaped the exact way you want it. I've done a couple over the years, first one was built during a class and I kind of became addicted. It's a great skill to have and there's nothing like having a pistol that you got to design/build with your own two hands..............Look into it, I think you would enjoy a complete build of your own.

I started working on the 1911s decades ago. Built some comp guns, fixed a lot of broken ones and did trigger and reliability work on many of them while working in a guns shop.

 

I get what you mean by starting with scratch parts. In some ways starting with a running gun is really a handicap. I had to either replace or refit just about everything in that gun. Virtually every surface on the outside has been reworked, including the flats of the frame and slide and all the corners. I was able to use the grip safety but it had to have the upper and lower shapes recontoured and blended to the frame. The back of the slide and newly fitted extractor were blended to the frame as well. It was just a ton of work going back over the factory parts that remained.

 

My next one is about to start. I may do two in parallel. They'll be from scratch.