The 1911E1 project

Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
Alright y'all, prepare to join me for the wild ride of finding out how badly I can screw up building a 1911! :)

So, a bit of background before we get into the crunchy bits. I'm working for a gun shop, where I am studying under the gunsmith when I can, and one of the projects he said I should undertake is building a 1911, and needless to say, it didn't take a while lot of convincing.

Now to the project itself. I settled on building one as close to the original M1911 as possible, without sacrificing the fit, finish, function, and usability possible in the "modern" custom 1911. I settled on calling it the M1911E1, E for Enhanced.

The parts list is as follows:
Caspian "Foster" government model frame.
Caspian slide, in the original government style, small ejection port and all, but with a novak front sight cut, because I don't want to deal with a staked front sight.
Kart Xact fit .45 ACP barrel. No excuses, I kinda chickened out on the serious barrel fitting on this one. I'll do it the old fashioned way on the next one.
The small parts are almost all Wilson bulletproof parts, excepting the trigger, from Harrison, the hammer, which is from STI, and the grip safety, which is a postwar Colt A1, which was the only government style grip safety I could find that wasn't a shitty MIM part.
Fitting of the slide begins tonight, and I'll update as it progresses.KIMG0135~2.JPG
 

Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
Well, I spent three hours last night fitting the frame and slide, and the slide now fits a whole half inch onto the frame!
At my current pace, I'd guess that it will be about 20 hours total just into getting the slide/frame fit right.KIMG0211~2.JPGKIMG0212~2.JPG
 

Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
Alright, I've been really busy this past week, but I did manage to squeeze in a little work every night. I'm about at the 5.5 hour mark, and the slide is about 2 inches onto the frame. I'm at the point where every couple passes with the stone causes the slide to fit visibly farther than before. I'd guess that I will have it fitting completely onto the frame within the next week, and then I'll be moving on to barrel fit.KIMG0219.JPG
 

Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
THE SLIDE IS FITTED!!!
Apparently insomnia is good for my productivity on occasion. I've got about 11 hours into fitting the slide, which is less than I thought I would end up spending. I started on fitting the barrel for before I realized exactly how late it is, so that will be a project for another day.15969510157591759992274.jpg
 

Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
Most of the way to barrel fit! I found the link that came with the Xact fit barrel to have an oversized slide stop pin hole, so I will be swapping it out for an appropriately sized one, but while I'm waiting for those to arrive, I fitted the barrel to the gun as per Kart's directions, and fitting of the bushing shall commence this evening! The whole barrel fitting has been insanely stressful, since I really won't know how badly I screwed up until I shoot it for the first time. Hopefully I can get access to a Ransom rest to really test the thing, and I'm not depending on my mediocre shooting to test accuracy.
Pictures shall follow later.
 

Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
Bushing is fitted! A little on the tight side, but it should break in a little over the course of all the assembly and disassembly I'm gonna have to do. It's starting to look like a real pistol! Not super happy with the barrel fit, changing from the bench bushing to the actual bushing left it riding pretty much entirely on one leg, but I'm pretty much out of material to remove. :( we'll see how it shoots before I scrap the barrel and start over. Next time I'm doing the bushing first, and using it when I fit the barrel, in stead of the bench bushing.

Mainspring housing and trigger are also fitted, so I can begin on the small parts.
 

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Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
Alright, update! I replaced the link, which was much less painful than expected, staked the plunger tube, and pinned the ejector in place.
Replacing the link corrected the barrel leg fit, which was an unexpected bonus. My apologies for the out of focus picture, my cameras didn't like the light in the shop.
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All the parts now fit in the gun, with the exception of the sights, and it appears to be in working condition... Ish. The trigger weighs about 9 lbs, and the safety doesn't feel great, but it's good enough that I'm going to test fire it on Wednesday, when I go to the range. Just need to take a little tension off the extractor first, it isn't wanting to let the rounds up onto the breechface. I'm about 75% certain it will infact run as it is supposed to. It did strike a primer when I finnegled a case with a pulled bullet into the chamber (out of the mag, like a civilized person. I'm not an animal.) And it appears to give it quite a hearty whack, which it ought to do with a 25 lb mainspring.
The mag catch is fitted, and does not contact the follower, which will prevent any inconsistency in feeding on the third round. (All the fliers will definitely be my fault, not the guns.)
 

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Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
I MADE A THING!!! AND IT GOES BOOM!!!

So, I fired 64 rounds through it, and I was having 1-2 failures to feed in each mag. I am pretty sure it is due to the relatively unfinished state of the feed ramp, so I will be working on that. Sights are on, and I'm working on getting them zeroed. I ended up going with fixed sights, because I couldn't bring myself to sacrifice the aesthetic of the back of the slide, so I'm zeroing the old fashioned way. A hammer and punch for windage and a file for elevation, so it's currently shooting about a foot low at 10 yards. This group was fired aiming at the A zone in the head of the target. KIMG0274.JPG
I expect groups will improve when the 9 lbs trigger has been fixed, chamber had been finish reamed, and a couple other finishing touches. and I'm pretty sure the windage being off is also attributable to the trigger pull, and my flinch.
Shooting also revealed that I need to work on the ejector, which is punchi g the brass into the slide and denting all the case mouths. Didn't cause any malfunctions, but I won't be able to reload them, so that needs fixing.
 

Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
New grips are in! I wasn't happy with the gross I originally got. They were supposed to be stained walnut, and they arrived painted brown. :/ New gross are Altamont slim grips, and I'm very happy with them. Aesthically pleasing, they feel very nice in the hand, and will accommodate smaller hands than mine for when I use it to teach family members how to shoot.
KIMG0281~2.JPG

I have decided after a whole lot of dry handling that the 1911E1 needs a subtle dehorning job. I don't want to damage the lines of the 1911, but it's definitely uncomfortable to run it hard for any prolonged period. So I'm working on that tonight. Pics tomorrow when I have progress to show.
 

Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
Sharp edges are gone! Not really serious edge removal, just enough to keep it from wearing on me.KIMG0285.JPG
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More feed ramp polishing in store for tonight, and then it's back to the tricky stuff.
 

Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
Second round of test firing! It now feeds reliably with everything I've tried, with the exception of some anemic semi wadcutter loads, which failed to feed on two of the 50 rounds I fired. Round count passed 200, and in the 150 rounds I fired this trip those were the only malfunctions, so I'm pretty satisfied. Shot hardball, 230 HST +p, and some old Colt 185 SCHPs I had lying around with no problems.
Brass is still getting a bit dinged, but not badly enough to prevent reloading, so I'm happy with that for now.
Shot a group with the 230 HST +p, to test the sights for zeroing, and I'm slowly dialing it in.KIMG0302.JPG
Not super happy with the group, but I will blame my flinch and the 9 lb (now more like 7-8 lbs) trigger pull, until I can eliminate those variables.
 

Steven Cali

Regular Member
Quantified Performance
The 1911E1 is complete! Sorry for the radio silence of late, but we've been so busy over the last few months that I haven't had much time to work on it.
KIMG0605.JPG
It's sitting at about a 4-4.5 lb trigger, and shoots beautifully so long as I do my part, which I must admit I'm having trouble with as I've gone so long without shooting pistol irons.
For now, here was the run I took at The Test at my last range outing.
KIMG0606.JPG
I have dubbed it Jeff. Those of you who get the reference get a gold star.
I settled on cerakote as my finish, as I decided that the Florida humidity and my seriously corrosive sweat would not be kind to parkerizing.
It's up over 1000 rounds now, still fits as tightly as ever, and it runs like a sewing machine.
 
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