4 Things Why I Wouldn't Trust the 1911 with my Life

AShooting Journal ^ | 11/3/2015 | D Shaw

[Tijeras_Slim]

Smiths had a hammer blocking feature added in about 1945 due to a (dubious) report of a dropped Victory Model going off and killing a sailor. The purely numeric serial numbers started sporting a “S” prefix with this addition. The S was changed to N with the advent of the 1968 Gun Control Act.

Prior to 1945 (and after as well) the hammer slide would hold the firing pin and hammer back from the primer when the trigger was released.

[GenXteacher]

1. If you can’t solve the issue with seven shots, it is time for a rifle or shotgun.
2. The 1911 has served in every part of the globe, under varying conditions, and did so until replaced by a politically correct Eurotrash design. If it were junk it would not have served several generations of soldiers.

[kitchen]

If you like the 1911 design, pick up one of these:

It's a Llama .380. I took one to a master 1911 builder and told him reliability over accuracy, +P or hotter loads. Tighten up the slide and bushing at lock up, turn the barrel down a bit behind the muzzle, add a bump to the grip safety, stone and polish internals where necessary. If I hadn't known the guy he probably would have refused the work. He'd never seen one before, and he had standards. A couple weeks later I dropped by to see how he was coming along. He had a big grin, "Do you known what you've got? That's a 1911! I'd take it to a gun fight!"

Cooper was very high on these pistols and believed, because of the lock-up - unlike most .380 straight blow back designs - they could be loaded near 9mm pressure. Might be appropriate to find a stronger spring.

[Cold Heat]

I’ll take the 1911 any day for short range defense.

Sure, you can’t doublestack a .45 cal round without making the grip too wide for the average hand to accept the mag, but just how many rounds do you need for a single event?

I’m not expecting 12 perps at a time..

[Cold Heat]

All you have to do is take the standard issue GI .45 and throw a new barrel and bushing at it...does not cost much..

The specs for the issued pistol had it a bit too loose for accuracy.

You can do some work on the trigger pull as well...It just takes a file..

When you get done, you have a match class pistol. Assuming you have good ammo.

[PLMerite]

"limited magazine capacity"

There are workarounds:

[MediaMole]

I’ve never gotten the aversion to a safety. Just train and you unholster the weapon, bring your thumb down and release the safety as you bring the weapon on the target.

[MHGinTN]

I carry a Taurus 941 2 1/2 barrel, 22 magnum, eight shots, for which I did a trigger/hammer job so it has a nice DA now. Folks talk ‘knock down power’ but even a 22lr will ‘stop’ a charging feral when the little bullet zings around inside the skull. Follow-up shots are smooth and quick on target. Reloads are from speed strips. On some occasions I carry a 32 Bersa with three extra mags. Both have a laser mounted. Practice and sight control is the key. If the object of tool use is in front of the front sight, the sear is released.

[WayneS]

Yes. It prevents the hammer/firing pin from being bounced against a primer while in the “resting” position, but it is not a real “safety” in the usual sense of that term.

If you pull the trigger, and the chamber is loaded, the gun will go bang.

[LoneStar42]

I agree completely. An armored accurized 1911 is great. General issue was not intended to do anything precisely, just function well in close quarters.

[LoneStar42]

Yep.

I like the Kimber approach: meltdown, bull barrel, no bushing. It’s accurate and reliable.

ART Enterprises did the sights.

[archy]

“”All weapons have safeties”
Revelers don’t.”

Actually, the modern ones do. Since about 1991 (IU think) they have had hammer safeties so if they drop on their hammer they do not go off.

First generally applied to US military revolvers circa 1942 with the *Victory* model .38 Smith and Wessons, initially in Navy shipboard use where a dropped handgun might be expected to land on steel deck plates, following a fatal discharge by dropping aboard the USS Texas.

The *revolver hammer safeties* were previously a trademarked feature [*hammer the hammer*] of Iver Johnson *safety automatic hammer* equipped cartridge revolvers, which were first so designated circa 1894.

[archy]

"limited magazine capacity"

There are workarounds:

Indeed.

[archy]

Cooper was very high on these pistols and believed, because of the lock-up - unlike most .380 straight blow back designs - they could be loaded near 9mm pressure. Might be appropriate to find a stronger spring.

The late George Nonte, who first armtwisted me into writing a bit about a little of what I know about things that go bang [or boom, at times] also had a fondness for Star and Llama handguns. And he frequently carried a Llama .380 SI, until the Star PD came out around 1972, in .45 ACP.

But I wouldn't have bet that he didn't have the little Llama along too.

FYI, he was of the opinion that a trimmed-to-fit synthetic [diethane] recoil spring buffer was a better solution than tinkering with Llama recoil springs [which were also available for the .22 and .32 acp versions.] My experience echoes his advice. And they're quite inexpensive.

[CodeToad]

I have been schooled! Thank you. :)

I knew they were not a recent invention, just that various safety laws kicked in and revolvers started to all have the hammer blocks.

I have a few revolvers without the hammer blocks, but I prefer revolvers with them. They also tend to be more reliable.

[PLMerite]

I have a 30rd mag for a Browning Hi-Power, supposedly made for gangster full-auto conversions. It’s way too big to use in any situation other than “insert mag, start shootin’.” Also it jams. A lot. How it would work in full-auto I don’t know, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it.

[kitchen]

Thanks for your thoughts. Could you point me to your Nonte inspired writings?

As for the buffer, I have not found a direct fit. Is there a known item that can be modified or is this a custom scenario?

[archy]

Thanks for your thoughts. Could you point me to your Nonte inspired writings? As for the buffer, I have not found a direct fit. Is there a known item that can be modified or is this a custom scenario?

So far as the buffer goes, I use the ones made for the 1911 as a guide to make them from 1/8" or 1/4" thick polyurethane sheets with a durometer rating of 80A. It's not too hard to trim the 1/4" material down using a Dremel tool, but you might want to try one made from the 1/8th thickness first. I've had my best results with the 80A *hardness* material, but you might want to try one of the Mcmaster-Carr *selector pack* deals with an assortment of sheets:

Durometer Hardness Selector Pack—Includes six 4" × 4" × 1/8" thick sheets of the following durometer hardnesses: 40A, 60A, 80A, 90A, 95A, and 75D.

Mc Master-Carr

The early stuff I wrote for Gun Week and elsewhere is now mostly in the dustbin of newsprint history. But through 1997-98-99 I was a featured columnist writing an on-and-off monthly column for the then-fledgling Subguns website. There's no archive of it there, but there is at the Internet Archive, AKA *The Wayback Machine.* Enter WWW.subguns.com in their search engine, check the entries for 1997-99, and click on any links for Gunsmoke,

[archy]

I have a 30rd mag for a Browning Hi-Power, supposedly made for gangster full-auto conversions. It’s way too big to use in any situation other than “insert mag, start shootin’.” Also it jams. A lot. How it would work in full-auto I don’t know, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it.

If it has a cast aluminum follower, you may have one of the magazines originally made in the early 1970s for the PJK/J&R/Jennings M68 carbine [name and details depends on when it was made, cocking handle on top or side, sights, etc] But most used a Browning-inspired 30-round mag.

That's only fair, since the magazine for Browning and Saive's handgun design was reportedly inspired by the 40-round magazine for the post WWI Estonian Talinn submachinegun.