accurizing a colt 1911

... 'Cheapest "fix" is probably to check for worn parts, ie barrel link and barrel bushing. With 1911s the sky is the limit on how much and how far you want to go with it. Bear in mind, it's designed as a service weapon, to function with loose tolerances, otherwise it would'nt work under adverse conditions (mud, snow, sand etc.etc. ) ..... David K.
 
The cheapest and most effective upgrade is buying an oversized bushing and having a gunsmith custom fit it to the slide. A much more expensive (and largely useless) approach would be tightening the slide to frame fit. Many people think that a "tight" gun is synonymous with accuracy, but in reality the slide to frame fit has very little to do with accuracy, since both sights are mounted on the slide.

The barrel lockup is also critical to a 1911's accuracy. With the hammer down, press down on the barrel hood. If it doesn't budge – great, if there's a tiny bit of movement, you're probably okay too, but if there's significant slop, you've got a problem.

P.S. I'm writing this under the assumption that 5" groups were achieved shooting form a rest.
 
If you have an intact unaltered 1911A1 in nice shape, you might want to seriously consider what any alterations will do to the value.
 
As long as you hang onto the original bbl bushing, replacing it with an oversized one won't affect the value at all and replacing the barrel link is just proper maintenance.

Pat
 
Well here is my story of the 1911. I shot a bunch of different loadings until I found one that would at least print on the paper with some form of accuracy and then a bought the .45 service/shop manual and did upgrades one at a time took notes to see what they did.

Stock out of the box Norinco .45
-Best load of W231 5.3 grn 230 Grn printed 4.75" very consistantly.

Installed barrel bushing myself. Bought an inside adjustable reamer off ebay for 20 bucks and following directions from book it took about 2 hours because I didn't know what I was doing. Group shrank to 3.25" with same load.

Tightened slide to frame as per book and it dropped to 2.75", mine was really sloppy.

Had a gunsmith do the trigger and the group size dropped to 2".

Next I installed a higher front blade and installed an adjustable rear sight. Rear was easy, just straight replacement. Front you had to grind the pinning of the sight off fron the inside of the slide and drive out the old sight. I put the sight in and had my dad weld it in and then I just reblued the slide.

I can consistantly get my average down to 1.5 to 1.75" now with the exact same load.
 
hunter64:

All those mods sound like good advice. At least you did not run out and drop a whole bunch of money into the project. You are wise. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
jasonburnsdundee
I was in the local library on the weekend and was reading through a DIY pistolsmithing the 1911 book. Many many great suggestions. If you can buy the parts you need, and DIY, it would definately be a great project.
 
Add a adjustable rear sight. That'll allow you to bring your groups down.

The other post had some good suggestions for tightening up your groupings once your on target.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom