Long range accuracy with 1911?

john@

john@

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I have a folding shoulder stock for my colt series 80 1911, and I am considering getting a longer drop-in barrel for long range accuracy. Hopefully something that will be on paper at about 150+ yrds.

I've seen barrels available in 6", 7", and 16" lengths, and I imagine that they are available in a few other sizes as well.

What do you think is the optimum barrel length that will ballance accuracy, mobility, and compactness?

I'll also be using optics, probably 1X, but maybe with mag up to 2X or 3X.

(Note: I'm not interested in going the mec tec ccu path)

Thanks

John
 
I presume the point of this project is...because I want to and I can...
(I use the same excuse for half of the stuff I do!)
I wouldn't go longer than 6" on the barrel... otherwise you might as well go
straight to one of the carbine length units (Mec Tec, Storm, or USC).
By the time you have fiddled around with all of the variables...Either/and
You'll strip all the extraneous stuff off and ..stick with the pistol or relace/augment the deal with one of the ready made carbines....
They tend to come in the two versions (pistol/carbine) for reasons you are about to discover.;)
 
The best I've done offhand with a 1911 (Para 14.45) was exactly 100 meters offhand. I got my 10 shots on a 4' X 4' aluminium plate, scattered al over the plate.From the detonation to the impact sound, there was a big time lapse, and I really had to aim up in order to get it there.
The barrel was a match 5" with slightly downloaded ammunition (800 fps with 230 grains)

IMO, the .45ACP cartridge would be one of the less suited cartridges for this purpose, heck even a 9mm will probably do better due to it's higher muzzle velocity. But it was fun to try anyways.
 
Okay...so it's not STRICTLY a 1911....but I have no problems keeping my shots on a 2 foot square target at 200 yards with mine.....oh it's a Mech Tech CCU (16 inch bbl) and a 4x scope....zeroed at 100 holdover is like two feet at 200....
 
Thanks for the input guys.

I was thinking that I'd go somewhere between 8" (typical barrel on a sub gun i.e. the 45ACP M3 grease gun good up to about 100') and 16" (typical carbine i.e. 45ACP mec tec or Marlin Camp Carbine good to about 200').

Definitely not going to stick with pistol length, but I don't want something as long as 16", so I'll probably try to find something in the middle maybe about 12". (to see what it would look like I made a mock up with a rolled up sheet of paper sticking out of the barrel, its not that ugly or awkward).
 
Over 8" won't really help accuracy much with commercial ammo, if you have a supported chamber and overload, maybe, but I'd go for quality over length. In this particular situation.
 
the 45 acp is designed to burn fully in 5inches of barrel, so no velocity increase there- the only advantage is the longer sight radius,also the match heavy would be stiffer, so it would have less of a harmonic than the longer one-
 
If optics are involved is there any point to having a longer barrel?
I heard that the 16" barrels increase the muzzle velocity to over 1000 fps which may not be much but at least the bullet is not being slowed down going through the longer barrel.
 
If you are considering trying to pep up your loads you should check out armco (site sponsor), and look at their .45-08 cases. If you are using optics the longer barrel won't make a difference in accuracy as you are not extending your sight radius. Going with a longer extended barrel without a longslide MAY give you reliablility issues having the extra unsupported weight ahead of the barrel bushing.
 
Saw a guy nail 2 groundhogs with two shots from his 1911 on the 100 yard berm .
 
Partially disagree

t-star said:
the 45 acp is designed to burn fully in 5inches of barrel, so no velocity increase there--
Click to expand...

This statement is true for traditional propellants....adding a carbine length barrel opens up a whole new world of slower burning powders that can give significant velocity increases....
 
haha, yeah I have plenty of rifles, I suppose if I want a rifle that shoots 45 ACP and uses single stack 1911 mags I should just get a Marlin camp carbine.

I'm not into relaoding yet so for now this project is for commercial loads.

Hey ATR, what type of 1911 did the guy that nailed the two groundhogs have? A race gun, or plain Jane Government model?
 
john@ , i sold that 1911 to the guy . It was an old rattletrap with one side of the slide marked , Property of the U.S. Government , and the other side was stamped , Property of the U.S. Army . From a seated , rested position it would shoot ragged holes at 25 yards all day . Never should have sold it .
 
ATR - Cool, I have an old Remington Rand, maybe I should be using that for my project hehe.

I think I might be aproaching this with the wrong understanding of long barrels.

With commercial pistol ammo, is the main benifit of a longer barrel higher fps or better accuracy?

I've been under the assumption that its better accuracy. But if thats not the case then I'll do like Juster said and go with quality over length.
 
PoFF said:
The best I've done offhand with a 1911 (Para 14.45) was exactly 100 meters offhand. I got my 10 shots on a 4' X 4' aluminium plate, scattered al over the plate.From the detonation to the impact sound, there was a big time lapse, and I really had to aim up in order to get it there.
The barrel was a match 5" with slightly downloaded ammunition (800 fps with 230 grains)

IMO, the .45ACP cartridge would be one of the less suited cartridges for this purpose, heck even a 9mm will probably do better due to it's higher muzzle velocity. But it was fun to try anyways.
Click to expand...


Oh, and I didn't think the drop or time lapse to impact was that big... :confused: Can't remember for certain, but believe the hold over was much less than a foot and less than a half second flight or so.
 
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