Taurus 1911

It is no secret that 1911s benefit from a little TLC and handwork, even if they don't need a professional to work them over. Trigger, hammer, safety all function perfectly and I am leaving the entire fire control group alone. I bought some Springfield 7 rd milspec magazines. The Taurus mags were pretty crappy. It is a bit disconcerting to run a string of shots and when the slide locks back, the mag spring is sticking up out of the slide and the follower goes flying. Not to mention failures to feed. Well even with good mags to work with I still had to hand tailor the feedlips to get silky smooth feed, even slow hand feeding. Every 1911 is an entity of its own and requires its own tweaks. Not only will it feed well when fired but also as slow as I can cycle the slide by hand.

And the silky smooth glide is the results of my fluff and buff handwork. Some jewelers files, small stones of various types and composition, very fine emery cloth and a dremel with buffing wheels and polishing compound are the tools. At risk of ruining the frame, I did use the dremel and a stone to reslope the feed ramp, which ended the nose dive jams. Then polished it like glass. I also went over the barrel with file and stones and broke over every sharp edge to a very small chamfer or rounded edge, removing all burrs and sharp corners. Then buffed those edges and the chamber mouth. A small stone on the breach face also removed machine tool marks that drag on the barrel hood during lockup.

The barrel bushing was on the very loose side of tolerances, so I installed an oversize bushing and hand fitted it to a nice tight but smooth sliding fit. Then I worked over the slide and frame on all sliding surfaces to polish tool marks, burrs and sharp corners off. Along with the full length guide rod, there is nothing dragging and now the feed is so smooth you almost can't feel it when cycling live rounds as compared to empty, by hand.

Only one problem left to address and this took research and some testing but my barrel link is too long. In both full lock up and all the way back against the stops there is supposed to be no pressure on the link, its barrel pin and slide stop/take down pin. Too long it cams excessively against the pin during lockup, when the two barrel feet are supposed to engage the stop pin and take the load off the link. Too short and the barrel is yanking back on the link and pin during recoil, when the barrel lug is supposed to be against the frame. Either condition can lead to a broken link or pin or barrel lug damage, and excess wear on slide stop pin. Also too long won't allow the barrel to seat properly in its feed position causing jams with HP bullets. It has a .273" link and I am ordering a .268 link, or .005" shorter to remove that stress at full lockup and hopefully improve the feed even more. I will go shorter if I must but too far I would only swap one problem for another.

Proper fitting of this link should give me maximum reliability feeding ball ammo and I hope HP also. Since this is original JMB design and not a modern integral barrel and feed ramp, I shall not complain if it is only reliable with ball ammo. That is what it was designed for. That is all I can ask. But I just might get a Commander size with the new feed system that will handle HP for concealed carry.

The PT1911 has been a work in progress but it is nearly 100% now. And it has been fun learning about 1911s.

Excellent article Joe, very informative and interesting. The 1911 is a superb hand gun and i love mine to death even over the "new" stuff. More accurate, more fun to shoot and full of history.

Thanks James, it is still a work in progress (aren't all 1911s?) and I will update after I change that link and get it dialed in.

It was ironic to pick up a rattletrap used Thompson Auto Ordinance out of the display case, that is loose, and rattles the slide when you shake it. It has tool marks on every sliding surface and a bent recoil spring, rougher than a cob and never had a thing done to it. Yet it feeds hollow points just like ball. Dang it.

Here is the PT1911 I have been working on.

I cant see the gun for the piece of booty i see in the background......what kind of gun was it again???

I got a 1911 around here im wanting to "go through" but lack of work space and skills is holding me back.....probably more so the work place than anything. I got plans for a building out back in the near future that should remedy those problems.

Most of my gun work is done in the small space between my keyboard and my belly. Or move the keyboard out of the way. I have no space in this trailer.

When I polish something with the dremel I have to wipe jeweler's rouge off my monitor screen.

I used a real camera for this shot. Some better at least.

Did your taurus come with the extended beaver tail?

Yep, that and the ambi safety, in fact the only thing I have replaced are the cheesy mags and the barrel bushing. I will replace the barrel link pin with a .005" shorter one as soon as it gets here.

The bushing is an oversize that I hand fitted, and the mags are now Springfield stainless 7rd with the GI type follower. Seven round, and the full length follower reduces the floppiness and lack of support for the 8th round, increasing the feeding reliability. Unfortunately I did not realize that they would be for the barrel with integral feed ramp and the feed lips were too short, releasing teh rounds before they were caught by the extractor hook. I reshaped the lips to the correct length and they work so much better than the Taurus mags. But I will be looking for genuine GI mags at the gun shows.

I showed you mine now show me yours. 1911 that is.

Its been ahile since i worked on this gun....few years. Anyways from what i can remember i started off with an essex frame and slide with some fitting work from a gunsmith and all milspec parts. I Put in a Wislon one peice guide rod and 25 lb spring with recoil buffers. Then Chip Mcormick Skeletonized trigger and hammer. New main spring housing and extended beaver tail. Trigger pull is very light...too light really. Only gripe i have with trigger is it has about a 1/8 slop before trigger will trip the sear. There is no creep in the trigger at all once its there.

need some sights in a bad way for sure. other than that, surprisingly the gun runs pretty dang good last i shot it....been a few years though lol

Dan watch this gun smith in action and you will get a tip on how to adjust the trigger slack or free play. You want a little and if you have an overtravel screw in the trigger, make sure it is not set too tight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCF2u3K743A

My PT1911 came with black plastic and wood grips, plus I have a set of Hogue overmolded finger groove wraparounds. It looks good with wood, but brown is just a discordant color to me.

The new barrel link from Wilson Combat came in today. It is .005" shorter than the one in the gun, but is the shortest available and I think it could have used a .010" shorter one. I swapped it out and and the last glitch in hand cycling ball ammo is gone. I put a Golden Saber HP round in the top of each mag and Lord a' Mercy it fed both of them by hand. I intend to put 100 ball cartridges through it Saturday, along with about 50 hollow points. If it feeds all 100 ball without a bobble I will consider it a finished gun and be quite satisfied. If it feeds all 50 HP I will be jumping up and down like a little kid.

Joe, that's a HORRIBLE pistol. You've told us so many times how you really love your XD..you should sell me that pistol so that it won't tempt you to show an "old gun".

So good of you to try to save me from the perils of 1911s. But it is too late, my eye has already been caught by another one. I am doomed, doomed I tell you.

Joe B. wrote:So good of you to try to save me from the perils of 1911s. But it is too late, my eye has already been caught by another one. I am doomed, doomed I tell you.

Well Joe, old John Luke tried to tell you on Star Trek.... resistance is futile!...