Red Sky
04-02-2013, 07:44 PM
Well, I've been wanting a good carry gun for some time now. I used to own a Glock 19, and between that and my RI 1911a1 (GI) I was usually prepared. I have since sold the Glock, and I've never had a great deal of confidence in the 1911 (love the platform, just couldn't afford a higher end one at the time). My only other handgun now is a XDm 5.25 set up for competition, so I needed something to carry. Lacking the funds currently (damn the college budget!) to buy something new, I decided it was time to revisit my much loved but not taken seriously 1911.
Part of the problem is the trigger. It's not awful by any means, but certainly not very good for a 1911. It has some creep, and what's worse, the creep feels gritty. So I decided I would take a bottle of polishing compound I saw sitting on the shelf, the 1911, and combine their powers to make something awesome. After a complete dis-assembly I rubbed the compound all over the mating surfaces of metal in the trigger group, and put it back together. I went ahead and hand polished the trigger connector since it's large, flat, and easy to work with once it's out. Once together with copious amounts of polishing compound on everything, I dry fired it. A lot. Took it apart, replaced compound with oil, put back together - could not believe the difference!
A once ~6lb trigger with creep and grit was reduced to what is probably around 3-3.5lbs, with no creep and no grit. The gun has never once jammed or failed to fire for any reason in the 2 years that I've owned it, is plenty accurate (touching holes at 25 yards possible, though I usually jerk at least 1-2 shots out of a magazine away and still hit a little left due to being left eye / right hand...), and now has a trigger that would make a Kimber or Springfield jealous.
I'm now in the market for a good holster (the one I have is cheap and results in more pain than any other function provided). After that, throw in a couple more ACT mags (gun shipped with one new and seems to like them - the Wilson 47Ds don't like to lock the slide), some good ammo, and the IWB dual mag pouch that I already have and I think I'm going to feel like I just bought a new gun for 1/10th the price!
Hopefully I can get some pics up of my current rig - no camera with me this week and my phone is a dinosaur that isn't fit to take a picture of a plain white wall.
Part of the problem is the trigger. It's not awful by any means, but certainly not very good for a 1911. It has some creep, and what's worse, the creep feels gritty. So I decided I would take a bottle of polishing compound I saw sitting on the shelf, the 1911, and combine their powers to make something awesome. After a complete dis-assembly I rubbed the compound all over the mating surfaces of metal in the trigger group, and put it back together. I went ahead and hand polished the trigger connector since it's large, flat, and easy to work with once it's out. Once together with copious amounts of polishing compound on everything, I dry fired it. A lot. Took it apart, replaced compound with oil, put back together - could not believe the difference!
A once ~6lb trigger with creep and grit was reduced to what is probably around 3-3.5lbs, with no creep and no grit. The gun has never once jammed or failed to fire for any reason in the 2 years that I've owned it, is plenty accurate (touching holes at 25 yards possible, though I usually jerk at least 1-2 shots out of a magazine away and still hit a little left due to being left eye / right hand...), and now has a trigger that would make a Kimber or Springfield jealous.
I'm now in the market for a good holster (the one I have is cheap and results in more pain than any other function provided). After that, throw in a couple more ACT mags (gun shipped with one new and seems to like them - the Wilson 47Ds don't like to lock the slide), some good ammo, and the IWB dual mag pouch that I already have and I think I'm going to feel like I just bought a new gun for 1/10th the price!
Hopefully I can get some pics up of my current rig - no camera with me this week and my phone is a dinosaur that isn't fit to take a picture of a plain white wall.