1911 Parts - Vol. 1

Buying after market 1911 parts can be very confusing, there is no one company that makes or sells the very best of everything. This is a multi million dollar business that has made many people quite wealthy. You can not pick a first rate part by brand name, for instance, I use a Brown thumb safety but that does not mean that I like all Brown parts. I use Wilson barrel links but I do not use many of his other products. These top names do not always make the parts they sell, they purchase them from sub contractors and put these parts in their own distinctive packaging.

At one time Caspian used to make the very best Plunger tube but now they no longer make them as they buy them from some other company and just package them for sale. The best Plunger tubes I can find are sold by Kimber, I do not know where they are made, they are very good and they are a MIM part.
I like a number of King parts and I buy them regularly. If I am fixing a $500.00 1911 pistol I can feel comfortable using a decent hard hammer and sear, but if I am making a $3500.00 custom 1911 pistol I must know what kind of steel the hammer and sear are made of, and the rockwell hardness in order to document the information on my paper work and maybe on the invoice. I must install the very best parts in one of my custom guns regardless if I make a little less money, its pride of workmanship.

Buying a high ride beavertail grip safety is not all gravy as they would have you believe. Sure your hand is up higher but unless you have a super long thumb you can not cock the gun with one hand, and to me that is very important. I am left handed and would carry a 1911 pistol with the hammer forward on a live round. If you have a 1911 with a beavertail, go ahead and try cocking it with one hand, see for yourself.

There are so many different frame and slide dimensions out there, not all generic parts will work well. Most frames and slides coming from foreign countries are metric, not all American parts fit very well. When buying some of these cheap MIM parts, and some are very good and very hard, I have no idea where they come from. They may be made in the US or Pakistan or India or Israel, etc.

This Commentary will have to be written in many segments as this topic is very involved. I am just covering some basics today and in future Volumes I will get into specific detail.
I suggest you print ALL my commentaries and put them in a loose leaf binder.

I bought Brown triggers on three separate occasions in the past 2 or 3 months and each time I received a totally different trigger, they were not even similar. I will no longer buy Brown triggers.

Its all about GOOD OLE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Again this is a very big business. After market parts is where the money is at, NOT GUNSMITHING.
I do not even believe you could find 2 or 3 different brands of straight spur hammers at this point in time because all the gun writers have convinced you that you need a slotted type hammer using a beavertail, its $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$......
You are being brainwashed to buy what the marketing strategists have advertised.
Titanium = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ "FAGHETABOUTIT"

In my high dollar custom 1911 pistols I like to use a very good C&S hammer and sear that I modify. They work very well with my modifications. I could not justify a $100.00 hammer in an in expensive 1911 street gun.

Walter Wolff has excellent music wire springs. ISMI has excellent chrome silicon wire spring for specific purposes.
I will discuss all this in detail soon as we proceed with this topic.
You can NOT just drop in triggers and parts in 1911 pistols and expect a super great trigger pull and a superb reliable street gun. DO NOT BELIEVE THE BS............... I wish it was that easy.
It really takes experience and expertise to refine a 1911 pistol in order to obtain a trigger pull that breaks like glass. The geometry is different in every frame. It should not be, but it is.
In a world of compromise I will not, Its not an option.

Teddy Jacobson
www.actionsbyt.com
281 277 4008
tjacobson@houston.rr.com
www.actionsbyt.blogspot.com/