Going through my safe doing some cleaning. My 1911s have been on shelf for quite awhile and I decided to do a complete strip and clean.
While I marvel at the design, I’ve been spoiled by P22x’s [0,5,6), Glocks and revolvers.
My old manhole cover GSR with sharkfin grip safety was first up. Good God there was some crap built up in there!
When I’m done with the clean, lube and re-assembly the Gold Cup Trophy is next on the list. It will be nice when I’m done!!

While the 1911 is not as easy to clean, there is just something amazing at how the parts fit together. Browning did an amazing job but yeah, they are no fun to clean comparatively.

People often tout the fact that a Glock can be detail stripped with just a punch. The same is true for a 1911 (except the grip screws). Its an amazing design...very intricate yet so simple.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
People often tout the fact that a Glock can be detail stripped with just a punch. The same is true for a 1911 (except the grip screws).

The USGI M1911 and M1911A1 grip screws were designed to be able to be unscrewed using a .45 ACP case rim, and the rest of the pistol can be fully disassembled using the pistol's hammer strut as a punch and the sear spring as a screwdriver.

Thus you could fully disassemble a M1911/M1911A1 without any additional tools (not even a punch), using only the pistol itself and its ammo.

Even a Glock can't do that.

This is a great thread. I have detail stripped and backyard gunsmithed nearly every platform I’ve ever owned to sone degree. Except for the 1911.

Many reasons for it but I just never have. That video makes me want to pull one apart.

Maybe I won’t start with my Dan Wessons or Colt but one of my bargain capture Springfield’s. Especially my Emissary which absolutely keeps choking on steel cased ammo so it’s pissing me off. I hate intolerant guns. And plastic triggers. This thread may be my excuse to swap out that retarded plastic trigger. (feel free to suggest better triggers for this project)

I think it’s extremely cool that it can be done with zero tools. I did not realize that.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
I hate intolerant guns. And plastic triggers. This thread may be my excuse to swap out that retarded plastic trigger. (feel free to suggest better triggers for this project)

I don't necessarily have a recommendation, but note that it will require some fitting since they typically come oversized (Which you want, so that you can get a perfect fit).

Also note that "lightweight triggers" for 1911s aren't just a gimmick. I learned this the hard way when I swapped the one with holes in it from my Springfield Loaded (I got sick of having the clean them out and didn't like the way they looked) for a solid one, that naturally weighed more. Coupled with my "tuned" sear spring, when I dropped the slide on an empty chamber there was enough mass in that trigger to allow it to bounce the hammer off the sear and land on the half-cock notch. This isn't something you want...kinda unsafe and it can trash your finely tuned sear/hammer engagement surface. I had to add quite a bit of tension back into the sear spring to get it back to the point where it wouldn't do that, which results in a heavier trigger pull.

All that to say, if the gun came from the factory with a plastic trigger it's probably tuned for it, so you'll want to take that into consideration and check for hammer follow/trigger bounce if you swap another one in. All that stuff works together as part of a balanced system. I got myself in a little bit of trouble by not knowing what I didn't know.

Damn, he makes it look easy. I once detail stripped a 1911 and it took for-f**king-ever to get the sear/disconnector/spring/safety back together right. I nearly gave up and took a box of parts to a `smith, but finally prevailed. I've never done that again since. The 1911 is my favorite pistol to shoot, but damn!