This past year, my wife and I have been taking some self-defense pistol shooting classes. The instructor is a crotchety old retired LEO and teaches LEOs around the country. Pretty well credentialed and seems to get to the point pretty quick. He's also a kidder. He's been riding me about giving my wife the second rate equipment, from guns to holsters through all the classes. He finally stopped the last class in the middle of a dueling tree firing session, took my Gold Cup NM 45 and gave it to my wife and gave me her Sig. She cleaned my clock with that Gold Cup.
So, I decided to build her a nice 1911 she could be proud of and shoot with the best custom guns. I decided to build her a "range gun", not necessarily for home defense. Then as it evolved, I built it to stay within the IDPA rules for ESP, just in case she got a bit more interested.
The gun started as a Springfield Armory Loaded Target 9mm stainless steel, 5" 1911. It came with adjustable sights, ambi thumb safety, beavertail grip safety and a ramped barrel.
Here's some pix along the path to completion.
First the magazine well. I shortened the frame and welded on a pre-machined plate from Briley.
