doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com 1911 Christmas

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.

Pretty much no surface remained untouched that was Briley.






The slide got flat top cut and checkered 60 degree diamond pattern, 90 degree V cuts. I hadn't seen this pattern on a 1911 slide before.




Then I put a little French cut border on it just to set it off.

The beavertail grip safety was a dumpy looking U-shape from the top view.



I reshaped it to a more pleasing half elipse. The sides and grip area were mismatched and not blended at all. I blended all the surfaces so there were no steps and the grip felt smooth. Even the U formed between the grip safety and the frame was blended to a pleasing radius.

Well it got finished in time for Christmas. She was tickled that I spent the time to build this gun for her.

The frame, slide, barrel, full length guide rod, thumb and grip safeties, were all that remain factory. Although all have been modified, shaped, fitted, blended, etc., in some way.


The functional mods are: Dawson Precision fiber optic front and LPA rear sights, custom fitted barrel bushing, o/s slide stop, polished feed ramp, 30 degree crowned barrel, fitted/tuned EGW extractor, fitted o/s EGW firing pin stop, Cylinder & Slide Ultra Light tool steel ignition kit (hammer, sear, disconnector, sear spring and hammer spring), STI short trigger, OEM Springfield titanium firing pin, titanium hammer strut, titanium mainspring cap, Wilson extended magazine release, Wilson semi-extended slide stop,


The "gingerbread" mods include: checkered front grip strap, weld-on custom shaped magwell, flat topped slide with diamond checkering, reshaped thumb safeties for comfort, blended and reshaped factory beavertail grip safety, fully chamfered corners on the whole gun, custom thin grips with monogram in glitter, custom mixed purple metallic Cerokote on the frame, and black graphite Cerokote on the slide and controls. The purple metallic frame and glitter monogram grips are a bit of tongue-in-cheek fun after hearing my wife and another gal at the range talk about "girl guns" and equipment.


I did all the work except for the frame front grip strap checkering, which was done by Dave at Evolution Armory in New Hampshire, who stepped up to turn it around in short order to make it in time for Christmas.


In addition, she got a new custom made leather steel reinforced combat holster and mag carrier, their Gunsite Omega model from Davis Leather in Arizona, purple gun rug and range bag, and 4 extra Wilson ETM magazines. She made out pretty well this Christmas.

And because it's a gun first and foremost, I got it to shoot pretty well with the accuracy work I did, while still using the factory barrel. It'll shoot right there with my Gold Cups and my Wilson Combat Classic. These were done with the gun rested and an optical red dot sight installed to help my old eyes. I have confidence it would shoot well under an inch a 25 yards in a Ransom Rest.

Great tutorial, Chuck. I'm really glad you posted it. Great job on the '11. That's what I carry.

My wife and I went through those courses here in GA many years ago. I bought her a new pistol, just for her, earlier this year. She informed me last week that, after the holidays are over, she wants to go get her CCL and start carrying it.

All my best, SRH

Well thought out modifications, and executed with top shelf precision. Kudos

Well done, well done
I just finished up a Caspian framed 45 with a Kart National Match barrel and Kensight sights, sure is a shooter
Mike