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Lucky Luke wrote:Thank you for the "educated" thought and not smoking me for carrying a 1911. Well, there's nothing wrong with my NEW Kimber. I guess I'm like the guy who REALLY loves to own a H1 Hummer but can't pay for one and goes and buys a H3!!!! So, that's how my story of "upgrading" started!

Late to reply, but I wouldn't "smoke" anyone for doing what I myself quite often do! I certainly do understand the desire to "upgrade" one's equipment; it's how a bone-stock Springfield Champion "G.I." got turned into a "semi-custom" gun over a period of very careful learning and tinkering. I started it because I'm a lefty and the gun only had a right-side safety mounted, and went from there. Over time (and a couple of incidents where my screwups made it choke at the range ), I got it more-or-less where I wanted it. It now wears a flat mainspring housing, ambidextrous Wilson safety lever, extended slide release, and has had a "buff and polish" job done to the internals, but I kept the original sear, hammer, and disconnect. I briefly swapped the trigger out for a longer one with overtravel screw, but rather quickly found that the screw had a nasty habit of "backing in" and completely locking up the trigger, so it's got the original back in it now. Currently, it's in my carry rotation, for the days I feel "modern" and don't want to carry a revolver. The "buff and polish" did reduce perceived trigger weight, but honestly, that was something I did very carefully, and probably got lucky with, as at the time I had absolutely no business doing that with the level of experience and tools I (didn't) have.

As I -have- had the gun disassembled to its component parts, and I -have- done some (careful) Dremel "custom-work" to it, I'm the last person to ever say "never do that," but I can tell you it's not as simple as it may seem, even for such a simply designed gun as a 1911. More so, I can and do advise against swapping out parts for others perceived as "better," absent any specific goals for the swap. If it ain't broken, and the new parts won't improve function, don't change 'em. I learned that with my trigger "upgrade." I'm very fortunate I didn't screw up anything else.

One other consideration, if you do ANY work on your guns yourself. Don't ever sell them. If you DID screw it up, and it malfunctions later on, that's a liability you do NOT want! My "customized" 1911 won't ever be sold, due to what I've done to it. Any resale value the gun might once have had, write it off. If you want to retain saleability, have a gunsmith do the work.

gljjt wrote:

Pawpaw wrote:

gljjt wrote:Reading this makes me think I wouldn't want to own a 1911. This makes it sound like "1911 parts" are not interchangeable, perhaps even unsafe. I don't own one, kind of wanted to get one, but now I am not so sure. I want to shoot and enjoy, not become a gunsmith via OJT. Thoughts?

They're not unsafe unless someone makes them that way.

The 1911 has been incrementally changed from JMB's original design. As designed, you could detail strip 100 pistols, scramble the parts, and reassemble 100 safe and reliable pistols with very good "combat accuracy".

With the quest for precision (although precious few can truly take advantage of it), has come the practice of making many parts slightly over-sized so they can be hand fitted to more precise tolerances. Today, even entry-level 1911s use hand fitted parts, particularly in the fire control group.

Thanks. I know they are safe "stock out the door", but if tinkering around with parts that require "hand fitting" could potentially make them unsafe (I don't see how), that would not be good. This is what the OP stated as far as safety. Sounds like they are "almost/mostly" interchangeable as far are internal parts go. I would still like to have one, but wouldn't use it for CC. I like my 9mm Glocks.

If you round the edges on the sear while fitting it, or get the angle of the sear and the hammer hooks wrong, the sear can trip unintentionally, among other things.

The point is not that this is a failing of the 1911, because it isn't. The point is that, like a muscle car, you can "fine-tune" a 1911 to your precise requirements, but it's not as easy as working on a tractor, and you can damage it more easily if you don't know what you're doing. If you don't tinker with Ford's design, a Mustang will still run quite well, and be rather reliable, but if you attempt to supercharge it yourself without knowing what you're doing, you can break it. It's like that.

Oh, and yes, you can make a Glock choke and fail. I've had two that liked to jam on me, and they weren't modified in any way.

Would you upgrade your new Kimber with Wilson Combat parts? Like, hammer, sear, trigger, springs?

Not unless there was some issue or problem with them. Keep in mind that new parts are likely going to require careful fitting, especially things like the sear and hammer. Out of the box, the Wilson Combat parts might not even work properly, or at all. I fitted an ambidextrous safety to a 1911 several years ago, doing the work myself. It took a couple hours of very careful fitting and polishing, as the Wilson safety was deliberately oversized on the internal lug, to allow for such fitting. Springs are an easier matter to change out; just make sure you've got the right weight for the ammo you're using if you mess with the recoil spring. I wouldn't mess with the sear spring or the hammer spring; unless they break, there's no reason to swap them out.

Unless you are trying to lighten the trigger, provide a customization toward a specific purpose (like my ambi safety), or are experiencing some part-related failure, I would actually recommend -against- replacing internal parts. I "got away" with kludging it together myself, but it's really the job of a competent gunsmith to fit these things, as you're working with some very small bearing surfaces on the sear and hammer hooks, surfaces that require precise angles for proper function. "Getting it wrong" can go -very- wrong indeed, resulting in everything from a gun that won't fire to a gun that will go off if bumped the wrong way.

People like to badmouth the metal-injection molded parts (MIM parts), but unless you mess with them, they serve quite well. People also like to "customize" their guns, and this keeps gunsmiths in business fixing it.