Front Sight, Press

The 1911 pistol is not the only good gun in the world, nor is it perfect. There are other good guns in the world. For me personally, there is no other gun that provides the enjoyment, inspires the confidence, or shoots as well in my hand as the M1911. The following is one of the reasons that I love the 1911 so.

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I have been doing an in-depth evaluation of a Rock Island Armory M1911A1. I subjected it to a series of torture tests which it came through with flying colors. When that time of not cleaning it and trying to make it jam was finished, I detail stripped it down to the smallest part, so that no part remained connected to another. My purpose was to examine the internal parts for quality and fit and to do the basic “fluff and buff” on the gun to smooth the action and enhance reliability (which wasn’t really an issue on this gun, but I wanted to do it anyway).

Once I had the pistol reduced to a box of parts, it dawned on me that there was not a single part that was unfamiliar. I could look at the jumble of little pieces of metal and know precisely the function each had in the mechanism and where it fit. The only other type of gun that I can do this with is Smith & Wesson revolvers, but I’m not near as sure of myself on them. The familiarity was comforting. If this gun breaks, I can fix it. If it malfunctions, I know where to look for remedies. With most other autoloaders, I would have to go to a gunsmith.

Once the gun was taken apart, my mission was to examine parts for quality and to smooth moving surfaces. My tools were simple: some oddly shaped whetstones, a set of fine fitter’s files, brass pin punches and my fingertips. My eyes are pretty good, but not as sharp as they used to be and I find that I can often tell more about an interface by feeling it with my fingers. Using the sense of touch, the rough spots are immediately revealed. Working very gently, I cleaned and polished the moving surfaces, and finished them up with a light coat of Mil-Comm. I didn’t change out any parts or do any other modifications on this operation. There are a few parts that I want to change out, but I’ll save that for another time.

Then, without a manual or other reference, I put the gun back together, did the safety checks, and it was ready to head out to the range for a pleasant afternoon of shooting. This is one of the things I love about the 1911: I know it like the back of my hand.