SALLY (1911 BUILD)

[Guest Halfpint]

This is what happens when you have a 1911 project that you know you'll have to refinish...

The one on the left is a pistol I'm building for my dad for Christmas. The one on the right, almost invisible, is a modified Springfield GI frame (mine) with an Operator slide, borrowed from the shop for the night to mock up my other build. I'll post pics of the other build in its own thread.

Anyway, COD Black Ops promo pic aside, here are the rest of the pics (and the parts list) of my dad's Christmas present.

Frame: Caspian Arms Ltd / Foster Industries

Trigger: Cylinder & Slide, short adjustable, matte silver

Magazine catch: Ed Brown, extended

Thumb safety: Ed Brown, extended, single-side

Sear/disconnector: GI-spec

Hammer: Swenson Commander-style

Mainspring housing: Ed Brown "Chainlink" with lanyard loop

Grip safety: GI-spec

Slide release: GI-spec

Pins: Cylinder & Slide

Springs: Wolff

Grips: Kimber, rosewood with US Army logo

Slide: WWII-era Colt, factory engraved "MODEL 1911A1 US ARMY"

Sights: Novak cut, Wilson Combat

All upper-half internals are GI-spec.

The sights are the only thing I don't like about this build, but I got the slide already assembled. I still have some fitting to do on the trigger and magazine release. I can't decide whether to keep it simple and parkerize the whole pistol when I get done, or spend a little extra and go with something like Armor-Tuff or Perma-Kote. Both of those look much better to me, and they'll hold up a lot longer with a lot less maintenance.

A bit of background on my dad... he served in the Army (11th ACR) in Viet Nam from early '68 to late '69 after finishing college at Texas A&M with a degree in agriculture. Went in as a buck private, spent most of his first year walking point, and got selected as a copilot/radioman/naviguesser/door-gunner on a Loach (LOH, Light Observation Helicopter) where he was basically an aerial scout. The M16 didn't fit in the cockpit very well, so he ditched it for an M3 Grease Gun and a metric ton of magazines. He stuck with his 1911 through it all, and he hasn't owned/had/shot one since his time in service. He picked up Sergeant by the end of his second tour, earned 2 Purple Hearts and I'm sure a handful more decorations; his first wife decided to keep all of those when they got a divorce. He won't talk about the decorations he earned, just says that I'll see them when he's gone. He's more proud of his Sergeant's stripes than anything I've seen, except for MY Lance Corporal's stripe.

I've learned more from him than I could ever express about life, hard work, friendships and love, and anything else I could ever hope to know, and I feel like it's only right that the first 1911 I build be a gift to him.

Once I've finished fitting everything and had the whole thing refinished, I'll post more pics.

[Defender]

Beautiful gun. The National Arcjives has a pretty simple way to request copies of records, including records associated with decorations and the Medals themselve, all online. Your dad would have to sign the paper, but all you do is go to eVetRecs: Request Copies of Veterans Military Personnel Records thne click on evetrecs, then fill out the online form, submit it electronically, then print out the signature page, have him sign it, then fax the signature page back to them. Depending on the difficulty in locating his records, you could receive the documents as soon as a week or so. I use this for many of my clients, and it works. For deceased veterans, the next of kin can do the same thing. The old way of manually filling out and mailing the request typically took months to process.

[Guest Grout]

I like the KISS aproach you are taking with this gun but the rear sight just looks "odd" a high profile blade rear would look much better

[Guest Halfpint]

The plan is to put a better rear on it, I just don't know which one to go with just yet. Going to finish fitting everything this week/weekend, send it off next weekend to have it parkerized. I'll post more pics when it's actually DONE and in the presentation case.

[tsmith]

You gotta put the dashes on it . I think theres 7.

there are 8, and pretty sweet!