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For two months I’ve been learning everything there is to know about the 1911, and the time had finally came for me to put one together, with an 80% frame.
First, a bit of financial breakdown on building your own 1911, the cost is actually quite attractive:
80% frame – $140
Slide – $120
Barrel – $140
Other parts – $300 (don’t want to skimp on some parts such as the slide stop)
If I can build a gun that rivals a $1800 gun for $680, then that would be fantastic. Although all the gun smithing parts come to more than a thousand dollars already, and let’s not factor in the cost of my CNC mill and lathe… at the end, none of the cost analysis matters because I just want to get my hands greasy.
Putting together a 1911 is actually very straight forward. The difficulty all lies in getting the parts to fit *just right*.
First was cutting the slide - It's easy to cut to the right dimensions, but after that comes hours of hand-fitting to get everything just right.
Second most time consuming part was fitting the barrel. *I thought 90% of the work was fitting the barrel hood, but turns out the lock grooves were not fitting perfectly (of course) and that took more hours to discover and fine tune.
After that, the rest was a cake walk. *Polishing the hammer and sear were a joy, while smoothing out the trigger is kind of a pain just because how hard it is to reach inside the receiver at times.
All in all, the experience taught me a lot, and the results were quite rewarding.
Two guns were built - one with the slide from my RIA 9mm TACT2, and the other is a 45 caliber with a slide from Blackthrone Products.
Admittedly I messed up on the barrel to slide fit on the 9mm build, so I don't expect great accuracy with that gun, while my second gun, the 45ACP, holds less mistakes and a tight barrel fit.
Range report - day 1
I couldn't wait to shoot my 45ACP 1911. *It was late in the day when I finished so I rushed to the indoor range to see what it can do:
The left are the groups by the 45, right are from the 1911. *These are shot standing, with factory ammo, so I was pretty excited with the promise that the 45 caliber 1911 holds.
Range report - day 2
Hand loaded 50 rounds with N320 and Nosler 185gr bullets. Though it was raining, the range was still open, so I went and did some bench shooting.
The big disappointment today was that all my hand load sucked. *The recommended load on the Nosler website didn't work for me at all! *I thought the day was over, but then I remembered the good results I have with the Magtech factory ammo...
On a bench with a 6x scope, I could get groups as tight as 0.7". *That's a relief!
The 9mm cycles perfectly (probably because the barrel is ramped) but the 45ACP would jam 10% of the time, but that can be troubleshot and fixed. *Hoping that one day I'll get even better results with hand loads!
For two months I’ve been learning everything there is to know about the 1911, and the time had finally came for me to put one together, with an 80% frame.
First, a bit of financial breakdown on building your own 1911, the cost is actually quite attractive:
80% frame – $140
Slide – $120
Barrel – $140
Other parts – $300 (don’t want to skimp on some parts such as the slide stop)
If I can build a gun that rivals a $1800 gun for $680, then that would be fantastic. Although all the gun smithing parts come to more than a thousand dollars already, and let’s not factor in the cost of my CNC mill and lathe… at the end, none of the cost analysis matters because I just want to get my hands greasy.
Putting together a 1911 is actually very straight forward. The difficulty all lies in getting the parts to fit *just right*.
First was cutting the slide - It's easy to cut to the right dimensions, but after that comes hours of hand-fitting to get everything just right.
Second most time consuming part was fitting the barrel. *I thought 90% of the work was fitting the barrel hood, but turns out the lock grooves were not fitting perfectly (of course) and that took more hours to discover and fine tune.
After that, the rest was a cake walk. *Polishing the hammer and sear were a joy, while smoothing out the trigger is kind of a pain just because how hard it is to reach inside the receiver at times.
All in all, the experience taught me a lot, and the results were quite rewarding.
Two guns were built - one with the slide from my RIA 9mm TACT2, and the other is a 45 caliber with a slide from Blackthrone Products.
Admittedly I messed up on the barrel to slide fit on the 9mm build, so I don't expect great accuracy with that gun, while my second gun, the 45ACP, holds less mistakes and a tight barrel fit.
Range report - day 1
I couldn't wait to shoot my 45ACP 1911. *It was late in the day when I finished so I rushed to the indoor range to see what it can do:
The left are the groups by the 45, right are from the 1911. *These are shot standing, with factory ammo, so I was pretty excited with the promise that the 45 caliber 1911 holds.
Range report - day 2
Hand loaded 50 rounds with N320 and Nosler 185gr bullets. Though it was raining, the range was still open, so I went and did some bench shooting.
The big disappointment today was that all my hand load sucked. *The recommended load on the Nosler website didn't work for me at all! *I thought the day was over, but then I remembered the good results I have with the Magtech factory ammo...
On a bench with a 6x scope, I could get groups as tight as 0.7". *That's a relief!
The 9mm cycles perfectly (probably because the barrel is ramped) but the 45ACP would jam 10% of the time, but that can be troubleshot and fixed. *Hoping that one day I'll get even better results with hand loads!
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