newbie with a 1911?

[madtownrob]

hey all! kinda new to 1911's, and i'm looking into building one. first time on this forum, so take it eazy on the new guy, hehe;). i went down to ft. benning for a tdy, and i met a guy that built 1911's. he got my interest into building 'em. now, i know my own limitations and i do not want to jump into a 1500+ doller race gun. what i would like to build is a plane-jane 1911 a1 govenment spec gun, preferably outta parts from those "sarco" grab-bags.

about how complicated is a 1911 build? while not a complete gunsmith guru, i can reasonably work with a dremmel tool and i can read scematics pretty well. will there be any gunsmith-specific steps needed, or can i essentially build one like a model airplane (relativly few parts fitting)? would you recommend any books/dvd's to help me along in the process? thanks all, i appreciate it

-never had a ol' slabside. just a para-ord LDA, but its not quite the same thing. i'd buy one of the cheapies from... the philipines, i think? but i think it would be more fun as a home-built gun. thats the case with most things

take care and god bless

-madtownrob

[Rich-D]

I can shoot them well, but other than a hearty welcome I'll leave the building advice to the experts who will surely be along to assist you.

[John]

First of all, go lock the Dremel in some closet. Then give the key to your wife/girlfriend and tell her not to give it back to you until she gets our permission. Then go ahead and start building the pistol.

How hard it is? Well, I wouldn't jump in building one, before having one to play with and study. So my suggestion is to get a cost-effective 1911 first. Start playing with it, study how it works, figure out the interaction of the various parts and their roles (most parts play more than one role in a 1911) and then, when you are completely familiar with the pistol, you can start building your own. If you go the other way, I am afraid you might end up with a large bill for both parts and the unavoidable gunsmith work which will follow.

[twin oaks]

There's a huge amount of info on this site, and it's a great place to start. John's absolutely right about getting one to familarize yourself with the pistol.
As far as 'how complicated is it . .. ' : If you're going to the 'smith up there in Columbus, GA, that I'm thinking of, just as him. And ask what he charges. That should be a good indicator. Depending on what kind of parts you get in a 'grab bag' you may have to do a lot of fitting ( barrel to slide, barrel link, barrel bushing to slide to barrel, trigger to trigger group, sear to hammer, safeties, extractor tuning . . .this is taking too long) Check out the thread about "1911 checklist". That should tell you what kind of things to look at. I'm far from new to the 1911, but I've been browsing this site for a few months now, still accumulating enough knowledge to build.
Welcome to the forum and good luck.

[OD*]

I have to agree with John and TO, learn as much as you can about the 1911 first.

[niemi24s]

Welcome to the forum. John's advise about having a 1911 of your own to play with and study is excellent. It makes the learning go quicker.

Consider the option of buying the absolutely worst-built and least reliable 1911 you can find: trigger feels like pulling on a concrete block; sounds like a can of sparkplugs when you shake it; won't reliably feed any type of ammo; fails to feed & go to battery about 25% of the time with a hard 3-point jam; fails to feed another 25% of the time because the round nosedives in the magazine and stops dead on the feed ramp; ejects most brass into your gaping mouth (gaping in amazement that you got it to feed); slide occasionally locks open with a few rounds left in the magazine; shoots a pattern 2-handed from sandbags at 25 yards that can't quite be covered with a trash can lid.

A gun like this, if you can find one, should be lots easier on the pocketbook and make the learning go LOTS quicker! Cheers.

[pdoppenheim]

Be careful of the beater. Nemi has a good suggestion for you, but.... Be sure that metal has not been removed from the frame where it meets the throat of the barrel. There should be a sharp edge there. This metal removal happens too much, along with too much polishing of the throat of the barrel. If the frame or barrel are too ground down, you will not be able to save the gun. At that point you are adding metal which is something even many smiths would like to avoid. The point here would be to let a smith you trust look the gun over before you buy it to make sure you're getting a workable platform.

Building a beater is much easier than building a race gun. The looser a 1911 is fitted, the easier it is to make it work because the inter-relationship between parts becomes less critical.

You can buy a used Armscore for about $300 if you watch the ads at auction arms, gunbroker or gunsamerica. Also our very own market here at this site. If you buy individual parts, it will probably cost you more than that.

Most important, since you're using words like TDY and Ft. Benning I'll make an assumption and say, from the heart, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.

[Joni Lynn]

Welcome to the forum. There's already some good advice here so I won't repeat it.
The RIA 1911's run well and would be good to buy for the reasons stated as well as other reasons.
Thanks for your service!

[BigO]

John has given you sound advice , Take it !

One thing , and this is just an opinion from reading on gun forums , when it comes time to make your build skip the Sarco Parts kits .

From what I have read their quality of parts is spotty at best and the money you spend on parts from quality manufactires such as Wilson and Brown will save you money and frustration in the long run what will be well worth it .

[Quasi Moto]

Yeah go with quality parts at least. If you are putting the effort into the project yourself at least you should feel confident in your parts and not regret supply choices.

[Bullauge]

I didn't think I'd want to build one, but once I owned one I knew I had to! I'm in the process of building one right now with plans for another. Be careful! It's addictive!

Starting out with a cheap 1911 to familiar yourself with the inner workings is excellent advice. There should be little to no need for a gunsmith for the build as long as you don't require any milling or welding. You can do the coatings yourself, but it might turn out better if it is done by a pro. This forum will be a tremendous help in your journey.

Welcome aboard!

[Sidtek]

Welcome madtownrob. Good advice so far. The beater suggestion is good for economics but I'd rather have a gun that I know works correctly to begin with to study. I built one with an Essex frame and the Sarco builders kit. The only parts left on the gun from Sarco are the (Brazilian mil surplus)slide and their "Rotoforged" barrel. You'd be much further ahead to spend a lot of time reading here and in print publications to get a feel of what "good" parts you want to use and then only have to spend the money once. Another option you might want to consider first is to get something like a Springfield mil spec and start customizing it with good drop in parts. You'll end up with a personalized gun and gain some good guntinkering skills to boot. Then tackle a build. You'll want more than one 1911 anyway:)

[Bill Hale]

madtownrob,
Welcome to the site!
The advice given so far is excellent! As an example of what not to do: I bought my first 1911 a number of years ago and jumped in with both feet and a dremel tool. All I had for a guide were books by Wilson and Halleck. After ruining a barrel, bushing, slide, frame, sear and hammer I learned a little about 1911's. It's not that a 1911 is all that complicated (I eventually learned a little) it's that there is a lot of wrong info out there.
So, I'd suggest an RIA/Armscor pistol to start. New or used. Shoot it. Shoot it some more. Then ask yourself:"What does it need?". Buy Kuhnhausen's(sp?) books. Explore this site, many of the members are professionals(not me) and share their experience freely. Then you'll have an idea of what you need to do and how to do it.
And obtw, 1911's are addictive. Bet you can't own just one.