[tacticalhippie]

hello everyone im new here, and i have had a question burning in my mind about my new 1911 i purchased a couple weeks ago. i have been wanting to do quite a few upgrades mostly for long term reliability but also for accuracy enhancement and i would like your feedback on this.

heres my list of things i would like to have done to my gun

replace all working parts[sear,disco,extractor,ejector etc etc] with wilson combat bulletproof parts[for reliability]

very crisp trigger job with aftermarket trigger set between 3.5-4lbs.

novak tritium night sights

have the factory barrel hard fitted to the slide along with a hand fitted barrel bushing

so, with all of that said my question to all of you,is, if i was involved in a sd shootout and it was in fact a justified shooting, would i really have to worry about the mods i had done?[kansas is a extremely red state btw] the reason for the question is i live in a small town of maybe 12,000 people 1 hour north of wichita kansas called mcpherson. we have virtually no crime here, and there is almost no chance of having to even brandish my weapon let alone having to put a single round through someone hell bent on doing me bodily harm.

 

[Snub44]

...a decent defense lawyer would present the mods you did on your gun as for safety improvements and aids to your carefully and responsibly placing every shot...

 

[shadowwalker]

I am not sure what the point is when you can buy a 1911 with all that done, so with that said it will be a good shoot after all the facts are in. What the gun has done to it should not be the factor in the shooting remember its the person not the gun.

 

[CDW4ME]

Why didn't you just buy a Wilson if you are going to replace all the parts with Wilson?

3.5-4lb. trigger seems light for a carry pistol, IMO. (I am accustomed to Glocks with a NY trigger and I increased the pull on my 1911's)

Justified and negligent are different.

If you go to court you may win, but at what co$t if you give them anything to pursue.

Justice is blind, sometimes to logic.

 

[bmcgilvray]

Welcome to the Forum! Glad you're here!

If you can recognize a legal and moral shooting, then don't sweat either the firearm or it's ammunition.


I have a military Colt 1911, a military Remington Rand 1911A1, a 64 year-old Colt Government Model .45, and a Colt Gold Cup from 1979. None have combat bulletproof parts in them or special hand-fitting for reliability (though a couple may have see combat) and they've given trouble-free service and fine reliability over many years' time and thousands of rounds. The 95 year-old Colt 1911 has probably had the most rounds through it, just since I've had it, and it's proven to be reliable long term. Only the Gold Cup has become infrequently balky when shot extensively with dirty ammunition and it's tighter from the factory than the other three.

Customize your 1911 gun if you like but recognize it for the fun hobby it is rather than as a critical necessity to change parts and have all the hand-fitting before depending on a 1911 gun.

Which 1911 gun did you acquire? We love photos too!

 

[G-man*]

hello everyone im new here, and i have had a question burning in my mind about my new 1911 i purchased a couple weeks ago. i have been wanting to do quite a few upgrades mostly for long term reliability but also for accuracy enhancement and i would like your feedback on this.

heres my list of things i would like to have done to my gun

replace all working parts[sear,disco,extractor,ejector etc etc] with wilson combat bulletproof parts[for reliability]

very crisp trigger job with aftermarket trigger set between 3.5-4lbs.

novak tritium night sights

have the factory barrel hard fitted to the slide along with a hand fitted barrel bushing

so, with all of that said my question to all of you,is, if i was involved in a sd shootout and it was in fact a justified shooting, would i really have to worry about the mods i had done?[kansas is a extremely red state btw] the reason for the question is i live in a small town of maybe 12,000 people 1 hour north of wichita kansas called mcpherson. we have virtually no crime here, and there is almost no chance of having to even brandish my weapon let alone having to put a single round through someone hell bent on doing me bodily harm.

First welcome.

Secondly, STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you bought a good quality gun to begin with, leave it alone! More people screw up an otherwise decent gun by screwing with it.
Hang out and learn a little, pull back on the throttle and coast for a bit.

Why do you feel like you need to modify anything? How will it make it work better?

 

[wsquared]

Other than putting on tritium sights, a good quality 1911 that functions reliably needs NOTHING to make it a first-rate defensive carry gun. In a self-defense situation, the cheapest and least accurate pistol that you can buy today is going to be far more accurate than 98% of shooters. Maybe spend the money on a training course, and then ammo to practice what the course covered.

 

[tacticalhippie]

thank you all for welcoming me to the forum, i look forward to doing more reading and learning. to cdw4me, trust me, if i could afford a $2000 1911 i would buy it in a heartbeat, however, i cant, so i picked up a para g.i. expert esp and up til now,has been flawless, i have a disconnector that i think is out of spec[the gun will dry fire while the slide is just out of battery]. to bmcgilvray, im extremely jealous, i already want to purchase another 1911 lol. the reason i specified w.c bulletproof parts is there superior strength and longevity which, at least from what ive read, 1911s CAN be high maintenance weapons and the bulletproof internals i hope will reduce the maint. of the weapon to some degree[i.e. things like extractors losing tension etc] and not only that but it should help smooth the gun out some also. i view 1911s like i view ar's, there barbies for men

 

[USM1976]

hello everyone im new here, and i have had a question burning in my mind about my new 1911 i purchased a couple weeks ago. i have been wanting to do quite a few upgrades mostly for long term reliability but also for accuracy enhancement and i would like your feedback on this.

heres my list of things i would like to have done to my gun

replace all working parts[sear,disco,extractor,ejector etc etc] with wilson combat bulletproof parts[for reliability]

very crisp trigger job with aftermarket trigger set between 3.5-4lbs.

novak tritium night sights

have the factory barrel hard fitted to the slide along with a hand fitted barrel bushing

so, with all of that said my question to all of you,is, if i was involved in a sd shootout and it was in fact a justified shooting, would i really have to worry about the mods i had done?[kansas is a extremely red state btw] the reason for the question is i live in a small town of maybe 12,000 people 1 hour north of wichita kansas called mcpherson. we have virtually no crime here, and there is almost no chance of having to even brandish my weapon let alone having to put a single round through someone hell bent on doing me bodily harm.

First, why mess with a firearm that's already working fine except for night sights. If you're going to do all of these mods why not purchase it already completed.

From personal experience if you're involved in a justified shooting, who cares what modifications you have made to your handgun. Most police officers, who carried 1911s back in the day, had modifications made to their 1911s. I know I did. Throated and ramp polished and night sights. Not one time did it make a difference before a grand jury.

Welcome to the forum...from Texas.

 

[high pockets]

Welcome to the forum! :wave:

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Never heard of bulletproof pistol parts.

If there is something wrong with the disconnector, send it back to Para. If you start modifying your pistol, it's all your dollars if something goes wrong.

 

[matthew03]

Are you doing this part swapping yourself? What kind of gunsmithing experience do you have? You stated your Para has been flawless, for how many rounds? You do realize that drop in parts do require fitting right? If my pistol was flawless I would celebrate that and not change a thing. When you mention 1911's being high maintenance that is because people try to home smith on them and cause them to be so in most of the instances I've seen. Practice, practice, practice, practice on the range and dry fire at home, practice drawing from concealment and get some training from a professional, study law and self defense; this will serve you far more than customizing your carry gun.

 

[XD9rottie]

My 2 cents.

Don't buy expensive guns for the street.

A robber stopped by a $400 gun is just as stopped as he would have been had you shot him with a $1400 gun.

Even if you have the "perfect shoot", your not going to get your $2000 pistol handed back to you right away. Heck you should expect to never see it again.

My advice; "get yourself a glock and loose that nickel plated sissy pistol. " (actually I'm partial to Springfield XD's)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Old_Dog]

I never understand why people ask this question. If you are allowed to use deadly force you can use a chain saw. The weapon does not matter if the deadly force was legal. A prosecutor can bring up anything, even the fact that you got into a fight with your girlfriend that day. Just one of many issues you defense attorney has to answer. The bigger concern is where you will get the money to defend yourself. The NRA estimates an average cost of about $70K for a proper defense.

What is even worse is if the prosecutor does not rule it a self defense shooting but merely refuses to press charges. They sometimes do that because it can take a year or more to do all the investigation that needs to be done in a busy office. Then you have to worry for at least the next 7 years or so if the shooting was not fatal and your whole life if it was fatal. Of course you can hire an attorney to force the issue and go broke doing so. Right now a few mods to your gun sounds like no big deal I bet. I spent $30K just to get my name off of a lawsuit where everyone that had anything to do with the case was named as a plaintiff. Imagine if I had to go to court.

 

[Sap03]

I would Sell that Para if you want to modify it that much. Take that money and put it towards the pistol that has your specs already.

 

[bmcgilvray]

Don't be jealous of me. There are some real 1911 aficionados here on the Forum and many have real high-dollar, high-quality pistols. Here's only one of them: http://www.defensivecarry.com/forum...vorite-owb-leather-holster-3.html#post2736200 Check out post No. 43. That ol' dude knows a thing or two about 1911s too!

At least you're willing to admit to that view that 1911s and ARs can be like Barbies for men. Embrace the pistol and enjoy it and doing things to make it uniquely your own. Just be careful to avoid monkeying around with things that aren't broken and keep the Dremel tools, files, vices, and hammers away from your pistol at all costs. Recognize that there's a huge cottage industry out there ready to suck money out of your wallet in order to provided you with gobs of high-priced 1911 stuff you weren't aware you needed or that the gun really may not need.

"The reason i specified w.c bulletproof parts is there superior strength and longevity which, at least from what ive read, 1911s CAN be high maintenance weapons and the bulletproof internals i hope will reduce the maint. of the weapon to some degree."

One reads of high-maintenance but that isn't necessarily so despite what we read. High-maintenance isn't required with a good 1911.

I've never modified or customized a 1911. In 35 years of shooting 1911s, I've probably fired somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 rounds through them. Used to handload .45 ACP in 1200 round batches using cast bullets, put up in a canvas bank coin bag, kept right on the floor in front of one leg of my loading bench for easy access. A similar bag held .38 Special and was in front of the leg on the other end. Adds stability to the bench you know. Went through a couple of bags of .45 ACP per year for some years, tapering off in more recent times, only to begin shooting .45 a bit more again in the past couple of years.

A whole lot of that .45 shooting was initially done with the World War I Colt as it was the only .45 automatic I had until about 1981 or 1982 when the Gold Cup was acquired.

Since 1978 I've kept the 1911s cleaned and lubricated and changed out recoil springs fairly regularly but not to any schedule other than when the notion struck me. High maintenance? It's been conspicuous by its absence. The pistols have all given reliable function and perfect satisfaction. A few years back the front sight turned up missing on my first old 1911 gun. Just fell off somewhere at the range and went AWOL. After nearly 90 years at the time! Had to install another. It's surprisingly difficult to find correct World War I type front sights.

No other component parts have ever needed work or replacement and they aren't special aftermarket, enhanced durability parts either.

Now the Gold Cup is a factory tuned pistol originally made to appeal to the competitive bulls-eye shooter. It has some additional attention give to it's parts and assembly. This does translate to useable measure of accuracy. It also makes the Gold Cup just a little more finicky. My Gold Cup doesn't appreciate being fed large quantities of cast lead SWCS at a single sitting as the bullet lube can begin to gum it up. It really doesn't like the Wolf brand factory ammunition, at least that produced back in about 2007.

I only dabble in 1911s. Glockman's had some experience with them over the years and he's re-adopted them as worthy of his shooting skills. He knows his pistols too when it comes to 1911s.

 

[OD*]

If it ain't broke, fix it until it is.

 

[bmcgilvray]

Show off! You say in under ten words what I rambled on half the evening to say.

 

[JoePfeiffer]

I'm surprised that you'll be able to make those modifications and save money -- it's pretty rare that modifications *ever* end up cheaper than buying something set up like you want it in the first place -- with firearms or anything else!

The worry with firearm mods and self defense is a prosecutor or a plaintiff's attorney trying to get you to admit you might not have meant to pull the trigger, which would suddenly turn justified self defense into negligent homicide (or so I'm told -- IANAL). Mods that didn't affect the trigger wouldn't be an issue.

sent using CPIP (see RFC 1149)

 

[Crowman]

A justified shooting is just that....... No matter what modifications were done/or not done to the weapon........

 

[OD*]

Show off! You say in under ten words what I rambled on half the evening to say.

I have to be that way, lousy typist and spellur. :wink: