Okay, so a week ago, i had never owned a 1911 (unless you count a Para LDA which most don't). In fact, i had never even extensively handled one.

In the last week i have been reading everything i could find, and have slowly learned everything i could about how a 1911 works.

So here's what i did.

First, i started by disassembling the slide... pretty standard stuff... no more difficult than a Glock. I put everything back together, and tested for function. No problems, this was day 1


Day two. I pulled the slide assembly off, and removed the Mainspring Housing... then i took out the sear spring, and shined a light into the "stuff" (at this point that's all i knew to call it). I examined everything as closely as i could while looking at pictures and diagrams online. When i went to put everything back in, and put the MSH back in, i had my first full on OH [censored] moment. The hammer wasn't working... Hammer follow pure and simple... no sear engagement... nothing... I took it apart 7 times, looked at every diagram i could find, and put it back in over and over... somehow, without knowing (at this point) what i did differently, it just worked on the 7th try. I was done for the night... period. That damn sure put a damper on my tinkering.

Day three-five, i left it alone, and read EVERYTHING i could get my hands on, looked at diagrams, trued to understand HOW things worked. Didn't take ANYTHING apart.

Day six, i tried again.. stripped it down to the same point as last time, still having NO idea why it wasn't working before. This took a lot of "guts" (reads stupidity), as I wasn't sure i could get it back together. 5 minutes later, I couldn't get it to work... took me 2 full hours to figure out that the far left leaf had to go OVER the sear, not UNDER it. *DUMBASS* . At this point i continued to strip everything, took out the hammer, sear, disconnect, and was stopped short of taking out the trigger because i didn't have the right allen wrench to remove the safety.

Day 7 *today* Started out thoroughly knowing how to break the gun down... good start... took everything apart down to the bear frame, pulled out the trigger, and got a good look at it for the first time.
At this point, the trigger had been "decent" but had a good bit of takeup, and a touch more overtravel than i liked. I adjusted the overtravel screw, and adjusted the takeup, put everything back together and Viola! the trigger was a TON better, and i actually know how to fully strip my gun... now to test fire it... 1 round... 2 rounds... 3 rounds... no full auto? WOOOT!

w00t!! Sounds like you enjoy taking stuff apart. I do to but I have had some bad experiences getting in over my head with pistol dissassembly. Post a pic of your 1911

pic'll go up tonight after work

for the record, there were some "casualties"

on day 6 i managed to break my left side of the Ambi-safety trying to figure out how to get it apart... no harm, as kimber is sending me a new one out completely free, along with a new MSH assembly (mine had a minor flaw from the factory) and a new factory sear spring.

I LOVE taking apart insanely complex things, and putting them back together with minor improvements... i never feel like i truly OWN something until i have it broken all the way down to tiny pieces, and then put back together

Sounds like you suffer from the tinkerer's curse as well. The feeling of getting something back together and improving it makes up for the anguish of the three times it didn't work after you were done.

the first time I completely stripped my 1911 It worked. ha lucky I guess, or maybe its just cause Im good at that kind of stuff.

Next upgrade...polish the feed-ramp.



Then I would true the action rails...




Then lastly, you need to add every oversized device available for a 1911...because you may not know what it does, but you need it.

If you get sweaty hands while shooting you could try your hand at checkering the front strap...

My front strap came checkered from the factory-in stainless no less. I've got a Para Ordnance all stainless.

I would like to change to a beveled mag. well, and also to add an arched main-spring housing (in stainless) of course to better fit my hand. Anyone know if these require any fitting, or if you just swap them out? Sorry to hi-jack your thread but it is 1911 related, and maybe now you'll want to change those things on your gun as well....?

Kawabuggy, i have a Para Colonel LDA highcap that i absolutely LOVE.

If your para is a standard para (non-LDA), you can use a single piece to do both. Have a look at the following link.

http://www.smithandalexander.com/guides.html
It'll look like this



*P.S. I sent you a pm about a week back, and never got a reply. Have a look and shoot me a message.

That's a sharp looking pistol! Is that a matte finish, or sand blasted??? Mine is polished. I do like the mag well on your gun. Can I ask where you got it?

Sorry I have not replied back. My inbox is full because I had some guns listed a while back and got a bunch of messages in about them. I'll update my inbox and reply to you as I really would like to have that mag well/MSH.. My gun is a single stack though. Do they make them like yours for a single stack????

no worries on the pm issue. Shoot me a PM when you see this. Maybe we can get together to kill some piggies. I have a new NV weapon scope that i wanna try out.

The gun above is not mine. That's a pic of the thing you're looking for it's at the link i posted above the pic. If you follow that link, you'll find the one that's for your actual gun.

My gun has the same finish as the gun in that pic. It's a bead blasted matte nickel finish.

Well not boring to me. I am a gun nut and love to read such reports. Good job!