Springfield armory 1911-A1 upgrades????

[kpaul]

I love this site thank you all for posting..

I have had a springfield 1911-A1 for about 3 years. I wanted some advice on some good upgrades that i can do myself for under $300.00.
im new to this but i wanted to see if there was something that i could do to teach myself about this great gun?

thanks for all of your help.

[Iron_Colonel]

Originally Posted by kpaul

I love this site thank you all for posting..

I have had a springfield 1911-A1 for about 3 years. I wanted some advice on some good upgrades that i can do myself for under $300.00.
im new to this but i wanted to see if there was something that i could do to teach myself about this great gun?

thanks for all of your help.

Well I found some good parts that I bought at Cylinder and Slide. I think it was a 3.5# trigger. I could get all the parts in the gun, but once I got them in, the thumb safety wouldn't function. I wasn't up to par on doing work to the thumb safety, so I bought the parts and took it to a local guy at Olympic Arms. He did some good work for me. But if you don't already have a trigger and the trigger pull is heavy (mine was with the factory stuff in it), then you can't go wrong with Cylinder and Slide parts. He gave me a good deal on some of the other stuff he did I didn't know he was going to do, which was great. But I was about $230 after I bought the parts and he did $60 worth of labor.

If you don't want to spring for that much, and things you can do that shoudn't require much gunsmithing, if any at all, I would highly suggest a full length guide rod. Those are pretty much a dime-a-dozen and drop in normally with no modifications. I have one in my SA Mil-Spec. IMO, I really think it helps keep the slide function much smoother. The sprinig has a rod it rides on and isn't all "slinkied" up inside the gun with the normal spring plunger. You will be able to tell a difference by feel and sound of the spring if you installed one. And I bought some Hogue grips the rubber wrap-around with the finger grooves. If you don't have checkering on the front strap, or mainspring, I find them to be very comfortable. I think it helps to control recoil and the gun for quick follow up shots. So I'd say you'd be looking at maybe $20-30 for the grips, depending on where you get them, and maybe $20 or so for a guide rod.

If you have small hands you might go for an extended slide release. I bought one a while back from Oly Arms and it works fine in my SA. I just need to cut my grips down. I make my own grips, and I cut them short under the plunger tube on the left of the gun so the slide release doesn't hit it. And if you do have small hands and don't like the thumb safety, if you go for the trigger work have them install an extended thumb release. That little bit of extra leverage on the end of the thumb safety and slide release really (IMO) makes a HUGE difference and makes it so much easier to operate the gun's functions.

I also noticed you were a guest. You should register. All you need is a fancy name and password and its free! Looks like you're halfway there. That way you can post some pics of your gun, which I would be very happy to see, and be a full-timer here. Its a great site, I love it with very helpful people. Just wait, you'll see.

[tonystewartfan]

all I can say is don't fix it if it ain't broke.

[gandog56]

I thought that too until once I did break it. Double charge load (Yeah, all my fault) in my SA 1911A1 GI burst my barrel and trashed a mag. So I put in a Wilson Combat Match grade barrel and fitted bushing. My group sizes immediately halved. If I had known that, I would have had the Wilson stuff put in before I trashed it.

Of course, that also means I would have had to buy it twice.....DOH!