Talking to my Gunsmith

The Biter

My favorite local gunsmith specializes in 1911's. This is the guy that did the excellent custom hammer work for me on The Biter.

It was a slow day in the shop so we were hanging out talking, drinking coffee, petting the cutest pit bull in the known universe.

I was looking for some thin grips and maybe a new trigger. Conversation came around to how he came to specialize in 1911s. His answer surprised me, "1911s are the perfect storm. They are expensive and need a lot of gun smithing to sort out their bugs." He continued, "The design is a hundred years old, we learned a lot in that hundred years. The mag design alone is awful. Even Jeff Cooper would bitch about their capacity and reliability now. What the F&%k, it's been a hundred years."

That was the point when coffee blasted out my nose. But he didn't stop.

Referring to my compact 1911, "People still love em though. This little guy you have will jam at least once every hundred rounds, I'd bet money." He's right. "It weighs a ton. This mechanical design should have a longer slide run. They just made it shorter. No design optimization. They left that to the smiths."

He said, "I Love 1911's,and people that get nostalgic guns that make me a ton of cash.  Average 1911 owner will spend about $2000 on a 1911 between initial cost and smithing. Even then they will still be picky about ammo. Me? I'll carry a gun that can be shot 10,000 times without cleaning, with no modifications."
 
I peeked. He carries an HK 45.

--I still like my 1911. But I only have about $410 into it total so far.