The Firearms Forum banner

Just a thought.

4K views 34 replies 12 participants last post by  Meroh 
#1 ·
With all the 1911 competition parts out there, the 1911 is the Chevy big block of guns.

P.S. I have had five 1911's over the years, and every one I built up from parts.

Aim small. Hit small./M. Gibson/The Patriot
 
#4 · (Edited)
The last one I built was a stripped Colt frame from a small gun shop in Illinois that I think still advertises in Shot Gun News. Try Brownells. Stay away from Essex (I had one and the frame cracked where the pin that holds the ejector.)and Norinco which is inferior Chines made steel. Plus with Brownells you can get all the hot rod parts. But in the end you will have spent almost as much as Kimber, but you will have put it together and have better under standing of the gun.

If you can get a Kart, "Easy Fit" barrel, that makes the job a lot easier.

If at possible try to find a IMI MN slide. My last build was with one of those and that is one tough slide. also the rail is over sized and grove is under sized so it has to be fitted to the frame for as minimum tolerance fit.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I have built one from an Essex frame and I have owned 3 Norincos. I have been happy with all of them.

If the Norinco steel is so bad why did Wilson list it on their list of different manufacturers they would build from?

I have seen quotes like this several times.
I worked for a shop that did custom 1911 work and we built up some Norincos and they are very well made from some really hard steel. The slides were almost as hard as a file. I never used a mill on one but I could definitely see how it would eat bits up. The frames and slides held nice tight tolerances as far as fit. The barrels were hard chromed inside and out and were very easy to clean. And I personally have several Springfields that have Norinco parts on them that were taken from guns the owners wanted stuffed with Wilson Combat parts and didn't want the old parts back. Norinco made some VERY nicely checkered mag releases and nice slide stops. If you find a good deal on one that hasn't been Bubba'd, snatch it. Even though they were made by forced prison labor in Chicom they were as good as anything that came out of the Colt plant (and better than some I worked on).
 
#8 ·
A friend of mine has a Norinco that I tightened up the frame to slide fit and with in 100 rounds it shot its self loose again. Also all the dimensions are in metric. Norinco use non certified recycled steel. If it was a Polytech maybe. The barrel link hole in the frame is so low that to get the barrel to lock up properly I had to add a longer link. Now the firing pin hits the primer .010" low. With out adding a longer link the gun was unlocking before the bullet left the barrel.

I would rather buy from an American manufacture. China gets to much of my money all ready.
 
#14 · (Edited)
My Essex frame cracked at the pin hole for the ejector retainer pin and the crack went up into the frame rail. I was using Wolf recoil springs and slide buffers.

Back in the 1990's when the big shooting sport was IPSC, none of the race gun builders would use ether of those two brands. You would get laughed at if asked build up a Essex or Norinco.
 
#15 ·
Norinco may be cheap in price. But that's about all.
Years ago a customer brought in a Norinco in to my shop and asked for some custom work.
Being a big Colt fan and a solid fan of " if it ain't built in North America , it ain't worth working on" I told him I would not work on a Norinco because they are junk and if he wanted me to work on it he would have to prove me wrong.
Well he brought me a metallurgy report (that I verified to make sure it was real) on the Norinco 1911 and it surpassed the quality of the average WW2 Colt 1911-A1.
With fewer and fewer old Colts around , I now refuse to modify an old Colt.
And will only work on Norinco 1911s because they can be had up here for $350 NIB. Canadian dollars or about $250 US.
 
#16 ·
I do not claim to be an expert on the 1911, but I have built five over the years and ever new build shot better then the last because of what I learned from the last build. My last build has over 3000 rounds of +P hand loads through it and at 100 yards off a bench off sand bags it will shoot 2.5" groups on a good day from me.
 
#19 ·
I used to have several books on how to build/tune the 1911 but lost them along with the rest of my library in flood back 2014. One was Bill Wilson but I cant remember the other three.

I sure if you do a Google search for "1911 build/tuning books" you should find something that could help you.
 
#27 ·
Love the fnx .45! Would love to get my hands on one to shoot at the range. How do you like the handling on it?
It's a great gun! I don't have many rounds through it given I'm more of a rifle guy but it shoots great, and accurate. I've wanted one for many years. I looked at the comparable HK model but hated the trigger in it. I was close though in buying another FN 5.7..... I miss that gun but this one is just as solid!
 
#28 ·
Thats great to hear! have you consider of mounting a Trijicon RMR and/or Osprey Suppressor to that FNX? I've seen a lot of videos of people using that set up and I think it looks sexy! Also love the FN 5.7!
 
#33 ·
Norinco may be cheap in price. But that's about all.
Years ago a customer brought in a Norinco in to my shop and asked for some custom work.
Being a big Colt fan and a solid fan of " if it ain't built in North America , it ain't worth working on" I told him I would not work on a Norinco because they are junk and if he wanted me to work on it he would have to prove me wrong.
Well he brought me a metallurgy report (that I verified to make sure it was real) on the Norinco 1911 and it surpassed the quality of the average WW2 Colt 1911-A1.
With fewer and fewer old Colts around , I now refuse to modify an old Colt.
And will only work on Norinco 1911s because they can be had up here for $350 NIB. Canadian dollars or about $250 US.
Another Canadian!
I had a distributor tell me this past week that CZ dealers buy their guns to supply parts to their CZ customers; because CZ provides very poor support to them and their warranty centers.

Norinco, on the other hand, has been great the few times I needed something; a rifle issue was exchanged over the counter, and a poorly made sight was dropped in the mail the same day I called them about the defective one. No complaints here.
 
#34 ·
Norinco pistols have always been desired by the big guys for custom pistols, there has not to my knowledge been a time when their steel was soft. As for Essex, which I do not believe is still in production after their last move, I have built at least twenty pistols on their frames with great success. The very early frames (40 years ago?) had to be carefully fitted but those made later the parts dropped in and only the rails required fitting. Many thousands of rounds have gone through Essex 1911’s that I built not counting my Essex/ Ace .22 LR combination.
 
#35 ·
Norinco pistols have always been desired by the big guys for custom pistols, there has not to my knowledge been a time when their steel was soft. As for Essex, which I do not believe is still in production after their last move, I have built at least twenty pistols on their frames with great success. The very early frames (40 years ago?) had to be carefully fitted but those made later the parts dropped in and only the rails required fitting. Many thousands of rounds have gone through Essex 1911's that I built not counting my Essex/ Ace .22 LR combination.
Fit and finish on the new ones is quite nice. I had the tip of the ejector break off on my NZ85B today; the distributor will send me a new on, but in the mean time I reworked it and it is functional again, but it too was very hard... super-hard needle and diamond files barely cut the steel but I got it done!
Line Black Grey Composite material Wire
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top