The Twenty-Year Pistol... .450 SMC 1911 Longslide

[Diamondback]

As I alluded to in the Welcome thread, I have this 1911 project I've been working on for many years that some of the old-timers from Way Back in the early days of internet gun forums might remember. It's seen a lot of changes to specs over the years as selected parts have gone in and out of production, but it's finally in the "hardware" stage. Right now the pieces live in anti-moisture bags due to the humid Northwet air.

The original concept was a reinforced-to-Kuhnhausen-principles matched pair of 7" Longslides in .450 SMC, uniquely optimized based on my own findings as a left-handed shooter. I had found that as a southpaw I can work the slide and mag releases with my trigger finger, further enforcing "off trigger when not firing," so the first draft had a Smith & Alexander ambi mag catch to avoid the Randall Portsider problems, and moved to a dual-plunger-tube design with slide release and safety on opposite sides, plus moving the ejection system to the "outboard" side. (Imagine a Portsider slide/barrel/ejector on a standard 1911 frame.)

First problem, insurmountable: Nobody offers a frame or slide beefed up to the "Optimal Performance Spec" Kuhnhausen proposed in his 1911 shop manuals. Okay, standard it is.

Second problem, 7" slides died with AMT. Okay, down to 6".

Next problem: No left-hander parts suppliers anymore. Now we're getting problematic... I can go to full ambi controls but that "left hand left eject/right hand right eject" is kinda important--my visual acuity is better in the lateral near-peripheral than dead ahead, call it 10-15 degrees either side, so getting the brass up and out of my line of sight quick matters.

Okay, so now we're down to a pair of 6" full-ambis. Next problem: Smith & Alexander folds with no alternate for ambi mag catches, and I can't find a source for ambi slide releases either. At this point the projet gets set aside and back-burnered beyond monitoring state of the industry for parts availability should any of the unavailable "keystones" reenter play.

A few years ago Fusion relaunches 7" slides. AND when I contact them they're willing to work with me on the custom radius cut I've specced for this project. BONUS! (I call it a "Short Cut," it's cut to the same depth from muzzle as a 5" - a traditional Longslide is stretched before the radius, this has the extra inches after for more muzzle-end weight.)

Last year: Washington State announces that stripped frames join pistols and semiauto rifles requiring registration and waiting period starting Jan 1 2024. Downsized to a single pistol, it's Go Time, NOW! Also, last year saw a finishing change... my girlfriend is adamant that if she's going to fight with the nuisance of inheriting the thing (assuming Canada ever gets their head out of their collective butt and repeals Turd's handgun ban) it has to be not jut functional but beautiful too. Goodbye Parkerizing and Bakelite grips*, hello two-tone stainless/hard-chrome and dark metallic teal with faux-pearl grips - she's a "retro" person, so the inspiration was the classic pop-culture portrayal of a '57 Bel Air. (This scheme was designed because a writer friend asked me to spec a pistol for one of her characters, with marching orders that "it needs to be classic and powerful, but elegant... a pistol befitting the kind of woman who an evening with her could with equal ease lead to the best night of your life or the last... or both.")**
*My overriding philosophy on this was to craft a pistol my late Uncle Frank would have easily recognized as an improved versions of ones from WWII, and that if he had to go back to 1944 and kill Nazis for Patton again and I sent this 1911 back with him it would see his old boss asking "who built this for you, and how fast can he make enough for all of Third Army?"
**Don't look at me, I didn't create the circus of weird that seems to have assembled itself around me, I just try to keep the clowns from turning themselves into lion snacks or elephant toejam.

So, where we are now. The frame assembly is almost complete except...

• Trigger - looking for a GI-type, but in polished stainless or hardchrome.
• Ignition Group - Harrison HD-130-TR (woulda preferred a longer spur hammer, but heav-duty is more important
• Ejector - Too much conflicting info; per Fernando Coelho Super and SMC need a longer ejector but didn't specify how much, some other experts recommend stick with Gov't

Top-end assembly is going to have to be done in phases due to tight budget. (YOU try the weak cashflows of freelance research and live-in care sometime!) By the time all is said and done, the 7" slide will cost more than a complete Colt LE6920 on police trade-in, so I'm thinking start out with just having the slide hardchromed and suppressor-height iron sights, then add the cut for the optic and the fancy finish later.

A rough-cut rendering showing the planned two-tone finish and custom radius on a 6" Longslide:


Test-fit with most frame components:


With my old duty sidearm, showin just how much of a monster a 7" 1911 really is even incomplete:


So much crap to do before I can even THINK about next batch of parts...

[alfsauve]

Just, Wow.

[Diamondback]

Details...

Frame: Caspian Classic with Clark/Para ramp cut - Caspian was one of the first of many companies who lent technical advice, and the broad range of suppliers is my way of trying to say "thank you" to each of them.
Pins and springs: Wilson Combat, with 23# mainspring
Ambi safety: Wilson Combat
Grips: Pachmayr
Mainspring Housing: EGW
Slide Release: EGW or Wilson, need to check which
Grip safety: Colt stainless, in process of hand-polishing from factory matte
Ignition System: will be Harrison Design HD-130-TR
Barrel: Fusion 7" with Clark/Para ramp and fully supported chamber
Recoil System: will be Fusion 7" with 20lb recoil spring
Slide: will be Fusion 7", with special radius cut as noted
FP Stop: EGW heavy-duty
Optic Cut for Phase 2: uncertain
Optic for Phase 2: Aimpoint ACRO P-2 or similar - need a weatherproof system with WA rain that soaks even triple-layer clothing

Finishing: After whatever hard-chrome needs doing is done, my first choice is to steer this part of the job to Dana Morgan at Black Hammer Arms - I have no idea how the heck I'm gonna get to his shop, but he's always been first at-bat testifying against the latest Good Idea Fairy-fueled gun-grabbing idiocy in Olympia and I think it's important to support businesses that actually SHOW UP to fight for us rather than just pay lip service in "buy our stuff" emails.

Testing: Once I've proven the thing safe with my own function-check fires, a friend of a friend who rated Expert on the 1911 in his Marine days has expressed interest in doing benchmark shoots to see what it can really do. I fully expect that *I'm* going to be the weak link in the performance chain, and I expect he won't be as subject to "system held back by limits of operator" as I am. We're going to be doing this in two stages, the first with "plain vanilla" .45ACP then escalating to SMC for the second phase. (Overall usage, the plan is the SMC for "In Case of Emergency" war-loads, with the steady diet being regular ACP +P.) Yes, .450 SMC is "a lot of gun" for that use, but even ACP +P is "a lot of round" and by beefing it up for the magnum boomers it should be able to eat +P with a comfortable safety margin as long as the springs are replaced at proper intervals.

[Big Frank]

The longslide image with the custom slide looks great, not like the odd look of most longslides. The "pimp grips" are okay as long as you don't carry them in combat.   General Patton wouldn't approve.

I haven't used any Harrison Designs parts but have looked at their parts and tools in the past. https://www.harrisoncustom.com/

I can't remember what I have by EGW but I like them. https://egwguns.com/

I don't know anything about Fusion but will be checking them out. All the others are old familiar companies, except Black Hammer Arms.

[Diamondback]

Frank, Black Hammer is a local Puget Sound-area gunsmith and refinisher. Not exactly a national player. I really wanted a longer-spur trigger, but the Harrison was the only spur-type in stainless or other silvertone metallic I could find. I had *wanted* a Caspian slide too, but they don't offer 7" and wouldn't do my custom cut.

Pearl grips are part of the concession to the girlfriend. Were we necro'ing Uncle Frank and sending him back to be the tip of Patton's spear three days ahead of the front line again, the one I' send back with him would be rocking Bakelite or walnut for sure, and a "war gun" I'd want to have a lower visibility finish--this thing is meant to make sure that EVERYBODY clearly knows it's there and can clearly see whether it's on-safe or ready to fire (hence the stainless controls on dark frame), in the finest Texas "BBQ Gun" tradition.

[Sponsor]

[Big Frank]

There's nothing wrong with a good BBQ gun. And I like it more than I wanted to admit. 

[Diamondback]

There's nothing wrong with a good BBQ gun. And I like it more than I wanted to admit. 

Yeah, me too. I'm a professional historian usually "All WWII All The Time"--even looking for recipes to replicate issue C- and K-rations!*--but for a finish originally conceived for a "lady's gun," it's grown on several people.
*Big fan of hands-on learning, and one of my lesson plan ideas if I get into academia is to announce to the class that I'm buying them all lunch: a series of tasting courses from Civil War hardtack, repro C-rations, MCI's and modern MRE's, and then afterward their assignment is to write a compare-and-contrast paper about feeding the troops across the ages.

[Big Frank]

Thankfully, I've never had to eat anything pre-MCI, but I would try hardtack. After I get my current dental mess fixed. I lost 2 teeth this month and have to wait until next month to get the roots removed. I don't think they're infected but I was sick today.

[Rastus]

All I can say is to echo Alf and say "WOW".  That is quite a project and thanks for sharing. 

I really like, in addition to just the overall project description, your detail on from where the parts have originated.