Over twenty years ago, I found a good deal on a new Springfield Armory 1911 in .45 ACP. It is one of their mil-spec models with a parkerized finish. Out of the box, it had reasonable accuracy due to a reasonably tight frame to slide fit. I actually cherry-picked this pistol among a dozen or so pistols the gunshow vendor had on his table. On the third time it was fired, my younger brother managed to bulge the barrel with a bad reload. I can only guess that a squib lodged one bullet in the barrel before he followed up with a second shot. it took me quite a while to beat on both the pistol and my brother to figure out what happened. The stock barrel was ruined but every other part of the damaged pistol showed no damage and minimal wear.This pile of parts formed the basis of my newest 1911 project. A simple barrel replacement has grown into a full-fledged custom job. After all, there is a vast array of tools and high-quality parts that can improve the stock Springfield. It's hard not to get carried away! Of course, this availabilty is a little misleading for an inexperienced gunsmith. The 1911 design is difficult to fit and reliably accurize. It takes an extraordinary amount of patience, tooling, parts, and technical know-how to be successful. Still, this fact should not dissuade anyone from gaining the knowledge it takes to build or simply add custom touches to a 1911. A ruined part or two may be the price paid for gaining experience.
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