Little things. Attention to detail that so many manufacturers have either failed to notice or decided to ignore for the sake of cost cutting...or maybe a matter of feeling that blueprint specs are suggestions.
The sear and hammer pins aren't supposed to fit flush with the frame. They're supposed to stand proud by .003 inch to prevent the thumb safety from marring the frame, and to minimize friction.
The slidestop should have a small fillet at the junction of the arm and the crosspin to hold the stop arm .003 inch away from the frame, for the same reason.
The plunger spring is supposed to have a light kink to keep it in the tube when the thumb safety is removed.
The recoil spring plug should have a punch cut near the front so that it can be threaded onto the open end of the spring to prevent loss. Likewise, the closed end of the spring should be crimped to fit tightly onto the spring guide so that in the event that control is lost during disassembly and reassembly, the recoil system remains in the gun.
In its original guise, the 1911 pistol can be completely disassembled with no tools other than its own parts...excluding the sights, the ejector, the plunger tube, and the grip screw bushings.
The much-maligned original small pad on the thumb safety leaves a flat area directly over the crosspin to provide a flat striking surface for removing the mainspring housing pin. The gun is its own tool box, and the thumb safety is the key that opens it.
The grip screw slots are sized to match the thickness of a case rim, and the slots are dished in the bottom to match the rim's radius so that the screws can be removed with a cartridge case.
A fired case can be substituted for the recoil spring plug as an expedient means of keeping the pistol in operation should the plug become lost or damaged.
The toe of the original magazine can be sharpened to fashion a crude cutting tool without compromising its function as a magazine.
The fixed lanyard loop can be used in conjunction with a partly inserted magazine to pry the cap off a bottle. Note that for this to work, the loop must be correctly angled. Few reproduction mainspring housings with loops are properly angled.
With the slide locked open, the front of the spring/dust cover can be likewise used as a bottle opener.
Browning had a penchant for designing a part to perform multiple functions. The slidestop is the epitome' of that. It functions as a slidestop...it's a slide lock...It's a slide release...it's a cam to get the barrel into the slide...it's an anchor for the link to get the barrel out of the slide. Five functions with one simple part.
The extractor functions as its own spring. It's also sized for use as a scrape to get crud, dirt, and congealed grease and oil out of the frame and slide rail ways as well as the lug recesses in the slide and the frame's trigger channel.
The oiled hardwood stocks can be used as tinder to start a fire without compromising the pistol's function as a weapon. At the time, hard rubber stocks were in common use, and were faster, cheaper, and easier to manufacture than hardwood stocks.
This was essentially a contract. As with any contracted item, cost of production was an important consideration.
The thumb safety...aka "Manual, slide locking safety" was added as a final modification on request of the US Cavalry...not for cocked and locked carry...but for hasty reholstering when the mounted trooper found himself fighting to hang onto a frightened, unruly horse.
The original captive half-cock notch was intended to be used as a safety and is referred to as such in the original 1910 patents...before the thumb safety was added.
The "locked" part of cocked and locked refers to the slide...not any part of the lockwork. It was to prevent pushing the slide out of battery, and...under harsh battlefield conditions and/or neglect...possibly not returning to battery when the pistol was redrawn.
The pistol can't be fired far enough out of battery to blow the gun up by pulling the trigger. It's mechanically impossible, and the disconnect has nothing to do with it. That's not the function of the disconnect anyway. The top of the disconnect can be filed flush with the frame, and the pistol still can't be fired far enough out of battery to cause a kaboom. Can't.
The ear at the top of the left side grip panel partly covers and supports the plunger tube at the bottom to prevent repeated engaging and disengaging of the safety from loosening it...and on the outside to keep it tightly pressed against the frame in the event that it does become loose. This is a function that I rarely see on modern grip panels. If the ear is present, it doesn't tightly contact the plunger tube. This, in spite of the fact that a correctly prepped and staked steel tube rarely loosened.
Next: Instruction for the no-tool detail strip.
The sear and hammer pins aren't supposed to fit flush with the frame. They're supposed to stand proud by .003 inch to prevent the thumb safety from marring the frame, and to minimize friction.
The slidestop should have a small fillet at the junction of the arm and the crosspin to hold the stop arm .003 inch away from the frame, for the same reason.
The plunger spring is supposed to have a light kink to keep it in the tube when the thumb safety is removed.
The recoil spring plug should have a punch cut near the front so that it can be threaded onto the open end of the spring to prevent loss. Likewise, the closed end of the spring should be crimped to fit tightly onto the spring guide so that in the event that control is lost during disassembly and reassembly, the recoil system remains in the gun.
In its original guise, the 1911 pistol can be completely disassembled with no tools other than its own parts...excluding the sights, the ejector, the plunger tube, and the grip screw bushings.
The much-maligned original small pad on the thumb safety leaves a flat area directly over the crosspin to provide a flat striking surface for removing the mainspring housing pin. The gun is its own tool box, and the thumb safety is the key that opens it.
The grip screw slots are sized to match the thickness of a case rim, and the slots are dished in the bottom to match the rim's radius so that the screws can be removed with a cartridge case.
A fired case can be substituted for the recoil spring plug as an expedient means of keeping the pistol in operation should the plug become lost or damaged.
The toe of the original magazine can be sharpened to fashion a crude cutting tool without compromising its function as a magazine.
The fixed lanyard loop can be used in conjunction with a partly inserted magazine to pry the cap off a bottle. Note that for this to work, the loop must be correctly angled. Few reproduction mainspring housings with loops are properly angled.
With the slide locked open, the front of the spring/dust cover can be likewise used as a bottle opener.
Browning had a penchant for designing a part to perform multiple functions. The slidestop is the epitome' of that. It functions as a slidestop...it's a slide lock...It's a slide release...it's a cam to get the barrel into the slide...it's an anchor for the link to get the barrel out of the slide. Five functions with one simple part.
The extractor functions as its own spring. It's also sized for use as a scrape to get crud, dirt, and congealed grease and oil out of the frame and slide rail ways as well as the lug recesses in the slide and the frame's trigger channel.
The oiled hardwood stocks can be used as tinder to start a fire without compromising the pistol's function as a weapon. At the time, hard rubber stocks were in common use, and were faster, cheaper, and easier to manufacture than hardwood stocks.
This was essentially a contract. As with any contracted item, cost of production was an important consideration.
The thumb safety...aka "Manual, slide locking safety" was added as a final modification on request of the US Cavalry...not for cocked and locked carry...but for hasty reholstering when the mounted trooper found himself fighting to hang onto a frightened, unruly horse.
The original captive half-cock notch was intended to be used as a safety and is referred to as such in the original 1910 patents...before the thumb safety was added.
The "locked" part of cocked and locked refers to the slide...not any part of the lockwork. It was to prevent pushing the slide out of battery, and...under harsh battlefield conditions and/or neglect...possibly not returning to battery when the pistol was redrawn.
The pistol can't be fired far enough out of battery to blow the gun up by pulling the trigger. It's mechanically impossible, and the disconnect has nothing to do with it. That's not the function of the disconnect anyway. The top of the disconnect can be filed flush with the frame, and the pistol still can't be fired far enough out of battery to cause a kaboom. Can't.
The ear at the top of the left side grip panel partly covers and supports the plunger tube at the bottom to prevent repeated engaging and disengaging of the safety from loosening it...and on the outside to keep it tightly pressed against the frame in the event that it does become loose. This is a function that I rarely see on modern grip panels. If the ear is present, it doesn't tightly contact the plunger tube. This, in spite of the fact that a correctly prepped and staked steel tube rarely loosened.
Next: Instruction for the no-tool detail strip.
