My muse told me to get off my lazy butt, so it’s time to share my 1911 project gun.

My project is a .45 ACP 1911 with a chrome Colt Series 80 slide, a Caspian frame, a 1990s vintage Aimpoint, Colt grips, and a 20 plus pound recoil spring.  The recoil and main springs are so stiff that the former owner converted remnants of a Chevy gas pedal into a slide racker, just to be able to chamber a round.  Each time I refer to this little beast as a Frankengun, I could swear it snipes back at me, “it’s pronounced Fron-kon-gunn.”

After SHOT Show 2011, Mz. VRWC decided she absolutely needed a 9mm Rock Island Armory 1911 Tactical so she could continue shooting USPSA matches while her Production class gun went in for a doctor visit.  Suddenly, I feared that I would need to learn a lot more about working on guns derived from John Moses Browning’s most famous design.

A nearby gun store in Mesa just happened to have a 9mm RIA in stock, as well as a rough, vintage looking, 1911 race gun.  I don’t think I actually said, “hold my beer and watch this” out loud, but somewhere inside, a voice did say, “you can learn all about making a 1911 run with that one”.  The Frankengun just kept staring at me with that sad mournful look that usually haunts people in pet stores and animal shelters.

After trading the store (that I borrowed the photo from) a few dollars and the Taurus Judge previously won at a Friends of NRA dinner, Mz. VRWC had a budget 1911 for Single Stack competition and I had a “new” used gun.  More precisely, I had a new project.

When this project is finished, I should have a fun .45 for shooting steel, or a pile of scrap metal.   Follow along as I go through the gun in the coming weeks and see what’s inside Frankengun.