1911 A1 ACCURACY IMPROVEMENTS MOST BANG FOR THE BUCK

[northern hunter]

Hey guys whats the best products to get your 1911 to shoot great with out swapping the barrel?whats the most bang for your buck to get good results?
thanks for your help.

[Dusty Miller]

If it has a barrel bushing, take it to a gunsmith and have him make a perfect fit between the barrel and the bushing. 

[Savage]

Like Dusty said, a fitted bushing should improve the accuracy of your pistol. The most helpful thing I've found is a good shooting coach. Probably 99% of handguns, shoot better than 90% of shooters right out of the box!
Savage

[Lloyd Smale]

HANDS DOWN a trigger job! If your going to go through all the hastle of fitting a new bushing id replace the barrel with a good one while your at it.

[canon6]

The solutions the others have offered are all correct,if it is anew gun my advise is to shoot the snot out of it,THEN look to the new barrel bushing, sights, trigger and most of all the loose nut behind the trigger , nothing absolutely nothing makes for better pistol work than practice      my2c   Doug

[Questor]

I defer to Mikey on this, but he has posted a recommendation for what I believe is a Les Brown drop in barrel. You may want to search for posts by him in this forum using "drop in" or "drop" as a keyword.  For me, a trigger job is very important. Next come good sights. After that, things that affect the inherent accuracy of the gun.  These mods can be done in phases as budget allows.

[Mikey]

Questor:  How ya been???  How's Quester???  That's an Ed Brown barrel - drop in.  Comes with bushing, link and link pin assembled. 

northern hunter:  I have to agree with all these folks and a number of them have way more experience with the 1911 than I do.  But definately a trigger job and fitted busing will help greatly.  One other thing is to have the barrel properly fitted to the slide - this ensures consistency from shot to shot.  The slide or barrel or both may have some burrs or roughness on the bands and grooves just in front of the chamber - getting the barrel to fit there, properly, helps greatly with accuracy.

However, as canon6 said:  shoot the snot out of it first and then see what needs to be done.  I finally did this with my full size Springfield - went and got a new barrel, etc., to get it to shoot on target and then, after shooting the snot out of it, put the old barrel and slide back on after working the burrs and roughness out of the barrel bands and dog gone if she didn't shoot like a dream.  Shoulda, hadda, oughta done that first.............  Mikey.

[Heavy C]

A trigger job all the way and shooting a lot.  I nice crisp trigger pull is always nice.

[IMshooter]

In addition to a fitted barrel bushing and a trigger job, my recommendation would be to take up Bullseye competition.  You will become a better shot than you ever dreamed possible.

[44 Man]

I recently aquired a SS Colt Combat Commander that someone before me installed a Bar-Sto barrel into.  Despite it needing a trigger job, it is the most accurate 1911 I have ever owned.  If you are getting so-so groups (and it is not your shooting technic) then I would advise sending your gun to someone who knows what they are doing and getting a trigger job and a properly fitted barrel.  44 Man

[williamlayton]

Well, this is something one can sink his/her teeth into and, well, er -- $$$$$$$ not pennies.
Why fix it if it is not wrong, I guess is a good question to begin with.
Parts changing can be trading a good working part for a poor one--if you don't know what you are searching for----seems I have done this thing before  .
The relationship with a good smith should be cherished. One you can talk too. One that understands and will listen too what you are saying.
If it is a bulls eye gun it needs one thing---maybe if it is a game gun it needs something else.
Bushings are good things--if they are needed. Springs, firing pins, mag releases--sights-depending on the purpose.
Tight fitting--get a Les Bauer and be finished. Matter of fact I have almost come to the conclusion that one of these from Bauer, Brown, Wilson, etc can be less expensive--in the long run--than the build-up of a Colt, STI, etc . I guess that is dependent on your own personal bent and your own personal skill.
It is my own experience that there is hardly a drop-in part made and my experience is that my skill level is somewhere down on the making a spear point from flint and having too live off the results .
Blessings

[Dee]

Hey guys whats the best products to get your 1911 to shoot great with out swapping the barrel?whats the most bang for your buck to get good results?
thanks for your help.

Having built many 1911s over the years and tuned more for what a customer wanted, I can tell you the key to consistancy in the accuracy dept. concerning a 1911, is get the pistol to lock up into battery exactly the same every time. There is some conjecture on how to do this, but an 18 lb spring is a big help, and I personally prefer a spring guide rod also, and unless shooting light loads, should cause no reliablity problems, in fact it is what is in my carry gun. After that, a longer barrel link, and slide to frame fit.
Unless you are competent, I would start with the strong spring and see if you get any change in groups. The only real test can be a ransom rest, but if you have a pattern rather than a group, to begin with, a change could be noticed. The spring change is in-expensive, and can be informative.

[rbwillnj]

Northern Hunter,

You never did say which 1911 you have, or just how bad the accuracy is with your gun. 

Truth is that most newer 1911s will shoot a 1"-3" group at 25 yards.  So if your not keeping them in the black, then the best thing you can do to improve accuracy is practice, practice, practice, and practice some more.  Once you can keep um in the black, you can start worrying about all the above modifications.

If your having a tough time keeping them in the black, I'd go with the trigger job first.  Not because it makes the gun any more accurate, but because it makes your job a lot easier

[jakes10mm]

I have to agree with Dee's comments about mechanical lock up and consistency.  Personally, I have found the barrel bushing and slide release to be easy areas to gain accuracy.  I use EGW parts as they offer several options in OD/ID for their bushings.  A little polishing of the closest bushing to the OD of your barrel and ID of your slide and your in business for keeping the front of the barrel in the same place shot after shot.  EGW also offers an oversized Slide Release which has its pin at max OD (.200").  This gives you more contact with the barrel link and improves the consistency of lock up on the backside of the barrel.  I was taught to check barrel lock up by pressing down on the barrel through the ejection port...if it moves you have slop in the link and lock up to the slide lugs; Grab the slide and see if you can feel any slop in the barrel-to-bushing and/or bushing-to-slide.  Trigger jobs are nice, but I start with mechanical lock-up unless the 1911 has a really bad trigger to start with.     

By the way, each of the EGW parts cost about $20.  So, you can get quite a bang for $40.

[IMshooter]

Speaking of EGW parts, they offer an oversize firing pin stop that can drastically reduce the amount of muzzle flip during recoil.  This part comes with the bottom edge at a sharp 90 degrees instead of rounded as is normal with drop in parts.  After fitting the firing pin stop to the slide, one just breaks that sharp edge.  The end result will make the gun recoil with more back force than up force.  The downside is the slide is harder to pull back when the hammer is down.

I think I saw this tidbit of info on the Bullseye forum.  It does indeed improve one's follow up shots.  Brownells carries the part and I think is costs about $15.

[1911crazy]

I installed a new national match barrel bushing in my well used norinco.  It tightened up the bushing to slide fit too I had to fit that too.  I removed some material on the front upper section of the barrel bushing on the ID bore.  And on the rear lower section of the ID bore just enough till the barrel can hinge down and go into full battery without having barrel spring. While my slide fit is very loose the 1911 gurus here told me thats ok its the barrel bushing fit that counts for accuracy in the 1911.

1.  IAI National Match Barrel Bushing from CDNN Investments  ($12)
2.  Full Length Guide Rod with an #18 recoil spring  from Sportsmans guide ($10) sale
3.  New 45acp barrel from sportsmans guide  ($59)

After fitting the bushing/barrel to the slide we went off to the range with my nork.  It performed perfectly without a jam or stovepipe.  We ran 250rds thru it.  I noticed my target at 25yds had shot three cloverleafs 3 times in it on the first outing.  I took my son shooting with his new girlfriend and they both had a 3 shot cloverleaf on there targets too.  For beginners to shoot cloverleafs too I must have fitted the barrel bushing correctly.

[Jim n Iowa]

Maybe I missed this as I am just now chiming in. Polishing the throat and a trigger job helped me the most. I had a smith in the Dakotas cut out the port, change the sites, and put in a 2lb trigger, and polish the throat. I still had feeding problems with other than ball ammo. Rich in south Iowa tricked it up, said the smith used a dremel on the throat. Throat and chamber now shine, the gun feeds every thing with out a hiccup.
Jim

[demented]

Without having to replace any parts, a good trigger pull is the most important.  A fitted barrel and bushing will gain the most.  Getting a match accurate 1911 is a combination of several things, good trigger, fitted premium barrel and bushing, fitted slide to frame fit among those worth mentioning  I've found drop in barrels to be a waste of money unless you happen to buy one that fits your particular slide with less slack around the barrel hood and barrel bushing. Using a Ransom rest, I've proved that most well made 1911's are quite a bit more accurate than the guy shooting them is.  One customer complained his $1000 dollar pistol wouldn't do better than 6" at25 yards.  We showed him a 2" group it had fired with factory ball ammo, he refused to believe it until we repeated the group with him watching.