Making my 1911a1 more shootable/accurate

[1911crazy]

A while back I posted about my norinco and the changes i made.  I installed the new national match barrel bushing along with a new barrel and a full length guide rod with an 18# recoil spring.  I found my norinco to cycle faster and smoother and no matter who shoots it they seem to get one clover leaf out of one mag.  Using russian wolf ammo.  The full length guide rod cut down on the recoil alot plus the 18# spring cut the cycle timing by reducing the wasted time and overtravel on the slide.  Its a pleasure to shoot it now.  I took some of the bite out of it.

First I purchased the 1911/1911a1 book(thick one) and the armorers video tape to learn some info on it.  After fitting the barrel and barrel bushing my work paid off.

Now how much more can i improve it?

My slide is rather loose in the front.  I purchased the swage kit and should i swage the front frame rails just a little to tighten it up a tad more?

Or should i leave it alone...

I was never fond of the 1911a1 / 45acp till i got the norinco and tweeled it a little.  I found out the 1911's are awesome.

[jimster]

Congrats on the Norinco.  Personally, I'd say if your shooting small groups with it, don't worry about the slide to frame being tight, evidently you did a darn good job fitting the barrel and barrel bushing, in my opinion most of the accuracy comes from a nice barrel to slide lock up.  I really don't mind a little loosness in slide to frame if it's within tolerance,  the tighter you go the more you might lose a bit of reliability.  Not saying a real tight one can't be reliable either, just sayin....  Anyways, unless you really like to tinker...which I sometimes have that itch myself, I'd leave it alone and enjoy the nice tight groups you already accomplished.  Good job on fitting things together by the way.  From what I hear those Norinco 1911's are made with some good steel too.

Jim

[1911crazy]

The new national match barrel bushing was very tight in the slide.  Since the norinco bushing was very loose I opened up the slide till the national match barrel bushing just fit with the bushing wrench on the last 1/4 turn.  Its just a snug fit and not too tight.
I did learn how to fit the barrel to the bushing inside the slide.  I fitted the bushing till there was no barrel spring when it was infull battery and removed enough material so it could hinge down to feed the next round.  I removed material on the lower rear part of the barrel bushing and the upper front area too allow the barrel to hinge.  I kept the rear upper part and the lower front part like an opened "C" so the barrel would lockup tight when it was in full battery but it also had to have no spring in it too.  Thats very important you don't want the barrel to bend, it has to sit in its free state when its locked in full battery. My careful work payed off for sure.

The front part of the slide and frame area is very loose, more loose than the normal 1911.  Its been well used before i got it.  I may let it go and look for another norinco to play with. Right now my reworked norinco is very reliable, i trust my life with it.