Power Wagon Registry

That's a lot of money and still needs a good bit of smithing to get it to run right. Makes me want to go out and buy an off the shelf Ed Brown . I guess it's the satisfaction of building it yourself that really matters.

I got rid of every 1911 I have ever owned and don't miss them for one second. I needed a Limited division 40SW race gun so I bought a CZ TS. I've been shooting against 2011's that cost three times what I paid and are lucky to make it through a magazine without a failure. 1911's and 2011's are fun to build but they are antiquated and finicky at best. Fun range toys and very rewarding once they run right though.

Rodeoflyer wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 03, 2017 4:13 pm

That's a lot of money and still needs a good bit of smithing to get it to run right. Makes me want to go out and buy an off the shelf Ed Brown . I guess it's the satisfaction of building it yourself that really matters.

Yes it is a lot for parts. It comes as a raw frame & slide (I had an integral plunger tube & ejector machined into the slide). You have to either order or macine every part. The frame/slide are milled to min tolerance, while all the Ed Brown or Caspian forged parts are made to max tolerance, thus every part has to be hand fitted. Some parts required 10-20 min of filing & stoning and then a quick metal polish, while others had to be reamed/milled by hand and took hours to fit.

The match Bar-Sto bbl & bushing took the longest, required the most machining & filing, and was the most tedious, probably have near 20hrs on the bbl alone.

The sights also took a lot of time to fit, provably 1-2 hrs for the front sight & probably 5+ to get the rear sight installed...huge pain.

So yeah, it’s a labor of love, but it’s a unique gun that no one else has because i custom ordered every single feature. But, it’s not for everyone—you have to like doing that kind of work, be really patient, & be mechanically inclinded for this sort of thing to interest someone. I enjoyed it. I’m proud as hell of how it turned out. It was a shit ton of work, and it is as smooth, tight, & as custom as you'll ever feel—Ed Brown isn’t hand fitting, filing, machining, polishing, stoning an entire gun like this either.

Good luck finding a gun like this for $2K. Ed Brown finally released a a 6” long slide 10mm while I was building my gun, and it is $4K, and other than the rmr, has less features.

http://www.edbrown.com/ls10/

Reloaderguy wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 03, 2017 5:28 pm

I got rid of every 1911 I have ever owned and don't miss them for one second. I needed a Limited division 40SW race gun so I bought a CZ TS. I've been shooting against 2011's that cost three times what I paid and are lucky to make it through a magazine without a failure. 1911's and 2011's are fun to build but they are antiquated and finicky at best. Fun range toys and very rewarding once they run right though.

My 1911 experiences are opposite. I have had several, & still own several, near 10 provably, & cant recall any past or present guns being unreliable, picky, or finicky. I have near 10k rnds through my West Point class gun, a series 80 Colt that i tricked out, & that gun shoots a ragged hole at 15m & under with range ammo all day long.

Antiquated—I prefer vintage & classically mechanical. But then again the Pump shotgun, the bolt action rifle, the lever action rifle, and the gas piston semi-auto rifle are all as old or older than the 1911 — guess i need to just sell off my entire safe to make room for the fancy new laser guns...

As promised, my recently completed custom built, antiquated, Caspian 6” 10mm 1911 (w/ Caspian and Ed Brown parts, Bar-Sto BBL, WOLFF springs) :

I have a Colt Series 70 that I bought back in 1983. It was my carry gun when I drove armour car. After that. It become my bowling pin gun. The bluing is worn off the front of the slide from going in and out of the holster. I've done some mods to it. Sights, full length recoil spring guide, trigger job. Have over 13,000 reloaded rounds through it. What makes mine work good is a good magazine. I use Wilson mags. Anything else will give it issues. I still shoot it when I have a chance. There is nothing wrong with a 1911. Some like them, others don't.

Hard NOT to like something that is or was military issue & been around that long Is still being used today !

I have to say, that Caspian frame and slide are works of art.

Congratulations! Your gun is beautiful; excellent work !

It came out great. You have to love the feeling of putting one together yourself.

Great work sir! It came out very nice!

Rodeoflyer wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 06, 2017 10:36 pm

I have to say, that Caspian frame and slide are works of art.

Thank-you. They do a good job. When I was finished, I bead blasted the frame, and used Mother's metal polish and newspaper on the slide several times. After I was finished building it, as you could imagine, the frame had several handling marks, scuffs, nicks, etc. from just handling while building--nothing major. I got most of it out, a few more passes with 2000 grit and Mother's probably will make it look better. I still have to cut down the grip safety to match the lines of the frame beavertail. Not a fun job, but the 1/16" misalignment is unsightly, purely cosmetic, but it's bugging me, so I'll have to make a quick jig to align everything, then grind the beavertail, hone, polish, and then bead blast the back side again.