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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

1911 Commander


Sailormilan2

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I decided to fix up my son's Commander to be able to shoot multiple calibers like I have done to my 1911 Gov'ts. Commanders are a bit easier, since their 45 acp slide is already cut for the wider, taller 9mm/38Super ejector needed for the conversion. When Sarco had their ParaOrdnance slides on sale, I grabbed two, a Gov't length for my 10mm and a Commander length for his conversion. ParaOrdnance cut the breechface for the 9mm/38Super/40S&W/10mm all the same, meaning to 40/10mm rim diameter, which makes things easier. I had all the other parts already.

I got it together last week, and took it for a test run. Both barrels shot to the same POI at about 10 yds, but the group was about a palm sized group. I could litterally wiggle the buzhing and barrels in the slide.

Soooooo, I went looking for new bushings. Biggist problem was, these were the old style thin "pencil" barrels, which are about 1/2" 'n diameter. Nobody makes bushing for them any more, though they can be special ordered.................read that, at a higher cost.

Being a bit stubborn, I did some searching on Ebay, and stumbled across 2 Kings Gun Works old style bushings. One in blue and one in stainless. Which was exactly what I wanted.
Fitting was easy, or relatively so. The bushing went into the slide with finger pressure, no fitting. However, the lug needed fitting, which took a bit. Fitting the bushing to the barrel took longer. I straight bored them, and then relieved the barrel to allow tilt...................per the directions.
The 9mm barrel is blued and the 38 Super barrel appears to be stainless steel. So, I fitted the blued bushing to the blued barrel, and then stainless to stainless. That way he can't get them confused.
If he does, no big deal, the blued 9mm barrel will fit in the stainless bushing, but a little looser than its proper bushing. But the stainless barrel will not go into the blue bushing.
Hopefully the new 45 acp bushing will get here tomorrow, so I can fit it and go test everything Sunday.
Next week I order a 10mm barrel for him, which should be an exciting round to shoot in the Commander. I've been considering getting another Commander slide and fitting it to my Detonic sized frame and building another 10mm for my carry gun. I think it would be great to have a gun that carries 7 shots that have more ooompf than a .357 Mag.

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Those are super cool.

I've been to King's Gun Works, Glendale CA. They actually did the barrel feed work (throated barrel, polished frame) on my 1911. I used to sell them 45 boolets that I cast, sized and lubed. Got a few bucks to feed the 1911 with. I won't mention what year that was.

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