Great job on undertaking that project! No doubt your patience in the build will pay off.

I had considered a similar project in the past but have not yet got around to it. One day perhaps. Like you, I am (almost) exclusively doing 1911 shooting and am trying to stay with the platform for everything pistol-related.

I love when others undertake projects before me (especially competent people like you!) so I can learn from the process when my time comes!

Best of luck and keep us posted

 

Thanks Jason, pretty excited about it. Since I’ve switched to Wilson’s I’ve had little opportunity to do much work on my guns. Other than cleaning and tweaking an extractor, there’s not much to do to them. When I had Colt’s and Kimber’s, etc. I used to play with them a lot. Don’t really expect too much work with the Wilson parts other than fitting the thumb safety. My sear jigs will most likely just stay in the tool box.

 

Sounds like an interesting project - keep us up-to-date on your progress!

 

Looking forward to the finished product.

 

With just a little tweaking our hammer/sear/disconnector will yield great results. I (and many gunsmiths) believe our hammers and sears are the best you can get. I know we use the best material for the sears (S7 tool steel) and put a nice surface finish on them. Customers also have good results with the TR sear jig and our sears, just FYI

 

Thanks, I have the TR sear jig, along with a couple others. Have a new Bullet Proof sear in my parts box and another coming with my order. I may fit one using the TR and fit the other with the standard method. I’m not planning on needing to do too much on that one but will check the sear hammer engagement and do some final polishing. Fitting both sears on the same frame and trigger will be a good comparison between the two styles of jigs. Just thought to add as long as the safety will function properly with both. Going to keep all the original parts as they came from S & W.

Will do some final polishing on the hammer and disconnector and of course I’ll be doing some trigger filing and stoning along with stoning the channels.

No drop in parts for a 1911 but when you start with high quality parts the amount of work is certainly decreased.

I do need to thank the gunsmith that totally screwed up a trigger and reliability job on a Gold Cup many years ago. I threw away $200 on that job but it gave me the desire to learn to do this myself and in that way it was worth it. That Gold Cup turned out absolutely fantastic with a 3# glass break trigger and ran 100%. I’m no expert by any stretch of the imagination but enjoy learning something with each job I do.

 

And so it begins, my pieces parts arrived yesterday. Am going to take this very slowly as I have probably 8 weeks until the conversion arrives.

This was my lowest round count 1911 as I have less than 1,000 rounds through it, almost brand new. Verified reliability loaded attached a light and had it in my bedroom. Only shot it a few times after that.

Going to start by stoning the trigger bar channels and then just fitting the trigger and then adjust over travel screw later after the hammer, sear and disco are done.

Certainly will have to be moved to the side at times for reloading work.

 

Looks like fun...

 

Quick update:

Found the plunger tube on the frame was loose, ordered a plunger staking tool from Brownell’s and after waiting two weeks it has finally arrived. As this will be a dedicated .22, I’m first just going to try to stake the old tube back on tight. If that doesn’t hold I do have a bullet proof plunger tube to put on.

Have two sears prepped a conventional Wilson and a Wilson that I did on the TR Sear Jig. Very interested in feeling the difference in the two with everything else being exactly the same as opposed to being on two separate guns. Will start working on it a little this afternoon but after raking 8 hours the last two days I’m not sure how long the hands will hold out (arthritis).

Anyway, the Nelson Conversion came in a few days ago. Far sooner than the two months I had assumed it would take. Very much a quality item. Slide/barrel assembly is far heavier than any conversation I have ever seen. Very impressed and excited to be able to give it a try. Already thinking about getting a weaver top for it and a Aimpoint Micro but not for a while.

Still going to go slow and take one step at a time. Trying to get everything done as good as I possibly can. Shouldn’t take too long as the bullet proof safety and trigger are the only two items that will really take any amount of time to fit. Will certainly check sear/hammer fit after installed with dykem but think they look pretty good at this point from checking with extended hammer and sear pins.

 

Dave,

Great job on your build...one step at a time!

I sure wish I was retired and had all that time on my hands

 

Thanks, as I’ve said before it’s the best job I’ve ever had. The Brownell’s plunger staking tool worked fantastically. Well worth the price and the wait. Went to drop in the sear and disco and am now in the process of stoning the sides of the sear as it is a hint too wide for the S & W frame. Pulled out the old factory sear and it is a little narrower. Measured both and am stoning now.

Only issued with retirement is that I worked a lot of OT this week and the check was still the same.:dope:

 

It is almost complete. I have the Wilson sear installed that I did on the Power Custom Sear Jig. Running very consistent at 2 pounds 15 oz. I was hoping I’d get super lucky and have the Wilson Sear done on the TR Sear Jig match the hammer hooks but no such luck after mating this hammer and sear. Will receive another hammer from Wilson tomorrow and will mate the TR sear to that hammer. A little overboard but I’ll enjoy doing it and having two options to compare. Prior to actually mating the sear to the hammer and they were both very close to good, the TR was running about 5 oz lighter than the Power Custom.

So Wilson trigger, hammer, sear, disco, thumb safety.

Didn’t do a Wilson grip safety and need to do a little more work to the S&W grip safety to get it to function with the Wilson trigger, although for this gun, it’s kind of nice not working. This morning is the first time that it has been fully assembled. I’ll fix it before going to the range. Have an Ed Brown chainlink two piece mainspring housing (from my parts bin) on it right now but might go back to the S&W.

The Nelson Conversion is dry fire safe but I’m having a hard time dropping the hammer on a .22, just doesn’t seem right after 40 years of being told not to ever do that.

Unfortunately I have to go out and rake the backyard today but hope to finish up that grip safety and get to the range tomorrow.

 

Pretty cool, will be waiting for the range report.

 

Before going outside I had to run back downstairs and check the grip safety. Turns out the S&W sear spring leg for the grip safety is longer than the Wilson, may have to switch back to the S&W sear spring in order to have the grip safety function. Or buy a Wilson grip safety and install that. Not sure which option I’ll choose.

The weight of the gun is very close to a 1911 and is not light like an off the shelf 1911 .22, it is very nice to hold.

Will do a quick range report when I get it out, pretty excited to try it.

 

I finally got it to the range today after finishing up fitting the grip safety to the trigger so that would function. Primarily was just testing functionality and all went very well. A few sporadic feeding issues that I believe are just magazine related and will load up the magazines and let them sit a few days as they were brand new and have never been loaded. Trigger pull is about 3 1/2# right now so I will adjust it down some more. No creep and a great clean break. I also received the extra hammer from Wilson to fit the Wilson sear that was done on the TR Jig.

Shot at 50’ from a rest and although I am the worst bench rest shooter a 25 round group can be covered with a quarter except for a few fliers.

Next week I’ll get the sights fully adjusted as I didn’t quite get there today. 45 degrees but windy and I got cold fairly quickly.

Extremely happy with the quality of the Nelson Conversion and also with the work I did on fitting the parts to the frame. Learned quite a bit more from doing this project and that alone was worth the price of all the parts I bought. The quality of the Wilson parts compared to what I took out of the S & W frame are really not even comparable. Wilson’s are just so vastly superior.

If you’ve ever thought about trying something like this, go for it, not that hard and it does feel very good to do it yourself.

Photo of target, two poi’s after adjusting the sights and the bottom series had some Blazer .22’s that the gun did not like as much as the CCI Standard Velocity. Too many people shooting so I could not shoot groups of 5 and change the target.