Anal-retentive newbie questions--I defer to the experts.
My search was over and the gun came in today. I bought a used stainless MkIV pre-enhanced Government off of Gunsamerica. I'm on the three day inspection period wanted some educated opinions on how well I did--plus my transfer dealer made some negative comments suggesting I got a bad deal (but I'm not sure if he just wanted to sell me the new 1991a1 in his case). Gun was advertised as a clean stainless government; I paid $500. I am mostly concerned about how far away this gun is from stock as I want to turn it into a "retro" carry pistol. Gun is polished/brushed stainless (not mirror polish--not beadblast)-wear scratches that I would expect-small dings in back of magwell and on triggerguard-peppering of small nicks on both sides of frame around slide stop. Grip safety and thumb safety look like bad castings (thumb is much worse but I plan on changing that out). What I'm most worried about is the comment my dealer made about the top of the slide looking like someone tried to do a bad polish job on it--it looks to me like the top of slide matches the rest of the finish--are these supposed to be matted?
Stocks are bad aftermarket that I planned on changing. MSH is arched plastic in ugly condition--I was expecting steel. Trigger is short, Sts. Barrel bushing is a collet that I will be replacing if I keep the gun (gun dated to 1987 according to my call to Colt). Spring plug looks blued, unfortunately. Short guide rod is in the white and hollow (stainless?). Barrel appears to be slightly throated, but the throating is higher on one side than the other--dealer said the barrel was stock when I asked him. Extractor is a slightly different shade than the back of slide and has weird scratch marks on it.
I will be shooting the pistol tomorrow afternoon to see how it functions--so far it tests okay.
My only other 1911 experience was with a Kimber custom classic that I could never get to be reliable, so after several years in the Glock camp I had to have a real Colt this time. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Good points are that the GI arrangement feels really good in my hand--better than the cookie-cutter so-called "custom" productions of today. Also the trigger pull on this one feels pretty nice.
If I decide to it's a keeper, I'll be pestering y'all for sources of sts factory Colt MSH's and triggers--any chance I could get a stock grip safety that was prettier?
And could anyone provide me with info on what internal parts are carbon instead of sts?
Thanks,
Chad
My search was over and the gun came in today. I bought a used stainless MkIV pre-enhanced Government off of Gunsamerica. I'm on the three day inspection period wanted some educated opinions on how well I did--plus my transfer dealer made some negative comments suggesting I got a bad deal (but I'm not sure if he just wanted to sell me the new 1991a1 in his case). Gun was advertised as a clean stainless government; I paid $500. I am mostly concerned about how far away this gun is from stock as I want to turn it into a "retro" carry pistol. Gun is polished/brushed stainless (not mirror polish--not beadblast)-wear scratches that I would expect-small dings in back of magwell and on triggerguard-peppering of small nicks on both sides of frame around slide stop. Grip safety and thumb safety look like bad castings (thumb is much worse but I plan on changing that out). What I'm most worried about is the comment my dealer made about the top of the slide looking like someone tried to do a bad polish job on it--it looks to me like the top of slide matches the rest of the finish--are these supposed to be matted?
Stocks are bad aftermarket that I planned on changing. MSH is arched plastic in ugly condition--I was expecting steel. Trigger is short, Sts. Barrel bushing is a collet that I will be replacing if I keep the gun (gun dated to 1987 according to my call to Colt). Spring plug looks blued, unfortunately. Short guide rod is in the white and hollow (stainless?). Barrel appears to be slightly throated, but the throating is higher on one side than the other--dealer said the barrel was stock when I asked him. Extractor is a slightly different shade than the back of slide and has weird scratch marks on it.
I will be shooting the pistol tomorrow afternoon to see how it functions--so far it tests okay.
My only other 1911 experience was with a Kimber custom classic that I could never get to be reliable, so after several years in the Glock camp I had to have a real Colt this time. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Good points are that the GI arrangement feels really good in my hand--better than the cookie-cutter so-called "custom" productions of today. Also the trigger pull on this one feels pretty nice.
If I decide to it's a keeper, I'll be pestering y'all for sources of sts factory Colt MSH's and triggers--any chance I could get a stock grip safety that was prettier?
And could anyone provide me with info on what internal parts are carbon instead of sts?
Thanks,
Chad