Good timing: wore out my slide stop

I've had my Springfield Armory 1911 A1 Lightweight for, oh, a dozen years or so. Its been getting customized over the course of most of that time, and is almost finished. Once I decide what night sights I wanna have low mounted on it (I'm thinking about 10-8's for it and the MnP), its gonna get refinished and then the work will probably stop. Probably.

The original slide stop that was one of the first things I had customized, was a King's extended part. At the time, I shot a Weaver stance with crossed thumbs. With that method, having the gas pedal didn't hurt.


However, I reached a plateau in my shooting, and wasn't getting better. I came to the realization that "Do whatever works for you" was, in fact, a very stupid philosophy if one wishes to be the best one can be at a given pursuit. The Way is thumbs forward, with a version of the isosceles stance, and being extra sure not to hook your support hand index finger on the trigger guard.

That posed a problem with that original slide stop; I was overriding it regardless of how I gripped the gun; I was either holding it down or pushing it up. I knew I needed to change the part, but we were out of stock at work, so I put it off.

Well, we got some Wilson Bulletproof slide stops in right about the time I found that my baby wasn't locking back in empty mags. I had worn out the original slide stop after ten or eleven years. Nice timing! I picked up the new Bulletproof part, and found that it didn't need extra fitting. That's a good thing, since I don't know of any 1911 smiths around here. I don't let anyone who's not the best available wrench on my guns.



I'm quite pleased with this new part; if I had known the what's up, I'd have had it on there all along. I guess JMB really did know what he was doing with that part. I still believe that 1911's have to have beavertail grip safeties and extended thumb safeties to be a usable fighting gun. Add to that high profile, quality sights, and you've got something goin' on.

I can't tell if this is an artsy shot; I kinda think it is. Since I don't have to pay for bandwidth, I'm gonna go ahead and put it up.


Lastly, here's the off side of this gun, for the sake of completeitude.


Couple things to note: the finish appears to be kinda two toned because, through shooting the hell out of it, I've rubbed most of the finish off the frame. This gun has an arched mainspring housing, where my Kimber Custom Royal has a flat one. I can't tell the difference. I shoot the SA better, but that's probably just because its got a hard fit Bar-Sto barrel in it.

The background I shot these on is my new TNF hooded fleece. It was a gift from a connected friend of mine; he's a cop that's got a lot of friends. There's no model name on it, and the numbers don't tell me what it is, either. What I know about it is that it's made in the US of A, and similar jackets are seen in pics of very high speed dudes. I'm pretty sure I know where it came from, but I can't prove it. Doesn't matter; I have my story and I'm stickin' to it. :)