Most guys that go to the extent of commissioning or purchasing an elaborate custom 1911 will be found to already have one or several, and such is the case with the Lt. Colonel. I recently had a chance to revisit a few of his 1911’s that I worked on when he lived in my area, ten years ago. Neither of them is a true full custom, or at least not as elaborate as the one shown in this thread:
http://forum.ltwguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9265
They are both Springfields, one is a longslide in .45 Super. .45 Super is outwardly identical to .45 ACP, it’s just that the Super-marked brass is a little stronger so it can be loaded hotter. I don’t know much more about it than that and I don’t believe Phil has loaded and shot a whole lot of .45 Super; I’m sure this gun’s diet has been overwhelmingly .45 ACP. It has a ported, 6” barrel, and I believe SA no longer offers this model.
The other is a 5”. On this one I have checkered the frontstrap, fitted a Wilson barrel and adjustable sight (which I prototyped for them), and ribbed the top of the slide. When I saw this one again the other day, first time in ten years, I asked Phil, “Did I fit that barrel? The fitting job is, ah, not so good”. He reminded me that is was a barrel he’d acquired that had already been fitted to another 1911, so I was off the hook. We’ll be putting a new one in pretty soon I think.
They are well-used but they don’t show it—he has taken good care of them.
Here’s the frontstrap on the .45 Super. I just felt like doing something a little different that day I guess. Springfields tend to have a larger radius and good thick frontstrap area, so there was plenty to work with:
The slide top on the 5” with a rib and herringbone serration pattern. I think the front sight has been replaced in the interim.
And the S&A magwell. Phil did the blending on this himself, and did a great job of it.
The Lt. Colonel has a few others that I think I'll get a chance to see in the coming months. On his first deployment I was very keen for him to take one of them and happened to have it in the shop at the time. I got it all ready for duty with fitted spares and all, but alas, it is not permitted. A guy could take it, sure, but a guy could land in the brig for doing so..... and if he doesn't land in the brig there could/would be great difficulty in getting it back home.
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This is sort of a non-finger groove front strap for those of us who hate finger grooves. Really cool work and totally out of the box (for everyone else!). I assume it could only be cut on Springers?