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I have been approved to carry 1911 style while working in a specialized narcotics unit. I have owned and shot 1911's for years. I just bought a S&W Gunsite 1911 Scandium (Commander). I own a Wilson CQB that shoots great and is reliable but is a tad heavy for the bluejeans. What internals need to be replaced in the S&W? Should I go Ed Brown or Wilson?

Just my .02 but all guns that I have ever had built were done with Ed Brown parts for the most part. Everyone here will give you there opinions, but I suggest you ask the opinion of a gunsmith you trust. Weather its Mr. Yost, Ned, Chuck, or who ever you have had work on your guns in the past, they have used or tryed a ton of different parts and stuck with those for a reason. If you are going to swap the parts yourself I would call the smith you trust the most and ask for their opinion. If you are going to have a smith swap them, I would leave it up to them but tell them what you are looking for out of this build. I have had Wayne Novak or his shop build most of my guns. I have learned to put my trust in his guns to protect myself and my familys lives. In your situation I would have the smith I trust to fit what ever parts you or he chooses. The parts may never fail, but because of poor instalment they might. You want to make sure that you and your team are safe, as well as the civies. You would be pretty pissed because your weapon didnt work because you installed something incorrectly and someone got injured. Again, just my .02

Nark, you have a pm.

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"Domari Nolo"

I don't know that any parts absolutely need to be changed. But you do need to confirm that the firing pin safety is working right. This is a problem that appears any any brand with any style of FP safety, but essentially on the SW you need to press the grip safety in just far enough to allow the trigger to move and thus drop the hammer, and at that exact point in its travel, make sure it has raised the passinve FP safety block out of the way enough to allow the FP to pass. So-- push in the grip safety until the trigger will move, and then push the FP to see if it moves freely. If it doesn't, it needs attention IMO. The other part of this little equation is the part where many people have a problem getting a beavertail grip safety cleanly depressed. Sometimes a shooter will have a grasp on the pistol that leaves a little "air" between the memory bump and the web of the hand..... the grip safety is partially pushed in but not quite far enough. What makes the dif between a gun/shooter combo that has this problem and one that doesn't is a blend of things, hand shape, grip safety shape (they vary a bit brand to brand), how the grip safety has been fitted, and a bit of technique. After all this, I'm happy to say that lots and lots of guys have never had this problem and won't know what I'm talking about-- great. But some do, and the phenomenon is somewhat exacerbated by having a passive FP safety linked to the grip safety.

And-- once you've tried this and hopefully said, what the hell's he talking about there's no problem here, the obvious step two is to get lots of duty rounds through it with good mags so that you are supremely confident in it.

Thanks for being one of the guys who puts it on the line to keep the dope off the streets!

Just curious, but isn't the scandium going to make the fitting of aftermarket parts much more difficult? Or does it machine like "ordinary" steel?

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"Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came?
Why then, the war would come to you!"
(Bertolt Brecht)

Other than the S&W grip safety being different and the external extractor, I think most 1911 parts are interchangeable. I qualified with it today and had one unexplained failure to feed. Going to stick with the Sig 229 and the Glock 27 for now.

Yes, but as regards to parts that aren't "drop in", where for example some milling or metal cutting would have to be done, is the scandium more difficult to work with?

_________________
"Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came?
Why then, the war would come to you!"
(Bertolt Brecht)

The scandium content in the frame is very, very low. I don't think it would prohibit metal removal.

The content is only about 1/1000th scandium (one-tenth of one percent)
under 1 gram

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My future's determined by Thieves, thugs, and vermin
My rights are denied by Those least qualified
Everything's backwards In Americana

Jess has done a lot of work with these guns, mainly a lot of bobbed frames. Send him a PM

These frames are no harder to machine than any other aluminum frame.

I replace most if not all of the internals on the guns that I have built. They are not just bobtails, but anywhere from a few custom changes to a full blown build. I use EGW ignition sets that include the hammer, sear, disconnect and leaf spring. Then use the STI titanium strut. I like the Ed Brown tactical thumb safety. I also like to replace the "stock" S&W grip safety with the Caspian Wilson cut beavertail. There is enough material on the Caspian grip safety to get a better fit, but I would not call it a gunsmith fit. The cut that S&W uses is just off enough that you cannot get a good tight fit on the grip safety, but the Caspian is much better. I would imagine that the Wilson would fit pretty well. I also replace the barrel bushing with an EGW angle bore match bushing, hand fit and do a 60 degree target crown on the barrel. The crown on most of the S&Ws that I have seen leaves a lot to be desired on the Smith. Also, the Scandium is appreciably harder than standard aluminum, but still not as hard as carbon or stainless steel to work. Since the Scandium content is part of the metal and not an anodized coating, we can machine the heck out of the frames and not have to worry about that at all. I have done many bobtail commanders and with the work mentioned above, they turn out to be some real shooters and very reliable and light. And there is no problems with fitting good to excellent grade parts in the S&W. All of the standard 1911 parts will fit. I also do a little mod on the 80 series type safety when I am in there working on them to insure that they will never gum up the operation of the gun. Very nice pistol and really a nice platform for a different custom build.

Jess

Thanks Jess. The first Smith 1911 I saw, it looked to me like the grip safety was a Wilson. Don't know if they're still using the same one, I have not seen that many Smiths in the last couple years.

The grip safety fit is really not that geat at all on the Smith grip safeties. Like I said, I have been able to improve it by using the Caspian or Wilson grip safety, but still not regular "gunsmith" fit. Some of the ones out the factory have been so loose they rattled!

Jess

I handled one yesterday at Gunsite. They had one on display at the Smithy and I thought it was a very nice job for a factory gun. The price there was $1095.00 American and I thought it was a good value. I really liked the fine serrations on the front strap and it had a nice gold bead front sight.
It was sprung a little tight for my tastes, but over all, I was impressed. It felt good to me.

I bought the full size PD version of it a few months ago. I sent it over to Jess a couple months ago. Supposedly he kinda specializes in these Smiths. I hope X mas comes early... if you get my drift!! But yea, he's totally right. The grip safety leaves a lot to be desired and so does the trigger. Both were a bit loose, so much to a point where the pistol would kinda rattle around when carried. The barrel crown also looked terrible, but everybody knows about that. I don't think it really affected accuracy too much when i brought it to the range. Good luck and give Jess a call!