ltwguns.com

This Combat Commander was built over the past summer for a friend who lives locally, carries concealed all the time and shoots a lot to boot. He only wanted items that were performance enhancing in nature, rather than cosmetic. He tried to shoot it for a bit as it came, but had to shelve it due to it’s inherent trait of shredding skin around the grip safety tang.

I started by adding a Wilson beavertail and reshaping the ‘tail to minimum size. It wears a Yo-Bo Retro rear sight with a SDM front that I fitted with a tritium lamp. The front sight’s dovetail is ground down flush with the slide. Serrations on the front strap and flat main spring housing give all the traction required. A beveled mag well helps with reloads and a carry bevel treatment makes handling and carrying comfortable. An Ed Brown wide thumd safety was reshaped to a medium contour for control.

Accuracy and function reliability were not strong suits of the pistol in original form, so the slide to frame fit was tightened and I fitted a Kart barrel. Because the slide’s barrel bore was oversize, I fitted a Clark bushing that used three large lobes on the OD. An EGW square bottom firing pin stop fitted to a Wilson Bulletproof extractor help with the reliabilitydepartment, along with my Feed Reliability Package. The ignition parts are from Yost-Bonitz providing a crisp 4.5# trigger pull.

The owner wanted a black finish with the best wear characteristics possible, so the completed pistol took a trip to Pennsylvania to EGW to be finished in E-Treat. The owner reports that to date it has held up well with no visible wear to the exterior from holster contact. A set of Larry Davidson Horned Lizard grips completed the job.

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shop.HarrisonCustom.com
www.HarrisonCustom.com

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

Beautiful work, John.

I really like the front sight dovetail blending. Very Clean.

Merry Christmas!

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Redeemed

That is really nice work! My idea of a carry Commander is very similar but with a serrated, round MSH and a Novak rear with Trijicon bar. I especially like the under triggerguard/ frontstrap treatment. I gotta get busy and fill out my build sheets, John!

Merry Christmas,

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Bob

Smiths and 1911s are what it's all about!

That is a very nice looking gun. As my tastes develop I find that I am being drawn more and more towards the less more crowd. Don't get me wrong, full house jobs are still beautiful, but the there is something so appealing about a working gun that has all the fine details.

I really like George's E-treat finish. I had the opportunity to see one of their test slides before it was offered to the public and it was love at first sight. It isn't as pretty as a good bluing job or a good hard chroming, nor is it as exotic as Black-T or NP3, but it has a tough as nails no nonsense look that dovetails perfectly (IMHO) with that gun.

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"Domari Nolo"

Everything you need, nothing you don't. I really like what you did to the beavertail.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE
Thunder Ranch THG & UR(x2), Gunsite 250C,
Yavapai Firearms Acad HG1(x2), HG2, & SG,
Shootrite Prvt Inst HG, NRA Life Member

I'm jealous. The perfect rendition of what a Commander should be. Thanks for the pics.

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If You're Not the Lead Dog, The View Never Changes.

Very nice. An ideal Commander.

Beautifully executed!

Not much more to say about that one!

John

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I will never forget you Lou......February 21, 2009

John Ralston
5 SHOT LEATHER, LLC - Finely Crafted Custom Handgun Leather

http://www.5ShotLeather.com

SIMPLE...ELEGANT...PURTY!!!...THOSE are the words that come to mind....mikey357

I'm picking up my Series 70 Combat Commander on Saturday. Perfect timing for the pics. That is pretty close to what I'd like to see on my gun. John, again, as I've said before, there is nothing you've put your magic touch on that I haven't liked. Keep up the great work! Thanks again for the pics.

Nothing "Basic" there.
"Perfect" is more like it....

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"The most effective armor is to keep out of range"-Italian proverb

CHECK OUT MY CUSTOM 1911 BLOG
http://thearsenalofdemocracy.blogspot.com

Love Commanders...Simply elegant. Nice work John. Like the front sight install, pretty clean there!!!

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Heirloom Precision, LLC.
480-804-1911

"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking."
- General George Patton Jr

Luckily I am already somewhere in your wait list.
Looking at these pics just helped me decide what I am going to do with one of my old LW Commanders....

And that is.....

Have it doen by you!
I think you will give it all a beautiful old pistol like it deserves and still keep it classy!

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Kentucky Colonel, Tennessee Squire & Combat Leprechaun
"You won't rise to the occasion - you'll default to your level of training." Barrett Tillman

John,

You should make this a package!! Call it the "old school" or the "Traditionalist". It would be well recieved!

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Building Hand Crafted Leather for the 1911 Platform

Excellent carry gun. I'd prefer a lightweight though.

I have full customs from other smiths, but that commander is what I concider perfect.

You have a PM on the way for my next build.

Gentlemen,

I'm the very happy owner of this Commander and John, as is his way, is being very modest when it comes to what he did to her over the past 6~8 months. In fact, I think the journey to perfect this weapon for me is a perfect example of why one should work with a talented smith because where we are today in comparison to where I started demonstrates perfectly what a great smith can provide.

The plain exterior looks were driven my tastes alone. John could have done any number of things to the exterior to make her look more 'racy' or modern because there are countless examples of what he can provide to dress up a 1911, but I wanted to try and keep a very traditional look to this old rollmark S70 Commander so it spoke to her fine heritage. Even though she is very traditional, she looks so much better than she originally did when she wore all of her original equipment because her lines are true now.

At the same time, I intend to carry this weapon and there was quite a bit that had to be done to her before I would trust her in that role.

I once heard that one hoped to buy a vintage Harley Davidson that rolled off the production line on a Tuesay, Wednesday or Thursday. If you were unlucky enough to have one built on a Monday or a Friday you might as well roll the dice as to what you could expect from a craftsmanship standpoint.

Old Colts apparently are of the same ilk. Mine, due to the details to follow, must have been built early one Monday morning on January the 2nd by a machinist that got the abolsulte most from his New Year's eve celebrating. Sure she looked like a nice S70 Commander from the outside, but when you undressed her and really put her through her paces she had quite a few major problems that did not allow for carry weapon confidence.

The I.D. of the slide at the muzzle was so oversized that the installed Colt barrel bushing literally leaned out from recoil spring pressure by a good 5~10 degrees. I tried to resolve this issue by going with an EGW oversized slotted bushing, but even by calling EGW and getting the largest one they measured from a recent machining run at the time - she was still too damn loose. Further, the groove cut in the slide for the tang on the bushing was too close to the muzzle so when rotated in place there was front to rear play.

The barrel fit was so poor that the locking lugs had their leading edges top dead center rolling over and not allowing proper seating. The frame was not adequately releaved at the bottom barrel lugs and during lockup she battered the frame so much that she would knock the slide lock up into position and prematurely lock the slide back. This battering along with an incorectly cut dust cover [which rubbed the bottom of the slide badly during stroke] lead to a frame crack just in front of the slide release holes after less than 2000 rounds fired by me.

The barrel appeared to clock left and right from lockup to lockup and my best groups from the bags still wandered left and right of POA badly.

Continuing down the list of her transgretions, the extractor clocked badly, the slide release which would lock into positon due to battering would often not engage far enough into the slide to keep the slide locked when she was supposed to be locked due to a very poor cut on the relief cut on the slide for the slide lock which angled to the rear quite badly and did not provide adequate purchase on the rear face of the slide lock.

In an effort to get her to function adequtely on my end I tried different recoil springs to reduce the battering, various bushings, and any other trick I could think off to make the old girl behave. She wouldn't and I was about ready to kick her to the curb, but I had faith in what John Harrison was capable of and swollowed my displeasure and turned her over to his expertise.

Once he dove into the effort, we came to find among other things that her firing system had at one point had a 'poor man's' trigger job done to her so the sear engagement wasn't overly trustworthy in my opinion and John's for a hard use carry gun.

So, John worked his magic and installed everything he described in his email but also installed a new short solid trigger, mainspring housing that he peaned so there was no perceiveable shift during grip, and a few other ergonomic details like an extended mag release to suit my tastes. I wanted a true beaver tail as John mentioned because the Commander tang literally left scaring on the webing of my hand due to my high grip. At the same time, I did not want the beaver tail to be standard length because I have found that on my body frame this leads to unnecessary printing. Thus, John rolled off the bulk of the rear of the Wilson beaver tail just behind the hammer well but did so such that the side walls have a very consitant edge profile and you don't really notice that it is truncated.

Basicly, the only thing she wears from her earlier days is the recoil spring plug and original guide rod. Everything else has been replaced.

Working with John is a joy. He is very patient and the consumate gentleman. I am an engineer by training and John had to live through a barrage of questions as to what would work best, why it worked, detailed explanations of what was wrong with her in the first place, etc. His patientce and willingness to educate me so that I made the right decisions for me made the work he did not only an investment in the weapon, but an investment in the relationship between a talented smith and a very happy customer.

I'm glad to report that she is 100% reliable now, tight and accurate as I can hope her to be and after another 250-300 rounds she'll be completely broken in for my tastes [1000-1200 rounds post build] where she will start to ride on my hip.

If anyone is wondering what a good smith can add to a build or other weapon modifications - the answer is more than you know going in because you really don't know what you don't know until you peel the onion.

I chose to build on this Combat Commander platform simply due to the round count I expect to put through her. I average 5-6K rounds per year on most of my carry weapons because I practice quite often and will also compete with them. She weighs more than a LW Commander sure, but I don't have to worry about the round count in the steel frame.

I wanted to add this post since John's post didn't adaquately reflect all that he did to resurrect this particular Colt in my opinion - and he deserves a lot more credit than the original post might have generated.

Thanks to you all for listening and John - thanks again. I couldn't be happier with her.

Hog.

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"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be."
-Voltaire

Hog...thank you for the "loan" of the pictures of your beautiful weapon...and a beautiful tribute to a great gentleman and artist!! I have e-mailed and spoken with him on a couple of occaisions to get answers to my constant questions, and he always takes plenty of time to answer fully and in terms I can understand....all while making me feel like I am his only customer at the time! One day I hope to have the base gun and funds to send to him or one of the other fine gentlemen on this forum...a place that I have truly come to love! Happy New Year to all!

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"There is a true glory and a true honor, the glory of duty done, the honor of integrity and principle."--Gen. Robert Edward Lee

Hog,

Nice documentary. I recently had a Combat Commander done by Ted Yost. We didn't go into what all was wrong with the original but sounds a lot like yours. Mine was useless as a reliable carry piece. Now it's my favorite carry piece and has gobbled up about 600 rounds. The only original parts on mine are slide, frame and hammer(which had real problems).

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Bob

Smiths and 1911s are what it's all about!

Great sight work, John. The radial dovetail front sight is especially cool. Hope you had a great Christmas.

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"When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation." ~Alexander Hamilton

I got to meet bushhog at the SHOT show a few days ago. It turns out he lives probably 5 miles from me ! He's a true gentleman, full of great ideas and has great taste in handguns. We compared notes on our latest Colt Commanders that John Harrison built for us, there were many similarities and only minor differences. Nice to meet you hog.

Really like them "Horny Toad Grips". I assume those are Micarta ?

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Chuck

Anything worth doing, is worth doing right the first time

It was nice meeting you as well 'smooth one'. I enjoyed our conversations, found you to be the perfect gentlemen as well... and like your taste in weapons.

Hope we can hook up on a local class or other event in the future.

Hog

loner42 : the grips are Larry Davidson grips machined from G10. Fit and feel great. They are 'tweeners' meaning they split the difference between normal grips and true thin grips. Great for carry, even with the texture beacuse I haven't found that clothing likes to grab on the G10.

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"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be."
-Voltaire

Hog, is G10 micarta? I know i've seen that term used on another product but can't recall...Do you have a link for him?

Thanks

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Chuck

Anything worth doing, is worth doing right the first time

loner42 :
To my knowledge, G10 and Micarta are somewhat different animals with Micarta being a phenolic resin based composit plastic and G10 being a fiberglass based material. Having said that though, I have seen a grade of 'Micarta' advertised as G10-FR4 which is different than some of the 'canvas', 'linen', or other grades of material trade named 'Micarta'. So G10 maight be a special type of Micarta trade name wise.

But, I am no expert. I do know that the G10 grips I have do 'feel' different than old black Micarta grips I have run across in times past.

G10 is a very common material for knife handles. G10 will not turn slippery even when wet or oily and is very strong.

Emmerson knives use G10 grip panels for example as do many other manufacturers.


Here's a link to Larry's grips:
http://davidsonknives.com/grips/grips.htm

Lot's of other patterns beside the 'Horned Lizard' that I happen to like.

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"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be."
-Voltaire

Bush Hog, thanks for the info. He has alot of nice grips, and about every configuration you would want..............

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Chuck

Anything worth doing, is worth doing right the first time

Hog:

I think you went overboard with that "perfect gentlemen" part
But thanks.

There's an IDPA match at South River on Sunday, you should come out if you can. If you want to ride together, we can do that.