Taken a GI 1911A1 to a firarms class?

[thm]

Looking at all the custom 1911's and the resurgence of the "mil-spec" pistols got me to wondering.

Aside from training with Uncle Sam, anybody here taken a stock GI 1911A1 to a firearms class?

Not one of the new issue "mil-spec" guns with long triggers and high profile sights, but an off-the-armory-rack GI pistol with teeny tab front sights! I'd like to see how a 50+ year old autoloader does compared to the new polymer wonderguns.

I have a couple of Sistema Modelo 1927's that would probably do the trick (did you think the Singer would be going to class?) and they have passed the basic safety and "go bang" tests.

These weapons haven't had any problems with stovepiping or reliability with ball ammo. Accuracy is not as nice as the Brazilian SAs with better sights and triggers. Man, this pistol rattles like a box of roofing nails when you shake it.

Looking for any recommendations and experience on what to do for the pistol to improve performance without significantly changing the "spirit" of the gun (or costing that much :D). This is what I came up with thus far:

1) trigger job (breaks crisp now but pretty heavy)
2) replaced recoil spring (the old one seemed over a half-inch shorter than the replacement)
3) new link (lot of barrel hood play when in battery)
4) new magazines (only Wilsons don't need to be pulled out with pliers, very tight mag well)
5) beveling mag well (does this give you that much more time on reloads and then I have to pay for a repark)
6) new barrel (seems taking a matching SN barrel out is a little unkosher, expensive, and unnecessary as the rifling is still pretty sharp and muzzle crown is free of dings)
7) new bushing (would this really get me all that much? and I don't really want to pay to turn the barrel for a supertight fit)
8) new sights (might as well get a 1991A1)
9) tighten slide-frame fit (is this worth it?)
10) extractor tuning (already works fine)

Thanks in advance for your help! Excited to see how a specimen 1.5x older than me might hold up in a "Modern Technique" class.

PS. Think a leather flap M1916 holster would be taking it too far?

[dsk]

I did almost such a thing a few years ago. I took a night shooting class, and I brought with me a Glock 19 with night sights as well as a bone-stock Colt Series 70 (basically a GI gun with a better finish), teeny sights and all. Anyway, I first started using the G19, and ran some of the courses with it. But when we changed to the part of the course where we were taught flashlight techniques I switched over to the Colt. Believe it or not, I actually did better when using the stock Colt and a Mag-Lite (gun in one hand, light in the other) than when using the G19 two-handed! And it wasn't just my perception either. Part of the course was a man-on man shoot-off where six targets were numbered out of sequence and set up. In the darkness the instructor would call out a number, and the first guy to light up the right target and hit C.O.M. won. Each time I cleaned everybody's clock, first finding the right target then getting off one accurate round of .45 hardball. It was then that I decided that intimate familiarity with one's weapon is just as, if not more important than merely having a dressed-up gun with all the gadgets and goodies.

Anyway, to answer your question no you don't need to do anything to it aside from trigger or reliability work.

[thm]

Thanks for the quick follow-up, dsk! Thanks for your inspirational story and, btw, you have a really great website too!

My Sistema's have the pre-1913 sighting system pictured on your website http://usgi1911.tripod.com/sights/. Those suckers are hard to line up, but usually they come up pretty much right on (unless I've been dry practicing with the Glocks, then they come up a bit low :o )

I'm glad I can give these fine old pistols the opportunity to soldier on and show off their stuff!