I’m a tinkerer at heart. I need to take things apart, see how they work, and convince myself I can make it better. I play electric guitar and design and build my own effects. I am in the process of building my own hi-fi amplifier. And while I would never attempt to build my own firearm from scratch, I thought my Taurus PT1911, being a 1911, offered the perfect opportunity for me to fine-tune, customize, and just plain tinker – you can get an “upgraded” version of nearly every part in a 1911. So after doing some research, I ordered some stuff and started tinkering.
Mostly – it was a bad idea, I ended up going back to the original set-up.
The majority of my ‘experiments’ were with the various spring weights. I upgraded the firing pin spring to a heavy duty one. I didn’t notice any difference, which in this case is good, and I am going to keep it for the added safety. My PT1911 had an 18.5 pound recoil spring, which is recommended for +P loads, but I use standard loads almost exclusively so I decided to try the standard 16 pound spring. My first ejected cartridge landed a good 20 feet away and there was a significant increase in recoil. I changed it back immediately. Lastly, I changed out the mainspring to a lighter, ‘competition’ version – and never fired a round with it. With the lighter version, when I would drop the slide release, the hammer would drop to half-cock position. Definitely not a good thing.
The two other changes I made were an extended mag release and an extended slide release. I have smaller hands so the extended mag release felt better and more natural to me – it will stay. Then I installed the extended slide release. For one handed operation and convenience at the range, it seemed to be an improvement – before I actually fired the pistol. Defensively speaking, you should be releasing the slide with your off-hand anyway, so an extended slide release is a ‘fix’ to a non-problem. Additionally, and more importantly, because of the increased mass/inertia of the larger chunk of metal, in 50 rounds fired, the slide locked open three times before the mag was actually empty. Again, not a good thing. And again, I went back to the original.
I told my father about my experience and he replied, “A firearm is a system. It is engineered to work in a very specific way.” My experience proves him right.
