GOOD GRAVY!!! This thread keeps getting better and better! Did he have a mag preference? There seems to be a lot of different mags, but my phone isn’t giving me the best picture.
(I think I even see a lone Glock mag creeping into the group) 
Yeah that Glock mag was comical, like rolling its eyes and whistling-- “I’m not here”.
Tripps and Wilsons mostly, some CMC’s. Some hodge-podge. I know when he buys new, he buys Tripps. these days.
Hey Ned,
Any new Numbers/or should I say, what is the new number-rounds down the pipe or parts and or pictures of this Safe Queen?LOL 
Peace Jeff
I should be seeing it in a few weeks and I will take a look at the shot counter (Rob hisself). Since he got the new slide, I had it for a while to put a new Shield Driver on it. With a shooter like Rob it takes a while to get the zero just right-- you can’t just throw sights on and “good enough, I can hit that old fridge at 30 feet”. When a shooter is really good and is particular about hitting smaller targets at greater distances, sight adjustments of even a few thousandths are not unusual.
Any updates?
How many rounds were fired prior to the slide cracking?
80-thousand-plus. No updates, I usually don’t see Rob and his guns in the winter months.
Wow! I thought I was a player because I keep about a dozen 1911 mags per gun. I’m not even close! Back to Kindergarten for me!
I thought I shot a lot and hoarded mags before reading this. Thread of the year IMO, just awesome.
Awesome thread…
Awesome post.
What a remarkable thread.
Ned, should we expect this kind of performance and longevity from the new 9mm offerings, specifically the Combat Operator and Range Officer Operator?
Wow
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Great question - inquiring minds want to know…
I’m not Ned but this is a play by play of a high round count test documented.
http://pistol-training.com/archives/category/range-reports/springfield-1911-9mm.
Here’s some discussion of the gun post test by a pretty qualified guy.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?11835-Todd-s-Warren-1911-s-Guts
It all seems to indicate to me the gun kept going; Todd stopped the test because the barrel was shot out (TMJ +P loads; I’m not surprised) and stopped grouping well after 65k~ rounds.
Others (Frank Proctor, Costa, and Hackathorn) have used 9mm 1911’s publicly quite extensively, and I’d imagine they’re softer shooting in larger Government Pistols.
I think the 9mm 1911’s should perform well long term.
God Bless,
Brandon
ETA: The only guns I’ve heard of having issues with a specific caliber were 10mm Colt Delta Elites because of frame battering, but that’s not the situation with 9mm.
Also, the failures with the Warren Operator seemed to be associated with the ejector pressing against the magazine and causing the ejector to work loose/break. But those were replaced in the test by SACS, and Springfield guns are covered with a lifetime warranty.
Honestly I don’t have a ton of personal ownership experience with 9mm 1911’s. I’ve done custom work on maybe 8 or 10 of them though, and have shot several others. As to longevity and durability I would think they would tend to last a good long time. Accuracy wise I have no doubt a well-done 9mm 1911 would be no less accurate than a SIG P210 or… or whatever the most accurate 9mm in the world is. Anyone have experience with the Pardini?
A little update on Rob’s Operator. He has been shooting a lot since the last report but not so much the Operator, he says about 4K since I last examined it, meaning total rounds at this time about 112K. Most of those of course before the new slide.
Between training gigs he stopped by and asked me to put a new set of grips on the full custom gun I did for him in ’03. He thought he’d bought VZ’s but as a testament to how good VZ’s are, there are a lot of companies now making similar grips. I would not call these a VZ ripoff necessarily, but for what Rob paid, $30, I suspect they don’t measure up to what I like to say about VZ Grips: American made from American materials to original designs by Americans, made on Haas CNC’s by entrepreneurial Americans!
I thought the pattern came up a little short so I added some vertical lines before I fitted them to the welded-on magwell (made from scratch back in ’03).
I grabbed some pics of both:
Operator: when it needed a new slide it got a new Shield Driver rear sight. Rob is basically the guy the Shield Driver is named after.
The current (Kart) barrel.
The only thing that needed attention this time was the firing pin stop, which was cracked. Honestly, once this happens it’s pretty much done and I have not seen one “break more” but just the same I replaced it with an EGW part.
The Caspian’s mainspring housing, made from scratch by me. Rob and I agreed in ’03 to take a little weight out where it could be done…. but as I got to know him better I could see that he really, truly uses his guns and I was worried the aluminum MSH would take a real beating from reloads so I made this stainless insert.
A few weight saving measures, another window under the grips and a few cuts inside at the Pica rail.
Down the Caspain’s Kart barrel at about 30-40K rounds.
The magwell.
Overall LH side view with the new grips. I almost told him no deal, get some VZ’s, or not deal but then I figured, the money’s already in China, so……
Thanks for the update, very cool.
Well Springfield can be proud of this one.
I think that was the original FP stop (can you tell me?). I don’t recall changing it out-- if I had done it I would recognize it because a do a few things to them. It’s possible Rob changed it out but I don’t think so. I have now started tracking maintenance and repair on this thing (finally, in year ten!). I take a grip panel off and write notes on the inside with the Dremel. That way when I have the gun I have the maint. record.