Eight hour (!) P&S Modcast on nothing but 1911s

General Firearms Handguns - 1911
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//youtu.be/O_NrooMVMms

Video includes discussion of why expensive 1911s are expensive, magazines, spring rates, red dots, dust covers/dust cover rails, double-stack 1911s and double-stack 1911 magazines, and all manner of minutiae on making a pistol (especially a 1911) run as well as can be and why the 1911 is still relevant in 2019.

The video starts a little bit earlier than the actual ModCast proper and extends for about three hours after the ModCast proper is over (but the subject never strays far from the 1911).

Matt Landfair hosts, with shooter/instructors Steve Fisher (Sentinel Concepts) and Chuck Pressburg (Presscheck Consulting), and 1911 gunsmiths Joe Chambers (Chambers Custom), Dave Laubert (Defensive Creations, LLC), and AJ Zito (Practical Performance). Later on (about five hours in), they’re joined by Tim Herron. And toward the end of those eight hours, they are still going, even when it’s 3 and 5 in the morning for them… only to be cut off when Matt’s internet connection cuts off.

On the topic of stuff, some of the takeaways were: Remington/Para 1911s of recent vintage are poor quality, Rugers SR1911s are recommended for those on a budget, with Dan Wesson and Nighthawk Custom for those who can spend more. You can reliably use 45 Auto magazines with 10mm and 40 and 38 Super magazines with 9mm. And apparently all plastic followers (like those used in some Wilson Combat magazines?) are problematical and magazine spring rates are not as critical to proper function as magazine manufacturers might want us to believe.

Oh: And full-size 9mm 1911s should have a 20-lb. mainspring and 13-lb. recoil spring (they cover more about mainspring and recoil spring weights/rates, balancing them, and selecting different firing pin stops based on cartridge and ammunition - but the bit about the 9mm was most important to me, because I’m wanting a reliable full-size 9mm 1911, so that’s what I took from it).

I had to watch the video over the course of two days. Usually, Matt Landfair will take shorter sections, about ten minutes long or so, and post them up, and I eagerly await the shorter sections.

I’m curious to hear what others might have to add to the discussion they have in the video.

Enjoy!

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Thanks for this. While I won’t watch the whole thing (I get side tracked on the new Hardcore History, Jocko, and either Theo Von or Joe Rogan) I will certainly appreciate the amount of knowledge packed into one video!

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Thank you for the post - would have only heard the podcast otherwise.

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“Kilt on the streets” made me chuckle.

Watched this a couple of days ago in a couple of blocks through out the day. Good stuff.

The magazine discussion was great and I had no idea about some of the points they made. Need to go back and revisit that portion because of Chambers speaking to why rebuilding your mags was a bad thing. Could be I just miss interpreted it or missed the reasoning completely because of the watching in sections thing.

Also led me down the barrel fitment rabbit hole which caused me to stumble on Joe Chambers “barrel Challenge” over on the 1911 Addicts sight. My results have been both gratifying and disappointing at the same time.

Thanks for bringing this to the surface MR. Lots of good info to be had and will probably revisit multiple times.

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Thanks for the rundown.

Sounds like shills spewing bad info.

As usual.

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You gonna add anything to the conversation or just do a drive-by trying to start shit?

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Explain, or go away.

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Great stuff, I have been watching just a few segments at a time, great stuff!

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The Dan Wesson and Nighthawk shilling bits are just from their personal beef with other manufacturers.

The magazines functioning reliably with different ammo than made for is somewhat true if your standards for reliability aren’t real high.

The mag spring force bit comes from different schools of build. Hard use reliability vs absolute max potential accuracy.

The plastic follower bit is nonsense. Some of the most reliable followers are the Wilson 47, ETM, and Tripps.

It was an undercover bash Wilson Combat video.

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Not being a pedantic 1911 groupie, I’ll just say 8 hours of anything is simply too much and that my experience is that Wilson 47’s are among the most reliable 1911 magazines.

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Just buy a Colt 1911 in .45ACP and call it a day. If you want to upgrade it later after running tens of thousands of rounds through it then do so.

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I’ve never heard anything bad about Nighthawk or Dan Wesson. It’s not unusual to see folks - myself included - recommend Dan Wessons to those who can afford them. In fact, I personally, will probably never choose a 1911 of lesser quality than a Dan Wesson ever again.

Further, it is not unusual to see Nighthawk Custom guns recommended for those who can afford them, frequently alongside Wilson and Guncrafter. Further, both Steve Fisher and Chuck Pressburg have and carry Nighthawk Custom pistols - I don’t think it would be that unusual for an instructor to recommend a pistol brand that they regularly carry (late last week, there was a concealed carry course being taught in a conference room next to where I was having lunch, close enough that I could overhear the instructor, and the only pistol brand I heard him explicitly mention was Glock, the brand of pistol that he carries), rather than a brand that they may not have as much direct experience with.

The Ruger seemed an interesting choice. It has at least one feature that is uncommon on 1911s until you get into stuff like the Nighthawk Custom guns (the integrally machined plunger housing). And while I haven’t been impressed with the consistency of the fit on their 1911s, I’ve also not heard many complaints (although that could just be on account of the average Ruger owner being no different than the average gun owner and only putting 200-500 rounds through a gun before they never look at it, ever again).

And if Pressburg and Fisher have been burned by the likes of Colt and Springfield, they sure wouldn’t be the first ones to have been. Given Springfield’s shenanigans in the Illinois state legislature and the (temporary) shutdown and reorganization of the Springfield Armory Custom Shop (does Dave Williams even work at SACS, any more?), I’m not sure I’d want them to shill SAI guns - and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to, either. I can think of at least one guy (big name instructor) who was helping Colt get their 1911 range squared away who, after helping do so, was basically ejected.

Super undercover, cuz they don’t even mention Wilson until well after the Modcast is over and even then it’s WRT one of the adjustable sights that Wilson makes.

My experience with Wilson ETMs (over a decade), ETM-Vs (three years), and ETM +Ps (six or seven years?) has been very positive. Furthermore, it seems that the concensus is that 47s and ETMs are the magazine to choose for reliable function in a 1911 (Vickers obviously has the ETM-V and Hackathorn seems to be fond of standard ETMs, although both shill for Wilson, and I seem to recall Todd Green liking ETMs for his 9mm Burton gun, and Jason Burton and Clint Smith are both big on standard 47s (not 47Ds), and Hilton Yam’s list of duty magazines for 1911s, last I checked, included Wilson 47s and ETMs*). The issue mentioned was that the plastic followers would fail to engage the slidelock after 50 slidelocks.

But I haven’t keep track of how many rounds I’ve put through which magazines and, except very recently with one of my ETM +Ps (I rebuilt all my ETMs with +P followers and springs probably three years ago), I’ve never had an issue with any of them. And that issue was that the magazine was failing to lock the slide open. I don’t know if it’s related to the follower material or simply due to the magazine getting old - and I don’t have a second pistol to test it with, to see if it’s the GI I used it with (I had no issues with the same magazines and a Wilson Vickers Elite that I had until last year).

I have not been able to find anyone else complaining about failures of their all-plastic 1911 magazine followers, regardless of make.

*Hilton Yam’s list hasn’t been updated since Wilson bought out Chip McCormick, although it appears that CMC Power Mags, his #1 recommendation, are still available. The CMC magazines, however, have steel followers, not plastic.

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I didn’t say there was anything wrong with Dan Wesson or Nighthawk, I own a Dan wesson, and Nighthawk is a great custom shop.

Have the ETMs been out for a decade already??

I know the guys in the vid, everything they covered was an undercover bash on Bill and Ryan Wilson. That’s why they weren’t specifically mentioned, but if you the minutiae of all of their build philosophies, it’s perfectly clear.

The Himton Yam and LAV doctrines are more in line with Wilson’s vs what was talked about there.

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I was 22 when I bought my first pistol, a Kimber Desert Warrior. That would have been in 2007. When I bought it, it was right after Hilton Yam’s 1911 articles had been posted on the web for the first time and the Kimber Warrior was still on his recommended production duty gun list. I bought some CMCs at the time. About the same time, ETMs came out and I bought some of them to try. Ended up giving my CMCs to my dad and loading up on ETMs, three magazines at a time, whenever they came up on sale on MidwayUSA.

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Rock island guns seem to be accepted way more these days, as a good choice for anything under $1k and north. The sr1911 is fine and a 70 series, shiny though

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That’s really not sound advice. How many new production Colt 1911’s have you owned?

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At least eight of the newer production models. I haven’t had any issues other than one shooting a little low- which their custom shop addressed free of charge of course. It’s not the same Colt from the 80’s and 90’s anymore. Guys on the 1911forum will say the same. Now that being said, they obviously have levels that you pay more for.

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Well…to be fair, the current production has far fewer fleas than some of the guns I picked up from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. FAR from perfect but far better values in their roster than I’ve ever seen with some decent improvements.

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Given that Virgil Tripp saw fit to place metal inserts where the slide stop is engaged by the plastic follower, it seems evident that someone other than the guy in the podcast thought plastic followers could be improved upon. And then did so.

Because his experience said it was a needed upgrade.

It is easier to suggest that something is fine if it has never been modified. For further proof of that, ask yourself why Chip McCormick came out with his Power Mag Plus follower If the standard, somewhat considerably flawed Power Mag followers were all that great. The upgrade sought to address nosediving problems with the original that dinged aluminum frame ramps and exacerbated the tendency toward feeding problems relating to steeper than desirable feed angularity, especially with the first few rounds out of the magazine.

I guess the lesson is that just because you have not yet had problems does not mean the same is true for everyone.

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Also: What’s the difference (or are the differences) in build philosophy between Bill Wilson (and presumably other 1911 gurus?) and the 'smiths interviewed in the video?