ltwguns.com

Fellas,

I was sitting down the other day with a pad and pen writing out ideas for a Caspian based commander-sized gun in .45 and started thinking about the more finicky cycling of the commander and officers sized guns. This may be a really bad question, but I need to ask it to satisfy my curiosity. The commander and officers have a shortened stroke, and because of this, many people feel they are not as reliable as a full sized gun without tuning. My question is, why is the commander's stroke shortened instead of simply trimming 3/4" from the front end of a standard 1911, trimming the bushing and spring plug and going from there? This, it would seem, would give a full-length stroke and allviate the reliability issues, at least to me. Now, if there are problems with contact inside the gun, such as bushing to barrel hood contact, would a bull barrel with full sized lug dimensions and the cone shaped to acommodate the shorter slide work? This interests me. I'd be willing to start a project if anyone thinks it sounds workable, but if it has been done and there are serious issues, please let me know. I think it would be all too easy for a barrel maker to do the dimensions, and cutting the slide to length is a very simple task. I need input from the pros.

I have this idea in my head now, and it's going to go somewhere... successfully, I hope.

~Jim Keeney

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"I'd rather die on my feet than keep living on my knees." - Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Revolutionary

It's funny, but before we had the internet Commanders ran just fine. We've got a lot of experts now among us who draw their entire base of knowledge from rumour and speculation. I guess something got disturbed in that great cosmic scheme of things - internet up, start a rumour, Commanders worldwide suddenly become a bad choice.

I find Commanders will run well with a bull barrel/reverse plug set up, but there's little value to adding that small amount of weight. I'd prefer a GI type recoil system.

The biggest factor in keeping a Commander happy is your personal gun hygeine. The recoil spring won't last as long as a Gov't, that's a given. Replace it with a spring of appropriate rate on timely intervals and you'll be just fine

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Heirloom Precision, LLC.
480-804-1911

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

TR

Agreed. I had a LW Commander that would feed and fire anything of the appropriate caliber. I once had one of the club members I shot with at that time who wanted to know if it would feed some 250 Gr. Keith type SWC's he had loaded in 45 ACP cases. I said it would and by golly, it worked just fine. In fact, one of Chuck Taylors favorite carry guns has always been a Commander. Best,

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Don Williams
http://www.theactionworks.com
http://www.ltwguns.com

That about sums it up and it's good to hear it again with all the negatives out there.
I have been following that rule for years with great results and prefer the Commander in most applications.


Brian

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Brian

Ted,

I didn't mean they didn't run well, and going back over what I wrote, I should have chosen my words a bit better, it's just that they do require attention in different areas and (usually) cannot take some things that full-sized guns can, like shok buffs. They usually require extended ejectors. I've heard more negatives about the officers guns than anything, but my personal experience with them is limited. What I was asking is, why is the cycle shorter? Why did they not just shorten the slide and barrel of a full sized gun? Can a full sized gun be cut off to commander length without major issues? I have two commanders that run fine right now... one a .45 and the other a 10mm. I notice, especially in the 10mm, that fully loaded mags tend to cause first round feeding issues that don't occur in my full sized guns. I can eject a live round in my full sized guns and can't in the commanders. These are the things I'm talking about. My apologies for not thinking it through better before my first post.

Respectfully,
Jim Keeney

_________________
"I'd rather die on my feet than keep living on my knees." - Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Revolutionary