Don't know if I should admit this, just bought a fedord 1911, reg $399 sale:$260.00I liked the sights on it better than the other strictly gi .45's Ive looked at in the bargain basement. Pick it up mon (wi state law 48hrs) I don't expect anything near kimber,smith , or para ordinance quality,but figured at that price; I can afford to work on it,and 1911's are like chevy350's everybody makes parts, I can take a chance on it and and force it to run.or if its really bad I can return it and at least get some credit for a step up...pics to follow after I run a mag or three of hardball through it and decide if its worth keeping or not. Wish me luck ...()I know I'm takin' a gamble...
its sounds good on price.i want a 45 but not sure what to buy.my buddy has a few like kimber and colt gold cups.but theya re out of my range i want to spend.i ahve never owned a big caliber auto pistol...but i love my browning 22 auto.it can drive a tack.i kill game with it regular.wonder if browing makes a 45 like the 22 ????? please do show us a picture of this weapon if you dont mind.
I built a 1911 on a federal ordnance frame a while back and it shoots real good. It has decent steel in the frame and I fit the slide from several that I had laying around. All the fire control parts are Chip McCormick match and I put a stainless barrel and match bushing in. You'll prolly have to polish the feed ramp though, they don't spend a lot of time on detail like polishing.
Never heard of fedord but it can't be worse than my one Colt NRM - that thing cannot hit anything! I have Kimber, SA, Norinco and they're all great shooters but I'm going to have to replace everything on this stupid Colt.
I find federal Ordnance was an older co.; bought out in'92 though they still produced until '98. They didn't make alot of parts they bought parts and assembled guns, I found a few good comments on them and a few bad, Thanks Seacowboys. that makes me feel pretty secure I didn't just 'toss the cash down a hole on impulse. I'm sitting here without it in my hands second guessing everything.. Once it runs a few mags.I can relax andenjoy..was looking at the ruger p345(nib $399) but I don't like sa/da autos with weird decocker safeties on the slide and waytoo much "lawyer ware".( locks and safeties and more locks and safeties).
Thats one I haven't heard of; what's the fix? (Stone/ buff the burrs off the locking ridges on top of the barrel and inside the slide??) thanks.
Tango I use to subscribe to GunTests years ago and they reviewed a FedOrd Ranger once "if you don't know that magazine had Zero advertisements and there fore didn't owe any manufacture a good report as is assumed of other gun rags" They gave it a pretty good review as I recall . I believe they one they reviewed had a bit of a heavy and rough trigger at least more so than the guy liked and thats no big deal . If you're wanting a match trigger at some point in the future replacing all the components with quality would be a good ide as I am sure it came with older MIM parts . For the price I would bet you have at the very least an excelent foundation to build off of . O one thing if you do decide to polish the frame ramp DON'T USE A DREMEL TOOL !!!!! My first 1911 was a used Colt that someone had taken a dremel to and botched it , the thing wouldn't even feed hardball until I had it worked on by a quality Smith . IF you do it yourself use some fine wet dry wrapped around a dowel rod and gentle and slowly work it in and out of the frame , not in a circular motion keeping it against the frame so you don't change the angle it was cut at or make scratches that run across the ramp . If you leave even tiny scratches make sure they are in the direction in which a bullet would feed . I did this to one of my Dalys and I spent less than 10 minutes slowly working and inspecting it and now it feeds factory rounds 100% . If you do too much polishing you can change the ramp angle and ruin it , it would then require a steel insert to fix it .
Thank you I learned alot from that post and it makes me very much look forward to wiping off the safety and feeling "slabsides" buck in my hand again (been along time since i hada 1911 to play with)..
As the next cartridge comes out of the mag, it runs up the feed ramp and hits the little lip (the "hood") on the top barrel extension, tipping into the chamber. The inside of the hood may need smoothing. Go VERY carefully with it, you don't want to hit the chamber on the in stroke. Stay OFF the outside of the barrel, especially in the area of the locking lugs. The lugs are the business of a good smith or very highly advanced amateur. Like Big says, really fine abrasive paper on a dowel (or round hard arkansas stone) with motion ONLY in the fore and aft direction. There has to be zero sharp edges on the hood or the ramp, minimum (and I do mean minimum) metal edge thickness of a 64th inch, a bit more is better.
Thanks for taking the time to educate a noobyto adjustingthe 1911, our afosi guns were built by armorers in san antonio. Plenty of "singers", I had a " remington rand"; shot really nice..I never knew that partof the barrel was called "the hood",i'll stay off the locking lugs. 600,800 grit paper? 1000, 1200?best?
Tango I used 600 then 800 on mine . Here are some links that will help . In the first one the guy DOES suggest using a dremel but , quite frankly as I said I spent about 10 minutes by hand on mine and that wasn't 10 minutes of constant polishing in actuality it was perhaps 6 minutes of the paper touching the gun and I had a few visable scratches straight from the factory to work out . I have a video with the guys from Wilson and yea they use a dremel but remember those guys build em every day and also clamp the frames in a vice with a special guide tool so they dont screw them up . http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/tech/reliability_secrets.htm http://www.m1911.org/full_technic.htm The second link can also be followed around and you'll find a very informative chat forum on 1911 guns including a section where discussions are broken up into each manufacture it may not have every 1911 maker there but it's got quite a few and they even do reviews of gun sent to them just like a magazine . They have even worked out a deal with the makers of Colt OEM magazines "CheckMate" and you can buy them at pretty good prices . Here is the forum link to make it easy . http://forum.m1911.org/
Man thats worthy of a sticky!....guess we really don't need to break out a 1911 forum, glock forum, revolver forum.. but that should be "stickied" in "firearms." Thanks one and all for the introduction to "personal 1911 madness"
Thanks, "Even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and again.." ( by that I mean perhaps I got lucky and gotta decent shooter, not that colt missed something
At least based on what I have watched the smiths do the dremil works fine BUT the smiths I have watched polishing the feed ranps did NOT use a sanding wheel or a stone, they used the soft wheels of fabric type stuff (wheel type and ot cone type) with buffing compound and actualy buffed the ramp smooth. I would NOT try a dremil with grinding/sanding bits but figure with the buffing bits would likely get better results in similar time to even real fine sand paper/stone by hand. JMHO
From what I gather here: I would think the buffing wheels and compound would work ( with a practiced hand) as long as you run the wheels in the direction of bullet travel,not across,and don't dig a trench with it..Gotta see how rough it it is and whether it feeds outta the store. Lookingforward to it...
