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Condition corrected by many modern designed 1911 makers - eliminating the barrel bushing & proper fitting of the barrel to the slide.

Oh yah..that barrel bushing is probably the MOST important on accuracy..if it rattles like a maraca and the barrel is all loose you have NO idea where the rounds will be going..a tight well fit bushing keeps the barrel pointed in the right direction

Actually, I don't own a .45 Colt 1911 but my dad does. The accuracy was never that great. I posted it simply because I thought it might be interesting to some.

As a side note, my dad's 1911 belonged to his father. My dad told me that when he was a boy, late 1930's or early 1940's, his father took him out to go shooting. He had this 1911 with him and he was going to show my dad safety tips on firing a handgun. This was near Henderson. My dad's dad picked out a tree to shoot at and fired the 1911 at this tree. Apparently, the bullet entered the tree, turned 180 degrees and hit my grandfather right between the eyes knocking him unconscious. My dad was about 7 or 8 at the time and thought his dad was dead. Fortunately, the bullet lost most of its energy in the tree and he came to after a few minutes. My dad said his dad had two terrible black eyes for weeks. Some safety lesson. Anyway, my grandfather picked up the bullet and put it on his watch chain. My dad still has the gun as well as the watch, the chain and the bullet.

My dad probably hasn't fired that gun in over twenty years but he still keeps it cleaned and oiled.

Txroadcyclist wrote:Actually, I don't own a .45 Colt 1911 but my dad does. The accuracy was never that great. I posted it simply because I thought it might be interesting to some.

As a side note, my dad's 1911 belonged to his father. My dad told me that when he was a boy, late 1930's or early 1940's, his father took him out to go shooting. He had this 1911 with him and he was going to show my dad safety tips on firing a handgun. This was near Henderson. My dad's dad picked out a tree to shoot at and fired the 1911 at this tree. Apparently, the bullet entered the tree, turned 180 degrees and hit my grandfather right between the eyes knocking him unconscious. My dad was about 7 or 8 at the time and thought his dad was dead. Fortunately, the bullet lost most of its energy in the tree and he came to after a few minutes. My dad said his dad had two terrible black eyes for weeks. Some safety lesson. Anyway, my grandfather picked up the bullet and put it on his watch chain. My dad still has the gun as well as the watch, the chain and the bullet.

My dad probably hasn't fired that gun in over twenty years but he still keeps it cleaned and oiled.

I would surmise that the bullet actually went through the tree (or missed), hit a rock, and bounced back. Otherwise, it's somewhere between the realms of "incredibly unlikely" and "impossible." The only was I can think of a tree "returning" a bullet like that is if it was both an incredibly hard wood and the bullet hit a knot (which is possible, but such a ricochet is still incredibly unlikely). Not saying it didn't happen, just that the tree was probably not the culprit.

FWIW, .45 ricochets do hurt. I got pegged by one last year; fortunately, it didn't break the skin, just felt like I got "frogged" on top of my shoulder. And yes, I do still have the bullet, too.

Molon_labe wrote:Oh yah..that barrel bushing is probably the MOST important on accuracy..if it rattles like a maraca and the barrel is all loose you have NO idea where the rounds will be going..a tight well fit bushing keeps the barrel pointed in the right direction

Uh, that’s not exactly true. I’m not disputing the claims made by the article’s author, but he’s also talking about a 1911 that more than likely was thoroughly worn out and overdue for a rebuild or retirement. AEA is partially right in saying some manufactures eliminated the bushing completely by using bull-barrels in lieu of traditional bushing-type configurations but many of these changes were a result of marketing pressures rather than functional/design improvements.

I’m not saying that tightening the fit at the muzzle isn't a factor, but it's not the most important factor either. Overall, the biggest factor is whether or not the frame, slide-stop, slide, barrel, and bushing all return to the same location every time the gun returns to battery. So the fit at the muzzle is just part of the picture. In the old days, if you asked your gunsmith to accurize a 1911, that process often started with welding extra steel onto the upper and lower lugs as well as the barrel hood. The gunsmith would then re-cut those lugs to refit the barrel. Today, your gunsmith can just buy a new barrel and bushing that include extra steel in critical areas to fit eliminate excessive clearances at the lugs, barrel hood as well as the muzzle.

Going back to the bull-barrels to which AEA alluded, I have owned and/or shot hundreds of 1911’s with standard, cone, compensated and bull-barrel configurations over the last fifteen years. Each barrel configuration has advantages/disadvantages for one specific application or another. For example, many shooters prefer having some extra weight at the muzzle-end to make the gun shoot “flatter.� This is where bull-barrels and standard barrels fitted with cones offer some advantages over bushing-type barrels in the 1911. On the other hand, bull-barrels also require additional machining of the slide to accept reverse plugs and often complicate maintenance.

FWIW, the 1911’s that I carry/own for personal defense have standard bushings that are only “finger-tight.� Why? Because maintenance is a simpler task when I don’t have to keep a wrench for the bushing or a paper-clip sized piece of steel for a full-length guide-rod one might have with a bull-barrel. I prefer to keep important guns as simple as possible. However, the double-stack, STI I’m planning to have built for USPSA Limited Division will have a bull-barrel with no bushing. It’s a competition only pistol that I won’t carry and ease of maintenance is not a huge concern.