There are some folks who post in this thread who have just what you're looking for.

I've long been a stickler for leaving guns alone, especially the 1911 guns. None of mine are really moded except for these two and I felt like I was really out of character to make only trivial changes to these.

The Colt Delta Elite 10mm was purchased new in 2016 and came equipped with black rubber wrap-around grips, something I don't really care for so I asked Altamont if they'd install Delta Elite medallions I would send them into one of their custom stocks models for me.

This 1967 vintage Colt Government Model was acquired in really nice condition except for that it had just been dropped on a concrete floor, squarely on its sights which were smushed and ruined. I picked it up for less because of the damage, put Harrison "Retro" front and rear sights on it as replacements and put it to work. The Colt medallion checkered stocks were a kind gift sent me by a friend so I dressed the pistol up with their addition.

Major design modifications or appearance enhancements are something I've carefully avoided. I grew up around 1911s and have owned them myself since the late 1970s. Those 1911s have always given perfect satisfaction without being monkeyed with. There are those who are capable of successfully tricking out 1911s to suit them and for them the 1911 gun is a fun hobby in itself. Everyone else ought to leave the pistol alone.

I love a good trigger but outside trigger work I leave 1911 guns strictly alone.

 

@noelekal the Delta is sweet. I’d love to put a few magazines through it. How is recoil with the 10 mil? I ask as I get “shooters elbow” after yrs of range time. The Python roll up, even with hotter loads, probably why I prefer revolvers now.

 

Here's my current favorite 1911. This one stared out as a nib sr1911 After a trip to the gunsmith, machine shop & refinisher. Plenty of parts were modified and replaced to get the 1911 I wanted. This is the end result. I posted this one earlier in this thread. All the work was worth the effort it's a great shooter.

 

Funny you should inquire about the recoil. I was just remarking about 10mm recoil on another forum a little earlier this evening.


The 10mm is an excellent auto-pistol cartridge, but its fearsome reputation is pretty severely overrated over in firearms Forum-land. Wonder if this is done to make the owners and shooters appear to be more he-man for being able to "handle" the recoil of the 10mm?

With about 1000 rounds fired through the Delta Elite, I've found myself uncertain whether I can tell the difference in recoil of the 10mm and recoil generated by typical 230 grain .45 ACP defense loads. I'd like to say 10mm is more "abrupt" but can't even convince myself that it is.

I did a test with my 1911 .45-fan youngest son. We had a father-and-son .45 mini-fest recently and spent some time at the local club range burning up .45 ammunition. After a good bit of shooting I told him I wanted him to test a Colt Government Model I'd had for a while which he'd not yet seen. Handed it to him in a way that he couldn't see its sides and told him I wanted him to shoot it and give me his impressions before examining it.

He didn't know he was shooting a 10mm rather than a .45 when this photo was snapped while he was shooting the Delta Elite. The load he is shooting is the 220 grain hard cast Buffalo Bore load which is the hardest kicking load used in the pistol to date.


After shooting the magazine-full he turned to me and said: Dad, I can't believe you got a stainless steel Colt (I'm a fan of blued guns). The trigger pull sure isn't so hot on this one is it?

He hadn't noticed increased recoil.

I had to ask him to look more closely at the pistol in order to find out what he'd just shot. He agreed that he couldn't tell the difference in recoil between the 10mm and the .45.

Some limited chronograph testing conducted to date.

Factory Loads - Fired in 10-round strings

Great Lakes 180 grain XTP
MV 1145 FPS
ME 524 ft./lbs
ES 51 FP

SIG Sauer 180 grain FMJ flat nose
MV 1246
ME 659
ES 61

Buffalo Bore 180 JHP
MV 1326
ME 702
ES 39

Buffalo Bore 220 grain hard cast
MV 1161
ME 659
ES 53

Underwood 180 grain XTP
MV 1303
ME 679
ES 22

Underwood 220 grain hard cast
MV 1128
ME 622
ES 73

No real effort has yet been made to handload for the 10mm Auto. I made a start with old faithful Unique in two loadings, both mild.

175 grain cast truncated cone, 5.8 grains Unique, Remington 2 1/2 primers
MV 967
ME 363
ES 72

175 grain cast truncated cone, 6.3 grains Unique, Remington 2 1/2 primers
MV 1033
ME 415
ES 57

 

While the last pic isn’t a true 1911 it’s a solid variant by WC, the new EDC X9.

I’ll need to get you a family pic with a few others.

 

Colt Delta Elite, it's a late eighties one and when I picked it up it had the enlarged beaver tail safety, comp trigger, and ugly rubber wrap around rubber grips so I swapped the grips out. The nickel plated one is my Great-Grandad's WWII side arm that my dad inherited as a teenager. It was badly rusted from the way it had been stored and my dad wanted a competition gun. He sand blasted it, had it plated and replaced the barrel and bushing with a MkIV gold cup barrel and collet bushing, then he did a ramp job so it'd accept semi-wad cutters and a trigger job on it. Both are tack drivers with nice crisp triggers that break right around 3# in the Delta Elite and between 3.5 and 4# in the GI, beyond 20 yards the Delta Elite might edge out the GI one in accuracy but I believe that would only be due to the GI sights on the old one making it a little harder to hit with at distance. I'm with Noelekal I don't notice much difference between the recoil in the 10mm and the .45acp.

 

How do you pull the trigger with your redneck rifle rest? By the way I love the alliteration.

 

I poked a hole in the box then tie a string around the trigger and yank on the string.

Actually it's just a way of resting the rifle to hold it steady to bore sight the scope to the bore. Also works good to mount scopes or sights.

One time I was at the range. One rifle I own is deadly accurate. at 200 meters I shot a three shot group same hole. Three shots hot barrel all the holes were overlapping each other. A couple benches down was a local long range shooting club. They were out shooting sighting in their rifles.

When they arrived at the range I had a box setup like this and for the bench rest was four or five # nine lead shot bags. Most of then just rolled their eyes at the setup. When they seen my targets. They asked me what the F you shooting. I told them a box stock hunt'n rifle. They felt like an a$$.

All the rifles they had were bull barreled tricked out rifles. The looks on their faces were priceless. They had lead sleds and the whole nine yards of top shelf shooting gear. My friend and I just smiled and walked off the range.

 

Dang Ranger, now THAT's the way to pose a firearm!!

 

Alrighty then, I'll start with my Long Range Pistol. Back in San Antonio, after a silhouette rifle shoot, a few of us would hang around and shoot the silhouettes with pistols. Actually more fun than the match itself. You get real good at a steady hold shooting steel rams at 500meters. (We would then shoot the steel chickens at 200meters with 22 pistols.) Neither gun could knock over the steel targets, but you could hear them get hit. Dull 'dung' on the rams, and a 'ding' on the chickens.

AMT Longslide custom. The sighting for 500meters was the bottom front edge of the ejection port. A long slow arc. Took about 5 seconds to hear back if you made a hit. A friend with a spotting scope would call your misses hitting the dirt around it. We'd go out there afterwards and pick up the miss bullets off the ground. Virtually perfect they could have been reloaded again. The bullets that hit the rams were dented of course, but laying on the ground under the target.

 

This was the last one I built about 20 yrs ago. It is tremendously time consuming to build a custom 1911. I really got into it for a few years in the 1990s. Built about two dozen. This is the only one I kept, and the only bull barrel example I ever made. I put the Mother of Pearl grips on it about 5 yrs ago. Hand carved them myself.

Shoots sweet as love.

 

Here's a good link to view some awesome 1911's
Click on the link
http://forum.ltwguns.com/viewforum.php?f=6&sid=6252eafaafd63d7fdadf7218864a76f1

 

I'll bet a lot of you don't know Springfield Armory made a 10mm in the late 80s called an Omega. The slides were custom made by Peters Stahl in Germany. Dang they know how to make em tight. Locks up like a bank vault. I think a new Peters Stahl pistol runs around $4k. I bought this one at a gun show about 5 yrs ago for $700. A little trigger work, grips and couple other parts...good to go.

 

Brian
Check this one out it sure is pretty from the test target I bet it's a straight shooter,

http://forum.ltwguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9899

 

I posted there 3 or 4 times back in 2007. Harrison did a full custom carry package on a commander for me. I still think he may use some of the pics of it on his site. It was so modded, I ended up selling it. I went overboard and then didn’t want to use/carry it. I just logged in trying to find his pics, but images no longer work.

 

Wow! That is a nice way to do 10mm.

Nobody gave me a retirement gift like that.

 

My original plan with the Ruger I posted was to have J Harrison do it up However the logistics were a problem along with the wait time involved. I wound up having a local gunsmith do some of the work. The rear sight on the Ruger is from Harrison. It's just not blended into the slide. Which at a later date I may have that done. Harrison design does some very nice work.

With the Ruger I did not want to go full out custom just some things I liked were done. Always time for round two for the Ruger. However I have another 1911 project in the works. I like to do these builds in baby steps. Nothing worse than having all the custom work done and find out the 1911 is not a good shooter.

 

It's a sweet firearm

 

Not a mod or variant, but someone says 1911 and I'm in. A good honest Remington Rand from 1945. Most likely never saw action in WW II, but I don't know. Purchased by my dad in the late 50's through the NRA. Not close to being half as accurate as the newer 1911's but it always fires when you squeeze the trigger.

Sorry if I got off topic but at least the model is right.

 

This is presenting a real dilemma for me: an Ed Brown or another Speedy