Photo of the Day: Visiting with an Early 1911 Build

Today’s photo of the day is one of my early projects from almost 10 years ago. I built it on a Colt 1991A1 with all the Series 80 parts in tact. I spent a lot of time on the trigger and adjusted the timing of the S80 parts so that they are transparent to the shooter. After about a year, the original Ed Brown thumb safety sheared, so it was replaced with a strong side only CMC unit that I had in the pile. I also replaced the slide stop with an early 10-8 unit for good measure. All the parts were addressed by hand, including removal of all machine marks from the frame and slide, thorough dehorn, and polishing of all the pins. The S&A magwell was also blended by hand with external recontouring inspired by a build I had seen from Larry Vickers. I can’t take credit for the scallops; they were done as a favor to me by Stan Chen back in the day. This pistol has some good honest wear on it, which looks nice on the satin blue finish. Bluing doesn’t protect nearly as well as modern polymer finishes, but boy it looks a lot better when it wears. Just don’t keep it around salt water.

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About Tim Lau

Tim Lau has over a decade of experience as an end user, armorer and instructor. He has worked for several well known firearms training organizations, and holds multiple firearms instructor certifications. He owns and operates 10-8 Consulting, LLC, which provides industry consulting services as well as marksmanship and specialized firearms training to qualified civilian, law enforcement and military personnel.

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