Springfield Armory Compact 1911

Springfield Armory Compact 45 ACP

   As to often happens I run into a pistol I hadn’t really planned on buying. I was shopping for a pistol but not another 1911. Well if you read this blog much you know how much I love 1911’s! This Springfield is a bit rare. They were made in the early 90’s for a few years. This one was made in September 1993 according to Springfield. Why they discontinued such a handy pistol is beyond me. It has a Commander slide and an Officers size frame. With the new magazines out these days you don’t suffer any lose of ammo capacity since they now make seven rounders. This one came with only one magazine which from the follower indicates it’s a Metalform (rounded metal follower). I purchased a used like new Mc Cormick which was all the gunshop had and ordered a Kim-Pro mag with baseplate buffers of two sizes. One nice addition this pistol came with was a set of Trijicon night sights. Something I like about the Trijicons is the front sight has a larger white ring around the Tritium vial. This is helpful in low light to make sure you don’t line the dots up wrong.

Trijicon Novak Type Night Sights

   When I bought it it had the thick rubber grips which some shooters like but I just don’t care for. Nothing wrong with them at all but we all have our preferences and I found these grips to be a bit to “tacky” and hang on clothing when you draw. I ordered a set of McCormick Cocobolo thin grips which are sent with the shorter grip bushings and short grip screws. A nice touch that saves you some money by not having to buy the bushings and grip screws as extras. Mc Cormick makes high quality parts as well as grips and other accessories. The thumb safety was a type I hadn’t seen before. Narrow but very short surface area which makes it hard to use. I also ordered an STI extended thumb safety which I did have to do a small amount of fitting to operate smoothly. The pistol also had an early GI type short trigger. I prefer a longer trigger because of my hand size. I already had a longer trigger in my parts bin which required no fitting. Now I have this fine carry pistol just how I wanted it.

With the rubber grips and original safety—Kim Pro Tac Mag with buffer pad

   The frame is marked as being made by Imbel as are almost all Springfield Armory 1911’s. While some look on this decision with disdain I don’t. Imbel has made very high quality weapons and parts for gun makers all over the world and continue to do so. In fact they make one of the best Fn-Fal’s made. The finish is a taougher one to figure out. It’s not a blued finish nor is it parkerized. It appears to be an early hi tech finish. Very pleasing to look at and after all these years has held up very well since this pistol had no wear whatsoever. It hasn’t been used much anyway but as years go by any gun picks up little dings here and there.

On to the range:
  
   It was very cold so my range trip was fairly short. In fact I haven’t posted a lot lately because our weather in Missouri this winter has been pretty harsh:-)
   I set my targets and placed a Brirchwood Casey 5 inch stick on target in the center mass of the target. The results can be seen below. I fired one magazine of 8 rounds slow fire at 10 yards. All but one round made one hole about an 1 1/2 across. As you can see I did throw one round:-) It happens no excuses and my fault completly. Obviously the pistol is very accurate.

Five Inch Target At Ten Yards

   This second round was to the head of the target which has a 3 inch circle which can be seen in the outline. I fired two full magazines with the results shown in the picture. I did pickup the pace and fired a round about every second. The results turned out very good with all rounds within the 3 inch circle.

Three Inch Circle  Target

   That was the extent of the shooting for that day. It was about 14 deg and enough is enough! I shot to get an idea of how this pistol will perform and it did very well!
    This Springield Compact will make a very nice carry pistol. With the Officer frame the edge of the grip doesn’t show nearly as much under clothing as the full size frame and coupled with the Commander slide your sight radius is perfect for the distances a 1911 or any defensive pistol is used. This is the first one of these Springfields in this configuration I have seen since the early 1990’s and because production was fairly limited if you find one of these give it a second look. It will fill your defensive needs very well.

  

  

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Springfield Operator Milt Sparks Holster

This is a variation of the 55BN holster modified to fit the Springfield Operator 1911 with a rail system. The holster will also work on most railed 1911’s. The size of the holster isn’t much different than the original 55BN. If you look at the back of the holster you’ll notice it has two loops for a belt to go through. This is the same setup the old Bianchi Askins Avenger holster used. This holster holds your 1911 closer to your body than any other holster ever made. It’s very comfortable to wear for long periods of time and fits the gun like a glove which is typical of all Milt Sparks holsters. The mouth of the holster is reinforced so that reholstering is straight forward and very easy to perform. The holster is available in an FBI cant (butt slightly forward). The materials and construction of this holster is top notch all the way around. You may purchase this holster from Milt Sparks directly or you may find one in stock at http://www.lightningarms.com/products.htm. Craig and Audrey own this company and are fine people to deal with. I’ve been able to get two of my Milt Sparks holsters from them which were in stock and received within 5 days.

Camo Project on Springfield Armory M1A

This is an update from last months post on my new M1A. I decided that as much as I love wood stocks I wanted to try a synthetic stock. I bought a USGI synthetic in OD green. For this project I wanted to see how the stock would turn out using regular automotive type paints. I checked my local hardware store that just happened to have spray cans of all the colors I needed to make a woodland camo pattern. These paints were made for painting hunting trucks, ATV’s etc. The stock itself was like new and cost $75.00. When I finished buying sandpaper,paint and a spray can of matte clear sealant I’d spent about $25.00. Now that’s an economical project!
I started out by lightly sanding a few minor spots that needed smoothing. I put a base coat on in a light tan. After drying I used each individual color allowing each coat to dry before going on with the next color. I had no particular pattern in mind when I started and just kinda eyeballed the places I thought the paint pattern would look the best. After finishing with the application of the paints and allowing time for drying I sprayed two coats of the clear matte polyurethane coating to seal it and provide some protection from wear and scratches.
I think it turned out pretty well at minimal cost. Try it, you’ll enjoy yourself and have a stock you can use for hunting or just taking out and shooting without worrying about scratching and denting that nice wood stock:-)

Springfield Armory Operator

This is one Springfield I’ve wanted for some time. I picked it up and immediately went to my small range. Wow, talk about an accurate 1911. I’m sure the 43 ounces helps with fast follow up shots but it’s been put together well. Very good fit of the slide to frame as well as a smooth and crisp trigger pull of about 4.5 pounds. The Novak night sights give an excellent sight picture as always. The ambi-safety is crisp and sure. One thing I appreciate about Springfields guns is that depression of the grip safety is never a problem to depress. With some brands you have to really get a firm grip to make sure you depress the safety. With the Springfield and a high hold with my thumb resting on top of the safety I release it without problem. Nothing is as frustrating as trying to pull the trigger and you discover the grip safety is still engaged.
You might think that at 43 ounces it would be a real bear to carry concealed but with a Milt Sparks “55BN” holster it really isn’t. I carried it for several days and found it to be very easy to carry. The Sparks holster is a special order item to accomodate the rail.
At the range I paced off 15 yards and fired 50 rounds. You want to shoot more but at under 20deg you tend to change your mind pretty fast. I set a 5 inch target up and from a standing position put all 50 rounds into one hole about 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches. Not to shabby for an unfamiliar gun when your getting used to the change in trigger and weight. I normally like to shoot at least 200 rounds before I write anything about a new gun but with the weather in northwest Missouri–well you understand. Even with just 50 rounds I had no malfunctions of any type even though after getting home I found the gun devoid of any lube to speak of. All the brass fell within about 2 feet of each other. This a picky point with me. An extractor that isn’t very well adjusted will toss brass all over but not this gun. That means somebody at Springfield was paying attention to their job. That’s nothing unusual for this brand of gun.
This is the first gun I’ve purchased an Insight Technologies light/laser combo for. Outside of driving our cats nuts with the laser it does serve a purpose:-) If you want to keep this gun handy for home defense you won’t find a better accessory. With the included hex wrench all you have to do is adjust the laser at 10 to 15 yards to rest at the top of the sight picture. This is easily done with the Novak night sights doing there job. So, in pitch black with the sights glowing and a laser you’re pretty well assured of hitting what your aiming at. Add to that a 125 lumen white light and it’s just one handy piece of equipment. The laser/light combo weighs only 3.5 ounces so it doesn’t add any heft to speak of.
This is a fine gun that I’m adding some of Mil-Tacs fine grips to. That’s really all I need to do to have a really great gun for competition, defense or just enjoying time on the range.

Springfield Armory “Champion”

Springfield Armory 45 in the two tone OD green with black slide. It also comes standard with Novak night sights, a match trigger with a 4 1/4 pound pull. You would think accuracy would suffer with a shorter barrel but not in this case. With the bull barrel it locks up very tight and accuracy is on a par with the full size government model. This is the lightweight frame model. You also might think that recoil would be a problem especially on fast followup shots but it’s far from it. With the dual spring recoil guide rod the recoil is reduced considerably. This is one 1911 you can carry all day and be comfortable. A great carry gun!