When these came out a few years ago I thought they looked great and decided to pick one up.  Think I paid $475.  I love no frills 1911’s and I didn’t own a Springfield so….  Fit and finish was excellent and it shot great.  I decided to change a few things to suit my tastes a little better but still keep the “basic 1911”DNA intact.  

For some reason I don’t like the profile of the Springfield hammer.  It just looks odd to me so I pulled a Colt hammer out of the parts box and mated it to an EGW hard sear I also had sitting around.  Next I added a GI mainspring housing with lanyard loop as I’m a sucker for lanyard loops.  Finally, and this was all aesthetics, I changed the hammer and sear pins to EGW ones with rounded ends.  I hate that Springfield uses the flat sided pins on guns with single sided safties.  Shot it some more and decided I wanted to upgrade the sights.  I only had one pinned sight come off and that was on a 1947 Government Model but I really prefer a dovetailed front sight.    So the slid went to Novak for a white dot front sight.  Then it went to John Harrison to get his Retro rear sight with square notch.  And finally, since I love Parkerizing and the stainless barrel and bushing stuck out like a sore thumb, they went to Jagerworks to get finished in black nitride.  The bushing fit was excellent so I didn’t bother ordering an EGW one.

So while it has a few personal touches, I still think it is a very basic 1911.  Shoots excellent and it will probably not be my last Springfield.  

I like it.  Lowered and flared ejection port is a nice feature.

I can't shoot them without a beavertail or I end up bleeding.  

What mag are they using these days?


This is the least amount of frills I can live with.  This is an unmodified gun other than the grip tape:

Very nice, Jeff Cooper would approve!

Great looking stocks.

Very nice!  This is very similar to what I want done with mine, although I'm torn between the Harrison retro rear or the MMC adjustable rear.

Admittedly I had not considered the nitride finish on the barrel and bushing.  I think I will add that to my to-do list, as it definitely improves the appearance of your pistol.

I like it

….but I also need a beavertail grip safety

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Did a lot of small upgrades to my mil spec over the years. Several trips to Springfields custom shop. I think the only things left original is the slide, frame and barrel.

Very nice

My mom did the paperwork on a milspec when I was 16. I used it weekly at a local indoor range and a client of my mom's brought me to ipsc competitions for the next couple years. After I got out of the Marines it was my EDC for years untill it was stolen.

I've been a Springfield 1911 guy ever since.

I am a sucker for lanyard loop too. Went with somewhat of GI treatment on my older SAI. I will need to blue (the older SAI barrel was carbon steel in-the-white) my barrel hood some day.

Damn dude, that sucks. Have you replaced it?

Not with another milspec but I normally carry either a loaded or a lw champion

Really nice work on that pistola.
I switched out the bushing on my Garrison for the same reason you did, and I really want to send my barrel to Jager now for the nitride; I had not even considered that option and was working on how I was going to address that. Thanks for posting and detailing your work.