On pistol qualification day during basic training 1983, the guy in the bunk next to me tells us his dad has a M1911. Cool! never thought about it much, till 33 years later he sells me appoints me caretaker of this pistol.

"This is a beautiful example of “Old School” modifications to the venerable 1911 to make it a worthy target pistol. This particular one is an early Colt 1911 that was handed down to me by my dad some 15 years ago, with the statement that it was customized by John M. Schooley , whose name really meant nothing to me. So I looked him up on the net. I discovered Schooley was an expert pistol shot, gun enthusiast, gun advocate, past president of the NRA and the gentlemen that the NRA’s Whittington Center Admin. Bldg. is named in honor of. Here is the story of this 1911: My dad acquired this gun through a government disposal program in the 50’s / early 60’s when surplus weapons were being sold to citizens. My dad was a junior employee in the operations / management of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. During a period of labor “unrest” he and other members of management were “deputized” by the Denver Police Dept. to patrol the rail yards to prevent vandalism by the striking workers. During this adventure my dad crossed paths with Schooley – who was at that time with the Denver Police Dept – and the two of them became acquainted, as my dad was a crack pistol shot in his own right. Dad gave this 1911 over to Schooley to modify it into a competition worthy piece. From what I can determine a new barrel and custom stocks from Wayland Grips in Studio City, CA were put on, front and rear sights modified, Schooley polished or stoned various internal parts and then the entire gun was re-blued. Unfortunately for my Dad, in 1965 his career took him to the big cities back east and he never got to shoot much after that. When my dad gave this pistol over to me, it had no magazine. I bought an aftermarket Wilson Combat magazine which works really slick. I have shot maybe 3-4 boxes of ammo through gun in the 15 yrs. I’ve had it. It shoots great, has a very nice trigger and is very accurate. The grips are comfortable and fill a man sized hand. The checkering on these grips is perfect. The bore is mirror bright and looks like it was used very little. While this gun is obviously not an original condition piece, you will appreciate and treasure the beauty and accuracy of this early 1911."  JS - 2016

TLDR: Pistol was tuned and blued by this guy-



ETA: The trigger is sweet. It has a set screw through it.

Hell of a pistol, thanks for sharing!

Springfield Armory LB Operator made better by Defensive Creations

Well done that thing is gorgeous, basically what I hope mine to be one day.

Looks great! How long was the turnaround? I emailed him a while back and his prices were reasonable but he never quoted me a time.

Some grips of my own make on my Ed Brown Kobra Carry.

Well it finally came in today. Dan Wesson build 100 percent done in their custom shop. I couldn't be happier.

So my thoughts -

°This pistol is flawless in EVERY way. Not a tooling mark on it ANYWHERE

°The slide to barrel to frame fit is unlike anything I've ever seen. Literally ZERO play

°They did special little touches like the chamfer on the beavertail etc

°The ball cuts line up perfectly with the rail which I requested

°The trigger I asked to break at 3.5lbs its the lightest cleanest crispest trigger I've ever felt truly like a glass rod snapping

°The Melonite throughout is perfect. No orange peel or blemishes.

°The front strap checkering is perfect. They also cut borders along each side that goes into an undercut. My specialist the checkering just stopped and trailed off

The barrel has zero play and the can and thread protector thread on and it feels almost hydraulic.

The thumb safety clicks on and off with authority but doesn't bind

Slide stop is countersunk and bobbed

Overall I'm just blown away way beyond what I had hoped for











Excuse the shitty pics, they were taken quickly using my cell phone.

nice longmire setup there, what holster?

Umm that's badass. I need in those grips. 

She's perfect!! So jealous. Do you mind sharing what that cost?

Got to figure out some better lighting in the computer/gun room, everything comes out greenish.

nice pics

Interested as well. That thing is beautiful

Total cost was right at 2500.00, but i had ordered it with a second fitted non-threaded, melonited barrel which was an additional 200.00. Heres a list of the work I had done-

Threaded/Non threaded match barrels, ramped
Flat faced 10-8 trigger fitted and cerakoted black
Tall suppressor height Heine night sights
Flat faced spring plug
Black cherry super scoop VZ grips
Thick bushing
Tight frame to slide fit
1 piece DW magwell
Melonite complete pistol, inside and out
Blacken hammer (cannot be melonited)
All internals must be tool steel
Slide stop coutersunk and flattened
Ribbed top of slide
Rail cut flush with ball cuts
3lb trigger pull

Then on top of that they did some little touches on their own without me asking. The chamfered the bottom of the beaver tail safety, additional relief of ejection port, blend thumb safety, etc.

The pistol is incredible in EVERY way. There is ZERO and I mean ZERO play in the slide to frame and barrel to slide/bushing. The pistol is flawless, I am unable to find a tooling mark anywhere on it. The front strap checkering is beautiful, they cut vertical borders along the sides of it so it comes up to a "relief" instead of just stopping/trailing off like my specialist did.

Keith (VP of Operations) handles the custom builds. When I started this endeavor I had considered going with a Brown, Baer, or NH. I contacted Keith to see what he had to offer. He assured me the gun would be built 100% in their custom shop and would be a completely different animal than one of their production guns. He was totally right in every way. This wasnt a gun that had a few things done to it in the custom shop, it was built from the ground up there. Previously I had a Specialist to compare it to and you can see the differences throughout. Worth noting is all of DW's custom built guns get shipped to the president of CZ for approval before being shipped to the customer. Another nice touch is the custom guns come in a special black soft gun case with Dan Wesson embroidered on it and have some goodies inside.

If I had to do it all over again, Id choose to have DW build me the same exact gun. I have zero regrets and I wouldnt change a thing on the gun, although the one caveat is DW wont fit/blend your magwell. I had asked for it and Keith informed me they wont do it as they feel its not worth it- so they dont offer it. That being said the fit is MUCH MUCH better than the magwell on my Specialist (please dont take my comparision of the Specialist as a negative, the Specialist is a beautiful gun in its own right).

damn that's slick  ..my M1991A1

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Beautifully done custom you got there sir.  A real piece of art.


Got my 1911 juices flowing again:

@seven8nin thanks for the kind words sir it's much appreciated! That SA Pro is just beautiful! I've always wanted one

thanks man. Its actually just a Custom Carry made to my specifications.  I wanted to order a Pro, but the long wait time for a gun i was just going to change things on made me lean towards the Custom Carry.

Mine was still so tight when i got it you could have sworn it was a Pro.

Yeah it's ok I guesssss

love it!!

I like that.  Just about exactly how I'd set one up.

those look pretty nifty
they look really thick... or is it just an illusion?

Damn it NewYork, i'm sick of seeing pictures of this gun and to be frank i'm running low on Lubriderm.

Hahaha!! Thank you brother. Love that Operator!!

That bluing is

Do non-1911 1911's belong here?

Star BKS, the cheapest pistol in my stable.

My TRP just came back from Nighthawk.  They put a threaded bbl in it and blacked it out for me.

Very nice

I'm pretty jealous

The SA Professional is one of my "I'm going to own one before I die" guns.

This is my 2nd, I had one years ago.  I can't decide if it's any better than my Ed Browns or Wilson Combats, but it's certainly just as good.  I'll probably buy a railed model as well.

I'm going to throw some black VZ 320's on it and carry it.  I already have kydex from JM Custom Kydex on order.

I don't know what it is about that specific trp configuration but I have always loved that one.

Picked this one up for $800 on GunBroker.  Can't believe how light it is.  Feels about the same as my Springer compact with bull barrel.

Got to love M1911A1s


Original Remington Rand M1911A1 and Springfield  Garand by SoloDallas, on Flickr


Original WWII Remington Rand M1911A1 by SoloDallas, on Flickr


Original Remington Rand M1911A1 and Springfield  Garand by SoloDallas, on Flickr

Couldn't edit previous post and needed to add another image.


Original WWII Remington Rand M1911A1 by SoloDallas, on Flickr