I'd originally intended to buy a Colt .38 Super and fit a 9mm barrel, but this one came along and the price was right.  Plus, it was already in the right caliber and it's been about a decade since I last owned a Springfield 1911, so I figured what the hell.  I wanted an IDPA gun, and something my wife can shoot easily.

I had time to take some photos so this thread wouldn't be totally worthless.  

It came with the useless holster and mag pouch that will never see my belt.






I'm used to Colt 9mm magazines with the spacer in the rear; these are a little different.



This is where some of the typical Springfield corner-cutting starts to get on my nerves.
You could throw a cat through the gap between the front of the sight and the slide.



This is about the most egregious blemish from a cosmetic standpoint.
The bottom of the ejection port is pretty fucked up.




I've never heard anything good yet about Springfield factory extractors,
and this one doesn't look like it will buck the trend.  It clocks a little too
much for my taste; but fortunately it won't be in the gun very long.




Oh, and that whole "hold the cartridge tight against the breechface"  thing is overrated.
The extractor was severely undertensioned; the hook barely touched the rim, let alone
put any pressure on it.  I almost wish I hadn't tightened it; the malfunctions would
probably have been entertaining, at least.



The "pad" behind the hook has been filed nearly off, and the radius of the hook
itself isn't going to impress anybody.



When manipulating the slide, it hangs up on the disconnector more often than not.  
Here's a shot of this behavior, which I like to call the Auxiliary Slide Stop.



Grab that cat up again, and throw him back through the gap between the beavertail
and what's left of the frame tangs.



At least the barrel is ramped, (Wilson/Nowlin style) and well polished.  This is
an encouraging sight.





I haven't done anything yet except tweak the middle leg of the sear spring, which
deactivated the Auxiliary Slide Stop and took about 1.5 lbs off the trigger pull.  
It was gauging 6 pounds, now it's around 4.5 or so.  Too much creep to be really nice,
and I think the overtravel screw is in a smidge too far.

I also tweaked the extractor so that it would actually apply tension to the round.  
More than this I will defer until I have some rounds through it, but I do plan on
the following:

- Trash the FLGR, extractor, firing pin stop, and ILS.
- Break sharp edges and round off rear sight blade corners
- Replace front sight with a .100" Dawson fiber (the current sight measures .121"
which is too damn wide).
- Fit tighter bushing - this one has too much play in it.

Down the road, I would like new grips, a magwell, and 30 line checkering.  
The gun is chock full of MIM, but like my Kimber, I want to leave all the MIM in
and see what breaks.  At least it's all forged, and there are no Brazil stamps on it.

If it looks like I'm being overly picky,  that's not quite the case.  We get used to
seeing so many nice custom and semi-custom 1911s here that sometimes we forget
what the run of the mill $700 1911 looks like.   Despite its flaws -- most of which can
easily be corrected -- the gun appears sound and should provide an excellent starting
point for further enhancements.

I agree this is a very informative post.  

Thank you for posting.  

OTOH I did not have to do anything to my RIA 1911 to make it function properely


ETA: or my Kimber Warrior

Sweeeet! I think the 9mm 1911 is one of the worlds best kept secrets. I have three, 2 caspian and 1 converted Springfield ww2 with an essex enhanced slide in stainless.  I never used those Springfield mags either. I got a bunch with spacers. All I have work fine. Metalform and Mecgar work fine for me.

I'm convinced the only way to go with a 9mm 1911 platform is with a ramped barrel. My government model Caspian has Wilson/nowlin cut barrel. This set up has yet to give me a failure to feed. My Caspian commander is currently waiting a stainless ramped barrel with Clark/para cut. I going to convert the springfield to ramped configuration as well.

thanks for the review!

My 1911 has the "disco bump" pretty good as well - is tweaking the spring a bit
a recommended solution? I cleaned up the slide bevel some, but I would prefer a smoother action...

Quoted: thanks for the review! My 1911 has the "disco bump" pretty good as well - is tweaking the spring a bit a recommended solution?

I have no doubt that the Springfield assembly line just pops the springs in and doesn't spend much time fine tuning them.  They get the gun working and move on.

Tuning the middle leg of the spring is the easiest solution.  Not only does it control the tension on the disconnector paddle, it also provides tension for trigger return.  This will have a direct effect on trigger pull as well.  

Modifying the bevel on the slide is not something I'd always recommend, since overcutting the bevel might result in feeding problems.   But there *should* be a slight chamfer there; I've seen a couple slides that lacked it entirely.

What's the deal with the back of the frame rails (the uneven chip marks in pics 8 & 9)?

Looks like flash marks from a casting.


Also, is the weapon fully seated in pics  6 & 7? That doesn't look right.

Quoted: What's the deal with the back of the frame rails (the uneven chip marks in pics 8 & 9)? Looks like flash marks from a casting.

It's oil draining out of the frame rails and miscellaneous debris.  Literally out of the box.

Also, is the weapon fully seated in pics  6 & 7? That doesn't look right.

Yes, it's fully in battery.

Is there supposed to be that gap btw the barrel and slide (under the hood)?

Quoted: Is there supposed to be that gap btw the barrel and slide (under the hood)?

It does look like a gap, but it's the relief cut on the barrel face for the extractor.

Thanks for the info!
I only cleaned off the machine marks and broke the edges of the bevel, making sure
I didn't affect the area that grabs the feeding round. Better, but hey, if I can tune up the trigger at the same time, I will try gently adjusting the spring.

I hope you enjoy your new pistol, I know it is likely better than it seems.

Yesterday I took it to the range after work.  I didn't have time for an extended range session, unfortunately.

I put about 100 rounds of my 115 grain reloads and a few mags of old Hydra-Shoks.  

The Hydra-Shoks went downrange with no problems, and they were pleasantly accurate.

My reloads didn't fare quite as well.  The brass was just dribbling out of the gun and I did get some stovepipes where the case failed to clear the action.   They aren't particularly hot (4.5 grains of W231) and I think the gun's oversprung for this load.  

I want to put in a 19lb mainspring and ditch the ILS guts while I'm at it.  I also pulled the front of the guide rod off halfway through the session and things went better.  The finish on the guide rod is rough and I can feel the spring plug dragging against it on recoil.

The ejection pattern wasn't very consistent and I'm sure the clocking extractor had  something to do with that.  However, extraction and ejection was otherwise fine and I had no double feeds or other extractor-related foolishness.

I find I don't care for the Springfield mags.  When full, they have a tendency to let the bullet nose droop (but they fed OK).  They aren't very smooth to load either; it takes some effort to get the last round all the way back.  I much prefer the Colt 9mm mags -- they're easier to load and functioned well.

As a general thing, the gun performed well.  If I'd had hotter ammo, I am confident it would have had no malfunctions whatsoever.

I can't wait to get a thinner front sight, GI recoil system, and dehorn this bastard a little bit.  The adjustable sight was prone to snag flesh when operating the slide, and the "fangs" at the bottom of the frontstrap will get you if you're not careful.

Nice review.  Thanks.

Interesting.  I currently have one on order through my FFL.

Great info! Thanks. I'm planning to order a .45 right after Xmas.

I want one of those, but with the Novak sights instead of the adjustable.

Thanks guys.  Here's a current update on the gun:

After putting about 300 rounds through it, I made more changes:

I believe the gun was oversprung with the 28lb mainspring, so I replaced it with a 19lb mainspring, and replaced the ILS with a S&A magwell MSH.

I also fitted an EGW oversized FP stop to reduce the clocking, and knocked a few sharp edges off the extractor hook.

I replaced the front sight with a Dawson .100" wide, and put in a GI recoil spring guide and plug. The slide stop was also failing to engage on at least one mag, so I put in a lighter plunger spring.

I'm not particularly impressed with the Springfield mags, so I bought some Mec-gar replacements that seem to work flawlessly.

The sear had no relief angle at all, so I added one which reduced the creep substantially. I also did some polishing on the fire control parts, and broke all the sharp edges on the gun. I put on a set of VZ flat bottom grips so it wouldn't look dumb with the factory grips and magwell.

The magwell and grips were purely gratuitous additions.  I could have used the ILS with replacement parts, but I did want the magwell as a crutch to help me hit the hole.

Sounds like some good choices there. I would like to know how those EGW FPSPs do with respect to recoil management.

I was just toying with the idea of buying one of these the last couple days, but I must say your report concerns me a bit about what it's out of box performance would be like.

I've owned a Springfield Armory USGI model .45 which had minor issues, but overall did not leave me disappointed.  When I think of all the other options out there for 9mm guns, it makes it a tough hill to climb in deciding to get a 1911 in 9mm.

Quoted: Sounds like some good choices there. I would like to know how those EGW FPSPs do with respect to recoil management.

In a 9mm, I can't say I notice any real difference.  In .45 it does change the recoil impulse from all I have read, but this is my first 1911 with one.

Quoted: I was just toying with the idea of buying one of these the last couple days, but I must say your report concerns me a bit about what it's out of box performance would be like.

Well, the only thing that really needed attention was the extractor.  I think retensioning it would have been all that was strictly necessary, especially if you were using factory ammo.   The stock springs were too heavy for my reloads, but the gun worked fine with Hydra-shoks.  The erratic ejection was annoying, but the gun did run.

I've owned a Springfield Armory USGI model .45 which had minor issues, but overall did not leave me disappointed.  When I think of all the other options out there for 9mm guns, it makes it a tough hill to climb in deciding to get a 1911 in 9mm.

You have a lot more options.  I selected this SA because:

1) I dislike the STI Trojan
2) I wanted a stainless 1911
3) I wanted to assess the quality of current SA guns
4) It had a lot of the mods I wanted, out of the box (Bo-mar, ramped bbl, Loaded package)
5) It was already on the shelf and I could inspect it firsthand

Wow...what a POS....just kidding  

I just picked up my fourth Springer.

If you send it back to Springfield with  your list of complaints I am sure they will make it better than new.

I have my second gun in their Custom Shop.  They do real nice work.

I am pretty convinced that if you want the perfect 1911 out of the box you would have to get a Wilson or something like it.  But there are also folks who had issues with the high end guns as well.

I almost sprung for the 9mm, but the LW Champ Operator won instead.

Quoted: If you send it back to Springfield with  your list of complaints I am sure they will make it better than new.

No need.  I never send my guns back if I can help it, and now it has replacement parts that are better quality than the factory stuff.

I am pretty convinced that if you want the perfect 1911 out of the box you would have to get a Wilson or something like it.  But there are also folks who had issues with the high end guns as well.

I've got several high end 1911s but wanted to slum for a change.

Quoted: Quoted: Sounds like some good choices there. I would like to know how those EGW FPSPs do with respect to recoil management. In a 9mm, I can't say I notice any real difference.  In .45 it does change the recoil impulse from all I have read, but this is my first 1911 with one.

I've played with the EGW firing pin stop in a couple different 1911's.  This change by itself really doesn't make a difference with felt recoil.  It does slow the slide speed a little when used with a heavy mainspring since it takes more force to cock the hammer.  

Shoot the gun awhile the the 19 lbs. mainspring in and then change it out with the heavy spring.  You should see a slight difference.