Cutting weight on a railed 1911

[TCB]

I've got a Wilson CQB with a light rail that I've been shooting for about 9 years or so and have never weighed it before...long story short it's a hair over weight for USPSA with my ETM mags when they have the Dawson baseplates (which I prefer) on them, it comes in just under with the plastic ETM baseplates.

The pistol currently has a steel S&A magwell on it and my gunsmith recommend that I change that out with an aluminum one. I only need to cut 6 grams or so to be safe (it showed 3 over on the scale that was used), he recommended the Dawson ICE and a buddy recommended a Techwell with a steel mainspring housing to keep it closer to max weight (I like the idea of that).

Anyone have info of the weight savings between thoes options and a S&A magwell (it's flat not arched) or other simple ideas to cut weight?

[hotrodder]

A friend of mine made weight with his by buying a pair of VZ grips in carbon fiber material. You might want to contact them for the actual weight savings.

[jcc7x7]

Wgt of the Dawson used to be on the website.

Alum ice will get you where you need to be. 

Put an ad in classified's for a used one. Maybe cheaper as a test.

Or get one and pull your s&a. Re weigh with gun MSH , guts and well  prior to installing. So you can send it back if you need to

Good fortune

Edited November 14, 2016 by jcc7x7

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: Dawson Ice with aluminum housing 1.45ozs, steel housing 2.699ozs, Dawson IPSC 1.37ozs. Ergo grips are the lightest grips I have found at 0.85ozs. Aluminum guide rod 0.68ozs. Thanks, Eric

[427Cobra]

Try some magpul grips

[racknrider]

Raasco has some very light grips also. 

[2MoreChains]

I second or third the advice to go with an aluminum MSH/magwell.  There's a lot of weight savings to be had there.  I've got one of S&As aluminum magwell/MSH and its held up just fine over the years.

[mach1soldier]

Cut out the back of the grips. Or an aluminum mainspring housing are simple ideas.

[Bluemooncricket]

I like my Techwells.

[TCB]

Thanks for the input. I need to find a scale and weigh it again to really  see how much I need to cut. An aluminum S&A magwell would make sense as that's what's already on there and mine frame has been blended with it very nicely, I don't know if it would be hard to match  the blend with the other magwells? 

[eggman]

VZ doesn't advertise it but they will make "hollow back" grips for you . It is a extra charge ... I think $35 extra but if you ask them they will do it . I first noticed hollowed out grip panels on my Wilson Combat Compact Carry Professional 9mm 1911 they made for the new IDPA CCP Division . With factory grips the pistol weighed just under the limit of 37 oz. with a 10 rd. Wilson mag with plastic basepad . Later I replaced the factory grips and could not make weight until I realized the factory wood grip panels were hollowed out .

 

Edited November 15, 2016 by eggman

[mjl]

With a 9mm Trojan I also had a problem making weight.  I tried a bunch of different combinations of grips/magwells/MSH, but could not come up with a set up I liked.  Then I took it to my gunsmith - he simply removed metal from the frame beneath the grip panels.  No impact on performance and I got the set up I like.

[steviesterno]

I vote get it tri topped. Cutting moving mass reduces felt recoil and you can keep all that heavy grip stuff and magwell you like. 

[TCB]

i was able to re weigh it last night at work, with the OEM baseplates on the ETM mags I'm a 1/4 oz. under weight (42.755). I'm going to break out the dremmel and remove some material on the rear of the grips (VZ) to get it down a bit more just to be safe. If I can get another 1/4 oz. off I'll call it good. I figure I can always take some material off the outside edge of the magwell if need be as well and I might be able to go back to the Dawson pads? (It's at 43.280 oz. with them)

I thought about tri-topping it as well as doing a more aggressive undercut on the frame (like the DVC classic) but as I'm planning on shooting Ltd. next year anyway it seems like a lot of work & $ to throw at a gun that's not going to be my primary match pistol. 

[TCB]

Double

Edited November 16, 2016 by TCB
Double

[TCB]

If anyone gets into this situation and needs to shave a bit of weight I was able to get my Wilson CQB w light rail down to a total weight of 42.405 oz. with a Wilson ETM magazine / factory baseplate by dremmeling out the back of my VZ Operator II G10 grips. It was previously at 42.755 before the work was done (.35 oz of grip removed). I could have kept going and would expect to be able to get a full 1/2 oz. of weight out of G10 grips with a little more work. 

[e4effort]

For railed 9MM single stack guns I found that the best combination was tri-topping the slide, Dawson aluminum ICE magwell, stippled a set of magpul 1911 grips, and running an aluminum guide rod w/ shock buffer.

[Akkid17]

I bought a STI hex tac single stack in 9 and i am trying to get the weight down below 43 oz, I am at roughly 46 oz with techwell SP magwell and grips, wilson combat xtm mags with Dawson bases. I like having a full wrap magwell and am wondering what i can do to cut weight while maintaining a magwell of some sort. which of the full wrap magwells is the lightest?

I was thinking about going with a short guide rod, plastic mainspring housing and possibly hollowing out the inside of the grip panels to drop weight but I don't think that will get me to 3 oz of savings to make weight. I could probably put the stock base pads back on and just put either a plastic or rubber strip on the bottom of the base to make them easier to seat and drop a bit more weight.

 

[rugerp89ipsc]

On 11/14/2016 at 12:48 PM, 427Cobra said:

Try some magpul grips

 

This was the easiest and cheapest way I made weight with my Springfield RO.

I made that a back up gun and my main guns are now a Hayes Custom 9mm and an STI Lawman.  I have both pistols using the techwell magwell and AL checked grips and they make weight.  I like the dawson, but 9mm mags can some times be hit or miss.  When there are problems, sometimes due to rounds hanging in the mag, the mag can hang.  So I like the open front magwells in that rare possibility I can easily strip the mag.  I havent had this happened recently since I replaced all my mag springs.  Plus, I like the look of a little more traditional 1911.

Dawson Ice Magwells are great, easy to pick up used here and should also probably work to make weight.  Looks like your possibly needing to adjust by .3-.6 oz I'm guessing. 

[Akkid17]

are the ice magwells with the magpul grips lighter than the techwell set up? 
 

[rugerp89ipsc]

I can weight my techwell grips and magwell if it's helpful.  It should be noted that I have the IPSC TGO on both guns.

[Akkid17]

I think I found the secret sauce for my STI hex tac SS in 9. I’ll have to wait til I can get access to a better scale to verify but for now I think I trimmed enough to make weight at 42.3 oz. I swapped the FL guiderod for a standard that was also hollowed out, got a standard recoil spring cap, and switched to a plastic mainspring housing.  Scale reads 2 pounds 10.3 ounces with the Dawson base pad on a Wilson combat ETM mag and a techwell SP magwell with their grips. 

[gino_aki]

My Taurus railed .38 Super comes in at 42.5 oz. with CMC mag and a Shaw pad.  Weight saving:  Titanium fire control including older STI Titanium hammer  (love them things and snap them up every time I see them on eBay), Dawson gap Ice magwell with the aluminum mainspring housing, a plastic standard length guide rod with commander size spring plug made for full length guide rod (hole in the end), and the Taurus frame itself since it has the same large cutouts in the grip portion of the frame that original Colt frames have.  I could save more weight if I need to with lighter stocks (standard VZ Gunners) or lightening up the slide by flat or tri-topping it.

[matteekay]

Glad to see that the OP got this resolved! I figured I'd post my findings for anyone who comes across this thread.

 

Gun: Rock Island Tac Ultra Full-Size .45 ACP (full rail, single stack model 51485)

 

Stock weight (posted, not verified): 45.12 oz

 

Current Weight: 44.4 oz (ICE MSH and magwell, minor grip shaving and polishing of some parts, replaced mag release with Wilson extended version, stock RIA/ACT 8-round mag)

 

Plans to make weight:

- Replace steel full-length guide rod with Dawson aluminum (1.6 oz to .5 oz, 1.1 oz savings)

- Replace VZ grips with Magpuls (2.1 oz to 1.1 oz, 1 oz savings)

 

Total savings of 2.1 ounces, final weight of 42.3 ounces.

 

Those parts weights come from the internet so I'll need to verify. I'm pretty excited about this. I assumed that this gun would be relegated to L-10 when I bought it given the factory weight, but it looks like I can make weight pretty easily without grinding anything off of the gun. I can also swap the guide rod back to steel when I'm practicing with it so I don't wear out the aluminum one. 

[Akkid17]

@matteekay I don’t believe the tac ultra is SS legal since it has a full rail. Unless I’m reading this wrong or if the rail is shorter than I think it is  the tac ultra’s rail would be longer than 3.25” from the back of the slide stop pin