Aiden

Factory warranty is a good idea. Get it squared away with them, then as you try to change parts you have a working factory part to use just in case. If you're new to 1911/2011, it's a lot easier to start troubleshooting something that worked, then developed issues. The other way around is much harder unless you have patience, money, and time to burn.

How thick is the coating on the bottom of the slide rails? Is it starting to wear? Does the slide cycle smoothly on the frame?

"Pretty much drop in" nailed it. Strap an extra steel guide rod to the front of your 1911 and you'll get an idea of the balance and weight of tungsten. It's not a lot but it's noticeable. Will it immediately make you better? No. Will it give you the balance you want? Possibly. I usually ran steel guide rods in my 6 inch guns, and I had a tungsten guide rod in my 5 inch gun.

It's very hard to add 10oz to a 2011 if you decide you want a heavier gun. You can get close to that if you had the heaviest magwell, MSH, and tungsten guide rod vs their aluminum equivalents. You can easily spend 300 bucks on the heavyweight parts. And you could decide you want an even heavier gun and you'll get those plus the steel grip ... Steel grip is a very effective way to make weight. You can always tweak weight on a steel grip gun through changing magwells, msh, guide rods. You just need to decide what weight gun you like for the sport.

I don't recommend going under 17lb main spring, especially if you're using whatever primers you find. It will have minimal impact on your recoil impulse compared to stuff like tuning the firing pin stop profile. Oversprung pretty much just refers to the downward dip from going into battery, it comes from a heavier recoil spring relative to the ammo you're putting through it. Lower power factor generally means you want to use a lower rating recoil spring. 9 is a great starting point, but you can try 7, 8, 9.5, variable, etc to get the impulse you actually want. I'm a firm believer in "if it works for you, it works for you" so you don't have to change anything if you don't have complaints.

All things are possible through time and patience. The tricky part is accurately judging how much you have of each. Starting with interference fit might not save you time overall, but I certainly would've appreciated having two pieces of metal that were at least somewhat close in dimensions. But I'm impatient and shouldn't be left alone with a file. Short dust covers for life.

I used a Caspian slide and a CK frame for my first build. There was... A lot of fitting involved. If you can find someone to sell a matched frame and slide it'll save you a lot of work for your first build. Of course that's one step away from just having someone build you a gun lol

No rattle here

Could also do the ol Magpul grip covered with the most aggressive silicon carbide grit you can find

You could easily Dremel material from the BITE grips. If you had to remove a ton you could probably reinforce the remaining part of the grip panel with epoxy or something.

If you are into palm swells... https://usa-shop.armanov.com/shop/spidergo-pistol-grips-for-1911-pistols-131?category=3&search=grips#attr=183,188

If they don't come with a screw, you could probably add one to your cart from wherever you purchase the grips. I've used o rings, star washers, and good ol blue loctite to keep the grip screw from coming loose. You might get some superficial marks on your frame depending on your finish. But that just comes with the territory.

Yep definitely a lot of material to the safety. Which means you'll be fitting it regardless of what ignition you use. But that means you'll be able to get a perfect fit to your setup. As an added bonus, your STI sear is not modified to be fit to a safety.

I'd assume yes you need to fit the safety but as with all things 1911, "we'll see what fits when we get it". If you're working with a first gen Trojan you might be on hard mode because they had some very questionable specs. Can confirm TheSandMan49's first gen Trojan was terrible.

If you're going to be doing your own work and want it to be simple, go SVI. I've run EGW, EE (and Brazos), SVI, etc, and they all can be great. But there are minor differences between them all. Hogrider linked a really good post that goes into nitty gritty of sear and hammer engagement. If you're feeling confident, then mixing and matching or using your preferred sear is a good option. But if you want to just drop parts in and have a good chance of it working great, all SVI is your best bet.

No. Generally speaking you have fewer headaches the less you mix and match parts in a 1911. A hammer and a sear should match each other as best they can. Then whatever safety you use, you match it to the sear you have. You can bag the STI ignition and safety and keep it for a backup/build/etc since it all works together.

This sounds like a good opportunity to upgrade the rest of the ignition to SV. New hammer, new sear, all to match the trigger and safety. If you think the factory Trojan is good now, the SV will be better. But yes, post pictures of the sear itself to rule out it being fit, and the current safety.

Just chiming in on the flat shooting aspect. If you shoot 9mm minor out of a 2011, you don't need a comp. I don't think you need to plan for the possibility of putting a comp on it if you never plan to shoot 9mm major, in which case you're going full Open.

I've owned both and ran both in 2011s. I used the Atlas trigger in PT Evo grips mostly. SV grips I keep it SV. SV trigger is my favorite in terms of look. The medium curve is a good fit for me and I always end up coming back to it. The Atlas trigger is really easy to fine tune the distance of the trigger face, but frankly I just ended up trying to match the distance of my SV curve. I didn't have any issues with trigger bows bending but I wasn't putting really high volume though them.

I wouldn't say there's a significant difference between the two, but the differences are there if you're picky enough. SV grip is slightly different in the ergonomics, it feels better for my medium (borderline small) hands vs the Cheely E2. I also love the teardrop magazine release, which factored way more heavily than it should have in my decision. E2 is significantly more affordable and depending on your frame it might be easier to fit. Grip texture is comparable for whatever level of aggressiveness you want.

Another vote for the custom builds. 6 inch slide is a lot of mass to have to move and it moves differently from 5 and 5.4. Just about any competent builder can put together a 6 inch slide on a frame but you definitely want someone who knows where to remove material to get the recoil impulse you want. Benny Hill does a great job, one of his guns got me hooked on 6 inch. Caspian makes a good 6 inch slide too if you're looking for parts.

Well my boredom got the better of me and I went at it. 30LPI checkering on most of the trigger guard. Still debating how I want to terminate the grip side and have some points to clean up on the last few lines towards the front as I finish that. The curved surface was interesting to say the least.

Have you fit a 1911/2011 barrel before? If not, you'd probably want to send it to someone. Very easy to screw up doing it yourself, especially if you only have hand tools. Barrels sold as minimal fitting required tend to be a sloppy fit unless you luck out, another reason to hire someone to get it done well. I'm not overly familiar with Bul setups but you'll need to make sure to match the kind of ramped barrel cuts in the frame with the new barrel. They might use W/N ramps but I've never looked.

My Stock 2 has been worked over by Jim Jones. 100% recommend anything he touched. It sounds like you're getting a solid price on the Stock Master. If the balance is something you want, plus the RMR cut, plus the rail, then you'd probably be better off picking that. The Stock Master has a lot of great features from the Stock 2 and more, so you can't go wrong. For me the Stock 2 balances well and I had zero reason to want a rail. You could save some money and use a dovetail optic mount, or you'd need to send it out to get cut for Carry Optics.

The super thick Hogue G10 scales have tons of material you can shape to your liking. I did that when I couldn't get ahold of any DSPerman grips. Hard to replicate micro pockets though. It's not quite the PT Evo but you can carve away without emptying your wallet.