Historic method of tightening a 1911 slide?

[GunCat]

One of the local guys was looking to replace a missing front sight on his ”45 Auto”. After telling him what he really had he decided to go with replacing both the missing front and rear sight (which was an old no name extra tall adjustable rear) with the sight correct for this vintage of 1911 (not A1). Thanks to Cylinder and Slide's reproduction parts we were able to get the sights back to the correct style.

Here's the question; See the ball visible under the rail? There is one on each side and its a spring loaded detent ball that obviously tightens the slide to frame fit. Was this done as part of the Anniston Arsenal rebuild (note A.A. Stamp on frame) or was the detent added later as method of slide tightening.

Edited March 29, 2013 by GunCat

[Guest]

I've seen that on an old bullseye gun or two in the quiver of a an old gent I used to shoot with. These weren't NM arsenal guns, but were done by a civilian gunsmith. That isn't meant to imply that the arsenal guys weren't doing, it too.

I have a '67 NM DCM gun and if the no name tall adjustable sight you are took off the rear was an elliason as pictured in the link I may be interested if you want to sell. http://www.coolgunsite.com/images/1911/1967%20NM/1967NM60.jpg

Anyway - Cool old gun, it probably has some good stories to tell!

[GunCat]

The rear sight is a Micro, it's a bit shorter in length than yours

[Guest]

Ok, thank you for checking.