1911

[Loves2Shoot]

Kevin,

You can tweak the lips a bit on the Wilson .45 mags if you want to make them a 40 only mag. A hammer and anvil work better for this than pliers, but go slow.

(Edited by Loves2Shoot at 11:52 pm on Feb. 22, 2003)

[Kevin Kline]

OK, thanks Loves2shoot.

You use the Wilson 10round .45acp mags and they feed fine in yours "as is"?

[Loves2Shoot]

Kevin,

Sorry, I was in a hurry on my easlier post and typo'ed. The bullet will stay in the mag "as is" but to make them feed you have to modify the lips to make them from feeding 2 rounds at once, one goes in the chamber, the other on the ground. It isn't really hard to do the mod, I converted 6 .45 mags to .40 in about 45 minutes. The 1st one took 15 minutes, it was piece of cake for the other 5.

[Kevin Kline]

Thanks Loves2shoot,

Basically, you're just moving the lips closer together right?

Kevin

[Loves2Shoot]

Yep, I believe Dawson has the lip dimensions posted somewhere, I just duplicated the width on my high cap mags. Make sure you move them evenly though, don't just tweak one side.

[Nate]

I shoot what you would call a heavy .40 set up, full profile (with cuts), bull barrel and so on, but my single stack .45 is about as light as you can go with out cutting on the slide and frame. The biggest difference in recoil seems to come with choice of bullet. If you can stand the smoke, the .5 grain  less you use of powder for lead bullets make the .45 shoot about as soft as the .40.  In the rush to use jacketed bullets you really pick up some additional recoil. I like to shorten the stroke with a really wide shock buff and use a 14 lb spring and my inexpensive SA shoots as well as I can.  Also adding a set of wide "burner" grips helps me control the recoil. I do admit to looking long and hard at a SS .40, but sooo many other toys.