Premium 1911

[ogiebb]

oh oh...looks like Mikey is going to start charging Bart for barrels now

[G-ManBart]

oh oh...looks like Mikey is going to start charging Bart for barrels now

LOL.....I didn't even know that was his profile!

The funny thing about the barrel for Trojan is I joked with him about it the first time we met (Area-2) and a couple of weeks later it showed up on my door

Needless to say, if someone out there is considering building a premium 1911 and want to talk barrels give Mike a call and you will be happier for it....just be ready for barrel info overload!

Thread drift off....

[Duane Thomas]

When a 1911 is feeding the way it should, you literally can't tell the difference, by feel alone, between hand cycling a round into the chamber and cycling the gun on empty air.

[sigfla]

I just bought Volkmann and I have to say it has the best overall fit finish and feel of all my 1911's. That includes Wilson, LB, Nighthawk, SV (older Infinity model), and STI Trojan.

[Duane Thomas]

If i were shooting a match tomorrow I would probably pick my Kimber. If I were going into a life threatening situation, no question the Wilson.

Why the different choice, just out of curiosity?

[The Shooter]

I have had a LB P2 that I bought used 15 years ago. Only malfunctions were when the recoil spring was completely worn out. I no longer have to field strip with a tool and it still shoots better than me.

The LB frame is slightly different from the other manufacturers. There is no radius between the trigger guard and the front strap. This makes it feel better in my hand. If I buy another 1911, my preference would be LB. The only other 1911 I have owned was a Colt Gold Cup.

My only knock on the LB P2 is the blued finish which resulted in some minor rust. Duracoat solved the problem, but my opinion is it should never have left the factory without a rust resistant finish.

[cappopper]

"Honestly it boils down to the PARTICULAR example in your hot little hands."

+1

My first 1911 is LB P2 i got a couple of weeks ago. I was so in flames at the gunshop when picking it up that i didn´t notice the front sight is tilted to the left.

You don´t pay big euros (or bucks) for Baer to have that. No probs so far, the dealer agreed on this and the gun is heading to smith to get checked. Just hope it´s the sight and not the cut..

Anyway, totally reliable so far and was easy and great fun to shoot in a match. Even if i only had 500 rnds through it before.

c

[sn0wflake]

Those that own Baers are extremely happy with them,

Not everyone.

A friend bought a Les Baer and a .45 case head rupture cracked the frame in 6 places - to the point where the mainspring fell out of the frame with the retaining pin intact. Les explained that this sort of damage was normal for a case head rupture, but he stands behind his work so he would offer $50 off the price of a new gun. The brass case head showed the typical rupture where the brass blew out at the unsupported part near the head. There was no indication or barrel obstruction or blowout beyond this one part of the case.

The frame was sent to a metallurgical research lab where it was subjected to chemical, photomicrographic, and nital etch analysis. The chemical composition of the "forged" frame was "fully within specifications" for 1141 hot rolled resulphurized steel, with a Rockwell hardness between B82 and B83 as measured at 5 points on the frame. The parallel nature of the manganese-sulfide stringers showed no evidence of the deformation that would be expected from a forging operation.

I still have the frame that was cut for analysis in the back of my safe - I think I even have the block of plastic with the etched and polished sample of the frame used for the photomicrographic 200x/nital etch analysis.

I am not saying that all Les Baers guns exhibit this inconsistency between what they are represented as and what a metallurgical analysis will show, however, this kind of thing does not strike me as something that would happen by accident.

Sorry for bringing up this thread again but this is pretty much as antipremium it gets when talking steel. 82 HRB is 1(!) HRC lol. And its not even forged!!

And lets have a look how 1141 performs..

http://matweb.com/search/QuickText.aspx?SearchText=1141%20steel

http://matweb.com/search/DataSheet.aspx?MatGUID=f5c33d1153c14ba3bc9fd4a7016e2307

http://matweb.com/search/DataSheet.aspx?MatGUID=1832444e22314157bb2f52ca19187e74

Not very good stuff to be honest...Not very premium at all. Some 7000 series of aluminum types is very close to this.

This would be close to what STI uses in frames and slides.

http://matweb.com/search/DataSheet.aspx?MatGUID=b84253734c984954bf74d07ce128e49f

http://matweb.com/search/QuickText.aspx?SearchText=4140%20steel

50% higher ultimate tensile strength and yeild strength. (beyond the yeild point is where the permanent plastic deformation begins, before that it flexes back to shape).

Thats 94 Joules vs 11 in impact toughness (I'm looking at the "as rolled" figures for the 1141) and the STIs are a bit softer and therefore a bit tougher still. The izod and charpy impact test are conducted by putting a 10x10x100 (or so) mm bar in a slit in a machine that has a pendulum cracking the bar, and then you measure how far it travels after it cracked the part and then you calculate how much energy it took to break the part, this is usually on a scale and the pendulum simply pushes and arrow up this scale. Pretty straight forward. More J is better. Stainless knife steel clock in at about 5-20J or so here. L6 family of tool/knife steels tops out at about 200J and thats at about 55-58HRC or so too..