Thoughts on a 1911 Long Slide

Status
Not open for further replies.

Rockrivr1

Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2002
Messages
1,868
Location
Massachusetts
I've been thinking of getting a 1911 Long Slide and wondering what people have and what your thoughts are on them. This would be mostly for range work.
 
Can a standard 1911 be converted by changing bbl, slide and springs?

I think a long slide frame has the rails extended as well to support the additional length. Could be wrong, but the long slides I've seen seem to have longer frame rails.
 
Not as effective as a Phased Plasma Rifle in the 40-watt range. Sorry, someone was going to say it sooner or later.

Now that that's out of the way, I don't know how much advantage the extra inch would have, practically, in .45ACP. However, 9mm or 10mm seems to show increased gains with longer barrel length, particularly if you handload. The increased sight radius is a factor, but I would still be looking at 10mm if it were me.
 
My dad has a 6" barrel on his Ballester Molina- it just sticks out the front of the standard slide. No feeding issues. Picked up about 150fps using Winchester white box 230gr. ball through his chrono.

Personally, I think the long slides look cool. I would check out Fusion Arms.
e6_-_5.jpg
 
Last edited:
The longslide .45 is typically built on a regular 1911 receiver.
There is a famous old gunzine picture of a Jim Hoag pistol with four or five different length barrel/slide sets.
Jim Clark started out making longslides by welding on an inch from another slide. Rumor has it that he bought a crate of demilled slides and used the front inch of them as a cheap source of material. Now you can just buy a long slide for your longslide project.

The main advantage in the day was longer sight radius for NRA target shooting. The optical sight has obsoleted that application.

Benny Hill has built the "Fat Free Six Inch" for sight radius in USPSA Limited shooting, the slide milled to get the recoiling mass back down to standard.

Velocity gain from an inch of barrel is small to modest, see Ballistics by the Inch.
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/index.html

Looks like a seven inch like the old Hardballers, now available from Fusion, would add enough to help a 10mm, not much better in .45.
 
Now that that's out of the way, I don't know how much advantage the extra inch would have, practically, in .45ACP. However, 9mm or 10mm seems to show increased gains with longer barrel length, particularly if you handload. The increased sight radius is a factor, but I would still be looking at 10mm if it were me.
Agreed.

I have a friend at work that just bought a Dan Wesson 6" in 10mm. He loves it.
 
I have an IAI Javelina, which is a 7" 10mm 1911. Several years ago I managed to register a 180gr bullet at 1,419 FPS using this gun. That was the hottest I ever recorded a 10mm, but I can't be sure if that was the hottest I ever built. The gun no longer has the hideous white grips. I'll have to get an updated picture soon.
index.php
 
As promised, an updated picture. I bought that gun at a gunshow in (I think) Oklahoma. It was a private seller who for some reason had put those exact color grips on all of the several dozen guns he had on the table. I probably overpaid for the gun - I didn't even know Javelinas existed until that moment - but once I laid eyes on it I knew I had to have it. Sadly IAI is long out of business, but I hope to have the Javelina for a long time. I have never regretted buying it.
20190302_065100.jpg
 
I think a longslide 1911 would be an outstanding deer hunting auto. The added slide an barrel mass make it ideal for .45 super conversion and the longer sight radius is also a good thing for an open sight gun. Have given much thought to buying one of these myself....
 
They make great hunting handguns, longer sight radius helps. My biggest issue was trying to find a holster that encased the entire barrel. Not much out there unless you have one custom made.


10mm SA Omega
Omega.jpg
 
There is a famous old gunzine picture of a Jim Hoag pistol with four or five different length barrel/slide sets.
Jim Clark started out making longslides by welding on an inch from another slide.

The first gun magazine I ever bought was the OCT '78 Guns & Ammo... the cover had 2 1911's on it, a standard and a longslide made by Hoag, I believe. He talked about welding up the slide pieces to make them. I thought they were cool as anything in the world, and so started my love for the 1911... and firearms in general. I was 12. I always wanted a longslide .45, but never got one... and, in fact, went the other way... I have 2 4" 1911's, but, currently, not even a 5". I was in my LGS Wednesday... and they had a Kimber (I think) longslide in 10mm... now THAT was a worthy pistol, and probably better suited than one in .45ACP. They also had an original Colt Delta Elite... which is a cool pistol, but I wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole if it was one of the first ones.
 
Had a buddy who had an AMT long slide--the 6" version. It always messed with my 'depth perception" just a bit, as that muzzle was just enough further out there from a "normal" 1911 to mess with my head a bit.

The 7" version, being 2 inches longer would probably alleviate that, some. Probably. Maybe.

Unfortunately, I watched Karl & Ian on InRange the other night, and all I can think of is that 7" longslide in .50gi . . .
 
Avoid the Para Longslide. It's become my "project gun". Bought it LNIB, it's been to the gunsmith twice,
replaced the mag springs, removed the RHS of that flacacta ambi thumb safety, it was nigh useless
in original condition, and it still spends a lot of time in the safe.

Everybody seems to like putting those holster snagger "fiber optic" sights on the long-slides, too. Like low
profile Tritium sights wouldn't work.
 
My thoughts are... Unless as a novelty simply to have a long slide, I don't see much use for them.

I felt the same way until I got one. Now I know why John Browning's original spec called for a 6" barrel. And those 7" AMTs don't look nearly as silly as they used to...
 
As promised, an updated picture.
View attachment 828989

Nice looking gun. Looks like they glass-beaded the frame.

A lot of the IAIs have a finish that's more like "gravel-blasted." Scuttlebutt has it they had problems with porosity in the castings, so they TIGged big holes and blemishes and went to the coarse finish to hide the smaller ones. Looks like whoever cast your frame did a good job.

One of the reasons for the wildly varying reports of AMT/IMI/Galena/whatever quality is that they didn't actually *make* anything; the original plan was to use investment castings as-is or with minimal finishing, and the factory would just assemble them from bins of parts. Which would all be in-spec, therefore no QC would be necessary...

The problems were that A) that concept didn't actually work, at least as the prices AMT was willing to pay, and B) many of those subcontractors had problems with such small parts (which are harder to make than heavier pieces with thicker sections), and C) AMT was sort of infamous for not paying their bills... So the lineup of subcontractors changed frequently.

That's why you have people who are still angry at those **** and their **** piece of **** junk, and others who have been shooting them for decades who have never had a hiccup from the time the took the gun out of the box. It was the luck of the draw whether all the pieces worked together.
 
Fitting up an 80% now, 6" slide with 6" match, and a 7" barrel. I was told a match barrel had extra material for fitting tight, but the one I bought dropped in slightly loose without cutting the barrel feet, the hood too was .002" smaller than the breech recess.

That 7" barrel though is a Roto, and though it too doesn't need cutting it's tighter than the match barrel.
 
I lusted after a 7” Javelina for years and finally acquired one! Had some work done to it, but could NEVER get it to shoot anywhere near as accurately as my 4.25” 10mm CCO. That being said, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another while keeping my fingers crossed.

And if 7” is good...then logically speaking, 9” must be better! I’ll have to find the pic on my hard drive, but I put a 9” Lone Wolf barrel in my G-40; the group shrank dramatically.

Sam
 
Good gosh they are nice looking guns.
And I'm not a fan of extended slide guns. XD's, glocks, etc, all look goofy to me when in their extended slide, competition form.
But those longslide 1911's look the business.
If I were going to hunt with a semi-auto handgun, the first place i'd look would have to be a longslide 10mm, or 460 Rowland.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top