Build a new top end for a 1911?

[DMK]

Would it be possible or desirable to have a gunsmith build and fit a new top end in the same caliber for my Sistema?

I'd like better accuracy and sights, but don't want to sporterize it. I'm thinking that I could get a new slide, bushing, extractor, firing pin, and have a gunsmith fit a Kart barrel and a set of target sights.

Would fitting the slide to the frame be possible without modifying the frame?

 

[Jim Watson]

I know a guy who did this. Counting the original, he has at least three .45 uppers on a Systema receiver, plus the .22 conversion.

If the new slide is truly match fitted to the frame, it will likely be lapped in which might make the GI slide enough looser to tell. Talk to the gunsmith about the liklihood of finding a slide snug on the rails but that does not require lapping if that bothers you.

My question is, why? Do you think Systemas will appreciate in value so much that getting back to stock form will be worth the price of an all-new upper? (Which will be more than the gun cost to start with, if done right.)

 

[DMK]

Thanks Jim. It's not that I think the Sistema will appreciate in value, I don't think guns are a very good monetary investment generally. I just like having a completely original WWII spec 1911A1, but I hardly ever shoot it. It's one of those guns that I don't like to shoot, but don't want to get rid of. I'm thinking that better sights and a fitted barrel will make it more fun. I'd buy another Sistema and modify it, but then I'd still have this one as a safe queen. BTDT.

Good point about the cost though. I need to price it out.

 

[scalinghammer]

Jim Watson is probably correct that it would be more expensive to add all of this to the original. A new gun could "correct" this with not much difference in cost.

Ed