Needless to say, fitting parts is tricky and is a little of why great gunsmiths are great. I’m finding that I have at least two things I need to improve about my parts fitting.

My Caspian slide arrived which allowed me to start fitting the barrel, or at least the barrel hood. Fitting the top barrel lugs and cutting the bottom barrel lugs will have to wait for the frame.

The first objective of the research I did into selecting parts for this build was to find a solid base for the pistol: the slide, frame, and barrel.

I don’t have all the parts for this build in hand yet. Most importantly my slide and frame have not shipped and I haven’t picked my ignition set. But I do have a bunch of the small parts and so I have started toying with them.

My first official step in this build was to assemble the Stan Chen Sho...

Perhaps it’s a rite of passage or just an itch I want to scratch, but I am going to build my own 1911. When I say “build,” I don’t mean to build it from blocks of steel bar stock.