Our Armand Swenson 1911 Project
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- Опубліковано 11 лют 2025
- A video showing the completed project of reworking an Armand Swenson customized Colt 1911.
Link to the article from 1978: americanhandgu...
Link to the last video: • A Look At A Reworked S...
The website that I write for: www.primerpeak...
That’s so cool, Paul. You’re playing hardball with that bad boy! 😁 It’s cool to have a gun that’s one of a kind and personal. And if it makes you feel any better… I have teeny hands and GI rat tails draw blood within a few mags.
Thanks for the kind words Matt! It's a neat gun, and we made it a little bit neater.
I'm honestly baffled why the GI style ended up the way it did. I know that people gripped guns lower on the frame back in the day, but I feel like folks would have run into cuts and bleeding once the form started changing in the 1950s.
Paul Posted, Massive W
They all fall to hardball baby! Great video!
Thanks for watching Chris!
A great 1911 smith I know (Jon Shue/Blackmass Custom) charges a "Colt Fee" to the tune of a couple hundred $ because in his words, "nothing is straight, nothing is parallel."
Yeah, actual Colt guns were never really all that straight and proper. My 105 year old 1911 is one of the straighter old Colts that I've seen, but it's still a little lopsided.
(video for it linked below)
ua-cam.com/video/UHls9hLk-1g/v-deo.htmlsi=YoiLyGLeBCDy0ktd
Truth be told, the two Tisas guns that we've worked on have been so much easier. Straight and consistent lines, very even machining, and they tend to not require a ton of fitting for things like manual safeties or triggers.
Thanks for commenting Jared! I've seen you here and there on Discord and YT, always happy to have fellow old-S&W enjoyers around.
@@Paul_Whaley Agree on the Tisas 1911s. Lately I've been calling them the best deal on 1911s in 113 years. Video from the Tisas factory and Colt factory shows a pretty hilarious disparity. The Colt factory looks like a dungeon 🤣
@@JaredAF Ain't that the truth. I've seen the Colt footage, and paired against the Tisas factory, it's just night and day. The Colt factory is reminiscent of the old footage of convicts stamping license plates while in prison.
Aside from finding weird, old, already customized Colt 1911s, I'm pretty much just on team "buy Tisas". Between our Tank Commander project and the smaller Stakeout one, I've become quite sold on the brand. The guns aren't perfect, but I don't expect perfection from basically any production gun, let alone any production 1911 made in the current year.
Between modern Colt and Springfield Armory, it's really a race to the bottom with the "heritage" American 1911 makers.
@@Paul_Whaley I wouldn't even consider Springfield Armory, Inc to be a "heritage American" company considering they have no relation to the actual Springfield Armory.
I think with 1911s these days it's either go high (custom, hand-built), or go low (Tisas). Even if that's just as a base that you can later modify to your needs. Their MAC JSOC 1911 is the best deal on a 1911 that comes with target sights and an LPA cut. You can actually end up with a fairly decent product if you go low and just do the work to accurize/customize yourself, as you've shown/found in your own Tisas projects.
All the brands in between those two extremes really are not worth what they're asking.
@@JaredAF Oh, I don't consider Springfield heritage, hence the quotation marks. SA basically raided the corpse of something else that has nothing to do with what the company makes today. Hell, Colt barely counts as a proper heritage company, based on how crap their current offerings are. S&W too, but now I'm on my soapbox again.
When it comes to 1911s, I'm entirely of the same opinion as you. The only newer 1911s that I've owned over the last few years have been Tisas (production), and Wilson Combat (semi-custom). I'm at the point where no production company makes what I like out right out of box, so modifying the guns are a requirement. Tisas makes it easy, with consistently QC'd guns, and a lot of already done work that I like (gold bead sight on the Stakeout, LPA sights on the JSOC).
I'll likely do a second video on that Stakeout, as it's pretty much a done project. If I could find a .220 radius jig, we'd probably attempt to cut the gun down to fit a KC Custom beavertail, but getting a jig now is hard. The frame is nitrided too, so it wouldn't be an easy cutting job, but we're persistent. Beavertail not withstanding, I'm in that Stakeout for about $650 after all of the modifications, and it's easily one of my favorite 1911s that I've ever shot.
I should pick up one of the JSOC guns at some point, but I know I'd immediately rip a bunch of stuff from the gun to swap it for parts that I prefer.
Seems like an awesome pistol! Did not know who this guy was but it seems he was a pretty impactful man. Might have been a bit of a hard ball type of guy lol.
I missed your comment somehow!
Swenson was someone that a lot of people aren't aware of, but those who know who he is have a ton of respect for him. I recently saw one of his guns at auction, and it sold for a LOT of money (final hammer price was close to $10,000 USD after buyer's premium). He was responsible for a lot of modern elements of the 1911, and I can appreciate the work he did back in the (relatively) early days of 1911 smithing.
Thanks for making it to the end of the video Johan! I hope that your weekend was great!
@@Paul_Whaley No worries man! That is a lot of money! He sounds like a pioneer! Imagine what he could have done given more time. My pleasure man! Always a blast watching your videos! Merry Christmas Paul! May this be a blessed one for you and yours!
@ Thankfully I did not spend nearly that much money on this gun! It would have been interesting to see what Armand would have done if he was around into more modern times.
As always, thank you for the kind words. Merry Christmas right back at yah! May the end of the year be great!
@@Paul_Whaley 😎👍
the Paulmond Logansen.