The second pistol I ever bought was a 1911 built on an Essex frame and slide. I went to a gun show with the intention of getting either a Walther P1 or a cheap 45 and walked out trophy in hand!
Even though I probably overpaid at the time, I left with a home built 1911 in poor shape that I secretly hoped was a well-worn competition pistol for $300. The brown parkerizing was worn on the frame and someone had done a poor job of sanding it off the slide. The slide had been left in the white except for a few spots they had missed and a greyish color that had begun to set in on the unprotected metal.
Once home, I polished the exposed chamber, hammer, and trigger and painted the slide and frame with a high-heat engine paint and cooked it in the kitchen stove at 400 degrees for two hours. I then changed the recoil spring for an 18.5lb since I wasnt sure what was in there, and adjusted the trigger overtravel to my liking.
To be honest I havent fired the pistol much, maybe 500 rounds over the years. Due to high ammo prices, it has been at least three years since I took it out. I recently decided to dust it off an try a box of Tula 230gr FMJ and see where I left off.
It shot consistently high at 25yds, which I now remembered was because the hammer would hit the Bo-Mar rear sight if it was any lower. The grip safety also dug into the webbing of my hand pretty badly, and it would probably feel better if it had a flat mainspring housing. I did have extraction problems, and will have to buy a new extractor.
