Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Can You Convert a 9mm 1911 to 38 Super With a Barrel Swap?

Can You Convert a 9mm 1911 to 38 Super With a Barrel & Magazine Swap, or is there more to it?

Specifically a Springfield Armory 9mm 1911?

Thanks,

Jerry

It shouldn't be a problem, but you might have to swap ejectors, also, to get 100% reliability. I went the other way with a Colt Super, and bought a 9mm barrel to plink around with. I didn't have to change anything but barrel and mags.

I have gone both ways and they generally work just fine. Depending on what load the gun is set up for you may need to change out the recoil spring and tweak an extractor but generally it is just put in a barrel and go...Super mags will also generally work fine with 9mm...

Bob

Another way to go would be to have the barrel reamed to super specs.

..can't. The base of the Super is actually smaller than a 9mm so it would be loose. One could however ream to 9x23 Winchester. Supers can be shot is some 9x23 chambers but not the other way around...

Bob

It was done quite often in the early days of IPSC. However the extractor would have to be bent ever so slightly to engage the super's rim. It worked very well until a few guns started blowing up when someone tried to make major power factor. The practice mostly came to an end when they started requiring supported barrels on major power supers.

MD..you have it backwards...the 9mm has a smaller rim than the Super... It was the guns converted to 9mm from Super that sometimes needed some tweaking...

Also..I shot IPSC from the mid-1970s till 1995 using a Super that made major with no supported barrel...what "rule" are you talking about???

Bob

Jerry,

Okay, so the 9mm and .38 Super share the same slide and ejector so you won't have to change an ejector. Drop in a 9mm barrel and give it a try. If your pistol is 9mm now, then it probably has dedicated 9mm magazines so the .38 Super won't fit in the magazine, meaning you'll need a new magazine. The Super will work with the same recoil spring; there just isn't a huge difference in 9mm and Super so don't worry about recoil springs unless you're shooting really hot Super ammo, or you intend on making it a full time Super. The difference in spring weight is generally 1.5-2lbs at the most from 9mm to Super...meaning, don't sweat it.

Thanks Guys,

Jerry

I have a Rock Island Armory in 9mm, and wondered the same thing. So I tried my 38 Super barrel, and it ran/ejected just fine. Then I tried my 9x23 barrel with the same results.

Both loads were in the medium plinking range with 125 lead cast and 231, but I then found a good load for the Super with HS-6 and 125JHP's at 1300 that work great as well. I did swap out the spring for that load.