Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns WHO IS MAKING A STRIPPED 1911-STYLE FRAME NOW??

Friends,

I've found a complete Colt's .38SUPER pistol with BAD (& likely POOR quality alloy frame, when it was new) frame. - Since the company that I bought my last .45ACP frame is KAPUT, I'm wondering if there is another company that's building a QUALITY bare 1911 or 1911A1 style frame & that sells to the general public.

Your suggestions??

yours, tex

Fusion or Caspian can fill the bill for you; both are excellent quality.

MM

Does Fusion sell their .38 Super frames?

Tex,

There is a difference between a .38 Super/9mm/10mm frame and a .45 frame in a 1911. The difference is subtle, but it's enough to give you some gray hairs. The depth of the barrel bed, and the angle of the feed ramp is slightly different on the .38/9mm/10mm frame vs. the .45 ACP.

Generally it's not much to build a .45 on a Super frame, but problems can arise when you try to go the other way. Now there are some who get away with building 9mm & Super on .45 frames, and that's basically due to variances in barrels & barrel manufacturers.

So just know that when shopping frames. I have built a bunch of Caspians; they're VERY good. But they do take effort to build. Caspian assumes the purchaser is a competent gunsmith, so slide rails are oversized, and fitting a safety to a Caspian frame is a LOT more work than most other frames.

GunGeek,

THANKS for the EXCELLENT info. = I have more than enough gray hairs already.
(What isn't turned gray has turned "a loose". = CHUCKLE.)

The last .38 SUPER that I last owned was on a Essex .45ACP frame; it came to me "as is" from an estate sale for 125.00, was REALLY UGLY but shot just FINE.
(I had ZILCH to do with its building & traded it off for a Model 25 S&W some years later.)

NOTE: I actually NEED a .38 Super, as 7.62x25, 9x18, 9x19 & .45 ACP are ILLEGAL for everyone but the national military forces, in the country to which I'm likely retiring in a year or so, as those calibers are considered to be: WEAPONS OF WAR.
(.22LR, .32ACP, ..380ACP, 38SPL, .357MAG & .38 Super (& other "non-military" calibers) are EXEMPT, as the "Handgun Code" states that: Those calibers are not usually considered to be Weapons of War.)
By the same token, in rifles, 5.56 Russian, 5.56x45, 7x57, 8x57, 7.62x39 & 7.62 NATO are UNLAWFUL but (for some unknown reason) .30-06 is LEGAL to own/shoot/hunt with.
(Laws of every country often don't make sense or are often irrational.)

yours, tex

Tex,

I can't comment on rifles in Mexico, but I did have some experience with handguns there.

A little over a decade ago, I did a executive protection job for 4 days in Mexico city, and here’s what I learned about handguns in Mexico.

My contact at the police department in Mexico City was helping me figure out the whole gun thing. I was thinking I could use a .38 Super and that was convenient because I happened to have one. But he explained to me there are only 3 cartridges that are allowed for handguns in Mexico; .22lr, .38 Special, .380 ACP. At one point the .38 Super was a “grey area” cartridge. The way the law was worded, it kinda fell through the cracks; but they have filled those cracks. So now the .38 Super is a “grandfathered” cartridge. Those who have them and owned them before the law was corrected can keep them, but no new sales or importation. So if you’re thinking you can take your Super down there; think again.

The .38 Special thing was the reason for S&W making Model 19/66’s, and 586/686’s in .38 Special only. And Colt made a decent number of .38 Special Pythons for the Mexico market.
The other approved cartridge is the .380 ACP. For this reason, you’ll find the Beretta 84, Browning BDA .380, and CZ 82/83 are very popular. When I did that job (2004 or 2005 IIRC), those hi-cap .380’s were approved and you could even own the hi-cap magazines.

So my employer was all set to pay for a Beretta 84 for me to take with us, and then my Mexico City PD contact called me out of the blue and said his boss would authorize a loaner gun for the 4 days I was there. So the whole civilian laws stuff went right out the window. They gave me a Glock 23 and two spare magazines, and we had to hire two of their off duty detectives for the 4 days at horrendous per-day costs…that I suspect never quite made it into the books if you know what I mean. I also suspect that the chief was looking at all the hurdles needed and knew we would never be able to get all the correct boxes checked in time for the trip; which would have meant a canceled trip. I can't elaborate, but suffice to say, if that trip was canceled over anything related to security, I think things would have been uncomfortable for that chief of police (or whatever they call them down there).

ETA - .38 Special conversion of 1911's can be done, so that's possibly an option for you. But they might have a restriction by model since the 1911 is so easily converted to other cartridges.