I have a ruger sr1911. I have been told that if I installed a wilson combat one piece guide rod it would make an already accurate pistol even better? What say you 1911 experts?

No, it will not; save you money for more meaningful things in life.

MM

One piece guide rods for the 1911 are nothing less than camel droppings.

No use for it in my guns...

I have a couple. The posters who doubt their worth might just be right. But what the hell, I bought a couple of Wilson one-piecers.

I can't discern accuracy difference with or w/o guide rods.

If you have the inclination and a few extra bucks to spend, there might be something to be gained from one-piece experience.

I have a dozen 1911's including Wilson & Christensen..............neither of which came with a full length guide rod.

I've shot enough with & w/o & there's just no real measurable difference in accuracy with a FL rod, & they are royal PIA to disassemble with a FL rod as well.

MM

No

What about the one piece recoil buffers like from Springco?

One piece guide rods are a co plate waste of money.

Change in accuracy? No. The bullet has left the barrel before the slide has started its recoil movement. A few more ounces up front helps if you're trying to reduce your rapid fire splits by a few tenths/hundredths of a second.

No, a bud told me an old story of a guy that dropped his [non-functioning] 1911 off to Mr. Clark one day on his lunch hour, the guy came back and ask, "where's my new one piece guide rod?" "In that can with the rest of the trash, said Mr. Clark" was what I heard.

I don't see one-piece 1911 guide rods as an accuracy improvement, but they work fine in numerous other pistol designs. The only accuracy improving 1911 spring guide, with which I am familiar, was the Dwyer Group Gripper.

https://shopwilsoncombat.com/Group-Gripper-Kit-Government/productinfo/12G/

^^^This post is dead on balls accurate, an industry term used by experts like Mona Lisa Vito^^^

Ask me & I'd say go the bushing route.

But a one-piecer could be useful to have among stuff that's rarely -if ever- used.

There are some things Mr Browning did that can be improved today.
Sights, no pinch hammer and beavertails. (Modest)
Slightly bigger slide release, safety. Opened ejection port.

The bushing system is not one of those.

Really amazing to consider that the 1911 was at the beginning of auto pistol designs,
and is so good by today's standards. Really, a gun from 1911 would be great with just better sights.

And Mr. Clark knew his way around the 1911 as well as anyone.
(Far better than most.)

My old Bud went on the reiterate your last line too my Friend!

Not sure what you mean by that comment, but using a one piece guide rod does not eliminate a barrel bushing except in the case of a short barreled gun with a bull barrel which by design, has no barrel bushing.

MM

Hi Montana Man,

This.

That's a normal, stock, 1911 spring guide rod; that's not a bushing & it doesn't replace a bushing either. A spring plug goes on the other end of it & locks into place below the bushing & into the slide.

No idea what you are trying to convey with your original comment as one piece guide rods require a barrel bushing except on short guns with a bull barrel.

These are pics of barrel bushings..............................

Barrel Bushings

MM

I ordered stock Wilson parts to replace the one piece stuff that came in my early model Kimber.

Mike

...and a pain in the neck to deal with if you ignore all the advice & get one anyway. Don't ask me how I know that.

Some of the full length guide rods can be a pain to disassemble, but others that are the correct length make disassembly exactly the same as the original configuration. I don't know why some manufacturers make them hard to disassemble, but I think it's the length of the rod that is the problem. Sorry I don't remember a brand name from the versions I used that worked right though, it's been too many years.

Montana Man,

If you're 1911-A1 adept, which I am assumed you were, you'd of known that that recoil spring guide can be used only with an original-design 1911-A1 bushing.

I shouldn't have had to elaborate. You should have intuitively known it.

I don't dislike one-piecers. Sig uses them on its P series handguns. However, on 1911-A1, they're more of a POA than anything, especially bushing removal. I can't say that a one-piecer makes a 1911-A1 more accurate or less reliable. But I can say that they'll create bushing removal pains

You don't know WTF you're talking about.

A standard bushing is also used with a one piece guide rod; the only difference is that the spring plug has a hole in it for the on piece guide rod to move through.

Last comment to you.

MM

The standard bushing is solid. For a one-piece guide rod to fit the bushing has to have a hole in it the size of the guide rod.

MontanaMan,

One fallacy in your post: a guide rod hole in a bushing makes it non-standard. A standard bushing in fully enclosed.

Other than that we're good-to-go.

You're talking about the recoil spring plug...........& yes, it has a hole as I said.

The barrel BUSHING does not change whether the recoil spring guide is standard short or one piece.

The is only one BUSHING & that is the BARREL bushing; the piece that goes onto the end of the recoil spring is called a SPRING PLUG. It is not a BUSHING.

These are spring plugs, both standard & one with an open end for use with one piece spring guides.

Recoil Spring Plugs

MM

And, if you were literate you would have known better than to say “you’d of”.

MontanaMan is right. You and Magnumdood are confusing a barrel bushing with a spring plug. The barrel bushing has nothing to do with whether you use a short or full length guide rod.

If you're going to try to argue about this stuff, at least use the right names so people know what you're trying to say.

I'm not literate.

To borrow a phrase that Col. Cooper used when describing the DA auto pistol, "it is an ingenious solution to a nonexistent problem". Ditto for guide rods.

I stand corrected by one of the gun specific vocabulary correction specialists.

Wow.

You both were just wrong and neither of you can accept it. Wow is right.

What part of "I stand corrected" has you confused?

If it's simple enough I'll try to talk you through the meaning of what I said.

You would have been ok but then you said this

"by one of the gun specific vocabulary correction specialists.
Wow"

I'm not the one confused.

I believe you are.

"I stand corrected" is not changed even a little bit by the following description of who corrected me. You may not like that it followed my admission of being wrong, but it didn't change the fact, at all, that I admitted I was wrong and stood corrected.

Heard the same by the top AMU amorer back lots of years. My bullseye gun shoots less than 2” at 50 yards with match at 50 yards. Standard guide rod. Built by Jack Maple.

Words mean things!

Jack Maple is a legend; if he built your gun, then you have a good one without a doubt.

He was a wizard with Hi-Standard 22's as well.

He was a pretty good friend of the guy who got me going on competitive shooting & he got us a few parts from time to time; unfortunately I never had the opportunity to meet him.

MM

No need to get snarky because you got corrected. Your snarky comment indicated the rest was sarcasm, so TWR had a good point.

OK. 3/4 of your observation was not necessary either (the part in red).



If I'm wrong I have no problem admitting it, however, if you, or anyone else decides to lecture me also, I'll respond in a snarky manner.

This part was sufficient - MontanaMan is right. You and Magnumdood are confusing a barrel bushing with a spring plug.

Save the lectures for Sunday School.

Now, go ahead and respond. I'm done and you can have the last word/post.

Nice to have a gun that allows you to know you did or didn't point it right. Was told by the shooters at AMU that the gunner can outshoot the rest.. Tested with ball, I'll bet it does much better with real match ammo.

That's a classic, beautiful, hardball gun!!

Yes, it will almost surely do better with softball match ammo, probably closer to 1 1/2" or so..........................but, unfortunately, REALLY good 45 match ammo is hard to come by these days. (The target says it was with FC Match hardball, though)

Best softball gun, that I ever had (I built), with a heavy rib, would do 1 5/8" with 10 shots with the old Winchester Super Match.

Never had a hardball gun get under much 2".

MM

It shoots way better than I do so I'm happy with it. Wouldn't want to get a "pink" leg medal.., plus Sams was about 2 years behind on his M-9's so I went this route. Was activated less than a year later, and lost interest, so it sits in the safe mostly. I drag it out on occasion to shoot steel plates and it does knock them down with more authority than a 9mm.