I picked up my 1911-380 Saturday. The new grips and IWB holster arrived today. I had been trying to get this gun since the beginning of the year and finally a dealer friend was able to get one. I am also having another friend make a leather OWB holster with flap, similar to the German/Hungarian holsters of WWII.
Thanks, I really like it. I have it all de-greased and clean now and waiting for the weather to quit it's rain, drizzle and thick foggy conditions so I can take it out in the yard and give 'er a go. I appreciate the other posts about the possible magazine problems and will keep an eye on that. I have three mags (two from Bass Pro) and have my fingers crossed but also prepared for a fix if needed.
Very nice. Love the grips. Spouse has been shooting the snot out of ours and loves it. We have one mag (out of four) that's a bit problematic...occasional stovepipe FTF on the second to last round. that's probably due to a weak spring. The other three mags that work fine.
Thanks. Still have been weathered in so have not tried the gun yet but feel good about the somewhat low (25%) mag problems. Looks like a really easy fix and wish I had calipers to check the mags out before use.
I closed three of mine down to 0.305 at the front of the feed lips per the posts from TexasHawk. They work fine. My fourth mag, the one Browning sent me after talking to customer support, I left the way it came (0.317) and it works fine, too. The stovepipe issue happens with only one mag and is almost certainly caused by the spring. Unfortunately, I can't find any third party replacements. I suppose I could send it back to Browning and I have no doubt they would make things right, but I want to shoot it some more and see if it clears up (yes, hope springs eternal). I also sent Wolff an e-mail requesting they consider adding a model for the Browning to their line of 110% flat wire replacement springs and received a nice, but non-committal reply. They were helpful, though, and asked for some dimensions and pictures to see if one of their existing .380 products might work in the Browning mag shell, but decided they had no likely candidates. Khar sells some 8 round .380 mags that look a lot like the Browning mags (although they don't use to spring loop in the follower to activate the slide stop like Browning does). I may get one of those just to see if the spring would fit the Browning mag shell even if it means I give up the lock slide back on empty feature.
I tried emptying the clip through the chamber by racking the slide and ejections were terrible. I'll have to get some calipers or try just a slight bend on the clip to see if that helps. I did notice that it worked better with FMJ ammo and not so good with HP's. I also noticed that it worked better with 4-5 rounds left in the mag. Still have not shot the gun, my bad. Painted the sights today a flat white. While it is now faster to lock on a target, I'm not sure I'm that happy with the look.
Gil, you can't really tell much about how the ejection sequence is going to work by hand racking the slide. You can't hand rack fast enough to duplicate all the kinetic forces at play when the gun is fired. What you can do is try the test suggested by Wilson Combat Arms...remove the slide from the frame. Stand the slide on it's back end, with the inside facing you. Slide a live round (has to be a live round, a snap cap or empty brass won't work) into place up against the firing block so that the rim of the cartridge is centered under the hook of the extractor and the extractor is holding the cartridge in place. You should be able to hold the slide at any angle without the cartridge falling out. Also, you should be able to shake the slide lightly (mildly?) without having the cartridge fall out. Although it's a crude test, if your gun passes the extractor tension should be close enough to spec so that the gun will cleanly and reliably extract spent casings when fired.
OK I'll give that a go. The test makes sense. My other pistols (5) will eject a live round quite well so the 1911-360 actions today concerned me some. I should have fired the gun today, the weather finally broke but rain is coming back in tomorrow. Test worked fine. If anything shell was held in there quite tightly. Here's my attempt at painting the sights. Like I said, not sure I like it. Makes them stand out in low light situations though and that's a plus.
I went through the same drill on the sights. Tried Testor's paints in florescent Orange, Red, Green, Yellow and Blue. What worked for me is an impossibly small dot of white nail polish on the back of the front sight, at the very top. Left the rear sights in black. Didn't think it would work until we got to the range. The Brownie is screaming for a gold dot front sight.
LOL! Gold sounds like a winner and it might work. It sure would look nice. I don't know when dots on sights started, I went through a lot of years between purchases but I know it helps with the small conceal guns so I miss them with the Browning. I do know that in low light the pure black sights, long arms and my aged eyes make the sights hard to see. Might try the single dot if I lose my desire to keep this set up. I originally was going to go with red and still might try it.
The white got to me and I spent 1/2 hour taking it off with bore solvent. I was afraid to use nail polish remover since I was concerned about the gun finish. I painted a single dark gold dot on the front sight only. Needs 24 hours to dry and then will put clear polish over top of it. It's very subtle but looks quite nice.
