A longslide .40 project

[gnappi]

I was going to buy a Tanfoglio 6" 10mm and then another .40 bbl (total ~$1500) for it but this tack saved me a ton of buckazoids.

A few months ago I was cleaning my load bench and I "found" a standard 1911 6" .40 bbl (no ramp not a bull) and decided my Springfield V16 .45 super needed a face lift :-) A .40 in 1911 was the one platform I did not have covered and I actually wanted to make a 6" .40 top end for my Rock Island 5" (high cap) 10mm but that would have meant additional expense. A RIA longslide 10mm would have needed a bull and Para ramped barrel and I wanted to use the 6" bbl I had on hand.

Logistically I had to do some searching around for parts to fit my many available 1911 pieces :-) After searching for a "standard" long slide, I found a stripped Remington R1 Hunter long slide on Feebay.

The R1 10mm (series 80 but used without the plunger) slide is cut for a barrel bushing and the Springer frame does not need a ramped barrel, the R1 top was a good fit for my needs.

The down side is that the R1 has unique sight dovetails (both of which are unobtanium and I did not know this) and the LPA "R1" rear (only found on Amazon shipped from Italy) and Meprolite front sights needed a lot of work as well as the slide top needing to be flattened for the rear sight blade, and it needed a flat top firing pin retainer.

I found it did not like TC bullets (one fail to feed in every mag) but worked fine with SWC'c which I cast a lot of. It's a hoot to shoot, "recoil" is nearly non existent, accuracy at 30' is easily left ventricle / right ventricle and I come away from the range with a surplus of .40 brass over what I shot! I'm having so much fun with it I just may do another for my RIA 10mm (that lure of high capacity) but, that will wait till way after the holiday expenses are paid for.

Overall the project cost me a bit less than it would have if I bought and built a RIA slide, and about half of what a completed slide would have cost, but I can now also get a 10mm bbl for it.... I think it was worth it.