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Although the original Model 1911 pistol was very good, it was not perfect. After the military's experience in conflicts in Haiti and World War I, the Army had identified certain deficiencies in the pistol, mostly having to do with ergonomics. For instance, there were complaints and problems with hammer bite: the hammer striking and lacerating the shooter's hand when the weapon cycled in recoil. This was corrected by using a hammer with a shorter hammer spur and a slightly longer beaver tail on the grip safety. Soldiers with smaller hands had issues with reaching the trigger which were addressed with a making a trigger cut in the frame behind the trigger and shortening the trigger. And there were accuracy problems discovered to be the result of most soldiers aiming too low when grasping the firearm, which was remedied by replacing the flat main spring housing (which was the lower half of the backstrap) with an arched mainspring housing that forced the pistol up and made for a more natural point of aim when point shooting. This improved pistol was designated the Model 1911A1 which entered service in 1926.
You can see the differences in the photograph above which shows the Model 1911 and Model 1911A1.
The 1911A1 went on to become one of the longest serving military sidearms and helped the 1911 design become one of the most prolific designs in history, as well as one of the most faithfully copied. While certain tweaks have been made to the design such as use dovetailed sights instead of the milled front sight and Colt introduced some "improvements" to the safety in its Model 70 and 80 pistols (and I put "improvements" in quotes because some don't believe they were improvements at all), the basic design hasn't changed much. Most changes you will see in modern pistols are different materials (i.e., using stainless steel), larger safety levers and/or ambidextrous safety levers, upward swept beaver tails on the grip safety, and omitting the lanyard loop. All minor in the full scheme of things.
Strangely, however, is that many manufacturers have reverted to using the flat mainspring housing. My understanding is that this supposedly gives the shooter a stronger grip on the pistol. The consequence, however, is that it also does away with the famous natural pointing of the handgun. With the arched mainspring house, if you grasp the handgun and simply extend your hand like you were pointing at something, the sights will pretty much be on target. With the flat mainspring housing, if you do the same, the firearm will be pointing low--sometimes significantly lower. That is why the Army made the change in the first place.
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| Image 1: The Remington 1911 R1 |
In 2011, Remington released their Model 1911 R1 (instead of A1, get it?) pictured above. The R1, as it was subsequently referred to, eventually was released in various models with some of the many improvements desired by competition and defensive shooters, but this first model was intended as an homage to the older 1911 and 1911A1 designs, as was it being released 100 years after the introduction of the original Colt pistol.
But it wasn't an exact reproduction, and in fact was a mix of features from various 1911 models introduced over the past 100 years. Internally, the main difference is that the firearm apparently uses a Colt 80 series firing pin safety (see also here). The materials and manufacturing was more modern (or cheaper, depending on your point of view): the American Rifleman noted that the receiver is an investment casting, and most of the small parts are either metal injection molded (MIM) or investment cast, but the barrel, bushing, and trigger are made of stainless steel.
Externally, the weapon was a bit of hodgepodge mix of 1911 and 1911A1 features with a couple modern upgrades. The modern upgrades include a dovetailed front sight and a set of larger, 3-dot sights, as well as a slightly larger ejection port. It incorporates the shorter trigger, the trigger cut, shorter hammer spur, and longer beaver tail of the 1911A1. However, the grip panels are walnut and cut with the double diamond design of the original 1911 and, significant to the subject of this article, it makes use of the flat mainspring housing of the original 1911.
There are two reasons that I hate the flat mainspring housing on this pistol. First, as I described above, it messes with the aiming. I suppose that if I were a competitive shooter putting in hundreds of hours of practice per year, I could learn to aim differently and cock the pistol up. But I'm not a competitive shooter, and I like shooting other handguns, and learning to shoot a 1911 with a flat mainspring housing would mess with my aim with other pistols.
The other reason is that the flat mainspring housing puts my hand in contact with the pointy corners at the lower rear of the frame/grip which is uncomfortable.
Having some experience with shooting 1911 handguns with the arched mainspring housing, I knew what was the problem and decided to correct it. Unfortunately, whether it is because the flat housing is now much more popular than the arched style (because everyone wants to do what the competitive shooters are doing) or because of the ongoing supply chain issues or some combination, arched mainspring housings are scarce, especially if you want a steel version. Most manufacturers and sellers seemed to be out of stock or simply did not carry them. However, I finally came across one from Ed Brown for $44.95 plus another $14.95 for shipping. I had found a couple sellers with much less expensive options but I was worried about the quality, which is why I sprang for the more expensive option from Ed Brown.
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| Image 2: The new arched mainspring housing |
The photograph above shows the mainspring housing. As you can see, it was nicely finished. Although the photograph doesn't show it, the housing I purchased came with the serrations on the back (instead of checkering) that matched the standard Government model.
Replacement was straightforward and does not require that you disassemble the firearm. The most difficult part of the process is reinstalling the pins as you must do so with the mainspring under tension. The video below walks you through the process. And this link takes you to a parts diagram which will help with the terminology.
As I noted, you do not need to disassemble the firearm, including removing the grip panels as shown in the video, unless you are going to clamp the frame into a vise to work on it. I removed the magazine, although I don't know if it would have interfered with the work.
The tools I used are shown below:
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| Image 3: Some of the tools and parts |
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| Image 4: Bar clamp |
In addition to the tools shown above, I made use of an armorers block at one point.
The gray colored punch was used to push out the transverse mainspring housing pin at the lower corner of the frame that holds the mainspring housing into place. I was able to start the pin out just by simple force. However, the mainspring housing pin retainer which fits at the base of the mainspring juts slightly into the hole for the pin and keeps it in place, so I wound up resting the edge on the armorer's block and using the mallet to tap on the punch to remove the pin. It doesn't take much force--light taps are all you need. Note that the pin is rounded on the right side and has a dimple on the left. The dimple is to accept a punch or tool and the pin should be removed by putting the punch on the left side and pushing through and out of the right side.
At this point, you can slide the mainspring housing out of the frame.
The next step is to remove the mainspring which is held in place with a small pin--the mainspring cap pin--that runs from front to back through the upper corner of the mainspring housing. Keep in mind that the mainspring is under tension, so be sure to have a thumb over the mainspring to keep it from flying off into space. What I did was to slightly compress the spring using the screw driver bit (which was the right diameter and length for what I needed) and bar clamp.
Basically, I put the tip of the screwdriver bit into the depression at the top of the mainspring cap, and then positioned the bar clamp so I could use it to apply pressure against the bit on one end and the bottom of the housing on the other in order to compress the main spring slightly. I then was able to use the small black punch to push out the mainspring cap pin--it pretty much just fell out with the punch just getting it started. This pin should be pushed out by pressing on what would be the outside (rear) of the mainspring housing toward the inside (front).
At this point, you should be able to (carefully) remove the mainspring. At the top of the mainspring is the mainspring cap. At the bottom should be the mainspring housing pin retainer. The retainer did not come out when I removed the mainspring so I had to tap the mainspring housing on my bench to get it come out.
You can see the mainspring cap, mainspring, and mainspring housing pin retainer at the bottom of Image 3, above.
The next step is to transfer the mainspring cap, mainspring, and mainspring housing pin retainer to the new mainspring housing.
To install the mainspring cap pin--the small pin that holds the mainspring in place inside the housing--you need to compress the mainspring. To do this, I again used the screwdriver bit and bar clamp to compress the spring. Then I inserted the pin, keeping in mind to insert it from the front to the rear of the mainspring housing (my pin looked like it was slightly flared on the inside). Release the compression and the pin will stay in place.
Next, slide the new housing into place. There are tongues and matching grooves on the housing and the frame, so the orientation is not an issue. However, be sure that the hammer strut fits into the depression at the top of the mainspring cap. I simply tilted the firearm back slightly so the strut tilted into the correct position. As you slide the mainspring housing into place, also make sure that the grip safety is depressed as the bottom edge fits behind the mainspring housing.
The difficult part is reinserting the mainspring housing pin at the bottom back corner. I tried using the bar clamp, but just couldn't get it to work. I finally just made sure to push up strongly on the bottom of the housing with my thumb with my fingers wrapped over the top of the slide while watching the hole until it looked like I could slip in the pin. Once the pin was in far enough to engage the mainspring housing retainer, I could relax my grip and finish the operation using a plastic punch and a couple taps from the mallet. I used the plastic punch so I had something that was larger diameter than the pin so I could make sure it was pressed flush, and to not mar the finish. Note that the mainspring housing pin is round on one end (the right side of the handgun) and has a dimple on the other (the left side of the handgun) so you want to install it from left to right with the rounded end going into the hole and pushed through to the other side.
All done.
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| Image 5: Finished job. You can also see the plastic punch I used to finish pressing the mainspring housing pin into place. |
With the arched mainspring housing the pistol points much more naturally and I don't have the corners of the pistol's frame digging into my hand. Well worth the $60 and time to install the new housing.
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