The article really lost me with this statement:"There are several modern designs out there for .45 caliber pistols that ......are easier to maintain than the pre-World War I M1911".
30+ years of gunsmithing tells me that whoever wrote this surely has never worked on the 1911 and all of the newer designs. The newer designs tend to have more parts and more complicated double action trigger designs. Most of the .45 designs out there are nothing more than variations of the Browning short recoil design that was used in the 1911. The real difference in the newer designs usually lie in the trigger mechanism (double action as opposed to single action) and the magazine capacity (double stacked as opposed to single stacked). The only other differences are the material that the frame is constructed of (steel, alloy, polymer).
The article really lost me with this statement:"There are several modern designs out there for .45 caliber pistols that ......are easier to maintain than the pre-World War I M1911". 30+ years of gunsmithing tells me that whoever wrote this surely has never worked on the 1911 and all of the newer designs. The newer designs tend to have more parts and more complicated double action trigger designs. Most of the .45 designs out there are nothing more than variations of the Browning short recoil design that was used in the 1911. The real difference in the newer designs usually lie in the trigger mechanism (double action as opposed to single action) and the magazine capacity (double stacked as opposed to single stacked). The only other differences are the material that the frame is constructed of (steel, alloy, polymer).I posted a similar thought when I first read that sentance. You'd be hard pressed to find someone LESS "gun-smith-inly" inclined than myself. I have a buddy who's a master machinist, tool and die maker, who's also quite a good hobby gunsmith. In the past, I've helped him with his computer problems, and we had come to an agreement... I would never take the side plate off my S&W revolvers again - even after showing me how to clean the lockwork, and put them back together, I was never able to reassemble them so they worked - and he wouldn't mess with his computer's configuration! We'd just leave that work to each other! LOL.
But seriously, I have NO problems at all, at stipping my 1911s down to pins. Complete disassembly, and replacing all the springs. It's really no big deal.
As I mentioned, proper fitting up the locking lugs and barrel bushing ARE highly skilled operations, but that's part of what an armorer does, when BUILDING the pistol. It's NOT a part of normal service.
Mark