Springfield's Mil-Spec

The following article describes an effort to improve the actual performance of a marginal Springfield "MilSpec" by adding a few general improvements. A word of clarification is in order here. Springfield seems to have gone out of their way to assign model names that seem interchangeable in meaning. This particular gun is NOT the "GI .45" they are marketing as "nearly identical to the service pistol issued to US troops during WWII". That pistol has vertical serrations and mimics the general appearance of WWII-vintage 1911-A1's.

The pistol discussed here is marketed as the "MilSpec" and has angled slide serrations, a lowered ejection port, beveled magazine well and high-visibility 3-dot sights. It sells a little higher than the "GI" gun, because of these features.

Neither of them is truly "GI". Both use .38/9mm-size firing pins, and are fitted with Springfield's "ILS" key-locking mainspring housing. Additionally, I tried seven different genuine GI-surplus 1911-A1 barrels in the MilSpec's slide, and the hood was too short on all of them. Do not buy one of these guns and expect 100% USGI parts interchangeability. It ain't gonna happen.

I picked up a new Springfield "Mil-Spec" in January 2005. The slide-to-frame fit was definitely tighter than the USGI 1911's I had handled in the past. The Parkerizing was very smooth and attractive; racking the gun proved that it seemed to fit right and work slick. Fieldstripping it showed decently finished slide & frame rails, and machine marks only in places that shouldn't matter. The sights were real good, but the trigger left something to be desired. Experience has taught me that before sinking a bunch of time and money into any 1911, you take it out and shoot it. Only a trip to the range will prove a gun's reliability and mechanical accuracy potential.

Range conditions were not ideal for the first outing, but I was anxious to shoot. All shooting was done at 25 yards, and the groups were shot while seated on a cold, wet bench and shooting over the range bag. Yee-Haw. I started with Wolf hardball, standing on my hind legs and blasting away at an empty cartridge box on the snowy berm. Point of impact was a little high left, so I switched over to a paper target that someone had shot with a .22 & left hanging on the stand. From a rest, 5 rounds of Wolf went into 4 inches, about 4" out at 11 o'clock. I noticed I was fighting the creepy trigger, and determined to concentrate on the sights and just press it off.

I switched over to my 200 grain SWC reload, and a fresh target. 5 shots went into 3 1/2 ", with three of them under 2", and it was grouping closer to the sights:

Now, you're not gonna take Camp Perry by storm shooting like this- but I have shot guns that were worse. By this time there were about 22 rounds of everything left, so I loaded the factory mag with every round different than the one below it, using all loads listed above. Then I turned and hosed the rounds into the berm, as fast as possible. I repeated this three times, and the MilSpec ran like clockwork with the mixed loads.

The "Fly in the Ointment"

Still, this was a nice, tight 1911 - and I thought it should have shot a little better. When I got it home I tore it down again and started looking for anything, which might have inhibited accuracy. The first thing I found was a small imperfection in the barrel's exterior, located right on top about an inch ahead of the front locking lug.

Folks, this cannot be good for accuracy. I doubt it would ever be a safety issue given the .45 ACP's low operating pressures- but hey, this was a NEW gun. This should have been caught by Springfield's QC inspectors.

I notified SFA of the barrel problem on 02/01/05, and shipped it to them on 02/02. I simply asked that Springfield ship me a one-piece stainless barrel, sans the problems, that miked a full 0.580 at the muzzle. Megan Klavon at SFA handled the service matter, and I must say she was a pleasure to work with. When I received the new barrel on 02/16, my first impression was that it was a superb piece of manufacturing. Finish was first-rate and execution was perfect, inside and out. It was also a dead-perfect, drop-in fit; the only thing (aside from the finish) notably different, was that the replacement was a tad longer, and protruded from the bushing slightly. When I asked Megan which model this particular barrel was typically furnished with, her reply was "We use that barrel in our Trophy Matches and TRP's."

While the gun was without a barrel, I raided a local purveyor of GI-surplus parts and located hammer & sear pins that fit snugly in this frame. Luckily it was the OEM pins that were undersized, instead of the other way around. I also replaced the sorry-looking OEM disconnector with a GI part that fit better, and these three little changes removed all the creep from the trigger. And speaking of triggers, I am a big fan of the original "A1" GI trigger with the short, checkered face- so I installed one of those while I was at it. The gun really fit my hand now, and was starting to feel like an old friend.

You can probably understand that I was itching to get an answer to the sixty-four dollar question- would it really shoot better now?

Yes it did. Even with the 0.005 oversize stock bushing, it was grouping three 230 HydraShoks in an inch and a half. The 200 LSWC load, mentioned above, ran just over two inches for five; not bad for a bulk load put-up in mongrel, range pick-up brass… and particularly from a service-grade pistol.

I ran out of Universal Clays, and have been fiddling with HS-6 in several calibers, including the .45 ACP. This particular load was 8.1 grains under the Sierra 230 JHC. Range was about 43 yards, rested on the side of a handy tree -

Four of the five were inside 3.5 inches, and the stray was definitely mine. My assessment is that this barrel alone, improved the MilSpec's mechanical accuracy close to 100%.

Since this new barrel was really showing promise, I went ahead and fitted a Maryland Gun Works match bushing per Kuhnhausen's shop manual. I finally got a chance to bench the gun at 50 yards, and I believe it is going to be a real shooter. The 3-shot cluster is probably what the gun can do; the flyers were the best that I could do, on this particular day. Still, it went under 3.5 inches, which makes me pretty proud of the reload if nothing else. I don't shoot much better than that on my best day, with match ammo and full-blown centerfire target pistols. The load was 8.1 grains of HS-6 under Sierra's excellent 230 grain JHC.

The Navidrex grips (from Brownells) aren't bad for "cheapies" either.

Closing thoughts?

The Springfield MilSpec is a decent-enough 1911 clone, which can benefit from the replacement of some substandard small parts; these are the bane of "bargain 1911's" from practically every manufacturer- and some pretty high-dollar ones as well. Springfield's frame and slide are reportedly forged in Brazil, but they are good forgings and you can count on getting a decent slide and frame. The rest of the components bear watching closely. This one had a lousy barrel, but they replaced it with a much better one and it became a real shooter.

This gun now belongs to a friend who is a retired California Sheriff's Sergeant; he shoots it regularly and reports an additional 500 or so trouble-free rounds. I'm calling that a happy ending.