Cussin' Bob's Gun

I was first introduced to Cussin' Bob's gun when Bud was trying to get rid of it. Bob had alerted me that Bud was wanting to sell an old 1911, and it might be a M1911. It ended up being an old Colt, but not a M1911. Bob was willing to meet Bud's asking price when I would not. I agreed to work over the pistol for Bob.

Bob's gun was a Colt Sistema, a 1911 built by the Argentine government under Colt oversight. Every bit of the Sistema is pure 1911. It meets the Colt blueprints and standards of 1927, and is known as Pistola Sistema Modelo Argentino 1927.

One of my carry guns is a modified Sistema, and Bob had long wanted me to build him a similar pistol after shooting it. After a long discussion, Bob decided he did not want to really alter the pistol's appearance, but rather make a "sleeper" pistol. This concept appealed greatly to Bob, so we elected to just do a trigger job and a barrel swap and see what we could get out of the pistol.

Before doing anything, I wanted to see what we were starting with, so I cleaned the pistol of crudded up cosmoline,lubricated it and took it to the range. The accuracy was less than stellar, but the pistol shot with no failures of any sort. I knew I had a reliable pistol, so I placed an order for a Wilson barrel and bushing, as well as Nowlin springs and a set of rubber Pearce double diamond grips. I ordered Cussin' Bob a Wilson Combat 47D magazine as well.

While I was waiting on the parts to arrive, disassembled the 1911 again, and performed a trigger job using the machined steel Sistema trigger and it's tool steel sear and hammer. I bobbed the wide spur hammer a bit and radiused the GI style grip safety to take the bite out of the pistol. When the barrel and springs finally arrived, I fitted them and headed to the range. As expected, the results were stupendous. The one shot I have on the seven line I know I pulled. I am happy with the result eventhough the pistol still managed to nip my hand a bit.

This weekend I will return the pistol to Cussin' Bob. If he decides he wants a beavertail next, I'll install it for him, but I hope he just keeps this one as it is. It's a deceptively accurate sleeper gun.