S&W E-Series 1911 45

I have just got into Bullseye / Precision Pistol shooting and one of the guys let me shoot his dedicated 1911 w/ Marvel 22lr slide and shot my best score ever . 

What I would like to know is if a S&W E-series 1911 45 ACP 5" would be a good candidate for a dedicated  22lr pistol with a Marvel OR Nelson lock back 22LR upper ? 

I have emailed a few gunsmiths and have gotten prices on a custom built lower and a marvel upper for around $1600 , which is fine by me , but for that price I would rather have the option of having 2 guns basically for the same price by supplying my own 1911 45 pistol & turning it into a 22lr , with an option of maybe shooting it in a 45 match if I would like . 

Any suggestions would be welcome .

Don't see a problem with putting a 22 conversion on the S&W lower mentioned above, barring any issues (occasional) with stacked tolerances etc.
Doesn't the E-Series pistol come with a fixed combat rear sight? You will probably need to replace those with adjustable sights for PP. I went that route, but eventually ended up with a dedicated lower for the conversion. 
Read the various threads on the 22 conversions on this forum and get well informed prior to purchase. There are a couple of other brands that you should probably throw in the mix for consideration (Nelson Custom and Advantage Arms). I'll put in a vote for the Nelson, but with bias as I have two of them. Flawless operation with great customer service. I am sure others will weigh in here.
Welcome to the sport!

I took my railed E-Series and replaced all the innards with Wilson parts (trigger, sear, disconnector and hammer) and have one of my Nelson’s on it always. I have been very happy with it.

I have actually thought about just getting a Fusion frame and building that up for the dedicated lower and sell the E-Series only because I have not put the .45 slide on it since I re-did it. But if you want the ability to have both, the E-Series has worked very well for me with my two Nelson Conversions, an iron sight and a weaver top.

I love mine. All I did was a trigger job and replaced the mainspring. The upper is sitting in the safe and probably never going back on. Mine was a Commander. I found a better use for that IDPA gun then just sitting there.

WOW , LenV , that is a beautiful piece . 

So if I was to purchase a Nelson or Marvel 22lr lock back upper with Picatinny rail for a red dot for my S&W 1911 E- series there shouldn't be any problems with it fitting & working well and then just do a trigger job on the lower and I should be good to go ?   

Right now I am shooting a CZ 75 B with a Kadet II conversion with a CZ Customs Picatinny sight rail on it with a cheap Bushnell red dot and Hogue grip  and I shoot alright with it, but I feel I could shoot better scores with the 1911 and a conversion unit .

When you buy the conversion, get the one with the combo rail. Nice to have choices.

mspingeld wrote:When you buy the conversion, get the one with the combo rail. Nice to have choices.

Thank you for that bit of advice

Spraywizzard wrote:WOW , LenV , that is a beautiful piece . 

So if I was to purchase a Nelson or Marvel 22lr lock back upper with Picatinny rail for a red dot for my S&W 1911 E- series there shouldn't be any problems with it fitting & working well and then just do a trigger job on the lower and I should be good to go ?   

Right now I am shooting a CZ 75 B with a Kadet II conversion with a CZ Customs Picatinny sight rail on it with a cheap Bushnell red dot and Hogue grip  and I shoot alright with it, but I feel I could shoot better scores with the 1911 and a conversion unit .

That is all you need. There is nothing to fit the upper to the lower. The only reason I had to do trigger job was it came with a +4lb trigger. It is now a little over 2.5.

LenV wrote:

Spraywizzard wrote:WOW , LenV , that is a beautiful piece . 

So if I was to purchase a Nelson or Marvel 22lr lock back upper with Picatinny rail for a red dot for my S&W 1911 E- series there shouldn't be any problems with it fitting & working well and then just do a trigger job on the lower and I should be good to go ?   

Right now I am shooting a CZ 75 B with a Kadet II conversion with a CZ Customs Picatinny sight rail on it with a cheap Bushnell red dot and Hogue grip  and I shoot alright with it, but I feel I could shoot better scores with the 1911 and a conversion unit .

That is all you need. There is nothing to fit the upper to the lower. The only reason I had to do trigger job was it came with a +4lb trigger. It is now a little over 2.5.

And there are no problems with the 2 magazines that come with the Nelson conversion working in the E-Series ?  I forgot to ask that , or is there a special Magazine that works better than others?

Those are nice wood grips on your 1911 , what brand are those ?

No problem with Nelson magazines. You do have to push in until hear or feel a faint click. I stole those Nills grips on Ebay when no one bid against me. Sig makes a clone that look and feel just like the Nills for a lot less. There are two of them on Ebay right this second.

Len

Jesus , FINALLY after 5 damn months ( Ordered it 2 days after this post ) I got my Nelson upper and installed it on my S&W 1911 E series and  added a Ultradot Matchdot on it and went and shot my first bullseye match at my Wednesday league and it wasnt all that great , just did a 10 minute sight in before match and shot a 525 out of 600 with 6X . 

What I want to know is what other Magazines work with a Nelson upper ( besides Nelsons )  , as I bought 2 of those Jagemann 1911 22 magazines and they did not work witn m unit !
It would load the first bullet , but would never load the second , same with both magazines . kept trying them , but same thing kept happening , so will throw these to the garbage .

Spray - not loading the second round is pretty common.  Try using the 8 lb recoil spring instead of the 9 lb.  That solved the problem for me.

I've had luck with the Brownells conversion mags. Feels like a slightly weaker mag spring. Might need to drop to a lighter mainspring as well.

Dave

swissyhawk wrote:Spray - not loading the second round is pretty common.  Try using the 8 lb recoil spring instead of the 9 lb.  That solved the problem for me.

Thank you , I will try that tomorrow as I am goin gto the range to practice ! I'll let you know how that works .

Dcforman wrote:I've had luck with the Brownells conversion mags. Feels like a slightly weaker mag spring. Might need to drop to a lighter mainspring as well.

Dave

Thank you , I will look into those and maybe buy 1 and see how it works . 

The only thing that pisses me off is I had to shave the sides of the base plates of the Nelson Mags and the Jagmann mags as I installed the Harrett adjustable target grip on my pistol and they are way to fat to even go into the gun body with the wood hanging way below the grip body .  

Hate that design , wish they just had the flat 1911 base plates instead of the fat ones !!

Nelson makes a narrower base plate, plastic, or steel as I recall just for that eventuality...

james r chapman wrote:Nelson makes a narrower base plate, plastic, or steel as I recall just for that eventuality...

Thank you , i will look into that

Two quick thoughts....

First, changing to the lighter spring fixed that problem.

Second, the CCI SV ammo I had did not work with my Nelson.  Changed to the CMP bulk Eley ammo, and all was well.

mikemyers wrote:Two quick thoughts....

First, changing to the lighter spring fixed that problem.

Second, the CCI SV ammo I had did not work with my Nelson.  Changed to the CMP bulk Eley ammo, and all was well.

Probably bad grip, don't you think?

mikemyers wrote:Two quick thoughts....

First, changing to the lighter spring fixed that problem.

Second, the CCI SV ammo I had did not work with my Nelson.  Changed to the CMP bulk Eley ammo, and all was well.

My Set up has been running flawless with the Nelson Magazines with SV CCI and the 9# spring it was set up with when I got the unit . 

Its just that the Jagemann's did not work .  I switched out the 9# spring and installed the 8# spring and will test the Jagemann's tomorrow and see if that works .

I had no issues with my conversion until I tried Jageman mags.

I found that if I marked the tops with a silver sharpie that there were a couple spots that were rubbing on the bottom of the slide.  Once those spots were filed down they worked fine.

Joe Morgan wrote:

mikemyers wrote:Two quick thoughts....

First, changing to the lighter spring fixed that problem.

Second, the CCI SV ammo I had did not work with my Nelson.  Changed to the CMP bulk Eley ammo, and all was well.

Probably bad grip, don't you think?

In this case, it was bad ammo, no pun intended.....   After describing the problem to them, and giving them my "lot number", CCI send me a return-mail-tag, and what was left of my case of ammo got sent back to them.  I'm pretty sure this was due to 90+ degree temperatures in Florida.

Later, after returning the ammo (less two boxes of 50 I kept for testing), I tried the CCI on a cooler day - and it worked.  Meanwhile, Dave Salyer suggested I try Aguila ammo.  Will try that out this coming Wednesday.

Two separate problems, mixed together - not transferring a round from the mag into the gun was corrected as soon as I replaced the recoil spring with the lighter spring.


I got two metal magazines - I didn't like them at all; were sent back for credit.  After firing the 'last' round, the slide stop couldn't go all the way into the slide.  Larry at Nelson can explain in more detail, and what needs to be done to fix the metal magazines I was using.

STEVE SAMELAK wrote:I had no issues with my conversion until I tried Jageman mags.

I found that if I marked the tops with a silver sharpie that there were a couple spots that were rubbing on the bottom of the slide.  Once those spots were filed down they worked fine.

Thanks for the tip , as I happen to have a silver sharpie in my gun bag and will try this at the ranger today !  I may have a small file in my tool box in the garage I may take along too !

Spraywizzard wrote:

STEVE SAMELAK wrote:I had no issues with my conversion until I tried Jageman mags.

I found that if I marked the tops with a silver sharpie that there were a couple spots that were rubbing on the bottom of the slide.  Once those spots were filed down they worked fine.

Thanks for the tip , as I happen to have a silver sharpie in my gun bag and will try this at the ranger today !  I may have a small file in my tool box in the garage I may take along too !

I tried the filing on one of the magazines , ( there are 4 points on the top and I filed the back left ledge on one and it seemed to advance the 2nd round into chamber and fired the rest of the rounds with no problem. Thanks for that bit of info .

 I wasnt able to try the other mag as my wife went with me and she has not shot in 2 months and I was busy loading 4 magazines for her S&W Victory 22lr as she was shooting the hell out of her pistol ......LOL  I think she shot about 350 rounds .....HA HA HA 

 I didnt get much practice in with my Pistol . but as long as she was having fun I was happy !

Colt Ace, GSG, Kimber, and Brownells magazines all function with my Nelson but the Nelson magazines work best. I just bit the bullet and bought ten so I am fixed for years. I did have to disassemble them periodically to clean the wax out when using CCI SV but a switch to Eley CMP bulk eliminated that chore.