Remington Rand “tightened up”

I have a 45 acp Remington Rand made in 1942 that I use for "Ex Ordinance" competition at 25 mt. I would like “tightened up” frame to slide to make it more accurate, is it worth it or is the result minimal?

I have had a well-reputed gunsmith tell me once that the quality and fit of the barrel into the pistol is the majority of your accuracy. The slide-to-frame fit is only about 5-10% of the pistols accuracy. I believe it implicitly as the Kart-barreled Gold Cup wad gun he worked on for me is a hammer with its rattling slide ... except when the barrel is locked up.

Make sure you are putting your money where it counts the most.

A tight slide with loose lug and bushing fit will shoot about as well as a loose slide with loose lug and bushing fit.  

Barrel lockup needs to be consistent with relation to the sights to achieve “accuracy.”  Slide to frame fit is not a big part of that—bushing and lug fit is almost all of it.

If the pistol is already competitively accurate, tightening things up a little will help a little.  But, if the pistol is not competitively accurate, tightening things up won’t help at all. You would be better off spending the time and money on a properly fit barrel, bushing, and slide stop.

Aren't the old Remington Rand slides considered soft?
Phil

A few questions:
How does the gun shoot now? What is your end goal, do you want to shoot it a ton, or a few times a year? 

As others have mentioned a tight slide to frame fit is nice, but barrel fit is more important. Arguably if you are only shooting at 25m, that is a bit less demanding requirement than 50yd (~45m)

What I would do, is get an EGW bushing that fits your slide and existing barrel. https://egwguns.com/1911-parts/?p=2&slide_components=899  

If you ask, I believe they will customize the bushing to fit your slide and barrel combination.   This will improve things a lot.  You could fit a new barrel, but that is more involved.

PMcfall wrote:Aren't the old Remington Rand slides considered soft?
Phil

RR had quality issue early on in production by 1945 they were producing some of the best 1911's made

Thanks for the information, in this type of competition you can change only the barrel, so I fit the one I bought in early 80' a BAR-STO..with bushing.. the result are good you can see my post on " Ammunitions Discussions" of 2/1/2024..so if the slide-to-frame fit is only about 5-10% of the pistols accuracy it's not worth it, so I keep my pistol as it is..

Prolly a case of of a case of  if it's not really broke, don't fix it.......yet.
More gain will be achieved at the range than the work bench in most cases ( I really need to look in the mirror  ).

ser2711 wrote:Thanks for the information, in this type of competition you can change only the barrel, so I fit the one I bought in early 80' a BAR-STO..with bushing.. the result are good you can see my post on " Ammunitions Discussions" of 2/1/2024..so if the slide-to-frame fit is only about 5-10% of the pistols accuracy it's not worth it, so I keep my pistol as it is..

Before my father passed, He and I assembled a 1911 from parts he had and parts I bought, He had a very old NM barrel and bushing that was already fitted to one another and a Remington Rand slide. We bought a less then $300 frame from Fusion Fire Arms in Naples FL. because it was close to his house. The frame to slide fit is AMAZING it's like they were made for one another! Had a trigger job done and it needed nothing else. I have heard the "soft" comment about RR and had repeated it and got jumped on for saying it, Because the gentleman pointed to the history about RR and the heat treating of all 1911's. If you google it you can find a tutorial on RR history.

My father always said" it does not matter where the barrel locks-up just so long as it locks-up in that spot every time".

PMcfall wrote:Aren't the old Remington Rand slides considered soft?
Phil

Military 1911's were made of the cheapest materials that would just meet spec. The pistol was supposed to function for 5000 (or 6000) rounds, and after that, it was sent to depot where any parts, to include the pistol itself, would be tossed out on the rebuild line.




You can look at the materials, the slide is 1050 steel, if you search, 1055 steel is used on lawn mower blades because it is tough, and mostly because it is cheap.

The guys on 1911 Forum claim that vintage GI slides will crack somewhere between 10 and 20,000 rounds.











Don't let those who have a romantic view of the past, and a nostalgia for an era they never lived in, fool you about the metallurgical quality of vintage firearms.

Today, with allow steel pistols, we have the best 1911's ever. And, at great prices.

this is made from a 4140 equivalent steel, and heat treated before machining.