A Long Journey Comes To An End

Mike45 · #1 03-21-2012, 06:10 PM

Re-posting from 1911froum.com

In 2007 I become interested in 1911's. I cruised the forums and found the Rock Island Amory pistol. In particular there where two guys that seamed to have a connection to RIA and the Longslide. Those guys, Auto Mag and Oldlefty inspired me to have a Longslide built.

I called Arnel in 2008 and asked him if he could build me a longslide, he said yes and what would I like. Well it took me a couple of months to figure out what I wanted. With the help of Auto Mag and Oldlefty I decided on a high capacity longslide. I gathered the majority of the parts that I wanted in the gun and sent them to Arnel. After a number of months Arnel completed the gun and he sent me this:

Arnel does not provide refinishing services so I had to figure out what type of finish I wanted on the gun. I went back and forth but I never could make a decision. Oldlefty would ask me every time the subject of my high cap longslide came up - "have you finished that gun yet" I would just tell him no I was still thinking about it.

So in 2010 I started to think that it would be a good idea to have Arnel build me a new longslide, this time a single stack. I gathered up all of the parts and then sent them off to Arnel. He sent me this:

This time I was determined that I would get both guns finished and complete the job.

So in steps Robert at Alchemy Custom Weaponry. I see him posting here on the forum and I check out his web site. I give him a call and he listen to what I have to say and answers all of my questions. There was a lot of questions and Rob was extremely patient and informative.

So I decided to send both guns off to Alchemy and get them refinished. Rob did a great job in prepping the gun for refinishing. He then sent them off to the refinisher proper. When the guns and parts returned to Rob some of them did not meet his standard so he sent them back to be redone.

In the end this is what Rob has sent back to me:

and this:

The High Capacity is hard chrome with black cerakote controls and the standard longslide is all Black-T.

It has been a long road traveled but with the help of old friends and a new one I have finally completed my Longslides.

NAMVET72 · #2 03-21-2012, 06:15 PM

Very Nice, what is your Next Project???????

herefordman1 · #3 03-21-2012, 06:39 PM

Just wondering, are long slides more accurate than a 5 incher?

Jim

Mike45 · #4 03-21-2012, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NAMVET72

Very Nice, what is your Next Project???????

Thanks

.

I am going to send my full rail Rock to Rob and have him checker the front strap, change all the parts, and have it coated in Black-T.

Then at the end of the year I am thinking of having Rob build me a modern interpretation of the G.I. 1911 with a number of Harrison part on a Caspian frame/slide.