Post by HeadHunter on Dec 4, 2021 16:29:27 GMT
or - How to get the very most out of your KWC 1911
The venerable KWC 1911 has been around in many different guises for a considerable amount of time, okay no where near as long as the real steel 1911 has but in the world of CO2 replicas it's one of the Grandfathers of the hobby. A hugely popular pistol amongst replica collectors, so much so that most of us have at least one if not two (or three) proudly held in our collections. With this in mind, I thought that it was about time that someone wrote a guide to getting the very most out of the KWC 1911.
For the full guide to stripping down the KWC 1911 go to;
co2-handguns.freeforums.net/thread/1707/kwc-1911-full-strip-guide
Contents
- Accuracy improvements
- Mechanical improvements
- Cosmetic improvements
- Maintenance
Above - Although it's not your standard Remington RAC 1911, it's still just a KWC 1911.
NOTE - For the purpose of this guide I've used my modified Remington 1911 RAC (see above picture), it may externally look very different to yours but I can assure you that it is just a plain old KWC 1911 underneath that exterior. There are so many different types of 1911s made by KWC that to cover all the variations would too time consuming and make this guide even more confusing to read. There are a few different types of hammer, sights, beavertails, mainspring housings, triggers and even differences in frames (under barrel tactical rails etc.) but essentially they are all the same beast on the inside, everything connects in the same way, in the same place irrespective of these slight variations to some of the parts, so just because yours doesn't look identical to mine is no cause for concern, they all work in exactly the same way.
Pistol Smithing the 1911 - Accuracy Improvements
A brief explanation
The KWC 1911 is a great replica not just because of it's similar look to the real steel 1911 but also in it's 'true to the original' function but this is also it's Achilles's heel. The real steel 1911 was never intended to be an accurate competition pistol, it was designed as simple auto loading pistol that could be used in various theatres of combat around the world and cope with them all admirably. You can get modern manufactured 1911s that have been specifically made for point scoring competition shooting (Colt Gold Cup, Kimber 1911s, etc.) and these are a completely different beast to the standard GI issued 1911s from the early part of the 20th century.
The KWC mimics the original 1911 so well that it even copies some of it's flaws, the trouble with the floating barrel system is that when the slide goes forward into battery it needs to lock up the barrel against the slide and when it starts into recoil the barrel needs to unlock BEFORE it can allow the slide to travel backwards. This repeated action on a 1911 when made of softer metal, no matter how well made, will ultimately wear and become loose. This unfortunately has a knock on effect to the barrel as the barrel assembly won't lock up in the same position after each shot because of this general looseness in the whole system and if the barrels are not in exactly the same place for every shot how can anyone get consistently accurate shots out of it ?
To test this, take your 1911 in your hand (unloaded, obviously) and feel the guns general looseness between the slide and frame, the sloppiness of the fit. Then check the muzzle, you can normally insert your finger in the muzzle and move the barrel assembly about without any restriction. How can anyone expect a gun with such a loose barrel to fire accurately at all, you wouldn't fire a revolver than had such a loose barrel would you ! This is the area where some great improvements can be made to the gun, so let's get started.
Muzzle shimming
The muzzle can be shimmed twice, firstly there's a slight looseness in the inner barrel to barrel assembly fit and secondly in the barrel assembly to barrel nut fit, which the latter one is far worse than the former but to get the most gains BOTH should be accomplished.
Before going any further I need to point out that before applying any adhesive tape to the gun the location needs to be thoroughly cleaned of any residual oils and then dried, otherwise the adhesive properties of the tape will be reduced. Be careful to remember that certain cleaning agents can mark or even remove certain surface finishes (eg. painted surfaces). So with that in mind, let's see what we can do.
To complete the first part, remove the inner barrel from the barrel assembly.
If you take the inner barrel and push the muzzle end of it into the muzzle end of the barrel assembly you'll notice that there is a small gap, that creates a little bit of play and what we need to do is reduce that gap without causing it to bind and cause any resistance to the inner barrels movement. Because there is only a very slight internal movement of the piece (approximately 6-7mm) there is no need for a resistance free material so this can be done with something as simple as electrical insulation tape and a silicon based lubricant.
Wind a couple of layers tightly onto the end and cover the plastic shim, try it for a fit, if it's too much remove some and try again. Keep doing this until it just fits. Now you need to rub the whole surface down with something smooth and hard, then try it again until it's freely moving about. Then trim the excess off with a sharp stanley blade.
Once finished, give it a light coat of silicon grease (use very sparingly) and try it again. Once happy with the fit return the inner barrel back into the breech assembly and refit complete unit back into the barrel assembly.
To complete the second part, we are going to use the barrel nut and the barrel assembly.
A really good way to shim the gap between the outer barrel and the barrel nut is to use something called 'Teflon tape', this is not the same as regular PTFE tape (that plumbers use) but a product specifically designed to be used with laminaters and bag sealers. It has a teflon surface which reduces friction without the need for any lubricant.
I got mine from ebay (use the link below if interested),
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333966417304?var=543012164281
The inside of the barrel nut has a small shoulder on the muzzle end, so we need to place the tape at the other end.
Take some very fine emery paper/cloth (eg. 600 grit) and sand the inside of the barrel nut, do this at the rear end rather than the muzzle end. The idea is to clear it any loose debris and get it a good sound surface for the tape to adhere to, remember to clean thoroughly before applying the tape (as mentioned previously).
Next, we need to ascertain exactly how many wraps of the tape you'll need to take up the 'gap'. This can be done by cutting small squares of the tape and stacking on top of one another, put a couple on (top and bottom) and test the fit by putting the barrel inside the barrel nut.
If it's still a loose fit then add another square (top and bottom) and test again. Keep doing this until it won't fit, remove the last two squares (one from the top and one from the bottom) and check the fit. I found that mine required four squares (four on the bottom and four on the top) to get a good fit. So count how many squares you have and that's how many full wraps of the tape you'll need to do the job.
Remove all the squares and then tape the outer barrel (about 1cm from the muzzle) with the corresponding amount of wraps of tape.
NOTE - You can easily see from the above picture the actual size of the gap by the amount of tape that has been put on the outer barrel, this shows the amount of play that's possible between the outer barrel and the barrel nut.
Try the fit again to make sure that it's right, if it is then CAREFULLY remove the tape. Now this is the fiddly part, as you unwind the tape from the outer barrel roll it up as small as you can but with the sticky side on the OUTSIDE. Once done it should look like the picture below.
Now take the free end and stick it to the inside of the barrel nut and start to SLOWLY work it around the inside edge. Make sure to keep it straight (use the edge of the barrel nut as a guide) and keep forcing it down to secure it as you go.
This part is the difficult bit, just take your time and soldier on with it.
Once you've done applying it to the inside, take a smooth rounded object (the shaft of a screwdriver is great for this) and burnish it into position, keep doing this until you're happy that it's in position and stuck down fully.
Try it on the outer barrel, ease it on and then start working it backwards and forwards, rotating it as you go, using the barrel to act as a burnisher is the perfect finish.
Once you've got it to the point that you're happy, re-assemble the whole gun and test the action and check that the barrel is centrally positioned inside the barrel nut.
The main thing to remember is that the gun should be returning to the same position after every shot, the tighter the barrel (both inner and outer) are held the better the repeatable accuracy will be with the gun, obviously too tight is not good either as this will restrict the guns action tremendously.
The teflon tape shim will NEVER need to be lubricated and requires no further maintenance once it has been fitted.
Sights
As with all guns, having a good sight picture is of paramount importance when trying to gain any form of accuracy. Most KWC 1911s come with standard fixed sights that are very basic in nature but a lot can be done to improve them. Highlighting the front sight ramp in a bright colour can aid tremendously, as can adding two simple dots of an equally bright colour to the rear sight, one on either side of the notch. Any colour can be used from basic white or red to hi-viz day-glo orange, the choice is entirely personal.
You could even go for one single dot on the rear sight that sits underneath the notch (like a lot of H&K pistols use), that way you've only got to line up the rear dot below the front dot to see proper barrel alignment to the target, this system is very quick and suitable for people that like to do a bit of 'Action Shooting' against the clock.
You can use paint, stick on dots or even nail varnish (which for experimental purposes is very easy to remove) and if it all helps to get you accuracy gains, then it's well worth it.
The choices are many, the colours are varied but it all goes to help you gain as much accuracy as you can out of your 1911 and it's well worth experimenting with to see what will work for you.
Part two - Pistol Smithing the 1911 - Mechanical Improvements
Burrs
There is many things that can be done to improve the internal mechanism of this gun and one of the best starting points is a good deburring and polishing of a lot of the internal parts. The finish on a new KWC 1911 does leave a lot to be desired, after all is said and done these are cheaply made, mass produced items and none of the parts are hand finished in any way. The position of some burrs will effect the performance of the gun a little, others not so much if at all. Notably there are burrs present on the upper barrel assembly where it locks into position against the slide, this is an important one, clearing the burrs away will allow the barrel assembly to engage better and create a much more stable and repeatably accurate gun. The outer barrel has burrs that will impact upon the barrel spring, a large burr will 'snag' the spring's coils and pull the barrel off it's central alignment which in turn will possibly create wear spots on the inside of the barrel nut and thus effect accuracy.
All good working guns will benefit from deburring and polishing, as long as you stay away from the sears and remember that all you are removing is the burrs, you should NOT be reshaping any parts at all. I've found that using a small fine toothed file works best and concentrate on removing just the burr, as soon as you get down to the surface of the part then the filing side of the job is done, all that's left to do now is the polishing which should be done with either a 400 grit or a 600 grit emery paper.
A really handy phrase to remember is, "It's far easier to remove metal than to try to put it back on", that's very sound advice and one that I regularly tell people that are contemplating doing such tasks and just remember to take your time, a good job is never a quick job.
Here's a close up of the barrel assembly, you can easily see the burrs standing proud.
Once you've done the rough work (filed, sanded and even used a brass wire brush) you're left with these which just need a final polish.
It's a laborious and time consuming job but well worth all the hard work to achieve the end result.
Slide release.
When you empty a magazine on a 1911 the slide locking lever should be activated by the magazine's follower and the slide should lock back. Once you've put another full magazine back in the gun you have two choices of how to proceed, one is to flick the slide lock downwards (and the slide will travel forward into battery) or you can re-rack the gun. Some KWC 1911s won't allow the slide stop to drop once you re-rack the slide and this is caused by the slide stop binding against the pressure spring. The easiest way to correct this is to 'lightly' sand the back edge of the slide stop (highlighted by a red arrow in the picture below) until it's just free enough to drop under gravity when the slide is re-racked. I wouldn't advise trying to do this in one go as you just need to remove enough to stop it from binding. This only works when the gun is vertical and gravity can enact on the slide stop, so if your one of those guys that likes to hang upside down out of trees doing trick shots then I wouldn't bother, lol.
Personally I prefer to re-rack my slide after inserting a fresh magazine, it's just the way that I do it but if you do this modification you then have the choice of doing it which ever way you want.
Part two - Pistol Smithing the 1911 - Cosmetic Improvements
One of the things that has bugged me about the KWC 1911 is the fact that the ejection port finishes so bloody high compared to a real steel version, I'd previously lowered the port but even then it was still too high so I did it again.
Mark up where you need the port to be and set about filing it down. I'd advise doing it all by hand as the material is pretty soft and one slip with a powered tool could be a costly one.
Eventually you'll get to the point where you'll need to polish it off by hand with a very fine sandpaper, something like a 600/800 grit will be fine enough and once you've done that you can polish it again with a buffing compound.
Part two - Pistol Smithing the 1911 - Maintenance
Replica semi auto pistols have always required far more maintenance than replica revolvers have ever done, their mechanical nature decrees that regular lubrication is a mandatory aspect of ownership and especially for any trouble free subsequent use.
Whenever you're using any CO2 replica you should be using Crosman Pellgun oil (or something similar like silicon oil) on every CO2 capsule anyway, as this goes a long way to protect the internal seals of any replica gun anyway but generally it doesn't aid the mechanical aspect of the gun, for this you need to manually apply a lubricant to certain parts of the gun.
The type of lubrication that I strongly advocate using is a silicon based one, with my favourite being a silicon grease with added teflon (PTFE) particles for it's low friction properties. The great thing about using a silicon based product over a petroleum one is that if it manages to work it's way through the gun it will not harm the seals (unlike most petroleum based lubricants), in fact silicon grease will actively help to keep your seals in tip-top condition. There are many people that use moly grease on their guns in the misguided assumption that if it's used on the real steel firearms then it must be good enough for a replica, this is simply not true. Moly grease works incredibly well on all steels and is a perfect lubricant for a real firearm not just because of it's lubrication properties but also because it helps to harden the surface of steel parts too, but our replicas are not made of steel, they are made of a much softer zinc alloy (aka monkey metal, die cast metal, etc.) and moly grease serves no useful or protective purpose other than to lubricate the moving parts. A 50 gram tin of SG will last you a lifetime, even if you cleaned and lubricated 30 handguns every week for the next 30 years, I cannot stress enough how little you need, a thin coating is all that is needed in most cases.
Most, if not all, KWC 1911s come bone dry straight out of the box, so they will need lubrication right from the start. There is nothing guaranteed to do more damage (excessive wear) than to use a 1911 without any form of lubrication applied to it, the soft metal will wear away very quickly causing a myriad of other minor 'knock on' problems from lack of accuracy to slide hanging to failures to feed correctly and it'll eventually cause the gun to rattle like a bag of spanners after some considerable amount of time and nobody wants that.
Simple and regular maintenance should be performed on the rails, they need to cleaned of all the previous lube and then have fresh SG applied to the surfaces. You only need to apply a very small amount and spread it so that it forms a very thin coat, too much is never good as it will cause the slide to stick and bind which will reduce the recoil to a very sluggish movement.
A very small smear of SG onto the transfer port of the magazine will keep the seal soft and squishy enough to make a good solid connection to the main valve within the slide, this will stop any gas loss at this point and keep it directed into the places that it needs to go (like projecting the BB and pushing the slide into recoil/out of battery).
If you've stripped your 1911 down fully you'll need to lubricate all moving parts (hammer pivot, trigger guides, internal hammer & lock work, main valve, rails, transfer port, safety bar, etc.) but just remember that if using SG to only use a very small amount, less is definitely more when it comes to SG and using too much can be detrimental to the gun's action.
For prolonged storage (over winter maybe) I'd put a small amount on the CO2 piercing cap, as this will stop the seals from drying out. I wrote a small thread on making a combination lubricant (Silicon grease, PTFE & Pellgun oil) as a 'one stop shop' type of lubricant for CO2 replicas, more information can be found if you click the link below;
co2-handguns.freeforums.net/thread/1124/protecting-co2-piercing-seals
