Just got my brownells 1911 aluminum bushing wrench today. It is quite loose on my gi bushing, which leads me to ask are all government style bushings the same outside dimensions? I know some are chamfered different, some are flared inside etc, but is there a bushing larger than mine that this wrench was oversized to accommodate? I have a plastic one already that was loose, that's why I got the professional one. Please advise, does someone have a wrench that really fits a gi bushing?
Why are 1911 wrenches so loose fitting?
- Thread starter Okgroups
- Start date
One possible explanation is that the fit is a bit sloppy so the wrench will fit a larger range of bushings.
GI milspec 1911A1, you don't need a wrench, you can turn the bushing by hand, even when the gun is brand new, and as tight as it gets.
When you get to guns where you need a bushing wrench, you are outside the range of GI spec, and who knows how little or how much any given maker has departed from the standard. So a little loose, but works allows it to work on more guns, meaning fewer returns from people upset that the wrench didn't fit their gun.
Just a thought,
I don't (and won't) own an 1911 pattern gun that needs a wrench to field strip. And yes, I'm a dinosaur about other things, too.
GI milspec 1911A1, you don't need a wrench, you can turn the bushing by hand, even when the gun is brand new, and as tight as it gets.
When you get to guns where you need a bushing wrench, you are outside the range of GI spec, and who knows how little or how much any given maker has departed from the standard. So a little loose, but works allows it to work on more guns, meaning fewer returns from people upset that the wrench didn't fit their gun.
Just a thought,
I don't (and won't) own an 1911 pattern gun that needs a wrench to field strip. And yes, I'm a dinosaur about other things, too.
DAVID NANCARROW
New member
Wilson Combat sells a plastic wrench which fits the GI style bushings on one end. The other end fits the Officer model bushing which is shaped differently.
polyphemus
New member
Is a wrench needed to turn the bushing?
Even if it so tight that it won't turn,only about 1/4" of the barrel is oversize.
So,unless the slide is also jammed and can't be pulled back a little that's all
needs to be done to remove it without wrenches.
Even if it so tight that it won't turn,only about 1/4" of the barrel is oversize.
So,unless the slide is also jammed and can't be pulled back a little that's all
needs to be done to remove it without wrenches.
Aguila Blanca
Staff
This is incorrect.polyphemus said:
Barrel bushings need a wrench when they are fitted too tightly into the slide. If they fitted the barrel so tightly that removal required a wrench, the pistol wouldn't function. I once tested a high-end 1911 that shot okay (accuracy sucked -- confirmed by an ex-Marine gun writer -- but it functioned 100% reliably), but it was impossible to remove the bushing from the slide.
When I say "impossible," I mean "not possible without destructive tools." Two of us worked at it, me and the ex-Marine. We had a steel bushing wrench. We took turns, with one holding the slide with both hands while the other tried to turn the wrench. Then we'd switch off and try again. We finally gave up. But ... the barrel wasn't especially tight in the bushing.
Just like everything "1911", you have M1911, and you have literally everything else.
I'd be rather surprised if any two commercial bushings had the same external dimensions.
I bought a plastic bushing wrench about twenty years ago, and it's still working, though it has taken a beating from turning it across the face of checkered spring plugs.
A couple of other plastic wrenches were so soft that plastic shavings were all over the slide, bushing, muzzle, etc., every time the bushing was removed; I suppose they sell a lot more of those than of the kind that last for twenty years?
I'd be rather surprised if any two commercial bushings had the same external dimensions.
I bought a plastic bushing wrench about twenty years ago, and it's still working, though it has taken a beating from turning it across the face of checkered spring plugs.
A couple of other plastic wrenches were so soft that plastic shavings were all over the slide, bushing, muzzle, etc., every time the bushing was removed; I suppose they sell a lot more of those than of the kind that last for twenty years?
Why should they be tight?
Did USGI 1911's have a barrel wrench? Seems like another thing for Joe to lose. I've owned a few USGI. 1911's and the only one needing a wrench was the AMU national Match 1911, which really needed a rubber mallet more than a wrench because that sucker was so tight. The rest of them could come off with fingers.
Did USGI 1911's have a barrel wrench? Seems like another thing for Joe to lose. I've owned a few USGI. 1911's and the only one needing a wrench was the AMU national Match 1911, which really needed a rubber mallet more than a wrench because that sucker was so tight. The rest of them could come off with fingers.
The bushing was not originally intended to be tight either in the slide or on the barrel; that tightness is the result of latter-day gunsmiths looking for as much accuracy as they could get out of the old warhorse. As noted before, the original reason for the bushing was to fill the hole needed to insert the tools to machine the inside of the slide; accuracy had nothing to do with it, which is why GI bushings, like most M1911 parts, can be removed without tools.
Jim
Jim
One of the beautiful things, to my mind, about the GI 1911/A1 design was that you can detail strip the pistol entirely without tools.
All the needed tools are your hands, and the gun itself. Everything that is meant to come off or out does so with either fingers alone, or using part of the gun as the tool.
If there is a more "modern" gun design that can do that, no one is making news about it.
All the needed tools are your hands, and the gun itself. Everything that is meant to come off or out does so with either fingers alone, or using part of the gun as the tool.
If there is a more "modern" gun design that can do that, no one is making news about it.
1911 gripwrench
Waiting for a review of the new 1911 Gripwrench.
http://youtu.be/pkT45huDRuo
Are they available yet anyone know? I've been struggling with tight bushings for too long!
Waiting for a review of the new 1911 Gripwrench.
http://youtu.be/pkT45huDRuo
Are they available yet anyone know? I've been struggling with tight bushings for too long!
orionengnr
New member
I only have two 1911 wrenches, both plastic. One came with a Kimber, the other came with a DW.
I seldom use either, even on my Les Baer, which is the tightest-fitting 1911 I own.
But the plastic wrenches work with any of them.
I seldom use either, even on my Les Baer, which is the tightest-fitting 1911 I own.
But the plastic wrenches work with any of them.
I have both the plastic and aluminum brownells bushing wrenches among others.
The aluminum one does seem slightly looser than the plastic ones and the one time I have used it to free a stuck bushing on a friends gun I was thankful for this as I used a layer of masking tape to prevent damage to the finish.
Unsure if this is by design or not but it is handy if you find yourself needing more torque than you should.
The aluminum one does seem slightly looser than the plastic ones and the one time I have used it to free a stuck bushing on a friends gun I was thankful for this as I used a layer of masking tape to prevent damage to the finish.
Unsure if this is by design or not but it is handy if you find yourself needing more torque than you should.
dakota1911
New member
I usually do a "field takdown" where once the gun is empty you dump the mag then take the entire top end off and keep your thumb under the recoil spring(s). I think there are Wilson utubes that show them taking a 1911 apart this way.
Tactical Jackalope
New member
I've never needed a bushing wrench for any of my 1911's. Even with a FLGR. 