This Springfield TRP was one my father bought and I immediately thought of the Nighthawk slide I had lying around with a Trijicon SRO on it. The combinations of barrel and bushing I had tried it with before resulted in 3-4 inch groups. I wondered if the TRP barrel and bushing would drop in and result in better accuracy.
The 1911 usually requires fitting to perform at their best, but I have had good luck every now and then with the ability to swap pieces around. So far, this has been a perfect combination. I had previously fitted an extractor and firing pin stop to the Nighthawk slide, so I just had to hold my mouth right to get the barrel and bushing installed. I lubed the gun excessively before I put it together, in case it was a little too tight. It was, but after running the slide a few times, it went into battery as it should.
The optic mount is the Trijicon mount with integral rear sight and a dovetail front sight. The slide had seen 100 rounds with a previous frame and barrel/ bushing combo. I had been curious if the mount was an issue with the accuracy, but put the project aside in favor of other things. Question answered!
The first 5 rounds fired from the gun were some mixed ball loads that I shot at a steel target to make sure the dot was close enough to zero to be on paper at 25 yards. The gun cycled beautifully.
The next five rounds went into about 2″ with me standing, unsupported. I marked it and made an adjustment, then concentrated really hard and shot a 3″ group. Shows me. Let the shot happen and stop trying to get it in the middle, fool! At least they were all 10s.
I put up another target and loaded mixed ball into the magazine. I shot the gun somewhat rapidly, just trying to keep the rounds in the black. I wanted to check function and get back in a .45ACP rhythm.
I would like to have a closed emitter optic on this gun to make it an ideal hunting gun, for me. I don’t think it is in its final configuration and I have some more testing to do. Part of the testing will be to insure reliability over a couple of thousand rounds and another piece of the testing will be comparing it to the 9mm AOS TRP. 9mm vs .45ACP has been making a resurgence on the internet of late, so why don’t we jump in too? The difference on people has been imperceptible to my eye, but what are the benefits and drawbacks for hunting and target shooting?