I'm pretty sure that there is a barrel spirit out there somewhere who, like the Gremlins of flying lore, exists just to confound us poor shooters by making two seemingly identical barrels shoot as if they were mortal enemies--one good, one bad. I've tested barrels made by the most common rifling processes--button, broach, and ECM (electro-chemical machining)--and can detect no superior manufacturing method. There surely must be differences attributable to chambering methods and rifling design, but those typically escape the understanding of ordinary folks like me.

The author modified a manually operated target system with a battery powered gear motor to advance the paper. A 100-yard spool of phone wire allows the paper to be advanced with a button at the firing line.

In a very real way we have witnessed a revolution in the 1911 pistol that has been brought about by modern manufacturing capabilities that did not exist even a few years ago. Of course, I'm talking about CNC machining that can do with one or two machines almost all the work needed to make a 1911. This has given us more accurate and reliable pistols than we've ever seen before.

For the purpose of this report, I requested one of Springfield Armory's new Loaded 1911A1 .45 ACP pistols. The venerable 1911 is simply selling like hotcakes, and this model has most of the amenities everyone wants in a package that is ready to go when you open the box. Among them are beavertail, ambi safety, beveled mag well, forward slide serrations, Novak-style night sights, and two-piece recoil spring guide rod. Those are nice, but the really cool part is how well they are put together.

The slide-to-frame fit would make some custom 'smiths jealous because there is a virtually imaginary bit of play, and it moves freely with no hint of binding. The barrel headspace extension mates with the slide with no light visible, and the bottom barrel lugs and slide-stop pin kiss gently when the barrel locks up. All of these are highly desirable factors made possible by the state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities at Springfield's South American supplier.

The modern equipment has made it possible to refine dimensions and reduce tolerances throughout the process. Springfield's ace gunsmith, David Williams, explained that several years ago they began to work on these elements, and the improvements are obvious. There was nothing wrong with earlier Loaded guns, but these are better.

A sharp file helps keep straight lines. When filing the headspace extension, one crooked stroke can ruin a barrel.

My plan was to get a good, quality stock gun, test it, and then see what I could do to improve it, first with a drop-in match barrel and then with a barrel that required fitting. Did my new Loaded 1911 really need a heart transplant? For most purposes, the shooting results prove that it really didn't. But it certainly gave me a nice, clean starting point to show you how you can transform your old 1911 into a real shooter.

With advice from Larry Weeks at Brownells, I chose the Nowlin Pre-fit match barrel. Based on my experience, I picked the Kart Easy Fit barrel. Springfield uses hammer-forged barrels on the Loaded guns. Nowlin barrels are rifled using the ECM process, and Kart's barrels are a combination of broach and button rifling.

The Nowlin barrel truly did drop in and was ready to go with no fuss at all. When I held the slide up to the light, there was virtually no daylight showing around the hood, and the barrel went into and out of battery with no drag. At the other end, the bushing supplied with the Nowlin barrel was a good fit on the barrel and was even slightly snug in the slide. A bushing wrench was helpful, although you could turn it with finger pressure if you don't mind a little pain.

My experience with Kart barrels has been overwhelmingly positive, and the "easy fit" makes it possible to get a hard-fit barrel without having to cut the bottom barrel lugs--which is by far the most challenging part of a gunsmith-fit barrel installation. What Kart has done is build in a pair of "pads" inside the rearmost top lug, and by gradually filing these down until the barrel locks up, you can get the same accuracy outcome with considerably less work.