Been organizing the armory durning off hours and have finally dug into all my old 1911 supplies.
It’s been interesting, and fun, to see items I needed or thought I needed. Here is one of the latter: Modern GI Grip Screws.
What makes these “GI Format” is the size and shape of the slot. Specifically it is wide enough to accept the rim of a 45ACP case and is concave to accept that rim with purchase. The goal being able to tighten down grip screws with spent brass or readily available ammo.
The thinking was 1911 grip panels tended to vibrate loose during extended shooting sessions. So if your modern 1911 came with hex key or flat screw slots, you needed to keep extra tools around to dress them.
Problem was, even slotted screws would get buggered up by not having “the perfect” fit. So there was a time when “custom” guns shipped with hex head screws. Eventually most production guns adopted this, and the look went from being something exclusive to just a pain in the ass.
So…in the ever increasing war to be “more custom”, companies like 10-8 came out with original format GI screws to “upgrade” from there. The selling point being you always have a tool if you have loaded or spent brass laying around. And since the slots were concave, you were way less likely to have the brass slip and bugger-up the screw heads.
Summation. I never ended up using them as you can see. Not really sure why. It’s a neat idea. But these days, I don’t think it’s as big of a problem as it used to be. With the popularity of G-10 grip material and rubber O-rings many companies ship on their 1911s, I don’t see 1911 grips coming as loose as they used to.
At least on the Wilson eXperior Full Size we have anyway. YMMV.
Sincerely,
Marky
www.John1911.com
Areas of focus: Defense and National Security, Modern Light Weapons, Small Arms, Weapons Training.
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