Last month I made a visit to the Cody Firearms Museum in Wyoming, which I would absolutely recommend to anyone considering going. The collection of firearms and history they have there is phenomenal. One thing that caught my eye was a display wall of dozens of different firearms cutaway to show the internal mechanisms. I’ve always found these to be extremely interesting as well as informative from a gunsmith point of view.
While looking at the different displays, I realized there’s nothing stopping me from making my own cutaways. I ordered a basic Rock Island 1911 and it went straight to the milling machine for modification.
I based my cuts roughly on other 1911 cutaways I’ve seen and tried to ensure that all of the internal parts are visible without damaging anything to the point that it wouldn’t function as designed. Obviously this pistol is no longer safe to shoot, but mechanically everything works as it should.
Once all the cuts were made, I re-blued the entire pistol and then used model paint to highlight the cut areas which really made everything stand out.
I’m not sure if there’s a huge market for these cutaways, but the only ones I see at auction are usually historical and have a significant price tag. Additionally, these cutaways are unfortunately still viewed as firearms in the eyes of the ATF, which means all of the transfer paperwork and regulations apply.
That being said, I plan to make a few more of these cutaways to sell to anyone in the market for a cool display piece. I’m also kicking around the idea of doing the same thing with different guns depending on interest levels. If anyone is interested in owning one of these 1911s or something similar, please reach out in the comments and we can get in touch.
Update: 5-15-25 – Chris has decided to ship all these 1911 cutaways with wood grips instead of the polymer grips. He (and I) feels the end result is a more classical and appealing look for display.
Chris W.
www.John1911.com
“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”
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