john masen 1911 parts?

[j427x]

in my attempts to make another "franken-gun 1911" i got three parts from john masen.

masen and its other name swenson i think are pretty much hated all over the 1911 world and they pretty much get the bad mouth anywhere on the internet.

so far i have bought

#1 swenson 1911 pin kit. it was dirt cheap and so far it seems OK except the barrel pin did seem a little soft --otherwise it seems useable.

#2 one masen straight main spring housing stainless steel.

this is not the checkered one it has the straight lines down the back. dirt cheap, very nice looking part. in installed a wilson spring, it fits the 1911 perfectly and is very good looking . no fitting just, assembled it and installed. very much worth the modest price --as cheap as some of the PLASTIC MS-housings!


#3 one masen extended stainless safety.

this is not as good looking as the main spring housing but looks good enough considering its modest price. the thing scared me cause it just dropped right in--no fitting required! it functions perfectly , i tested it with several dissconnectors, hammers and sears and it worked with them all.

#4 one masen stainless round commander hammer.

this hammer is not as pretty as the S&W i bought from midway but still very good looking for $13. it did have a issue. the hammer pin hole was too small. i had to drill it out to the correct size. otherwise it is correctly shaped. i did do a tiny polish job to the contact area.

when installed it makes for about a 4.5lb trigger that has a very good feel. the smith hammer is a little bit better and a little bit cheaper it is however on like "forever OOS--" mode- and this stainless wasn't but $4 more--

it seems either i was lucky or masen parts ain't quite as bad as the internet scuttlebutt queens make out.


would i build a 1911 from masen made parts? probably not , there are too many name brand parts that are just as inexpensive and have good/ better quality.

are masen parts OK? so far from my limited use of them i think they may be good to just OK depending on the part. very tough to beat on the price though.

[j427x]

update--

just got in one JM stainless steel flat mainspring housing , one charles daly stainless steel grip safety and one CD stainless steel flat MS housing.

the JM mainspring housing looked perfect like the other one when assembled the plunger stuck about half way down in the mainspring housing!

after about two hours of cussing, hammering, oiling, heating, hammering more cussing-- i ended up opening it MS housing up with a drill.

once i got the plunger spring and that little pointy thingy out of the mainspring housing i measured it against ones that i know work. and the JM mainspring housing was not drilled out to the proper size and caused it to stick! a very HARD stick at that!

i went ahead and drilled it out to the correct size and it appears fine now.

the charles daly parts fit perfect like last time. so they are 100% so far.

the JM parts two MS housings and one stainless steel commander hammer have had TWO defects.

the JM hammer had an undersized hammer pin hole and today's MS housing was either not drilled at all or drilled with the wrong sized bit.

so out of three parts i have got ONE that was correctly made-- a ratio of 2 out of 4 !

the JTM safety works perfectly but had numerous sharp edges and a pointy end that keeps gouging my plunger tube all these little things are an easy fix with a rotary tool and a sand-paper roll.


the colt, S&W, and charles daly parts have all been 100% some did require a little bit of fitting nothing PITA like this last JM mainspring housing!

maybe others have had better luck with JM parts--but right now i think i will look elsewhere--