OK not sure if this is the place but I wanted to share this alternative method of field stripping a 1911. If you don't have the take down wrench handy or have arthritis or weak fingers this may be an option for you. https://youtube.com/shorts/zTxZqi4LaiM?si=SvPJA0I2rroc0xr-
Lot of action out of spring first time I did it 70 years ago. Still remember it as I did not hold it when I slid the assembly off. Sort of like M-1 thumb, once is usually enough to establish a permanent memory.
The 1911 is one of the easiest and fastest pistol to field strip ever made, hell, I can do it one handed, NO SHIT! The trick is to first cock the hammer, and rack the slide part way, shove a finder into the breach and with the same hand, thumb the take down lever/cross pin out and extract it, slowly let the slide forward and then remove, No further need to strip further! If your really wanting to go further with the guide rod and recoil spring, go for it, it's not that hard depending on the recoil system, I prefer the Series 70 full length Kimber/Colt/ Para type two piece spring with guide rod slider ( Aka the High Pressure System) which should never be field stripped, and there is almost never any reason to remove the barrel bushing, so,............... A feller or fellette should be able to field strip a standard issue 1911 in under 20 seconds, and a complete strip and re assembly in 40 seconds, BLINDFOLDED! That was an actual standard of qualifications for pistol, if you wanted your pistol expert pin, that was a requirement along with the shooting part!
That's the way I learned how to strip one at Camp Lejeune. I did let the recoil spring get away once in the armory, but only once. I never knew there was any kind of tool to disassemble a 1911. You can completely disassemble it to the bare frame and reassemble it without any tools. All the tools you need are on the gun. Just takes lots of practice while always remembering that gravity is your friend.
J. M. Browning, Sam Colt and Die Gebruder Mauser - the Big Three of the firearms world (counting the Mauser Brothers together).
If you include Gaston Glock you have to count Eugene Stoner and Bill Ruger in there, even if I think Bill Ruger was a Fudd. Lots of his stuff still had happy switches. Try this. Imagine an M16 and a Ruger 10/22 sitting on a bench. Go through the loading, firing, clearing in your head. See. You know the dance, can probably hear the music of dust covers opening, magazines dropping onto the bench and bolts locking to the rear. I can't help seeing the Remington Model 8 safety in the AK47 design.
Cannot forget Dieudonné Joseph Saive! One of histories greatest designers/engineers, the man who designed some of histories most famous rifles, rifles like the FN-49 and the Legend it's self, the FAL! He knew John Browning well, often working along side him, they were quite good friends, and it was Saive who actually finished Browning's Highpower pistol!
I was never in the military and I learned how to field strip a 1911 no tools. The only tool I know of is one that depresses the plunger while turning the barrel bushing. I can do that by hand even as fumble fingered and uncoordinated as I am.
