Full Metal - MEU 1911 - Advice Needed

[Old School Punk]

Hey Guys, I have been reading another thread here on ASC about the best metal pistol to buy, and this has prompted me to do my own thread.

I own a Tokyo Marui MEU 1911 pistol and it is a great gun. It fires perfectly everytime and its very acurate. The problem that I have with it is it is plastic. As good as TM plastic is, it just doesn't has the weight, feel or sound of real metal.

So this has me debating if I should sell my TM and use the money to invest in a brand new 1911 from a brand that already makes their guns out of Metal, or should I just buy a metal kit and convert my TM to metal?

I have never done full conversion of a GBB pistol before (both the slide and the frame), but I am pretty handy and I am sure that I could figure it out.

I guess that I am wondering if a person buys a kit, say a Guarder metal kit, and swaps all the components from the TM over on to it, is it still going to perform like a TM? Would a person end up with a better pistol if you just start with a packaged product that is engineered to work in metal right out of the box, even if it is from a lesser brand of gun?

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this, and if you think that I should just start with a fresh 1911, what brand would you recommend or not recommend?

Thanks in advance for reading and responding to my thread.

Gord

[Ross]

In my opinion) I would recommend getting a full metal kit for your current tm and getting a gun doctor to put the lower receiver in. I'm speaking for myself on this, but the lower receiver on a 1911 has more tiny bits than a full length gbbr. Watch some do it yourself videos on youtube first if you think you can do it, but if you are not familiar with it I would just get someone else to do it. The upper slide part of the gun is easy as pie.

[TaroBear]

I had my Marui converted with a Guarder metal kit. It doesn't quite perform the same. It kicks different, and there'll be some kinks to work out regarding performance, most notably trigger pull and locking. It's not any "better", unless you're talking about the feel of the gun. Obviously it's much nicer to use. Be aware that as you convert to metal, there'll be other things such as the spring, outer barrel and some of the controls that you'll want to change around as well. It's a slick slope you'll find yourself on, and I've constantly got parts on order from multiple source to try and finish it up. I believe it's worth the trouble, honestly, but some would disagree with me. If you just want it to shoot, then forget about changing anything.

Edit: While 1911s are simple enough to disassemble and clean once you learn the first time how they work, if you're going with a Guarder kit, I seriously suggest you take it to someone with experience and possibly power tools. It seems like Guarder has some fitment issues. When I had my kit installed, Illusion mentioned how poorly some of the bits fit compared to the stock Marui parts.

[Disco_Dante]

Well it's not going to perform like a TM simply because the metal slide is going to be too heavy to provide the snappier kick you had by the lighter plastic slide. A guarder kit is going to be heavier, and may require some sanding or fine tuning to get everything to fit just right. Shooter's Design for example, may still require some sanding and fine tuning, but is made of a much lighter metal.

Depending on how confident you are, you might not even need a gun doctor. 1911s are pretty simple and as long as you follow a decent guide you shouldn't have too many issues.

[Old School Punk]

So I got a quick question for you guys.

I have found a PGC full metal kit for a TM - MEU 1911 for sale over in Hong Kong ($200.00 US).

I am strongly thinking about ordering it, but I wanted to see if anyone knows anything about bringing in 1911 metal kits before I do.

I was going through some old posts, and I found a quote from RacingManiac that said;

Frame for 1911 is restricted, as such to get one require some amount of hoop jumping.

This is pretty old, so I don't know if it is still valid or not.

Anybody know anything more about potentail problems importing metal kits for 1911's?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Gord

[Daiviet]

still valid, cannot be brought in through normal channels.

[Old School Punk]

Really, WTF???

What is the reasoning behind this I wonder. That is the stupidest thing that I have heard in a long time. Arghhh!

So I guess this just got a bit more complicated Eh.

Hmmmm.... fricken Bureaucrats.

Thanks for the info

[Danke]

If you really want a nice 1911 just talk to ILLusion. He does skirmish/tactical stuff too.

[MASAKO]

Originally Posted by Danke

If you really want a nice 1911 just talk to ILLusion. He does skirmish/tactical stuff too.

Just make sure your bank account has something like three time zero to start with. Seriously, you should talk to him.

The thing about upgrade an GBB pistol is not about knowing disassemble and assemble all the part but it's about knowing the function of it's own then you can analyze all problem that occur, it's sound hard but good new it wasn't that hard, just matter if you have time and experiencen to go with all drill and error along the line.

For me, time is money and if it took so long to do so, I rather send to somebody who has knowledge and time.

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by Old School Punk

Really, WTF???

What is the reasoning behind this I wonder. That is the stupidest thing that I have heard in a long time. Arghhh!

So I guess this just got a bit more complicated Eh.

Hmmmm.... fricken Bureaucrats.

Thanks for the info

The reasoning, is that the component is a replica of a real firearm. If the real component requires registration, then the replica is prohibited from importation. There is no "reasoning" beyond that. It just is. Don't like it? Move to the States, where they'll impose an orange tip and erased trademarks upon you.

There are ways around this in Canada, but they are not only difficult to get around, but expensive.

[Styrak]

Originally Posted by Old School Punk

Really, WTF???

What is the reasoning behind this I wonder. That is the stupidest thing that I have heard in a long time. Arghhh!

So I guess this just got a bit more complicated Eh.

Hmmmm.... fricken Bureaucrats.

Thanks for the info

You can't bring in an M4, AK47, or Sig receiver, and you think a pistol receiver is somehow different?

Anyway, what are you going to be doing with the pistol? If it's mostly for gaming, leave it plastic because it has better performance. If it's a wallhanger or only gets brought out to a game once in a while, sure put the metal slide/kit on.

If you use your pistol a lot and put on a metal kit, you might be disappointed with the performance you get. A metal slide uses more gas, and is more sluggish. That means less crispness and fewer BB's per fill (probably less than a magazine of BB's for a 1911)

[Old School Punk]

Oh I get it, but it' just plain STUPID! Every airsoft gun out there looks like a real gun, why one is restricted and the other is not is the silly part.

Anyway it's also a bit frustrating that to get a good quality, well sorted airsoft gun will cost you $600.00 plus, yet you can go to your local sporting goods store and buy a real Glock 17 for $700.00.

Sure you need to pay a couple hundred more in licencing fees etc. but why make it so hard for us to get airsoft guns.

Wouldn't it be better to let guys play out their little gun fantasies through toy airsoft guns, than to force them to go buy real steel guns and then have some real potential problems on their hands.

Anyway, like you said, "it is what it is", I just think that its dumb.

[wildcard]

Originally Posted by Old School Punk

Oh I get it, but it' just plain STUPID! Every airsoft gun out there looks like a real gun, why one is restricted and the other is not is the silly part.

Anyway it's also a bit frustrating that to get a good quality, well sorted airsoft gun will cost you $600.00 plus, yet you can go to your local sporting goods store and buy a real Glock 17 for $700.00.

Sure you need to pay a couple hundred more in licencing fees etc. but why make it so hard for us to get airsoft guns.

Wouldn't it be better to let guys play out their little gun fantasies through toy airsoft guns, than to force them to go buy real steel guns and then have some real potential problems on their hands.

Anyway, like you said, "it is what it is", I just think that its dumb.

You will start to shit yourself if you start to compare real steel vs airsoft cost. anyone of my airsoft either cost more or some triple to what i pay for my real SL8 or any RS pistol that I own, matter of fact my newest pistol from illusion is more that what I pay for my Glock 17 with all the mags and the spare slide combined. If you have a TM GBB I highly recommend that you talk to Brian (Illuson) before you commit to any parts purchase, he is our equivalent to CL here in Canada when it comes to custom TM pistols