Today I'm going to go ahead and walk you through a real basic field stripping of your 1911. First thing you want to remember is go ahead and get your safety glasses on. We've got a lot of Springs in the gun that are under tension.

The next thing you're going to want to do is remove the magazine from the gun and double-check and make sure that there's not any rounds in the chamber. First thing that I like to do is pull the slide back so that lines up with the
disassembly notch.

Once you've got that lined up you can reach in from the other side, and push it out like so, and then just pull that out, and that's your slide stop. You'll notice I'm holding the gun just like this I can handle all the tension of that slide. I can hold it exactly where I want and I've still got one hand that's totally free.

This next step is kind of important. You want to go ahead and ease that slide forward and as you start to push it off the frame you want to have your hand here to control that recoil spring so it doesn't just go jumping out on you.

As you slide the frame off, go ahead and squeeze hold of that recoil spring keep it from jumping out. Set the frame down, and as you can see I've got that spring captured right here with my left hand and this is kind of a crucial point because that spring is really wanting to jump out of there.

All you got to do then is I just use my right hand to go ahead and control that as it comes out of there, and just control it as it's coming out of there.

Next thing comes out gonna go ahead and pull out your recoil spring plug, set that to the side and then you can just give your barrel a little twist and it comes right out the front there.

And that's all there is to it.

This is an alternate method for disassembly, and when your Ed Brown firearm if you want to you can use an Ed Brown bushing wrench, and stand your gun up like so.

Depress your plug twist the bushing and remove the plug first once you've got the plug out of the way you can ease the slide back to the disassembly notch remove your slide stop.

Pull your slide off your frame then remove your recoil spring, guide, barrel, and bushing.

Okay now that we've got the firearm all disassembled, I'll go over a couple of quick cleaning tips with you. What I like to do is get you a cleaning rag, any rag will do, doesn't have to be fancy or anything.

Then I'm gonna grab some Ed Brown firearm lubricant. You can get that off of our website or call the office and order that.

You just put a little bit on a rag here. First place I start with, the frame, there'll be a lot of unburned powder residue down on all these little crevices. I usually go ahead and wipe all those off with a rag. It's all you really need is just an oily rag to wipe this stuff off, you don't need to get too aggressive with it.

Take the slide clean off the breach face right here and there's a couple of little nooks and crannies up in here, or I like to usually use the corners of the rags to kind of get down in there and wipe anything off.

Next step is go ahead and take your barrel and use your rag to wipe off any any unburned powder residue or anything on the exterior of the barrel and then I'd also go ahead and put a couple of drops on a bore mop and scrub that just give it a few swabs, just so I can get any unburned powder or get any wet residue or anything like that out of there.

Now we'll begin the reassembly procedure. Gonna want to go ahead and just slide your barrel in from the front like so. Make sure that your link is in the forward position there. Go ahead and get your bushing into position, it'll go in just like that, and then you just give it a quick little twist to go ahead and line that up. Let your barrel slide back into engagement.

Next step is take your plug, I usually just go ahead and slide that in from the back like so. you'll see it goes ahead and lines up with the bushing perfect.

Next thing that I want to do is make sure that this link is backwards like that, the barrel is going totally back as far as it'll go. I take my recoil spring recoil spring guide and insert a recoil spring into the back of the plug there,
there's a little half circle cut out here on the bottom of your recoil spring guide that needs to be on the rounded portion of the barrel right here. It's a little tough to do but just compress that all the way in there and hold it like so once you've got that recoil spring captured just like that, I grab my frame and slide that on to the slide. Once the dust cover makes contact with my middle finger I go ahead and release that finger, slide it on a little bit more, then I release with my ring finger, slide it on a little bit more. Once it hits my pinky, slide it on the rest of the way.

Once you've got to slide on the frame, push the slide back, take your slide stop, and I go ahead and slide that in and then put that right underneath your slide stop plunger. Pull the slide back till the slide stop notch (I'm sorry
the disassembly notch) lines up with the bottom of the slide stop there. Push it up and in ease your slide forward and your gun is reassembled and ready to go.

Basically you would start with your slide, insert your barrel, twist your bushing all the way around like so. Slide your recoil spring and recoil spring guide. Make sure that your link is in the up position, and the half round cut out on your recoil spring guide is on the rounded portion of your barrel. Then go ahead and slide that on to your frame.

Once you've got that on, line up your disassembly notch and go ahead and insert your slide stop, and lock that into position.

Now take your plug, and set that on top of your recoil spring, and for this part I'm going to go ahead and have to pull a gun back here into my lap so I can control everything up close like this.

You basically have to take this bushing wrench push your plug all the way down into position and then give your bushing a little twist with your bushing wrench until it lines up and pops back out.

Once you've got that into position everything is lined up perfectly, you're back in action and ready to go.

Now that your Ed Brown firearm is all reassembled I'll go ahead and go over a couple of lubricating steps with you. First thing I like to do whenever I get to the range or whenever I'm done cleaning it or maybe before I put it away in the vault. Go ahead and lock your slide back with your slide stop notch then with the barrel pointed down towards the ground I'll usually take the Ed Brown firearms lubricant and put a drop or two on each of the slide rails.

Next I hold the gun horizontal like this go ahead and put a drop or two on the end of the barrel. You'll usually see a couple of scratches where your bushing locks up, then I usually go ahead nd put one or two more drops up here on the top of the barrel, then just go ahead and work it back and forth and kind of distribute that oil on the inside of the gun.

Then if I'm going to go ahead and put the gun back in the vault, I'll usually take a rag with a little bit of the Ed Brown firearms lubricant on it and go ahead and just wipe down all the metal parts just to kind of go ahead and put little bit of oil on them and kind of protect them from any kind of corrosion or anything like that. And then you're basically ready to go ahead and put it back in the vault or put it in the holster and go out to the range or whatever you're going to want to do with it that day.

If your firearm is equipped with a two-piece guide rod, this is the additional step for disassembly.

Insert your 5/32 allen wrench into the corresponding notch, turn it counterclockwise, remove it from the gun, and from there continue to
disassemble using your preferred method.

After reassembly the one additional step for a two-piece guide rod is to lock the slide in the open position, re-insert your guide rod, and snug with your 5/32 allen wrench, and now you're done.

If you're converting your Ed Brown 1911 to a two-piece guide rod these are the parts that you'll be exchanging: your recoil spring guide for the guide rod head, your recoil spring plug for the guide rod plug, then just re-assemble the firearm using your preferred method.

Due to the thin slide and heavy chamfer, the takedown notch is less visible on the Evo series.

Once you have located the takedown notch, pull back the slide to align the slide stop catch with the takedown notch in the slide. Control the top of the gun while pushing the slide stop pin out as far as possible from right to left, then pull it out completely. You can then proceed with the disassembly as shown at the beginning of this video.