CHANGING CALIBERS

Question
Hello thank you for taking the time to help me out...

My question is simple.

I have a .45 s&w 1911... If i wanted to convert my caliber to a 10mm is it as easy as buying a 10mm barrel and fitting it into the slide?

Or is it more complicated than that? What would I have to do exactly?

Thanxs

Answer
No. You can convert a 10mm to a .40 S&W pretty handily, but there are many things that make conversion of .45 to a 10mm ill-advised to impossible. Some of these are:

1) the O/D of the barrel is different, so a 10mm barrel will not fit the bushing opening of the .45

2) the width of the breech face is different, necessitating a new slide

3) the location of the extractor is different, necessitating a new slide

4) the location of the ejector is different, necessitating at least that that part be changed

5) depending on how the trigger is tuned in the .45, the (relatively)extreme recoil of the 10mm usually requires that different hammer and sear springs be installed or adjusted at a minimum. Sometimes a new hammer and/or sear has to be installed.

6) Magazines for a .45 will not reliably feed the small diameter 10mm, so new magazines are required

When Colt came out with its Delta Elite in 10mm, it came with a caution to replace the recoil spring every few hundred rounds. Even at that, a lot of frames cracked, which is part of the reason the gun never gained commercial viability.