Sometimes things just catch your eye and SHOT Show and you just can’t stay away. Some guns just sing that Harpy’s song a little too well and you’re drawn into a booth before you know it. Torkmag’s Booth offered me something I’d never seen before. An AR 1911 conversion. Well, an AR that takes 1911 magazines using a standard lower. Last year TorkMag released a Glock block magazine conversion and this year they are showing off a prototype 1911 magazine adapter for standard AR 15s.
Low Capacity Problems
For a die hard 1911 fan an AR 1911 conversion is sure to be a hit. The fact that mags are absolutely everywhere for the platform surely helps those folks. I see the potential for an AR 1911 conversion for states that ban standard capacity magazines. Most 1911 magazines hold well under 10 rounds and are really easy to find, and often surprisingly affordable. Outside of Glock it can be a challenge to find 10 round magazines for certain handguns, and when you do they can be quite costly.
For those of us in free states, a set up like this is really for those hardcore 1911 fans, of which there are plenty of. TorkMag’s Glock and hopefully soon to be 1911 blocks could give you plenty of options to rock and roll with a single lower receiver. With a swap of the upper and the mag block you can go from 45 Acp to 9mm, to 223, 300 Blackout, and even 7.62 x 39 in seconds.
Undoubtedly this isn’t for everyone, but come on, it’s just another adaption to an existing platform to make it more versatile. I praise anyone willing to try something new.
Words of Warning
Clearly, the device looks crude, but the folks at TorkMag were happy to let me know that yes it works, and works well so far. What we are looking at here is a prototype, and the final product is likely to look 100% different. I’m a big PCC guy and seeing this pumped me up to a ridiculous degree. I hope TorkMag’s AR 1911 conversion works, and we see the production model at SHOT 2019.
