I learned about Joe Cominolli from an internet visitor who send me a review of one of Joe's products, a special guide rod for the 1911 pistol. So I took some time looking at Joe's web site, and here is what I found.

Cominolli is making a special guide rod, for the old workhorse, which allows you to fit two shock buffs on it. No, you do not put the one over the other, the guide rod (as shown in the picture at left), allows you to have one shock buff right behind the recoil spring, while the second goes behind the head of the guide rod, in a special slot. In that way, the guide rod doubly-cushions the frame, against the impact of the slide. You may use any shock buff you like, or you can order Joe's buffs, which are made by a company according to his specs, and which can be inserted over the head of his guide rods, by some simple twisting and stretching. Other buffs need to be cut in order to be used with his system.

Cominolli is also making some tungsten guide rods, which feature his double buff system, but also add some weight at the front of the pistol, thus reducing muzzle climb. His guide Rod shafts are precision ground to size from high-density “D+” series mil-spec material, while the guide rod heads are machined from high strength stainless steel to tolerances of .0002.

The head of his tungsten guide rods (called Frame Saver II Guide Rod) has been redesigned to use a .090 thick .035 center hole outside cushion. Cushions supplied with the Guide Rod are red and made by the Hiett Technologies. The new cushions can be mounted between the outer and center flange of the Guide Rod Head in your choice of two ways. You can split the cushion in the center at the top and slip it between the flanges or you can stretch the cushion over the outer flange to fit in place.

Finally, Joe can also sell you a special recoil spring plug, which is also made of tungsten, so that this insignificant part of your pistol adds a little more weight to the muzzle end, thus reducing muzzle jump.