Posted: 5/15/2008 11:46:06 AM EDT
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A couple weeks ago, I bought a Springfield Armory MC Operator. So far it's functioned well in it's first 200 rounds or so. After watching a couple of video's on disassembly I got the guts to fully disassemble the pistol. After taking it apart, I was a little disappointed in the quality of the MIM parts. My plan from the start was to replace the hammer, sear, disconnector and hammer strut. with "drop in" parts from Cylinder and Slide. I have experience with building AR's Ak's and tuning my glock's trigger. Plus I've had experience as an entry level machinist. (Button pusher, deburring, etc.) I figure if the parts drop in with minimal effort (No filing of engagement surfaces) and function correctly, then I'll Duracoat them. The original MIM parts are all painted except a few engagement surfaces. (I could potentially mask these engagement surfaces. A coat of paint would be helpful protection against the wet weather here in Washington state. If the parts don't fit with a minimum of effort, I'll take them to a gunsmith for installation. Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Any tips? |
| I'm just talking about duracoating those parts to reduce the possibility of surface rust. I'd mask out the engagement surfaces so they don't get any duracoat. Steel in the white tends to rust pretty bad up here. Blued steel tends to be just as bad. The hammer spur and the hammer strut would be the parts I'm most concerned about since they are the most exposed. |
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Remember, there's no such thing as truly drop-in parts on a 1911. Expect that fitting will be needed, and you may just ruin some parts in the process before having to ship your pistol off to a gunsmith and wait a few months for repairs. My 2 cents: use the pistol in its factory configuration. My MC Operator is coming up on 2000 rounds with no parts failures and maybe 4 failure to feeds, total. I was hot to change out my horrendous MIM parts early on as well, but this has turned out to be a hell of a pistol and I have decided not to mess with it until if/when it breaks. Again, just my 2 cents. Good shooting. |
| What Larry above says is generally right on. My SA GI has had no problems with any MIM parts after a little over 1000 rounds. That said, I have replaced a few parts on my own: hammer, strut, MSH, thumb safety, trigger. All took minimal effort with some cheapy files. Except for the Kings thumb safety. It happened to drop right in perfectly. You just never know. |
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Again, what has been stated above is generally true, there is no such thing as drop-in. That said, the C&S hammer, sear, and disconnector sets are about as close to drop-in as you'll get. I've used 3 sets from C&S, and the only thing I had to change was the thumb safety on 1 pistol to work correctly with the new sear. As for replacing the MIM parts on a new gun, I'd probably wait awhile. I've been shooting SA's for about 9 years, and the only MIM part that I've ever had a problem with was a firing pin retaining plate. It cracked, about 4 years ago. While I did replace it, that same retaining plate is now temporarily in a 9mm range gun and is still functioning fine. |
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If you want to replace the MIM, then you better take it to a gunsmith. I used Sentry Solutions armory kit on my internals....these products speak for themselves. I just completed a 2-day combat handgun course (500 rds)...not a lot, but plenty of shooting to dirty the gun. My pistol ran like a sewing machine. What would have taken 20 minutes to clean took 3 minutes with a rag and nylon brush. This is my duty gun, no surface rust on any of my treated MIM parts. |