Posted: 9/28/2008 3:11:35 PM EDT
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My local gunsmith owed me a favor a year or so back and gave me a stainless GI that he had just taken in. I put it up and kinda forgot about it until recently. Nice gun but it just didn't fit so being broke as hell I sat down and made a list of what I absolutely HAD to have to feel warm and fuzzy about strapping it on. The list actually turned out to be quite short. 1. Sights. (originals might as well not even be there) 2.Grips. (The laser cut GI's just didnt feel right) 3. Mag release. (Too short. serious hand shift required to use it) 4. Trigger (Too short. I could almost reach through the trigger guard and operate the mag release) 5. Almost razor sharp edges on slide and magwell. Heres what I did to make it right. 1. Kings white outline Target sights. $35.00 2. Brand new Hogues from gun show. $14.00 3. Kimber extended mag release $20.00 4. Kings National Match aluminum trigger Extra long with lightening holes $20.00 5. 5" fine tooth bastard file from Loews $5.00. 6. Two 4 packs of Natty light (brew of choice) $4.50  The trigger came out GREAT! Very little take up, a nice crisp break at about 5lbs and NO over travel. The most time consuming part of the whole thing was going over the whole slide and breaking the edges with the exact same angle all over. It was worth it though. It feels kind of slippery now and you cant tell anythings been done to it. (I hate meltdowns that look like meltdowns) Strange thing though. I took it to the range today to check the sights and not only are they right on the money but the gun shoots the same bottle cap sized groups as my tricked out Kimber series 1. All in all, total WIN! And all it cost me was a few hours labor and $98.00 |
..........What/How did you"Break the edges"?
I put the slide in a vise and with magnifying glasses on I took the file and went across the edge of the slide and everywhere there was a 90 degree angle I took it off with the file. I kind of made two angles out of one. Then I went back with a strip of sandpaper on a Popsicle stick and buffed the whole thing so everything that was a sharp corner kind of came out curved. It sounds like a bigger deal than it is but I gained a whole lot of respect for people who do all that sweet slide work with nothing but a file. |
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I think that's a great project you did there, but other than the melt job (I'm not partial to the "bar of soap" look either), it seems like you made a nice range blaster instead of a CCW (which I assume was the purpose from the "strapping it on" statement). For me, a CCW just needs some snag-free night/low-light sights, and those Hogues, for all their marshmellowy goodness at a 400 round range session seem like a hell of a liability "tacking" to clothing at the worst possible moment. I tried them myself and found the best sollution is medium to aggressive checkering on the panels, frontstrap, and MSH. I am waaay too chicken as well. But I can understand having a sharp (literally) as hell 1911 tucked away for years in a safe finally forcing your hand. I cannot stand sharp guns. I had a S70 repro in stainless for a brief... very brief period that was that sharp. The only regret I had about that gun is that I didn't try my hand shaving my face with it before returning it to Colt. Nice work! |