I purchased a Blued, Pre-Enhanced Colt Delta Elite last year as a sort of wedding gift to myself (she got a pair of earrings). As it was in "beater" condition, it seemed like the perfect platform to build my ultimate 10mm gun, doing as much of the work myself as I could.
It came like this:
I switched out the grip bushings to slimline grips, and swapped the arched (and polymer) MSH to a flat, blued steel version:
It currently wears the factory grips from a Les Baer TRS (I installed a pair of alumagrips for my TRS, and these were laying around).
Since the photo was taken, I've added a Les Baer long solid trigger (just like the one in the TRS).
Unfortunately, I'm stuck now as to what to do next. The list of things that I want to do is long, and I'm wondering if there are certain mods that should be done first, as they may affect things later down the road.
Here's the stuff I want to do, in no particular order:
- Trigger job - The trigger's nice, but I wonder if I could make it better. Also, with the Les Baer trigger in, there's very little pre-travel. A third thing is that I want to maintain sort of a retro look, and hammer/sear sets in the commander "ring" hammer seem to be harder to find
- EGW square bottom firing pin stop - I've heard about how these things reduce muzzle flip. I've got the part in-hand, and it requires some fitting. I've got files and cold blue, just need to put in the time to do it.
- Slide/Frame fit - The slide frame fit is decent. There's side to side play towards the front of the slide when in battery, rear's solid. The problem I see is that it's peened. You can see it in the disconnector channel. The hammer also seems to rub on the slide on the left side. I'm tempted to have it sent off somewhere to get welded and re-machined. I'm wondering if I have to do this first.
- Barrel - accuracy of this gun is "ok" - I'm wondering if the peening of the slide to get a "tighter" fit and "more" accuracy is actually helping, or hurting. I could get a new barrel and bushing ($$$), or just a tighter bushing ($), which may or may not end up costing me more money ($$$$) if the "problem" turns out to be my barrel.
- Thumb Safety - I like my Les Baer TRS. A lot. So, I have the thumb safety lever from the gun. The pin is oversized, and I'm at a loss as to how to fit this part. This also depends on the geometry of the sear and hammer inside, so this probably has to come after the trigger job.
- Sights - A previous owner either had a problem with the recoil of full power 10mm loads, or could only get seriously downloaded ammo. Either way, he or she planed the top of the slide under the staked front sight, lowering it just enough that it would shoot POA with the light loads. I know this because decent velocity loads hit several inches high at 7 yards. Even though I said I'd like to keep the retro look, I'd like to see her with Novak night sights, preferrably with an adjustable combat rear sight. That way I could dial the rear up for light loads, and down for full house loads.
- Front strap raising and checkering - This probably comes next to last, as it's cosmetic.
- Carry bevel and dehorn - Cosmetic as well
- Refinish - I like the look of a blued gun, but let's face it, it isn't all that durable. I've been looking into tough black color finishes, like black chrome or even Armory Kote, or even matte light finishes such as NP3. This seems so far in the future I barely considered it.
So, as you can see, the list is long. And there's some things I know I can't do myself. And I wonder if she should take a trip to a gunsmith to get the slide and frame fitted first, as doing it later may mess up anything I've done so far...
HALP