Hey Karl, instead of emailing all this to you with attachments I would just post up here.  This way others can see a bit of the kind of work I'm going to be doing once MCA gets off the ground too.  

Ok, here's some before and after pics of what I've done so far:


BEFORE
Here's the heel of the grip from the factory.  Attention to detail?  What's that?  LOL  Can you see why palms were getting scraped raw when the gun was shot?


AFTER
That's better.  Hand stippled for your shooting pleasure.  Did the same on the front as well, since they screwed up the checkering up there as well.


BEFORE
Here's a good example of the generally shitty quality control on the frame.  The casting flash reminds me of those little green army guys we all used to play with as kids.


AFTER
Cleaned it up on both sides.  Ahh, that's better.  You can also see the polished barrel a little.  All the white specks are just residue from a paper towel I wiped it down with.


BEFORE
Matte finished chamber area was getting slowly scratched up by the slide and looked generally rough.


AFTER
You can also tell that I polished your extractor nicely.  The chamber area is not a mirror finish or anything but it looks alot nicer.  I didn't think you'd care much about the bling factor of seeing your face reflected in the barrel anyway.


AFTER
I think that part of why your casings were getting hung up is because your breech face was so rough.  You can still see some vertical scratches from the milling of the slide, but they aren't nearly as deep anymore and the casings slide into place much more easily now.  The brass residue is from test firing.  I just polished the breech face to a certain extent, I didn't remove any metal or change the dimensions on anything, so headspace should be the same.  9mm Luger headspaces off the casing mouth anyway, but anyway...


AFTER
The feed ramp shouldn't be a limiting factor in what ammo you want to use!  You can see I stopped polishing at the chamber, your casings will still be fully supported, and I didn't open up the throat area any because that really wasn't the issue.  I polished the chamber hood area just a bit but polishing the chamber itself is a big no-no because of the necessity of case obturation and the fact that you need to prevent altering the chamber dimensions even in the slightest bit.  The feed ramp actually looks alot nicer than this pic shows, you CAN see your face in it.

Other stuff that I fixed but didn't take pictures of:

The trigger is improved.  The pull weight should be unchanged but it doesn't stack anymore and its smoother.  It feels like a S&W 686 revolver in double action, with a really light hammer spring installed.  Smoooooth.

The locking lug is polished and so is the barrel "link".  I left the slide stop unmolested to avoid galling as it and the barrel "link" rub together over the life of the gun.

The polymer frame rails are cleaned up significantly.  I wish I had taken a "before" pic of them, but I didn't think of it.  I think that is the major reason why you couldn't get the gun to go fully into battery, there was just too much flash and loose plastic tag crap between your slide rails.  The slide action has been considerably smoothed, it doesn't feel like gravel anymore.  The metal inserts that the slide actually rides on are in spec, so I left them alone.

The Meprolights and replacement recoil spring have been ordered.  I just ordered a factory weight recoil spring, I want to compare it with the one that's already in the gun.  It was only $8 anyway.  I'll update this post with more pics once the Meprolights are installed.  

Let me know if there's anything else you'd like done.  

Nice work Duke!
Can you rebarrel and port a revolver?
I have a project that I have been dreaming about for awhile.

Quoted: Nice work Duke! Can you rebarrel and port a revolver? I have a project that I have been dreaming about for awhile.

Depends on what make and model revolver it is and whether I can get a barrel that is what you want.  Porting shouldn't be a problem, we have a full size mill/drill for that stuff.

very nice
I got a handgun i need you to look at Duke.
It's older than me but i would like to fix it.
I'll bring it next time we shoot  

Karl-- got an update for ya.  Received the stock replacement part recoil spring and it was a full half inch longer than the one in the gun.  Hmmm.  Installed it, racked the slide a few times, pulled it out, and it had compressed a little.  Its still longer than the old one and feels a bit stiffer.  I still think Kahr's recoil springs are weak and I'm not sure why they would specify such a weak spring for such a tiny gun.  

Anyway, I also got the Meprolights in, so I put the slide in a vice and tried to knock the front sight out with a brass punch.  All it did was booger up the punch and the dovetail on the front sight.  Hmm.  Ok, switch to plan B, no problem.  Grabbed a steel punch and held it up to the vertical part of the front sight and gave it a good hard tap to persuade it.  At which point the front sight came A-FUCKING PART.  Remember in the beginning part of "The Predator" where Jesse Ventura is watching Arnie get ready to blow up the enemy base and he says, real slowly, "what... the... fuck?"  Morgan laughed at me when she heard me say it just like that.  I had to snap a picture.  I've installed a few night sights but I've never seen this happen before.  Now THAT is a tight dovetail.  How the hell did they install it at the factory if its that tight?



Not exactly confidence inspiring now is it?  Anyway, the front dovetail was in fact very tight, and I had to try twice to fit the front Mepro in there.  I got a new file set just for very fine filing for stuff like fitting sights, and I had to file on it some before I could persuade it in.  Its still very very tight and even after some filing I had to bash it into place.  The rear sight went in easier but I also had to file it some.  I measured the positioning of the sights with a micrometer and they are zeroed to the thousandth of an inch.  I'll test fire Sunday and make sure the gun is sighted in and cycling properly.

Here's the sight picture in daylight.  Saddam "wishes to negotiate."



And here's a pic of your sight picture at night.  The camera focused on the rear sights but in reality the front is just as bright as the rears, it just doesn't show in the pic.

At that range, I don't think even I will need the sights to take out Saddam.