NEW GUN DAY!!

Sorta, it's the return of my old gun, but that's close enough for me. I send my 1911 off at the end of January to have a little bit of work done to it, and here are the first pics of the results that I got from the smith today.

What was done-
High-cut the trigger guard
Reliability package
Accuracy work including new EGW thick bushing and recrown
Replace dim front night sight
Address some minor fitment issues from the factory
Bead-blast and matte hard chrome on the frame and all small parts
"Hart-Hat" metal treatment on the slide (NOT a coating, this is a permanent metal treatment and will not show wear in my grandchildrens lifetimes)

I'll post some better pics if the smith takes any, otherwise I'll take some when I've got it back in my hands on Wednesday. Yay!!
Before-


After-

nice!

purdy!

What is the hard hat treatment? You mention its not a coating, so is it some sort of chemical bath or hardening process?


Thats a cute little .22 you have there

Starboard M said:

What is the hard hat treatment? You mention its not a coating, so is it some sort of chemical bath or hardening process?


Thats a cute little .22 you have there

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.22?? Bah, it's almost TWICE that much!

I haven't been able to get the smih to tell me exactly what and how, but it's metal treatment that blackens and hardens the steel with nitrogen. I found a trade name some time back and did some reading, it's sorta common with wear parts that are not sharp, at least that's sorta what I saw. I can't remember the trade name or I'd just point you to it, sorry. The smith has promised me that I can drag a brass punch dwn the slide as hard as I like and all that I'd do is leave brass on the slide. Downside is that it's completely pemanent and penetrates into the steel a few thousandths, so it just aint coming off.

It should be here either tomorrow or the next day, I'll take some better pics then. I won't have a chance to shoot it till Friday.

Here is another pic from the smith-

New pics today, it finally came home.

These are what I took in the fading light when I got home from work today











He also dressed up the cheese-grater checkering on the front strap some. I felt it was too rough and knocked off the tops of the pyramids in a wlly-nilly ham-fisted manner, he made it look a lot better. Feels a lot better now too.


High cut trigger guard-


Yes, it is really that black. It's a very black matte black that just seems to suck light out of the room sorta like an audacious Obama sucking hope from a conservative. Yeah, that black, and hard to photograph too.

nice!

SCW said:

sorta like an audacious Obama sucking hope from a conservative.

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I like what you said .............

Can they put that finish on my rims and bumper?:looney:


Looks great.

i for one, am a fan of the two tone look. looks good.

Very nice. What did all that work run ya?

Nice!!! I love my 1911.....

What about grips? I got the Pacmyer wraparound.... Love it.

Grips are the plain-jane stock double diamond. I'm not too hot about them, thinking hard about some micarta or alumagrips, but I'm not in a real hurry.

For the record I also have 700 rounds through it since the rebuild and I'm AMAZED at how accurate it is. It is suddenly having issues locking the slide back with Wilson Combat mags so I purchased some Chip McCormic, same problem with the flush-fit 8-rounders, but the ten-round is great. So I tried some Mec-Gar, works great. Colt mags suck rocks, as do the cheap Kimber mags (haven't tried Kim-Pro). So I have 6 mags around the house now that won't reliably lock the slide back, but I ordered some Tripp rebuild kits that will hopefully help. Wilsons actually have a weak spring, surprisingly.

A Dan Wesson huh? Does it have a barrel bushing or not? If not that's a big part of why it's so accurate.

I just scrolled up and counted 7 pictures where the bushing is visible. Me-thinks you read the innerwebs more than shoot 1911s, bushingless bull barrels are not inherently more accurate than a well fit bushing.

SCW said:

I just scrolled up and counted 7 pictures where the bushing is visible. Me-thinks you read the innerwebs more than shoot 1911s, bushingless bull barrels are not inherently more accurate than a well fit bushing.

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x2 I have both styles: bull barrel and bushing setups. Both have their plusses and minuses but when it comes to accuracy, the presence of a bushing and its fit is just one part of the equation.

Having just hit 1000 rounds and a 3-gun match I figured I'd write up a range report and show off the wear & tear on the pistol.

Notice the wear at the high-wear points such as the bushing. If you can't see it in the picture that's ok- I can't see it in real life either. For a frame of reference, the front sight is brand spanking new and was not treated. It is showing wear on all edges and the lettering on top is already wearing off. This pistol has well over 200 draws from a holster since the rebuild.




The bottom of the slide was showing some brass marks which cleaned up nicely once I finally cleaned it up-




Chrome looks fantastic also, credit to Metaloy for the chrome and Dave for the prep work. Absolutely perfect, and I love the matte finish.




As for the range report, since I rebuilt the my mags with Tripp Reserach springs and followers, I have not had a single malfunction. Nada, and I didn't clean it fo the last 600 rounds. The trigger was pretty gritty be the end of yesterday's match due mostly to the dust blowing around the range, but the built-up carbon and grime didn't help either. Accuracy is perfect other than the times when the monkey on the grips getswound up and starts popping rounds off over the top of the steel targets, but I'm working on that. Center punches stacked on top of themselves were easy to do, even in a rush as competition goes.

how much $$ do you have into the gun now?

$750 for the gun originally (now sells for about $875) and $850 for the work.

I have a more than that in ammo through the gun though- that's the real expense.

do you buy bluk ammo?