[DWS1117]

Is there a difference in brands? What makes one better than another? Or, is this one fo those cases where one brand is just as good as any other?

[4v50 Gary]

O. K., I'll ask. What type of gun are you asking about? Sounds like it may be the 1911 type firearms but it's not quite clear from the post. Thank you.

[1911Tuner]

Sounds like a 1911 question to me Gary...

Yes. There's a difference. Briley used to be the only recent aftermarket supplier of disconnects, and they were excellent. Briley has recently caved in to rises in cost of production and gone over to investment castings. I got one of'em, and they still appear to be well made and finish machined though.


Hammer struts are easy. The best I've seen lately are the factory Colt struts.
You can get burned with unknown struts that snap like twigs in just a couple thousand rounds. Colt's factory struts are made from blanked, heat-treated steel and are hell-for-stout. They look a little different than the original design. Since there's really no need to design the strut to double as a takedown tool any more, Colt decided to go with strong. Some may require a little relieving along the length in order to prevent contact with some grip safeties in some pistols...but they're usually a matter of drop-in and go if the pistol and grip safety don't have any spec or tolerance stacking issues. I like to break the sharp edges lightly along the sides and at the bottom and polish the front and back a little before use...but that's just one of my personal tics.

[scott.cr]

I like to break the sharp edges lightly along the sides and at the bottom and polish the front and back a little before use

I wouldn't call that a tic, I'd call it good pistolsmithing! When you polish a strut (or just about any structural metal part) so that there are no scratches or sharp edges, you are removing stress risers. Stress risers invite cracks, and once a crack starts in a thin portion of the metal, it'll tear right through the whole part with relative ease.

[1911Tuner]

Howdy Scott and welcome aboard!

You is absitively, posolutely right! You must have a bit of machinist in ya. :cool:

[scott.cr]

1911Tuner, thanks for the welcome. Actually, metalworking is a home hobby of mine. I have the usual Horror Fright mill and lathe equipment in my garage that's typical of someone with a warden, er, wife.

I'm about to start building my first from-scratch 1911, and found this site while doing some research on parts fitment. Read the 1911 threads with much interest.

Right now I'm trying to figure out how Kimber does the slide serrations on their new "Raptor" pistol. I have a completely bare STI slide and may try something similar; not an exact copy, but a similar treatment. I think it looks sharp and appears to be quite functional.

[HSMITH]

Scott, if you can rotate the head on your mill this will be a LOT easier as you can just set a stop for depth, rotate it about 25* and plunge a flat bottomed center cutting endmill into the slide in the vise. If you can't rotate the head tip your slide muzzle end down in the vise at about 25* and calculate how deep to go with each plunge. You can vary the pattern to look any way you want, but that is basically how it is done. I also agree that it looks sharp. Test cut some flat stock to practice.....

Another one that looks great is to lay the slide flat, head vertical, and plunge a ball endmill in, makes a golfball like pattern that makes for a secure hold but is still different enough to be really cool. Also looks and feels great on front straps.