Well, I went and got this while the gettin' was still good. I considered buying one some time ago, but no one actually had one on hand for me to even look at. Well, now they did. And I brought it home.
Now, I always know something will have to be changed. If not for mechanical function, at least changed to suit me. I know, for example, that I will HAVE to have a long trigger. I also expected to require a Smith and Alexander arched checkered mainspring housing, though I may be able to make due with the one that is on it. It is not as slick as other plain grooved arched housings in my hand.
Anyway, first impressions. Overall, the gun is pretty well fitted and finished. No ugly mill marks or casting marks. I'm assuming that the frame and slide are investment cast (? MIM??). However it is done, everything is very smooth and precise. Slide to frame fit is quite close, and the barrel bushing fit seems quite good too. Operation is nice. The only unattractive MIM marks are a parting line across the center of the magazine catch, and the checkering on the catch button is "inside out"... which looks kinda weird if you're really looking close, but it's not a big deal. It's also not a big deal to file off the parting line, and file in serrations in place of the waffled button (or just replace the catch for a few dollars)...or just let it be, because it's purely cosmetic. Otherwise, everything is pretty smooth, except for the mainspring housing, which has a different finish, and doesn't quite fit up with the bottom corners of the frame. But it functions fine.
Ejection... well, the empties come back towards my face, which apparently is not uncommon for the short original equipment ejectors. I fixed up a buddy of mine's older Springfield GI model with the small port and short ejector, and it dribbled empties out pretty anemically right towards your face. An extended ejector, filed to shape, and not quite so radical as is on many guns now, did the trick for his gun, and made it throw the empties with a bit more authority and over the right shoulder, and I'll do the same for this one. Can't get too carried away with ejectors with the original size port, or the empty will hit the inside of the slide.
Now.... the weirdness... When I got it, the hammer at rest was not all the way down, depressing the firing pin, and laying against the pin stop as it should. It was up a little, with some back and forth wiggle.... what the? I wondered if the hammer strut was too short, or the pin in the MS housing was drilled off and the mainspring cap was held down too far... I looked and thought, and figured, and wondered, and finally I looked at the firing pin spring. Holy crap! What a monster! This thing looks like the mainspring on a .22 revolver! I kid you not. I cannot fathom why such a beast was put in this gun (drop test liability???). I did not even try to fire the gun with this mainspring... I mean... firing pin spring. (seriously.. I think it is as strong as the mainspring!) I have a hard time believing that you'd even be able to indent the primer with this thing working against you. Now, I happened to have a brand new Wolff firing pin spring, so I put it in, and now it all acts as it should. Cheap easy fix for that.
Here's the firing pin and spring from my old Springfield. The spring is maybe compressed some (the new Wolff was extended a bit longer).... but next to this is the incredible beast that was in the gun. Much longer, and much heavier gauge wire!
Shot one magazine full of FMJ and it all worked perfectly. The feed ramp is nice and slick, and I don't foresee any problems with hollowpoints, but you never know til you try. Trigger pull is awful, thanks to the series 80 arrangement, which I will most likely just ditch, rather than bother to smooth all that up. My measely seven shots grouped pretty good for not trying very hard, but shot low... which I attribute mostly to cranking down on the awful trigger. I expect it to shoot well, once sights and trigger are worked out. I don't see the need to fool with much else as far as that goes.
Sights are not too bad, just black, and I can't see all black sights too well. Especially roaming around in the woods. I will end up putting in an old Millett "longhorn" white outline rear, and a white dot front painted fluorescent orange, which I have one of my other guns (which I had to do a lot more work to, by the way), and it is just about perfect.
I think I will eventually end up with a pretty nice gun. No, obviously, it is not perfect out of the box (frankly, I don't expect it anymore), but fixes are fairly simple, at least for me to do. If you're looking at one of these, expect to do some work to it, but I don't think anything major will be required. At least you'll end up with a .45 that looks the way it should! No slanted slide serrations (I have always HATED them), no beavertail this, no skeletonized that, no slots cut in the slide, no fish scales or hexagonal shapes or any of the other things that people seem to think they need these days!
Now, I always know something will have to be changed. If not for mechanical function, at least changed to suit me. I know, for example, that I will HAVE to have a long trigger. I also expected to require a Smith and Alexander arched checkered mainspring housing, though I may be able to make due with the one that is on it. It is not as slick as other plain grooved arched housings in my hand.
Anyway, first impressions. Overall, the gun is pretty well fitted and finished. No ugly mill marks or casting marks. I'm assuming that the frame and slide are investment cast (? MIM??). However it is done, everything is very smooth and precise. Slide to frame fit is quite close, and the barrel bushing fit seems quite good too. Operation is nice. The only unattractive MIM marks are a parting line across the center of the magazine catch, and the checkering on the catch button is "inside out"... which looks kinda weird if you're really looking close, but it's not a big deal. It's also not a big deal to file off the parting line, and file in serrations in place of the waffled button (or just replace the catch for a few dollars)...or just let it be, because it's purely cosmetic. Otherwise, everything is pretty smooth, except for the mainspring housing, which has a different finish, and doesn't quite fit up with the bottom corners of the frame. But it functions fine.
Ejection... well, the empties come back towards my face, which apparently is not uncommon for the short original equipment ejectors. I fixed up a buddy of mine's older Springfield GI model with the small port and short ejector, and it dribbled empties out pretty anemically right towards your face. An extended ejector, filed to shape, and not quite so radical as is on many guns now, did the trick for his gun, and made it throw the empties with a bit more authority and over the right shoulder, and I'll do the same for this one. Can't get too carried away with ejectors with the original size port, or the empty will hit the inside of the slide.
Now.... the weirdness... When I got it, the hammer at rest was not all the way down, depressing the firing pin, and laying against the pin stop as it should. It was up a little, with some back and forth wiggle.... what the? I wondered if the hammer strut was too short, or the pin in the MS housing was drilled off and the mainspring cap was held down too far... I looked and thought, and figured, and wondered, and finally I looked at the firing pin spring. Holy crap! What a monster! This thing looks like the mainspring on a .22 revolver! I kid you not. I cannot fathom why such a beast was put in this gun (drop test liability???). I did not even try to fire the gun with this mainspring... I mean... firing pin spring. (seriously.. I think it is as strong as the mainspring!) I have a hard time believing that you'd even be able to indent the primer with this thing working against you. Now, I happened to have a brand new Wolff firing pin spring, so I put it in, and now it all acts as it should. Cheap easy fix for that.
Here's the firing pin and spring from my old Springfield. The spring is maybe compressed some (the new Wolff was extended a bit longer).... but next to this is the incredible beast that was in the gun. Much longer, and much heavier gauge wire!
Shot one magazine full of FMJ and it all worked perfectly. The feed ramp is nice and slick, and I don't foresee any problems with hollowpoints, but you never know til you try. Trigger pull is awful, thanks to the series 80 arrangement, which I will most likely just ditch, rather than bother to smooth all that up. My measely seven shots grouped pretty good for not trying very hard, but shot low... which I attribute mostly to cranking down on the awful trigger. I expect it to shoot well, once sights and trigger are worked out. I don't see the need to fool with much else as far as that goes.
Sights are not too bad, just black, and I can't see all black sights too well. Especially roaming around in the woods. I will end up putting in an old Millett "longhorn" white outline rear, and a white dot front painted fluorescent orange, which I have one of my other guns (which I had to do a lot more work to, by the way), and it is just about perfect.
I think I will eventually end up with a pretty nice gun. No, obviously, it is not perfect out of the box (frankly, I don't expect it anymore), but fixes are fairly simple, at least for me to do. If you're looking at one of these, expect to do some work to it, but I don't think anything major will be required. At least you'll end up with a .45 that looks the way it should! No slanted slide serrations (I have always HATED them), no beavertail this, no skeletonized that, no slots cut in the slide, no fish scales or hexagonal shapes or any of the other things that people seem to think they need these days!