Dave Markowitz
Member
A Beretta Model 71 Jaguar in .22 LR followed me home today. It's one of a recent batch imported by Century Arms, possibly from Israel. In stock form they don't meet the "sporting purposes" criteria under the Gun Control Act of 1968, so to gain points, Century permanently attaches a fake suppressor, which lengthens the barrel so the gun has enough points for civilian sale.
Here's what it looked like on my work bench after I got it home.
The faux suppressor looks cool but is made from steel, and probably weighs as much as the gun. Worse, it blocks the sights. Finally, it prevents you from removing the barrel from the slide when you field strip the piece. It had to go.
After masking the barrel and slide and clamped the fake can in the vise on my milling machine and attacked it with a carbide end mill. This revealed the set screw that Century used to fix the fake silencer in place (the hole that the set screw was in, was filled in with a weld).
Unfortunately, I couldn't budge the set screw, even after applying heat. I had to do more work with my mill and then my Dremel before I was finally able to get the blasted thing off.
That left me with a short section of threaded barrel sticking out. The threads are 1/2 x 20 TPI. So, after dinner I chucked up a length of 5/8" 6061 aluminum rod in my lathe and made a thread protector. First I knurled it, then drilled it out to 29/64", and then threaded it. Finally, I parted it off. It came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.
I've since blackened it with a fat Sharpie. We'll see if that holds.
I'll post a follow up after I shoot it this weekend.
Here's what it looked like on my work bench after I got it home.
The faux suppressor looks cool but is made from steel, and probably weighs as much as the gun. Worse, it blocks the sights. Finally, it prevents you from removing the barrel from the slide when you field strip the piece. It had to go.
After masking the barrel and slide and clamped the fake can in the vise on my milling machine and attacked it with a carbide end mill. This revealed the set screw that Century used to fix the fake silencer in place (the hole that the set screw was in, was filled in with a weld).
Unfortunately, I couldn't budge the set screw, even after applying heat. I had to do more work with my mill and then my Dremel before I was finally able to get the blasted thing off.
That left me with a short section of threaded barrel sticking out. The threads are 1/2 x 20 TPI. So, after dinner I chucked up a length of 5/8" 6061 aluminum rod in my lathe and made a thread protector. First I knurled it, then drilled it out to 29/64", and then threaded it. Finally, I parted it off. It came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.
I've since blackened it with a fat Sharpie. We'll see if that holds.
I'll post a follow up after I shoot it this weekend.
