Joshua M. Smith
Member
Hello,
I got what is probably the last item for the RIA, for a while.
I just couldn't stand the military grip safety any longer. It was killing my hand, and I'm pretty sure the original hammer, before I bobbed it, has left permanent scars.
I spent the day fitting this beavertail safety.
This beavertail is the first one I've attempted on a "live" gun; meaning, a gunsmith mentor of sorts (who will not be with us much longer, I'm afraid) had a bunch of junked frames and would let me practice on those.
A closeup of the fit. I need to blue the bare metal a bit more.
It's an STI, as is the thumb safety.
After I fitted it, I went out to try it. The hammer kept following. I had had this trouble before when it was new, and my mentor changed some angles on the sear and hammer hooks, as they were not fitted correctly.
I bent the appropriate springs, and while it helped, it would still follow at times, and rarely, double.
I played around with different combinations of skeleton hammers, sears, etc. I never found one that worked. What was happening was I was getting severe sear bounce. The hammer was able to come back further when the slide cocked it, and with no pressure on the sear, it flipped forward. I have Wilson springs in it; changing back to stock springs helped nothing.
My solution to this was twofold, and I'm going to catch hell on the three or four boards on which I post for the fix: First, the appropriate mainspring fingers were bent. Second, and this is where you don't want to go unless you know what you're doing: I went ahead and did some sear and hammer hook work. I must stress that I changed no angles (and you shouldn't either, without the appropriate fixtures) but rather, I deepened the angles made by my gunsmith friend. This was actually a good thing; he had about 4lbs on it and the deepening of the angles took it up to about 6.5lbs.
It is so black! That's powder grime!
The only things I really want for this pistol now are these: GOOD sear/disconnector/hammer combo (preferably with a Commander hammer) and a Kimber or King's ambi safety.
This is the shootin'est gun I've ever owned. It now sits in my hand low enough that I feel very little recoil, but I don't get slide bite. I'm overall very happy with it. The packerized finish is beginning to wear a bit, but that's to be expected. Nothing bites; everything is extremely comfortable, more so than any pistol I've ever shot. That's not because I did the work; it's my true impression. (I'm liking STI's stuff more each time I use one of their products.)
Dare I ask, what is your impression of my work? We're packing a lot of learning into the time we have left together, and this is my first real pistol job.
Josh <><
I got what is probably the last item for the RIA, for a while.
I just couldn't stand the military grip safety any longer. It was killing my hand, and I'm pretty sure the original hammer, before I bobbed it, has left permanent scars.
I spent the day fitting this beavertail safety.
This beavertail is the first one I've attempted on a "live" gun; meaning, a gunsmith mentor of sorts (who will not be with us much longer, I'm afraid) had a bunch of junked frames and would let me practice on those.
A closeup of the fit. I need to blue the bare metal a bit more.
It's an STI, as is the thumb safety.
After I fitted it, I went out to try it. The hammer kept following. I had had this trouble before when it was new, and my mentor changed some angles on the sear and hammer hooks, as they were not fitted correctly.
I bent the appropriate springs, and while it helped, it would still follow at times, and rarely, double.
I played around with different combinations of skeleton hammers, sears, etc. I never found one that worked. What was happening was I was getting severe sear bounce. The hammer was able to come back further when the slide cocked it, and with no pressure on the sear, it flipped forward. I have Wilson springs in it; changing back to stock springs helped nothing.
My solution to this was twofold, and I'm going to catch hell on the three or four boards on which I post for the fix: First, the appropriate mainspring fingers were bent. Second, and this is where you don't want to go unless you know what you're doing: I went ahead and did some sear and hammer hook work. I must stress that I changed no angles (and you shouldn't either, without the appropriate fixtures) but rather, I deepened the angles made by my gunsmith friend. This was actually a good thing; he had about 4lbs on it and the deepening of the angles took it up to about 6.5lbs.
It is so black! That's powder grime!
The only things I really want for this pistol now are these: GOOD sear/disconnector/hammer combo (preferably with a Commander hammer) and a Kimber or King's ambi safety.
This is the shootin'est gun I've ever owned. It now sits in my hand low enough that I feel very little recoil, but I don't get slide bite. I'm overall very happy with it. The packerized finish is beginning to wear a bit, but that's to be expected. Nothing bites; everything is extremely comfortable, more so than any pistol I've ever shot. That's not because I did the work; it's my true impression. (I'm liking STI's stuff more each time I use one of their products.)
Dare I ask, what is your impression of my work? We're packing a lot of learning into the time we have left together, and this is my first real pistol job.
Josh <><