Harrison Design Custom Colt - pics

[J Harrison]

My client had owned this pistol for many years and shot it very little because it drew blood every time he fired it. He told me he was torn between selling it as a lost cause or having it built into a full-house custom. He liked the idea of another full-house gun (I've built him several), but couldn't envision a happy ending. He saw it yesterday and told me it was indeed a happy ending! :wink:

The base pistol is a Colt MK-IV Series '80 Enhanced Gov't Model. In it's current form, it's equipped as follows:

-Heinie SlantPro Straight-8 night sights sitting on a serrated original enhanced flat top
-Nowlin bull barrel with the crown recessed flush with the slide
-Wilson 1 pc FLGR -w- Briley reverse plug
-EGW firing pin stop & Wilson BulletProof extractor
-Yo-Bo ignition set & trigger
-Slide serrated 40 lpi at rear, ball cuts at front and heavy bevel on bottom
-ejection port lowered and fluted
-Ed Brown extended ejector & wide thumb safety reshaped to medium contour
-CMC beavertail & Legacy Custom MSH, checkered 25 lpi
-Front strap checkered 25 lpi
-Davidson G-10 grips is 4x4 pattern
-finished in EW's E-Treat

 

[RogersPrecision]

Beautiful work!
That gun just screams BUSINESS
Nice to see you here John!

 

[1911Tuner]

Pistole'!

I like it. Much prefer the bevel treatment on the slide than a full melt. Clean lines and dull, non-reflective finish just works. My tastes run more toward
conservative/conventional...some would say spartan...so I'd tone it down just a notch here and there...but the basic concept is good.

What's the skinny on the grips, functionally speaking? Seen those, and have thought about givin'em, a try...

 

[HSMITH]

VERY nicely done!!!

The E-treat, dimensionally did anything change? Any hint of warping or anything bad?

 

[J Harrison]

Thanks guys, I appreciate your most kind comments.

The grips are from Larry Davidson cut is a pattern that I'd been asking for. They give good grip when squeezed, but don't snag on cover garments.

The E-Treat seems to be great stuff. Dimensional changes were on par with hard chrome jobs about .0001" per surface. No evidence of any negatives. With this batch, I finally got a slide done for my own holster tests. I've had 5 done so far and no one's complained about anything.

 

[saltydog452]

Mr. Harrison,

I'm going to ask you a question or six, and I hope you don't interpet this as being critical.

I admire the skill, talent, and especially the work ethic that you and other small shop craftsman entrepreneurs possess.

But, whats wrong with using Colt OEM parts to do a 'trigger job'?

Its kinda understandable why the big name crowded shops like, maybe, Wilson, Briley, and others would want to use their own proprietary hammers and sears.

Is it more economical to use semi-preped ignition parts from folks like McCormick, Yost, etc., rather than modify OEM Colt?

Has the quality of Colt internals gone so far as to make their parts un-usable for long term reliability?..or is there a liability incurred from modifying Colt internals to obtain a decent trigger?

Guys like Jim Sr., Chow, and others used to travel to the Nat'l Matches and set up portable shops to work on the competition pistols. They fixed what was broke, using Colt parts.

I realise that Colt isn't the Colt as we'd like to think they are, but have they gone so far down a slippery slope as to make their internals not worth fooling with?

Respectfully,

salty.

 

[J Harrison]

Mr. Harrison,

I'm going to ask you a question or six, and I hope you don't interpet this as being critical.

I admire the skill, talent, and especially the work ethic that you and other small shop craftsman entrepreneurs possess.

But, whats wrong with using Colt OEM parts to do a 'trigger job'?

Its kinda understandable why the big name crowded shops like, maybe, Wilson, Briley, and others would want to use their own proprietary hammers and sears.

Is it more economical to use semi-preped ignition parts from folks like McCormick, Yost, etc., rather than modify OEM Colt?

Has the quality of Colt internals gone so far as to make their parts un-usable for long term reliability?..or is there a liability incurred from modifying Colt internals to obtain a decent trigger?

Guys like Jim Sr., Chow, and others used to travel to the Nat'l Matches and set up portable shops to work on the competition pistols. They fixed what was broke, using Colt parts.

I realise that Colt isn't the Colt as we'd like to think they are, but have they gone so far down a slippery slope as to make their internals not worth fooling with?

Respectfully,

salty.

Hey, no worries Salty and please call me John.
You can certainly do trigger jobs on the stock parts from Colt or most any of the quality 1911's on the market. Back in the heyday of Bob Chow, Jim Clark, Austin Behlert and others, there weren't the plethora of high grade parts available as there are here 30 years later. The old parts back then were mostly machined from forgings and held up well.
Some portion of parts currently produced today aren't as good a quality as the high grade parts made by EGW, Yo-Bo, etc. You can still do trigger jobs on those OEM parts, but I have options that I suspect the guys building 30 years ago would be envious of, were they still with us.
These high grade parts aren't drop-in stuff. They all get re-cut to my specs during fitting and installation, so there's not any appreciable time savings.

 

[saltydog452]

OK John, thanks.

If I read you correctly, factory OEM parts are still useable, but their quality is suspect.

Since your name/reputation will be associated with the product, you'd rather start with name parts of a known quality.

Is that about right?

salty.

 

[J Harrison]

I built it with the parts my client asked for.

I don't know how suspect factory parts are and I don't want to make blanket statements that they're all good or bad, but I feel certain that there are better parts available to choose from, compared to today's parts.

Compare todays high grade parts to the good stuff from days gone by and the current parts are at least more nicely finished and of state of the art design.

 

[RogersPrecision]

John,
I think you have heard me say this before but I'll say it again for OldSalty.
I PREFER Colt disconnectors and Colt hammers. Current Colt sears are a bit soft, but I still offer a lifetime guarantee on a trigger job using a current Colt sear.

 

[saltydog452]

Got it. Thanks guys.

sd.

 

[Geno]

Nice work!

When I went to purchase my first 1911, I sought a Colt. Why? Nostolgia, nothing more, nothing less. It was purely name. However, I dare say that Kimber's lessons of late have think taught the company a lesson. JMB designed the Colt right. They can be tweeked, but my and large, they are already pretty nice. Nice tweeks.

Doc2005

 

[litman252]

Nice work, little more than I'd do, simply due to the wallet's lack of thickness. It does flow one end to the other very nicely though...............

Tony

 

[SiG Lady]

No more sharp edges...

Ah, gun deja vu......

Nice to see it here.