Jeff C. on .45acp Sights & recoil buffers..

[Mad Magyar]

Browsing through a 1964 Guns & Ammo magazine, I was somewhat surprised at a Cooper reply concerning continuous-all-purpose shooting of a 1911.
Basically, he stated that most serious shooters change to a S&W rear sight and use a recoil buffer to prolong sight life.
I've heard of a few reasons for using a recoil buff, but not that one? Slide to frame banging etc, but a buff to alleviate sight misalignment? How miniscule that must be, but yet we all know how a good trigger & sights meant to Jeff.
Anyway, I thought that was interesting, plus the fact that I had always assumed that recoil buffs were of relative recent vintage, Wilson, etc.....
Any comments?

 

[robert garner]

Mark Twain once remarked on how at 17 his Father was so ignorant but by the time he had reached 21 he was amazed by how much he had learned.
kinda fits heh?
robert

 

[El Tejon]

Do you have the full quotation?

 

[Canuck-IL]

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."

- attributed by Reader's Digest, Sept. 1937. This quote has been attributed to Mark Twain, but until the attribution can be verified, the quote should not be regarded as authentic.
/Bryan

 

[El Tejon]

I meant the Jeff Cooper quotation, sorry!

 

[rcmodel]

The recoil buffer Cooper was talking about was not what you are thinking about. (Wilson Shok-Buff little plastic thingies?)

I bought a used 1911 in 1967 with the S&W revolver sight set-up, and it had a spring-loaded recoil buffer built into the GI spring guide-rod.

Basically a steel plunger protruding out the front of the guide, with a very heavy coil spring inside the plug, held in place with an Allen Screw in the rear.
At almost full slide travel, the plunger contacted the front of the recoil spring plug and supposedly helped slow the slide. (As well as giving it a real head start going back the other way!)

Even then, I could not keep the S&W sight from shooting loose every 200 - 300 rounds or so. Either the screws would work loose, or they would shear off. I finally replaced the slide and put a Bo-Mar rear on it.

The better installations, as done by Armand Swenson & others, used a steel pin in the slide & a screw to hold the sight on. But then they would shake the guts out of the S&W sight adjustment, or else the S&W spring sight base itself would break through either the pin or screw hole eventually.

rcmodel

 

[ClemY]

I have an old Series 70 Colt with S&W sights. They can be broken fairly easily due to recoil shock. I also have a BarSto spring loaded plunger style buffer. I still like it a lot better than the little plastic buffers. While the S&W sights were considered cool in the 60s and 70s, Bomar are much better. That is what is on my IPSC gun.

 

[Mad Magyar]

rc, thanks for the clarification...Evidently they must have some merit...

 

[Jim Watson]

I have the spare parts list for a Colt Ace .22 in a 1939 Stoeger's reprint. It includes "buffers, package of 8, 40 cents"; and illustrates a fibre washer just like Wilson sells now.

A S&W revolver sight on an auto is an anachronism and I am sorry I let the gunsmith talk me into one instead of a "buried Bomar" years and years ago.