Les Baer 1911 Break-in

[mikemyers]

John C, I'm past the 500 round mark now, and while the gun keeps getting easier to use, in my opinion it's still not "broken in". The barrel still "sticks" in the bushing when the gun is in battery; once you break things free, the slide now moves back smoothly, but that first little bit is very, very tight.

I'm also glad that the gun doesn't seem to be a walking advertisement for the company that builds it. Everyone that sees it thinks it's an ordinary 1911, not something "special", which is what I want. If anyone asks, I tell them. I think the gun is an example of "form follows function"; it just works. When I look through the magazertials for all the different 1911's, just about every other brand catches my eye long before the P2. The P2 doesn't stand out - but when it comes to function, it's rapidly becoming my favorite gun!

 

[Rinspeed]

I'm curious - how do you define "quickly" 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000 rounds??

After I got to around 600 rounds and several hundred hand cycles I noticed a huge difference in smoothness. After that they just keep getting smoother and smoother the more you shoot them. Just my opinion but stay away from grease on the rails until you have a bunch more rounds through it. The trigger control parts are pretty good quality and will also smooth up nicely the more you shoot and dry fire.


One other thing that I did, that helped a lot, is every time I had it apart I would rotate the bushing in the slide, without the barrel, back and forth 30-40 times. This will help smooth out any high spots in the machining and make it much easier to take apart.

 

[mikemyers]

.....every time I had it apart I would rotate the bushing in the slide, without the barrel, back and forth 30-40 times......

I can't see any reason not to do this - you're not doing anything the gun isn't already designed to do. I assume you've got a light film of oil on both the slide and the bushing.

I'm going to shoot 200 or 300 more rounds, then disassemble and clean my gun. That's what Les first suggested on the phone. I will also do what you suggested, when the gun is apart. I'm wondering how "tight" the bushing is going to be at first. If my plastic bushing wrench can't turn it.....

 

[Uglyducky]

Hi Mike. I fitted the slide to frame on that gun. And why did you cover up my checkering? LOL I worked for Les for a couple of decades.

Break in? Shoot standard hardball, keep it lubed. If the gun is set up for wadcutters and lighter loads, you should STILL shoot a box or two of hardball through it. it should function OK with lighter loads after that.

If it functions reliably with lighter loads as is, then it doesn't need a break in!

Well there us go! How often do you get such a treat as to speak with the maker of your shooter. Very cool

 

[mikemyers]

I absolutely agree!!!! You can see 'tark' working on these guns in the video I posted. It is *wonderful* that he is here with us in this discussion!! Who better to learn from, than the fellow who helped build the gun in the first place!!

 

[orionengnr]

I have enjoyed following this thread.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[mikemyers]

I just posted a comment on another thread here about how I'm doing with the Les Baer. The gun is coming along nicely, but I can't say that much about myself - I developed a case of "the flinchies". Results were awful.

After five days of "anti-flinching pills", the flinching was mostly gone, and I'm now doing better with the gun than I've ever shot with a 1911 in my life. It's nothing to brag about, but it has me in a much better mood.

Here's a link to the post, in another thread on THR:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=9981073&postcount=6

...........and here's a link to "the anti-flinching pills" which is now my favorite YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfARgCqWCvQ

 

[mikemyers]

I should add one more post here - sort of a 'finale'.

I've shot 750 rounds, and decided the gun was broken in enough to disassemble.

The video of the new way (also shown by RCMODEL) of how to take the gun apart, was a good start. It was no problem getting the gun taken apart, and the bushing came out with very little effort. I like this new way to disassemble a 1911.

The gun wasn't very dirty at all - didn't take all that long to clean it. The only thing I was puzzled about was a layer of "grime" on the feed ramp. It took a while, but using a Q-tip and Hoppe's, everything came off, and the surface now looks bright and shiny.

Re-assembling the gun the new way was also pretty easy. Things fit together just like in the videos.

The ONLY thing that was really difficult (for me) was holding the slide back while I inserted the slide lock. The spring pressure was just so great that I barely had enough strength to hold the gun in position long enough to put in the slide stop. It took four or five tries, but that finally worked. The slide stop "clicked" in place nicely as it went by the "plunger".


Thanks for all the help and advice.
My next step in the very near future is to start loading lighter "target" loads.

 

[drband]

Excellent! I'm looking for a Baer!

 

[Rinspeed]

The video of the new way (also shown by RCMODEL) of how to take the gun apart, was a good start.

Nothing "new" about taking a tightly fitted 1911 apart by pulling the slide stop first. Smart people have been doing it that way for 20+ years.

 

[mikemyers]

I'd like to ask why they kept it such a secret, but it's probably my fault for never looking for an alternate way to do this.

None of the people I told about it had ever heard of the "alternate" way to do this either.

Sorry for using the word "new". I should have said "new to me".

 

[just for fun]

Unreal! Just a few thousand rounds? How about 50 -100 rounds and a tube of permtex fine valve lapping compound. Use it to "lube" the rails for the first 50 rounds. Remove, spray mating surfaces with brake cleaner, lube with white lithium grease. Repeat as needed.
This post would seem to be- my gun was better built than yours because mine was tighter and took X number of rounds to function RIGHT.
The valve compound idea stated above is used in our shop on engine cylinder heads that the cost would make these "special" guns look like chump change!

 

[mikemyers]

Unreal! Just a few thousand rounds? How about 50 -100 rounds and a tube of permtex fine valve lapping compound.......This post would seem to be- my gun was better built than yours because mine was tighter and took X number of rounds to function RIGHT........

Hmm... not sure where a few thousand rounds came from; the number I said I've shot is close to 750. I'm not sure what you mean by "better", or why that matters? There may be many, many ways to break in the gun, but why not follow Les's (and for that matter, tark's) suggestions, as they were involved in making the gun.

Actually, thinking back on this post, had 'tark' not posted what he did right after I started the thread, this thread would have gone in a very different direction. The "tightest" part of the gun was the barrel and the bushing (not the slide) .....all of which is just the way Les builds his guns.



Not sure if you were serious or kidding when you wrote that, and I suspect it would actually work just fine, but what's the hurry even if it could work?