New Commander

[1911Tuner]

A point of great interest came to my attention yesterday. Thought I'd share it, and get some feedback from some of you.

Forum member Andrew17 came down from Virginia to visit yesterday afternoon. He had a fairly new stainless Colt Commander. Not the XSE model...During a little tweak on his extractor, I noticed that the firing pin stop had a much smaller radius than the now-standard 7/32nds. It wasn't as small as the one that I use,(.075 inch) but looked to be an estimated 5/32nds-inch or maybe a little smaller.

Could it be that Colt is returning to the basics? Could it be that they've lurked around here...seen the posts concerning the small radius...and decided to give it a whirl? Incidentally, the recoil spring was 24 coils of .044 wire diameter with identical spacing between coils as the Wolff 16-pound GM spring, and hand-cycling proved nowhere near as tough as cycling with a true 18-pound rating. I'd estimate it at about 15.5-16 pounds. Wish I'd had my tester handy, but unfortunately I loaned it out about 2 years ago and haven't seen it since. Story of my life...

Colt has also returned to the punched recoil spring plug to allow turning the plug onto the end of the spring...just like it used ta be and SHOULD be.
This is excellent news!

The extractors in his fresh Colts also seemed to be very tough and springy.
I have great hopes over this revelation. Way to go, Colt! Keep on keepin' on!

 

[andrew17]

Mr Tuner, thank you again for everything! Next time I’ll stay for dinner I promise. To know there ARE good people like you out there gives a lot of hope.
Folks, watching Tuner work on a pistola is like watching one of those world record kids work a rubiks cube. Fast and furious. He just waves his magic file over the part in question and poof,,,,, the gun sings. And that’s all I can tell you about Tuner’s tunin tricks because I was sworn to secrecy by threat of death by flogging with a wet noodle.
Oh and the Joys of putting my mitts on his minty Rand. I dared not try to slip it into my bag before leaving for fear of him sicking Baby on me And I’m not even gonna discuss the pristine 1918 that is tighter than my brand new guns……

 

[Old Fuff]

andrew17:

If you get your hands on those two guns again .... Well grab and run fast.

I'l send my mailing address as soon as I hear from you ...

 

[ulflyer]

Andrew17, did he also whip out his slick honing stone and commence to rub the innards of your Colt? Did he also try to buy it off you? He wants, no, he needs, to own huge bushels of 1911's or he can't sleep at night.

But he didn't let you see his US&S? He charges money just to look; even bigger money to hold.

Tuner, remember the early series 80 Colt with a collet that I brought over?
Sent it off to get some imperfections on the slide reblued and now the slide is darn near as slick and shiney as my WW1 commemorative. Gonna have to send the frame out to get done. Then I'll have more in it than a new one. :banghead: Heres a pic, although not a very good one.

 

[1911Tuner]

re:

Had to move fast, lest he saw what I was doin' and told ever'body how simple it was. Truth is, that there just wasn't a whole lot to do to his Colts. Minor stuff...

We did get a gritty ol' Norinco trigger squared away though. Yeah...I offered
good money for that one too, but the lad is tough to deal with. He said the Nork belonged to his dad...and allowed like papa was gonna be happy
over the trigger tweak.

Fuff, Fuff, Fuff...If you're gonna get one of my pistols, you're just gonna hafta make the trip east and bring a LOTTA cash!

Andy...That old Colt was a 1919. The 1918 was a no-show this time.
Well...'Cept for the one I Commander-ized. A real conversation piece.

Ted...The Kart barrel (Not an Easy-Fit) is in the Pimp Nork...Locks up too tight for my tastes at the present. Has the same typical charactistics as a Baer. Like a vault with a slight hitch as I try to hand-cycle the slide. Everything else is a "GO", including full-depth in the vertical and equal on 3 lugs in the horizontal. Gonna shoot it tomorrow...if the weather cooperates...and make the final adjustments. Headspace comes in at .904 inch..or .006 over minimum. The hood just kisses the breechface and sits .004 above the "GO" gauge. I set the sides at .003 inch per, and will shoot for the same clearance with the rear face of the hood after it's been shot to settle things in.

To give ya some idea of how far off-spec the vertical stackup was...I had to use a .295 center-to-center link, lightly relieved in the upper portion of the hole...about .002 inch. Gonna coat everything in the slide and barrel interface with slurry and run 50 rounds through it. We'll see. So far, hand-cycling gives good, smooth feeding with ball, hollowpoints and 200-grain SWC reloads. Looks promising.

 

[andrew17]

Andrew17, did he also whip out his slick honing stone and commence to rub the innards of your Colt? Did he also try to buy it off you? He wants, no, he needs, to own huge bushels of 1911's or he can't sleep at night.

Yep,Yep and Big 'Ole Yep.
The "prep" work he did on papasan's nork trigger has to be felt to be believed!
When I handed Pop his pistola back I offered to buy it again but I think after him feeling that trigger, his asking price just went up
On another note, no one can possibly tune a pistol like Tuner can because of the sofisticated high tech equipment he uses

 

[Old Fuff]

He bought a new hammer ????

 

[1911Tuner]

New Hammer

Somebody snitched!!!

 

[ulflyer]

Tuner: Report on Pimp Machine Please

Did you shoot it today? If so, how'd it go?

PS: Do you have a spare MGW bushing I can get? Want to send it off with the Coltframe and have the front part of the bushing blued to match.

 

[1911Tuner]

Report

Shot it today(50 rounds)...It did well, but shot a little low. Could be because I shot it at 15 yards on the plate machine. Most Norks are...true to spec...pretty close to on at 50. Bullet's still climbin' at 15 yards. Zero malfunctions, and I'm starting to see a light kiss on the #1 lug, which means that in another 250-300 rounds I should have all lugs in play. Happy is me.
Vertical lug engagement is a tiny bit short at .049 inch...but I can live with that in light of equal horizontal bearing. Firing pin strike is well-centered.
N ot dead center, but not so's you'd notice without a caliper.

Had to use a full, hard-fit barrel on this one. The Kart Easy-Fit doesn't have the lower lug geometry to have gotten good vertical on this pistol. The vertical tolerances were just too much for it. Lockup is still just a teensy bit tighter than I like on a service gun, but another hundred rounds with the slurry in it will iron it out. Haven't sandbagged it yet, but accuracy seems to be typically excellent Kart.

Just happen to have a couple MGW bushings handy. Also just so happens that one fell into the Nork slide just barely past finger-tight...which is good...and had .001 inch clearance with the barrel. I'll shoot it with that bushing off the bags to see what she'll do...but the shiny pimped bushing
will be kept in reserve for dress-up occasions.

 

[Oscar Orum]

refinishing slide

ulflyer, Mind telling me who refinished your slide and how to contact them for pricing.
Tuner, watch for Old Fuff. He is roaming around the country, a report had him in Michigan within the past week.He might be coming "just to look at that Rands and WWI Colts". He could drop into NC, you know. I would like very much to have a color picture of you two. I'dl ask for Mr Kennen's picture alone as he seems to be a more dignified and socially acceptable gentleman, but who knows.

 

[Old Fuff]

WHERE IS DA' FUFF ??????

ONLY HIS SHADOW KNOWS ......

 

[ulflyer]

Gun Bluing

Oscar Orum: www.gunblue.homestead.com George Roghaar was very prompt answering my emails, and let me know when the slide was shipped. I had included a hammer to be done and he emailed me to ask if it should be all blue, or matte tops, blued sides, etc. Slide was $50, frame will be $85. I don't know whether these are good prices or not, but I think his work is really good. He's out of town till this coming saturday. Tell him I sent you.

 

[Old Fuff]

Those are very reasonable prices if you are getting quality work. How good the finish is depends on how the metal is polished, and not the blueing itself. Anyone with the tanks and other equipment can blue a gun, polishing is another matter. It looks like you have a winner.

 

[ulflyer]

The Truth be Known

Old Fuff: what I originally wanted was some little surface rust on one side buffed out and the slide blued to match the existing frame so as not to get too many $$ into it. I want a shooter not a beauty queen. But I didn't make myself clear on that and got much more than I wanted. So now I have to send off the frame to match. Whether I keep the beauty queen or not is problematic. May have to let Frandy out in Raleigh have it; it will be much too nice for Tuner's stable of beaters.

 

[1911Tuner]

Beaters

Ted sed:

>Whether I keep the beauty queen or not is problematic. May have to let Frandy out in Raleigh have it; it will be much too nice for Tuner's stable of beaters.<

Now hold on just a dang minnit there! You sayin' my girls ain't purty?

'Sides...I need me a purty, shiny blued gun to go with that purty, shiny Pimp Machine...

 

[ulflyer]

Shiny Blued Stainless Springer for Tuner

"Tuner says: 'Sides...I need me a purty, shiny blued gun to go with that purty, shiny Pimp Machine... "

Shall I drop it off today? Priced @ one big one more than the Pimp
Machine?

Edited: Whoops, I had the Springfield Blackened Stainless on my mind, whats left of it, and just realized you were talking bout The Colt. Ain't got the frame done yet on the Colt. Gotta send it off next week after I bum a MGW bushing off you to send along to get the face of it polished and blued to match the rest of the gun. I got one on order from Brownell's to replace it.