ninefan

Day 2: Attempted to fit my SVI ITS trigger into the frame & ended up spending a few hours messing with it. The trigger shoe was a very tight fit and I noticed scratches on the shoe in a couple of places after attempting to slide it in. I used a small square white arkansas stone to clean up the trigger shoe area in the frame. A flashlight from the front then showed that the shoe was actually cocked to the right in the frame. Once I tweaked that the trigger would drop in and out with gravity... except it was sloppy now. Problem: Trigger shoe fits loosely in frame with up & down & side-to-side play. The frame measures .935" top-to-bottom in the trigger shoe area (over-spec), and the trigger measures .922" (proper). I decided to peen the top-front edge of the trigger bow to force the bottom of the trigger shoe to stay lower into the frame and remove the top-to-bottom play. I found the picture below by Rich on another forum that shows info on how to do it. This worked, but now the trigger is slightly binding somewhere. I played with a Sharpie for a while but it might just be that the trigger track in the frame needs cleaned up. I'm also not sure if the bow is exactly straight anymore. I plan on ordering a 1911 trigger track stone and a trigger bow die from Brownells to make everything right before I start moving/removing any more metal. Found another problem also - The C&S Light Speed II Hammer I have won't fit into the frame. I haven't had a chance to measure frame & hammer to see which one is the problem. My guess is that the frame is slightly too narrow and will need a bit of stoning.

Roy: Taking the metal off of the inside top frame rail was my first inclination simply because it would mean less metal would have to come off of the bottom of the slide. It seems like there will still be about .003" or so too much on the bottom of the slide. Will I actually be able to lap off that much? The sear pin hole flashing is on the inside of the frame. I started going after it with a round needle file but the flashing is pretty serious and I would hate to bugger the rest of the hole up in the process of removing it. Maybe I should just give it a shot anyway since I could just ream it out worst case. I actually have the 1911 round file set on the way from this last order, but it looked to me that the smallest diameter file was 1/8" which is going to be too large to fit in the sear hole anyway (.108"). Randy: I do have another EMC slide stop on the way from Brownells. If it fits I may just use it for now and put the reamer & EGW slide stop aside for a later project. Thanks for the comments guys!

I'm building my first 1911 and thought I'd start a thread with my trials, tribulations, questions, and possibly successes. This will be my single-stack division gun and will be chambered in 40S&W in order to run the same ammo as my limited gun. I am building it on a forged Fusion government short dust cover frame & a STI 5" classic slide. All comments, questions, answers, concerns and constructive criticism are welcome and appreciated! Day 1: Measured slide & frame rails. Not over-sized too much, but questions arise... Should I take the ~.002" off of the top of the frame to fit the slide channel? If I draw file the top of the frame it would allow me to make sure everything is flat. If I do this I will have to draw file .004-.005" off the bottom of the slide to get clearance there too. Or should I take the ~.002" off of the inside top of the frame rails instead? I have a Brownells slide & frame rail file that I could use to take the material off of the inside frame rail. I wonder if I will I be able to keep the rail square if I file it like this? Doing this would allow me to take only .002-.003" off of the bottom of the slide to get my clearance there. Graphic showing the dimensions: I also measured & attempted to fit all pins into the frame, barrel, etc. EGW slide stop measures .2005", hole in frame measures .2005", EGW slide stop does not fit. One of my EMC slide stops measures .1995", fits in frame just fine. Plan on using Brownells .201" slide stop reamer to open frame hole up to fit EGW stop. Sear pin hole has flashing inside from machining and needs a reamer to clean it out. Sear fits too tightly on sear pin & binds when it rotates. I will use a reamer to open up the pin holes in the frame and sear and use a oversized (.110") sear pin. Link pin measures .1555", barrel link pin hole measures .154". These will be a nice press fit with some heat & cold. In the meantime I am going to order a .154" pin to use for test-fitting. All other pins fit nicely into the frame. I also bought a parrot vise (Chinese Versa-Vise) tonight from a local woodworking store and installed it. I added some nice padded vise jaws to my Brownells order also. Tools & Parts ordered: Brownells 1911 pin reamers for slide stop & sear pin. Brownells .154" match link pin for test fitting barrel links. C&S over-sized sear & hammer pins.

I think if you wanted to be 100% sure you wouldn't have any frags back at the shooter then you are probably asking too much. That's just the nature of the beast. However it can certainly be minimized. I have seen very few issues with most popper designs, steel challenge setups, etc. Especially so if good quality steel is used and it hasn't been abused with rifle fire. If I wanted to test a certain piece of steel I think I would use a sheet or two of that white corrugated plastic sign material in front of it and shoot a few rounds through the plastic sheet and then see how much stuff was coming back towards the shooting area. The radar does sound cooler though!!

Yeah, the 5" plates are just insane. I wonder if a long vertical piece of steel about 1/2" high welded on the front edge of the base would solve the problem?

Dang, that makes sense. I wonder why I don't have as much problem with the bigger plates that have them same flat base across the bottom?

I just got some new 5" steel plates and took them out to the range today. They are AR500 plates and of very high quality. That is the good part. The bad is that the plates produce frags unlike anything I have ever seen before. I have shot plenty of pot-marked steel that didn't frag nearly as bad as this. The bits and pieces coming back are not large, but they definitely hurt and get your attention when they hit open skin. We shot everything from minor jacketed rounds to major lead rounds and all splattered like crazy back into the shooting area. Has anyone else had this experience? My only thought right now is that perhaps the plates are so light weight due to their size that they are spinning as the bullet transfers its energy and the 20-30 degree cone of splatter off the face of the plate is actually towards the shooter due to the plate being spun around at that point just after impact. If this were true the heavier plates and poppers wouldn't have this problem (especially any steel that is hinged). My other theory is that maybe more shots are hitting the edges / bottom of the steel because they are so small, and that this is producing more splatter back towards the shooter. I find this hard to accept though because most shots are producing splatter, and most of the shots are decent hits in the center of the target. I would love to be able to use these for pistol practice but it seems that they may be relegated to shotgun use only (hopefully birdshot won't have this issue!). Any thoughts on this guys?

I personally don't think that the game should be about "finding targets." It should be about shooting visible targets accurately and quickly. If you want to follow the "finding targets" game to its logical conclusion then paint the targets camo and hide them all over the woods. That would be silly. The targets to shoot should be obvious and visible.

Doh, so true. Didn't see that when I clicked on the post. My bad. I will point out while I'm here that the USPSA rules don't cover this situation very well either... or at all that I can find in the rulebook.

Unlimited budget? Sordin Supreme Pro-X

No need to argue, just tell him as the RO you tell everyone “I see clear. Slide, hammer, holster.” and to compete they must comply. Simple and fair. That is not currently the proper range command. It is now "If clear, hammer down, holster."

Yes... Support the front sight base itself, *not* the barrel. This might require you to be a bit creative. I have a brownells bench block that worked fine for this. Use a brass punch (or a punch with a brass tip at least) to bang it out. If you start banging a bit on one side and it isn't moving, flip it over and try knocking it out the other direction. My original sight came out from right-to-left. You might try that first. When you put the new one back in, make sure you start it from the side that starts easiest. My new sight wanted to go in from right-to-left (this is traditional, but opposite of the original sight if you think about it). If it won't go in very far, take it out and file or sand just a bit off of the bottom of the sight and try again. Once you can get it in about halfway with decent tapping you should be able to drive it in the rest of the way. Just make sure that you don't take so much off that it will move in the dovetail under recoil. Once again, support the sight base and not the barrel when you go to drive the new sight in. It's a fairly easy operation - you will be fine. Just support that front sight base so you don't knock it off of the barrel!

I place a piece or two of soft-sided velcro on each side of the inside housing channel where the back end of the brass comes down. This will allow you to just slap the rod down with the brass on it and have it perfectly centered in the gap so that the swage rod goes straight in with no alignment issues. I don't know whose idea that was originally, but it's a good one.

That looked like a pretty sweet zip-line setup, but I don't think the glass targets + exploding targets would be terribly practical for any matches with more than 2 people. However- if someone wants to put that match on, I will be there! Oh, and LOL @ the spoiler guy!!

Yes, I can't wait for the show tonight either... the series will give this thread the chance to go "Beyond Epic".