creeper1956

Hmmmm would OC be obsessive compusive? Me....OC, naw. Never ever to the tinyest smallest itsy bitsy stinking little 1/10000 of an inch. LOL zdog .0001" is as small as you go? Piker.

Unless you have a few thousand rounds on this gun already, I think you may be being a bit over critical. If it's nearly new - I wouldn't get too concerned with how smooth it is, or isn't. Now, for an about face of what I just said... If it were mine, and bearing in mind that I'm at least as OC as you are and probably worse.... I'd detail strip it, inspect the parts you think are suspect and how well they fit in the gun (including the slide disco track and disco in frame bore) - deburr those parts as you see fit - clean, lube, reassemble and test fire a few hundred through it. C

Ah... what? Shoot us a link to this Midway discription... so we don't have to search for it. (I'm incredibly lazy )

With the gun empty, the mag tube end cap removed and the spring relaxed and sticking out... about 12-13 inches of exposed length. C

I lean towards EGW sears, barrel bushings, ejectors, extractors and pin sets. Hammers, because they're visible, well... that can be a style thing, so I'll leave that alone, other than to say I'm partial to ring hammers, so I tend to use Harrison Design. Caspian makes a "big ring" hammer that looks cool, but requires quite a bit of hook prep. Speaking of Harrison Design, you could do a lot worse if all you used were his internals. Remember that he does sell a complete ignition set with a pre-prepped TR sear... if you won't be doing your own sear prep. As to the ambi safety. Being a lefty myself, I've done a great deal of research. The Novak and Lippard are great designs but will rub the web of your thumb... badly. They work better for right handed folks who shoot lefty occasionally. The Caspian "internal locking" is a terrific design that is poorly executed and will require quite a bit of prep to bring to a quality fit and finish - too bad as I really love the design. If you don't mind a Swenson style, "tongue and groove" joint, grip retention type safety, the CNC billet, SVI-Infinity is top of the line. A reasonably priced, cast safety that uses a T&G joint and hammer pin retention, that is very well made and finished is the Kimber unit - the built in stop on the right lever prevents over stressing the particularly snug fitting and well executed T&G joint. A good, hidden retention ambi on a budget. The Wilson Combat BP - The unique, "modified T&G" is very well supported in the frame tangs, the adjustable right lever dovetail is useful and the entire unit is exceptionally well made and finished. Like the Kimber, it also has a right lever internal stop, but unlike the Kimber, it has a closed bottom, which means that dirt accumulation can't escape... which may or may not be an issue for you. Thats, it... C

I'd say Colt Special Combat Government... but that might be more than you want to spend. Dan Wesson Specialist or Valor, but you probably want a adj rear sight, and again, maybe more than you want to spend on the Valor. Smith & Wesson SW1911 PC is a possible too. C

When is that going to be available Rich?

I like the Dawson Precision single stack Ice magwell... I'd link you, but the site is offline right now. C

See what Toolguy said... this may be the issue for both yourself and Mr. cpa5oh. Personally, I think you both need finish reamers, but I always defer to Mr. Dave Kiff at PTG... he is the "best ream for the application" man and may in fact suggest a Uni-R. C

Contact Pacific Tool & Gauge... tell them what you want, they'll either have what you need, or grind you a custom ream. C

The easiest semi-permanent way to do it (if you have a welder ), that doesn't actually require drilling the frame and pinning it... is to put a bead of weld on the GS tab where it rests against the mainspring housing. You file fit it so that it's held down firmly as soon as you install the MSH. To return to original, grind off the bead. Another way, but effectively the same thing, is to drill and tap a hole - in lieu of a blob of weld, and fit a small set screw. There are also ways to shove a piece of shock-buff in to jamb the GS... check the interweb for that one. C

All true true... and true. Not inteded as a direction to start filing, just a referrence point, which is why I'd like a photo or two of the guns ejector. C

The brass is probably bouncing off the rear of the ejection port. If it were bouncing off the front of the port, you'd probably be complaining about brass in the face. There are plenty of possible reasons why you're getting dented brass. Recoil spring weight, ejector, extractor, magazine spring and or follower... even the hammer cocking profile on the firing pin stop (effects slide "velocity"). Do you have an unusually light or firm recoil spring? When was the last time you replaced it? What quality and how old are the magazines? Have you tried other magazines? How many rounds do you have through the gun? Will your extractor pass the basic extractor tests? For now, I would very much like to see a close up photo of the tip of your ejector. What I'm looking for is the ejector profile. What I'd like to see is one of the more effective ejector profiles - which is a compound set of angles where the case head contact point is "bottom left". If you have an ejector as shown below, or a few other profiles that work well, then that can be ruled out and we can look at other things. C

That's only the second time I've ever seen that... MSH slots that are not perpendicular, and that was on a "seconds" LH Foster/Randall frame. Are any (of your) MSH square to the sear spring bed? Funny that the trigger is good, which is usually one of the several things (like your sights/TS/GS etc) ignored on a budget gun... yet the frame machining is off. When I work (not too often) on a budget gun, the frame and slide are usually pretty good - the things that are wrong are relatively easy to fix - it's the "bits & bobs" that are not taken care of, with the idea (at least IMO) that someone who want's to, can correct them. Keep us (or at least me... I love this sort of "pearls from swine" stuff ) up on how things progress. C

You'll get lots of opinions on this... "best" lube is right up there with grips, trigger profiles and FLGRs. To be honest, just about every gun specific lubricant is pretty good stuff... you can hardly buy any genuinely bad products anymore. I've not used the Enos grease, but if it's a light bodied product, then using it on frame rails would be just fine. I've had some bad experiances with grease in cold climates, so I get a bit nervous about grease, particularly in a carry gun. For about the past 3 years, I've been experimenting with Prolix, specifically on carry guns and on my 3G Benelli M2 . Prolix is a rather unique product, resulting in a dry, drip and stain free, lubricant finish. Only recently have I started using their products on target, range and match handguns. So far... so good. YMMV. C