bountyhunter

Maybe we could sweet talk Mr Sotelo into making a similar kit for the XD? I have the G35 kit in mine and it is terrific. Can you give me some details on this? 1) What kind of cost/time are we talking about for getting this trigger setup? 2) Any chance you or somebody else is offering a drop-in kit? Seems to be all the rage these days, even Mr Vanek is doing it. Not that I fancy myself a master gunsmith, it just really irks me to have to shell out $65 to FedEx overnight a gun anytime I want to ship it. That's insane, sometimes I wonder what is wrong with idiots like that. Any aftermarket sites like Glockmeister for the XD? It seems to be getting to be a popular pistol.

Bountyhunter, Can you describe this mod in a little more detail ? I had a very similar problem with the striker hitting the safety plunger due to not enough overtravel ( My bad , adjustable overtravel stop ) . If this issue could be solved , I think trigger feel would be improved quite a bit. I liked the feel of the trigger with no overtravel, the stop screw seemed to counteract the flex in the trigger bar ? I dunno. Travis F. The only way to "solve" it with no overtravel would be to TIG weld the edge of the trigger bar that engages the FP safety plunger so it raised it earlier in the trigger stroke. I experimented with some silver solder to verify it, but that isn't strong enough to rely on (so I removed it). The ramped edge towards the rear of gun is the edge I mean. Understand, you are reducing the "safety" effect of the FP blocking safety as it may be slightly engaged at the trigger's rest position. This would be for a comp gun only and is almost certainly illegal for any stock gun. My gun had no overtravel adjust, but I added the Sotelo trigger kit and it didn't quite match the dimensions of my frame. The striker was releasing with the trigger a shade forward compared to stock and I was getting some light strikes. I could see dings on the nose of the striker, which is about 100X softer than that FP safety plunger (I tried to take a bit of metal off that thing and I wore out three files). I fixed mine by removing a bit of metal off the top of the trigger bar where it engages the lip on the disconnector. That meant the trigger had to go a shade farther back before the trigger bar dropped low enough to release the striker. I'm an engineer and can't resist over analyzing things, so I removed the striker spring and re=assembled the gun and did some measurements as to how far back the trigger has to be to get 100% free motion of the striker past the safety plunger: Even with stock components, the trigger's "totally unblocked" position is at a point farther back than where the striker releases from the trigger bar. This means you have a bit of a "race" condition as the trigger releases the striker and the trigger is going backwards. You may also have a condition where the striker dings the plunger a bit and still fires. I suspect some "light strikes fixed by stiffer spring" cases may have some striker interference by the plunger. At any rate, I found the "marginal" strike function using a BIC pen as a projectile. It would shoot briskly if I "snapped" the trigger back, but didn't go as well when I pulled the trigger VERY slowly and forced the trigger to break without much rear momentum. I used Q-tip behind the trigger to allow me to release the striker "just barely" and the pen did not come out at all! Anyway, all this led me to think I needed more "headroom" and so I filed a shade off the trigger bar to get the trigger to release farther back (where it does with stock componenets) and the light strikes disappeared. YMMV.

The springfield XD is cute and looks a whole lot like a Glock with a grip safety. Are the internals similar? Can the trigger be smoothed and lightened using similar "Glock" style techniques? Thanks.

Check the nose of the striker for dings from hitting the safety plunger. That's what was giving me intermittent light strikes. If so, reshape the top egde of the trigger bar where it engages the disconnector so the trigger will go a shade farther back before it releases the striker.

Yep, on the right side where the gap between the vertebra narrows is where the gelatinous stuff inside the disc was forced out. It's got no place to go except the nerve canal. That stuff pressing on the nerve is the source of the pain and numbness.If you have gotten the best therapy available and feel surgery is mandatory, I wish you the best. Just don't fall into the trap most people do and go back to your evil ways as soon as the pain is gone.... your discs are still degenerating, don't wait until the next one blows to get religion. Don't lift anything heavier than a beer, don't try any of the positions they show in the movies you have hidden behind the TV, and try to keep the beer gut small. The white areas are in the vertebrae which are bone. The term "degenerative disc disease" actually refers to the flexible "rubber" donuts between the vertebrae. Over time, they lose flexibility and get flattened. It's why we get measurably shorter as we age. If one gets stressed severely like yours did, the sheath of the disc will tear and the core material is forced out just like stepping on a jelly donut. Such things do respond to therapy, but it takes time. If our symptoms are intolerable, surgery may be necessary. Get many opinions first and go to a sports medicine specialist. They work miracles with this type of injury.

I've done it by doing two flat cuts and then "rounding over" the point in between until I got the feel I wanted. Sears cost maybe $40, and I used the old one to practice and the new one when I got the angles I liked.If you have a jig you could just keep changing the angle a touch and smoothing which would get you pretty close to a radius cut. It also promotes better trigger technique in bozos like me if I don't know exactly where the break is coming.... I won't bother to try and time my flinch to meet it!

Anyone else experiencing this problem? -Chet Only way I could see this happening is if they are buying "raw stock" 1911 frames and building up guns around them. I would not be at all surprised if the government was trying to figure out new ways to squeeze taxes out of us considering the size of the deficit.

You have a disc in the lower back that has the characteristics of a stepped-on bagel (flatter and wider than nominal) and the stuff that normally is inside the disc is forced out and impinges on the adjacent nerve. Pushing on the nerve can cause any of the follwing: 1) Tingling/numbness 2) burning sensation like dipping your foot in hot oil 3) moderate to severe pain Decompression types of physical therapy can gradually allow the disc to plump up a bit (mine did). You might also try using an inversion table (hooks your ankles in one end and it rotates you upside down).... I happen to own one, tells you about the last 20 years of my life.... I'm not a doctor, but it is generally accepted that if you have loss of muscle strength or control which is not responding to therapy, surgery is the only viable option.

The slop you saw is primarily due to the stop peening the edge of the frame slot where the stop pops out of, due to rotational inertia of the cylinder. The stop also peens the edge of the cylinder notch it locks into. I wish they made the stops out of softer steel, since they are much easier to swap out than it is to have to "peen down" the cylinder and frame edges. I agree the MIM parts seem to be sifter than the old ones. The rebound slides used to be so hard you could polish on them for an hour and never take off a thousandth. I started polishing an MIM slide on #600 sandpaper and in half a minute I was cutting away metal.

When I did my Beretta 92 barrel, I went for the "slot cut" effect and used a thin flat file, with a very sharp cutting edge. The rough edges were smoothed up by taking a needle point file and going in form outside at a 30 degree angle and just drawing the file tip along the cut edge enough to remove the burrs. For the record, I have yet to be convinced that ports do anything of value in a barrel length beyond four inches, especially if you are shooting factory ammo. I kept adding ports on the Beretta (has an open top slide) and saw no difference in muzzle rise, but POI did move just a tiny bit downward. Of course at the fourth slot, the barrel was noisy and blowing garbage back at me so I ended up chucking it. I have a "factory ported" barrel in it now and it also blows crap back at me and throws a pretty tall flash upwards shooting hot ammo. Still not convinced ports belong on anything more civilized than a 2" snubby shooting .357. YMMV.

The FLGR is better for the simple reason you can drill a hole in at and use atake-down tool and remove the rod/bushing/spring as a captive assembly and never have to fight with the recoil spring during assembly or dis-assembly. As far as function in operation, there is no difference.

Yep, their brain's are programmed: cut, cut, sew, sew, think, think. If you look at the long term studies, the surgery nearly always results in near-term reduction of pain, but long term worsening (and usually more sugeries). The surgery reduces the spine's flexibility in the vicinity of the "repaired" disc, which puts strain on the other discs above and below it. For the majority of cases, better long-term outcomes are obtained with non-surgical therapies. But, they require the patient to get religion and do the therapy. One situation which typically requires surgery is when nerve involvement reduces usefulness of the legs and muscles deteriorate. Other case is if the pain is unbearable and does not respond to coventional therapy. Good luck, do internet research, and IMHO: do every single thing otherwise possible before getting surgery.

For the record, the reason stretching is so dangerous: sciatica is the result of discs or disc material pushing into the sciatic nerve along the spine. Any motion that compresses the disc will aggravate it. Most stretches used to treat lower back will compress, anybody with back pain should only do wha are called "extension" motions which decompress the spine. The problem is that muscle spasms almost always accompany any type of spine or neck problem, and stretching the muscles provudes temporary relief from that source of pain.... usually at the expense of aggravating the underlying condition. "Hamstring" stretches can be particularly damaging because they invariably apply compression force to the discs in the low back. The single biggest reason why most back pain sufferers don't get relief from doctors is really pretty simple: the doctors don't know exactly what is causing the pain. And it's been my experience that chiropractors are more skilled at treating chronic back pain than doctors whose standard treatment is pills followed by physical therapy.... which can make the problem worse. That is the greatest truth on earth, because the weight of the torso presses downward on the spinal column which stresses the discs. If you take weight off that down force, the discs are not so compressed. In my case, I can actually feel the sensation in my feet carrying something that weighs as little as five or ten pounds in my arms (pulled in tight to my chest). The added weight is enough to make the spinal compression push the disc out and touch the nerve.

God bless him, and I'll say a prayer for you too. You do need to eventually realize his physical body will not win this battle, but that it's OK. They wear out and fail and we have to accept it. Lung cancer is so virulent that it is one that is nearly impossible to beat, as it spreads so quickly. make your peace, I suspect you will only have a few months to do that. Good luck.

I hear you. back pain is what God put here to show us what hell is like. I get various pinched and stressed nerves along my spine. As I type, I am unaware of the "normal" sensation I always have of my foot being dipped in hot water kind of feeling... and tingling in the toes. There is one nerve in my low back that (when tweaked) causes pain which can not be described..... sort of like getting hit by lightning. It's not like it hurts in one place, the pain is bigger than my whole body. All I can do is lay on the floor and blink my eyes, takes 6 - 8 weeks to get back to "baseline" pain from one of those. Interesting thing about pain that severe is that it causes a person to go immediately into shock.... you get pale and clammy and cold sweat and usually start puking. Ain't life fun? Stretching is unquestionably the most dangerous thing any person with a back injury can do. Even under doctor's supervision, they had me doing "therapy" that was aggravating my condition. I started my own program of avoiding all: "Hey, that makes me worse you f---ing moron!" stretches, and went to a chiropractor. A good one can really help you. Kaiser and their Physical terrorists almost killed me.

He got outsourced. Now it's a guy in a turban and he is multi-tasking: he can sit and be bored for five or six different companies at the same time for a fraction of what you would have to pay an American to sit and do nothing..... Those timer assemblies used to be really complicated. There's a motor that drives a wheel that turns and makes various electrical connections at different times. You can have one set of contacts burn and lose just one function. But the timer sits in standby until the sensor reads that whatever is supposed to happen has happened (like fill the tub, warm the water, whatever). The timers are also REALLY expensive.

I think it's lighter fluid? The "ane" brothers figure prominently in those.... hexane, butane, heptane.....

I have a theory about Dremels: they are fine gunsmithing tools as long as you put them in the closet and set a bowling ball on top of them before you begin working on any gun. I assume you mean the throat of an auto loader's barrel? I agree that polishing is only needed if you have feeding problems. I polish throats using #400, #600, #800 grit sandpaper (and oil) wrapped around the smooth end of a drill bit whose size is perfect to fit the thraot of that particular caliber. Sand by hand usuing and in-and-out motion. I sometimes finish polish with a patch wrapped around a drill shank using chrome polish but that is just for looks..... making it mirror shiny does nothing to improve function. Looks pretty..... again, hand polish in-and-out motion also on the feed ramp.

The search for the Holy Grail continues..... that substance which can be applied to burned on carbon and wiped off. I had an insane thought: The only thing I ever saw remove burned on crap was OVEN CLEANER! Makes me wonder if something like that could be applied with a Q-tip. It is pretty nasty smelling and caustic..... but it might work.

Thanks.

I didn't load them, they are Miwall.

I found the B-square web site to be 100% useless. I found B-square mounts sold at various places with B-Sq part numbers that do not appear on their site. There is no search engine or full catalog of their mounts.The 686 is an L-frame, do you happen to know which of their mounts would fit an old-style K frame?

I compared the 34 (9mm) extractor and the 35 (.40SW), and the tips are different. The 9mm hook is a bit thinner to get into the narrower web better. I shot it and got far less FTE's with the crappy 9mm reloads that were the problem before. BTW, my theory is that the reload 9mm ammo case does not have the correct "taper" as a new 9mm case (verified by calipers) and is a bit snug in the new EFK barrel. The extra "drag" reduces slide energy enough to make for balky extraction. I have yet to have a new round FTE.

I was looking for a standard Weaver type rail mount that screws onto the top of an older "K" frame that does not have the three holes in the top strap (the old ones just have two).. Aimtech makes this Frankenstein monster that bolts onto the whole right side of the gun, but I was hoping somebody made something simpler that works with the two holes in the top strap. Any suggestions?

True, carbon steel will rust in any water-based product if not fully submerged (and will eventually rust even if it is submerged, but will take longer). I've never been a big believer in using water-based products on steel since the formula for rust is steel + water. I shoot wheelguns a lot and am always looking for the holy grail: some kind of soak which will remove the hard burned carbon off the cylinder without wrist killing scrubbing. Such a product would be worth a lot of money. This thing claims to do it, but it doesn't. Just a heads up for other people.