cohland

If I understand you correctly, you're trying to re-fit the thumb safety after installing the trigger kit? The thumb safety is fitted to the sear, usually new thumb safeties are over-sized so they require fitting. If your OEM safety was a little snug, it might just need to be relieved. The Cylinder & Slide kit (at least mine) come with good instructions for fitting the safety. In case you don't have those, here's a link to some others:http://www.brazoscustom.com/magart/0601.htm, http://www.ktgunsmith.com/1911ts.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd5m-Adc97o BE CAREFUL. Going too far with the filing with trash the safety. Chris

Springfield's website says it weighs 41 ounces from the factory, with an empty OEM magazine. It comes with a Full-Length Guide Rod, so you can swap that out if you need to save any weight. Chris

It weighs 42.4 oz with an empty magazine installed? That's great, I wasn't able to get there using an FLGR with the other parts I chose. Chris

Update: I believe that the grips on my gun are probably Hogue Fancy Hardwood grips from MidwayUSA. I tried Alumagrips Regular lightweight very aggressive, VZ, and Altamont regular, and found them all to be too heavy. My gun has an ambi safety, so that was a factor in getting grips. In deciding what to put on the gun, I had to establish priorities because I knew I was going to have to make some compromises to meet the weight limit. First priority was an ambidextrous thumb safety, because I'm left-handed. There is some weight added here. Second priority was a trigger kit and front sight. No real weight consideration there. Third priority was a magwell, a must for me. The EGW magwell I listed is steel, so it does add some weight but it will probably not wear out. Note that the Springfield Range Officer MSH contains non-standard parts to provide their safety lock. I discarded all of those parts, along with the OEM MSH, and replaced the internals with standard parts and the mainspring from the trigger kit. Then I just swapped several sets of grips until found some that made weight, and called it good. I would have liked to have a full length guide rod, but it's purely optional for me. In my case I've now got a 42.6 ounce gun shooting PF 130 ammunition, so it's very easy to control. Additional checkering on the front strap would have been a waste of money for me. I never considered using a gun more expensive than the Springfield Range Officer in 9mm, mainly because a new one cost about $800 locally. The Range Officer is a very good platform for my purposes and skill level. Chris

Thank you! That is very close to what I am running right now for a Springfield RO 9mm for Steel Challenge. Is there much of a difference between the Dawsons with the plastic base pad and the aluminum? I currently run 001018s. My mistake, the Dawson base pads I have are aluminum,001015. I was thinking of Tripps, but those magazines don't work for me in this gun. Chris

Here is one approach: Springfield Range Officer 9mm: Dawson fiber optic front sight: Cylinder&Slide tactical II trigger kit: EGW 1911 Silverline blue bolt-on mag well / flat checkered mainspring housing: Dawson 9mm magazines 10-round with aluminum base pads: Regular walnut grips (will have to research source and update this later): Remove OEM sear, disconnector, hammer. Remove OEM mainspring housing and internals. Install EGW mainspring housing and magwell. Install trigger kit. Use OEM rear sight, recoil spring, guide, and plug. Install Dawson front sight. Result is 42.6 ounces with an empty magazine. Very accurate. Chris

+1 Thanks, I'm going to try that. Chris

Well, that was a good idea, but it didn't really work out. While the Tripp magazines fed well, I had to yank them out of the magwell on the first (and only) stage where I tried them. Should have tested the day before. Apparently I'll have to do some "tuning" work with the Tripps. Luckily, I took my Dawson magazines to the match with me. They were used for the remaining five stages with no problems. I will happily put up with difficulty in stripping ammo out of magazines at the end of a match for reliability. Live and learn. As for the magazine springs, I'm going to buy a few extra Dawson springs and clip a coil off them to see how that works. Stay tuned. Chris

Just be sure to check the weight of the Trojan 9mm, not the .45. Because they (Springfield) use the same slide and bushing, the 9mm barrel is noticeably thicker, accounting for the weight increase for the 9mm versions. I am assuming that this is the case with STI as well. Chris My 9mm Trojan with bushing does have the "standard" outside diameter barrel of 1911 spec so when 9mm is bored, the barrel walls are thicker and the barrel is the heaviest of all the calibers (least amount of metal bored out). Don't know exactly how much more weight that adds compared to .40 or .45, but it does add some.

Just be sure to check the weight of the Trojan 9mm, not the .45. Because they (Springfield) use the same slide and bushing, the 9mm barrel is noticeably thicker, accounting for the weight increase for the 9mm versions. I am assuming that this is the case with STI as well. Chris My 9mm Trojan with bushing does have the "standard" outside diameter barrel of 1911 spec so when 9mm is bored, the barrel walls are thicker and the barrel is the heaviest of all the calibers (least amount of metal bored out). Don't know exactly how much more weight that adds compared to .40 or .45, but it does add some.

Just be sure to check the weight of the Trojan 9mm, not the .45. Because they (Springfield) use the same slide and bushing, the 9mm barrel is noticeably thicker, accounting for the weight increase for the 9mm versions. I am assuming that this is the case with STI as well. Chris

A few points to consider: Springfield: The standard Springfield 9mm RO weighs about 41 ounces with their magazine, and the weight limit for Single-Stack Division is 43 ounces. Keep that in mind, because you will bump into the limit pretty easily if you start working on the gun, swapping parts in and out. I've got my RO at 42.7 ounces now.... The stock Springfield RO has their unusual proprietary safety lock embedded in the mainspring housing, with some non-1911 parts (mainspring cap and mainspring, if I recall correctly). I replaced all of that stuff with an EGW magwell/mainspring housing and other parts because I want to be able to tune the mainspring, and I wanted a magwell. The Springfield trigger felt creepy, so I installed a Cylinder & Slide Tactical II trigger kit. The parts are all hardened, and after just a few hundred rounds of break-in it's pulling at about 3.5 pounds. The Springfield rear sight is OK, but I've become accustomed to Dawson Fiber-Optic front sights, so that's what's on my RO. I spent about $215 for the sight, trigger kit and mainspring housing parts and installed them myself. If you aren't a tinkerer, add in about the same amount for gunsmithing services. Since I'm left-handed I needed an ambi safety, but I left that cost out of the total because I don't know if you need one as well. I also swapped around a few sets of grips until I found a lightweight set of wood grips that felt good. STI Trojan: I had a .45ACP Trojan but sold it after I got a Sentry. The Trojan came with a good trigger. My Trojan came with a fiber-optic front sight and ambi safety installed. I **believe** that the Trojan has a flat-top slide, something I really liked. Pretty hard to retrofit. The Trojan has stippling on the front strap that you might like. Summary: Before the cost of magazines (!), both guns cost me about $1,200, but the STI was ready to go out of the box. If you like to "roll your own", I'd probably get the Springfield. If you want to buy a finished competition gun, you'll get a lot closer with the STI. Chris

Follow up: I have found one and possibly two solutions to the problem. 1) Buy Tripp Research Cobra Magazines, 10R-9MM-RG. These have a patented follower. Loaded full with 10 rounds, the magazine is easy to strip empty. Mind you I don't know how these work in action, I haven't tried them yet. But they empty ammo like a champ. Dawson sells them, part number 616-002. 2) Try the Tripp 12-coil magazine spring. Dawson sells these, part number 616-014. Chris

Thank you for that, now I know this might not be something really dumb that I am doing! Chris

I'll do that, and I don't know why I didn't think of it! Also, I learned that Dawson stocks a 12-coil magazine spring for Tripp magazines that should fit these magazines, so I've some of those on order. Stay tuned. Thanks, Chris

With a new Springfield 9mm Range Officer 1911 (in USPSA Single Stack Minor), I'm using Dawson 9mm 10-round magazines (https://www.dawsonprecision.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=80000018-1388517791 ). The problem I'm encountering is very high friction when feeding the top 5 rounds of the 10 round magazine, when it is full. There is enough friction to slow down the slide noticeably. I knew the slide was slow (other shooters noticed it as well), and originally thought it might have been because of a too-heavy mainspring. But after a match (the first match with this gun) as I was unloading full magazines, I found that I could not strip the ammo out of the magazines without holding a plastic lever under the nose of the bullet on the top of the stack, and pushing the round out with another tool of some sort. A lot of friction. The ammunition is loaded with a Montana Gold 147-grain CMJ bullet to a Cartridge Overall Length of 1.142". If I use a different bullet shape, like the 124-grain ball in Winchester 9mm NATO ammo, the problem is reduced considerably, even though that C.O.L is actually longer than the one I'm using. The recoil spring is 9 pounds, the same weight that was delivered with the gun (I measured the spring weight with a gauge), and it works very well. I tried a progressive 10-pound recoil spring but the gun bounced quite a bit more, so I really want to stick with the 9-pound recoil spring. I've changed to the 18 pound mainspring that came with the Cylinder & Slide Tactical II Trigger kit. Now for the question: have you encountered this problem, and if so, have you solved it? If so, please tell me how. Alternatives I see at this point are: 1) Check Tripp magazines to see if they make any difference. 2) Change the load to use a different bullet shape. I really like the 147, though. 3) Just deal with it. The gun works, I can use tools to empty the magazines if I have to. Thoughts, suggestions? Thank you for your time and consideration. Chris

Can I get an AMEN? Amen!

I got interested in doing my own 1911 trigger work last year, and probably like you I thought I could do it all, what with all the tools and advice that are available. The short answer is that I couldn't, not reliably. After destroying a couple of perfectly good sears and hammers with stones, I settled on what works for me: installing good trigger kits. I can reliably take a Cylinder & Slide Tactical ii kit (for example) (http://www.cylinder-slide.com/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=CS0212) install it in a 1911, and get good results. This allows the experts to do the stoning and fitting, all I need to do is fit the thumb safety to the sear, adjust the sear spring, and I'm done. So, if you just want good triggers, I can recommend good kits. If you want to be a craftsman, there are others who can help you. I was humbled by the experience, and now have more respect for those who can actually use the trigger tools with good results. Chris

I would detail-strip the slide, clean the slide and all parts thoroughly with gun cleaner solvent (not CLP), and then reassemble, following the lubrication instructions in the manual. Grease or oil in the Striker will attract and hold grit, and that can induce enough friction to slow down the striker and cause light strikes. Cleaning things out will also ensure the free and complete movement of the Firing Pin Safety, so that it's not dragging on the Striker. Glock makes a set of scrapers designed to clean out cavities in the slide (and other places), which indicates to me that they know that carbon build-up will cause problems: SP 02987 GLOCK Armorer’s Manual Channel Maintenance Kit (Replaces Slide Maintenance Drill Set ) $ 30.00 (Armorer's Price) Clean the slide recess where the Firing Pin Safety fits, making sure that no carbon is built up in the top. Chris

Using a standard Glock barrel, my Gen4 G34 produced improved accuracy by finding and installing a tight-fitting Locking Block (subject of another thread) and by developing a load that pushes a 147-grain Montana Gold CMJ bullet along at 883fps. This load reduced the group diameter about 1/3 at 20 yards from the previous velocity of 950fps. Chris

Lone Wolf offers replacement Gen3 slides for the G34. Reading the rules, fitting a Lone Wolf Gen3 slide to a Gen4 frame would not result in a Production-legal G34. Can someone confirm or refute this statement? Thanks, Chris

So which locking block do i want. Where do i order it from and how do i know it will be the right one, as far as being the tight fitting one? I don't want to order 10 of them just to get 1 tight fitting one. I do have a Glock 17 that has issues... Well, if you live anywhere near me (Portland, Oregon), send me a PM. My solution was to buy a half dozen Locking Blocks, split between Glock and Glockmeister, so that I could try them in my Glocks and find the ones that fit tight(er). Not a very good alternative, but since I'm an Armorer at least I got some from Glock at a lower-than-retail cost. Since then I've learned that 9mm locking blocks are marked at least five different ways, and I've been told that the marking is just the mold number. So, Glock may be producing them all at the same time, about the only way to find out is to dig into their manufacturing processes. I don't hold out much hope there. Measuring three unmarked Locking Blocks in just two dimensions (height and width) I have found variations of .002" in both dimensions, not too bad. Hmmm. This got me thinking again, and I think I have a couple of useful conclusions: 1) Fit of the Locking Block is a factor in the accuracy of the pistol: tighter fit is better. 2) Neither the Locking Block nor the Frame is manufactured to extremely tight tolerances. The "Stacking" of tolerances produces tight or loose fit of the Locking Block in a particular gun. 3) Fixing the problem for an individual gun will require testing a number of Locking Blocks for fit in that gun. One thing I would suggest is to tighten up the fit of your locking block with nail polish, but I can't tell you exactly where to apply it, you will need to experiment. This isn't a great solution, because the nail polish will wear and you'll need to refresh it from time to time. Another thing to try would be to take the gun to a GSSF match, see if you can find an Armorer who is not frantically busy, and ask him or her to work with you to find a Locking Block that will fit your frame snugly. If you don't ask, the answer is "no". Chris

Thinking more about this, I have to say that it doesn't sound as much like organized cheating with a clear purpose (advancing your "friends'" interests) as it does just simply "playing God". Chris

It's quite easy unless you look over the timer and splits or really have someone watching the RO. The RO could hit the back button one time before he shows anyone for guys he likes The RO could tap the timer on his firearm one time after the last shot is fired for those he doesn't. Yes, I see your point, thank you for pointing that out. Happily, I've never seen any of that done intentionally, I guess I live in a sheltered world! Chris

I'm surprised to see that this sort of misbehavior is even possible. Although I only attend local USPSA matches, we've always used a procedure that would prevent this sort of thing. The RO calls out the time and SHOWS THE TIMER to to assistant RO (Scorekeeper in our parlance) who then repeats the time and writes it on the score sheet. Unless both of them are cooperating in cheating, time cheating is almost impossible. Chris