GunBugBit

My DW Valor hasn’t choked on any bullet type or weight I’ve shot with it.

Thumbs up on Techwell stuff.

I do prefer the 2011’s thicker grip but still enjoy shooting the 1911’s, especially an older Springfield TRP and the DW PM-9. Nowadays my club match stages aren’t single stack or revolver friendly, so I shoot mostly limited.

Good to hear! And yes, thanks to all who commented. I’ve learned a lot reading what others are doing with their Prodigys. It’s been an enjoyable project and now mine is set up to my liking.

Shot the Prodigy with a 7# recoil spring at a club match last Thursday. No half cock. The gun feels good and doesn’t hold me back in any way. Any deficiencies are all me.

Ah ok.

You can order government length and snip.

Hmm, yes, my PM-9s work great with 7# springs, which I sometimes use when shooting a slightly lighter load. It’s the slide slamming home when my finger might already have released the trigger that I wonder about. I’m not positive my finger can beat the slide cycle time, but maybe.

Agree! And plenty of younger generation gunsmiths getting bench time with these guns, keeping the knowledge base healthy.

I’ve watched some of his videos. Seems to be into these guns so he probably has enough experience to do things right.

It seems the Prodigys vary enough from gun to gun that there’s no one upgrade recipe for all of them. No surprise because 1911 parts almost always require at least a little fitting. One thing that might be consistent - the slide and frame seem to have less space between them - specifically, the gap between the disco track and the flat frame surface where the disco pokes out - than on a lot of other 1911/2011-style guns. I think this is why so many report the slide hanging up on the disco. Is it like this with yours?

Last Saturday, I had one and only one half cock during a sixth range session in a row. I was shooting with some other people and at about 150 rounds (all good up to that point), I said, “Now I’m gonna try to induce half cock.” So I did doubles as fast as I could and sure enough, I got one to happen. This is with an Extreme Engineering disconnector in the Prodigy. Also, I had reduced over-cock to a small amount. These two changes didn’t hurt anything. I think there is a timing thing going on, and the recoil spring is the main driver of slide cycle timing, so that’s why I’m thinking about it. But I won’t be surprised if this isn’t solvable with a different spring weight. Feeding, extraction and ejection remain 100% reliable.

Good stuff Charlie. One thing I’m wondering is how much the recoil spring is a factor in my situation. I’m using a 9#. Before weighing some slides recently, I was pretty sure the Prodigy slide was heavier than the PM-9 slide. I weighed three slides and got these readings: PM-9: 13.5oz Prodigy: 12.7oz Nemesis: 11.1oz I use an 8# spring for the PM-9 and never have issues (after I worked out a magazine-related problem). I haven’t yet tried an 8# spring in the Prodigy, but probably will next range session.

Yep that’s one of the threads I read recently. I learned a lot over the years by reading posts from the 1911forum members pistolwrench and log man.

Another downside to excessive over-cock is the sear nose hitting the hammer hooks harder when the slide returns.

One downside would be more pressure from the hammer on the disconnector track, slowing the side a bit.

Some over-cock is normal. I don’t completely understand why excessive over-cock would be bad. Just exploring everything I can think of.

I wonder the same. I know I’ve had my issue when there was plenty of sear leg leaf spring pressure. The possible explanation is that when executing fast doubles, there is a small timing window where the shooter’s finger is setting up a situation that results in the half-cock when over-cock distance is excessive. That’s all I can think of for now.

This video shows an example of completely removing over-cock, which I would not do. I’d leave a tiny bit.

Sure, other things usually do explain it. A common complaint about the Prodigy is the slide hanging up on the disconnector. I think this is because the gap between the slide and frame is less than on some other guns. This would tend to make the slide push the hammer back a bit more than on other guns. And so the full cock hammer hooks stay a greater distance away from the sear nose while the slide cycles, giving the sear more opportunity to free-float and escape the full cock hooks when a bump happens at just the wrong time. I read a gunsmith’s description of this once but had forgot about it until now. The fix is to take down the surface where the hammer glides on the disconnector track. Not so much that the sear nose can’t catch the hammer hooks, of course.

There’s an older thread, similar to this one. Doesn’t look like the guy got resolution. I’m surprised no one has mentioned the possibility of over-cock, here or on the other thread.

The picture is from a web site, not pics of my own. They are Extreme Engineering disconnectors in the pic. Mine looked the same until I polished. Their statement that they pre-polish is false.

This picture shows what’s unique about these disconnectors.

I did address the disconnector hole in a similar fashion when I first got the pistol, but only a small amount. I’ll probably do a little more polishing. It could very well be that a lighter disconnector is needed. The neck of the Extreme Race Disconnector will contact the walls of the hole very little due to the cutouts, leaving minimal surfaces touching the hole walls, thereby reducing friction. The cutouts also reduce weight of course. I received two of the Extreme discos yesterday so I’ll be trying one soon.