BadDay

How do the barrels compare in weight and action? I see the new mk23 has a cam groove, and appears thinner than the mk12.

Like many, Springfield Armory caught my interest when they announced the Prodigy 1911 DS. When I would make a list in my mind of everything an ideal home and carry gun would have, I kept coming back time and again to a Wilson EDC9 or a Staccato C2. Of course, they would put me squarely in the "mortgage down payment" territory, and that would be too hard a pill to swallow. Even the most inattentive spouse would notice the equivalent of a used Corolla's worth of cash missing from the college fund. Then comes the Prodigy, checking all those same boxes: double stack, railed, optics ready, ~4" bull barrel, classic components that allow for unlimited tinkering. A few weeks stalking Gunbroker, and I find a deal worth the squeeze, and come to own this highly controversial unicorn. By then, word of reliability and function issues had spread far and wide, as if Springfield fell victim to election season oppo research. So I knew there would need to be changes made to get this Toyota Camry of 2011's into fighting shape. To that end, I ordered 3 components that I estimated would solve the lion's share of cycling issues that folks have been reporting: - Brazos Custom Tuned Trigger Group: - This was the heart of what I wanted to try. A pre-fit and stoned, matched set of sear and hammer with pre-bent spring. I have some faith I could stone my own sear and hammer with the right jig, but the idea of a trigger-job in a bag was enticing, especially when it would take the factors of my own failure out of the equation. There were paltry reviews on this kit, so I hope this serves as a more comprehensive rundown for prospective buyers. - EGW Ball head long disconnector - Some have reported that Prodigy slide hanging on the factory disconnector has caused issues, and it made sense to swap out the OEM for something else. Buying a $175 trigger kit to just leave a MIM factory disco in the gun would have felt like buying three new tires and leaving a donut. Luckily, Brazos had some EGW's in stock. I could argue a $200 package could include a new disco, but I'm a notoriously unsuccessful businessman, so take that with a grain of salt. - Fusion flat K-hole 2011 trigger - I like flat triggers. This was the cheapest one in stock at the time. Needed more fitting than I thought, though! (more on this below). - Additionally, I added an EGW Block slide stop in 9mm size. The Prodigy's slide stop is recessed into the frame, which is neat in theory, but a massive pain to engage with my gnome thumbs. The EGW needed fitting, as the post was a few microns too think to let the barrel move freely. Some elbow grease and escalating grit sandpaper (600-5000) fixed that in 25 minutes or so. The Prodigy's stock, out-of-the-box, trigger was an okay, consistent 5#, slightly creepy, but decently crisp. For a factory pull, it was fine, but the short travel on a 1911 trigger meant that heavier pulls tend to throw me off target a tad. I compete with a Shadow, which forgives all sins. John Moses Browning was less gracious. FITTING THE PARTS: The Prodigy came apart fairly easily. In fairness, this was my first >$1000 1911, so maybe that's to be expected. I've had RIA's and Tisas in the past that weren't necessarily tightly fit, just clumsily put together and stuck in place, which I think is the difference. The fit and finish on my Prodigy was excellent, and I didn't feel the usual buyer's remorse once I finally got it in my hands. I'm personally very sensitive to cut-corners, and I didn't find too many with the Prodigy, except ONE: The grip screws on my model and made of some Chinese pot metal dug from a weakness bog in a county of losers. One unscrewed easily, but the right hand side hex screw stripped almost instantly, then immediately bound in the threads. Now, it's possible I'm an idiot, but I do know how to unscrew stuff, even if it's expensive. So I tried the rubber band trick, then the oversized bit trick, then I cut a screw driver slot into it, then I made that cut a phillips head, then I resorted to a screw extractor (which snapped), then I tried the ol' JB Weld trick with added WD40 from the other side to unbind the threads. Absolutely none of that budged the screw. Like Arthur's sword, it was in that thing for eons. The only thing that FINALLY worked was getting the exact right star bit, hammering it deep into the soft metal slot, and unscrewing with all the strength that's left in my rotator cuff. The screw is destroyed, the grip is marred, it has no resale value, so this gun is mine until the sun burns out. Springfield customer service over the phone was actually nice enough to send a replacement set, so at least it won't look like street trash from a distance. I just tell myself guns are a tool, and I wouldn't cry about a scratch on my impact driver, but there's no getting around this ugly gouge in the polymer. THE IGNITION COMPONENTS: The Brazos bits all fit immediately. Zero fitting necessary, and they were pre-polished as advertised. The EQW disco fell right in as well, though I did polish it, removing some of the blue, but getting it properly slick. Everything was heated and treated with Frog Lube, which I have had outstanding success with in the past. I will remain on my "Frog Lube works if you read the f*#king directions" soap box until I die. Honestly, I can't say very much about fitting the Brazos kit, because it was entirely uneventful. They literally dropped in, interfaced with the factory pins just fine, and moved freely when lubed. Being boring here is good. The only fitting I needed to do was file the factory thumb safety to clear the new sear, but that's super common, and I've had to do that with all my 1911's. It took 5 minutes with a file, and when fit back in, the safety was still tight and clicked with authority. I have no reservations about using it under stress. The Fusion trigger needed some cutting, as the overtravel screw didn't allow the bow to move far enough back to hit the disco. Even when backed all the way out, I still needed a millimeter or two of clearance space. I read in some buried forum thread that others have experienced this, and that the fusion bow is a tad short. No problem a Dremel cutter shaving off the last two threads of the screw didn't instantly fix, though. Once the safety was filed and trigger screw cut, everything fit back together easily, and I began function testing, seeing where the sharp edges I might have missed would show up. To my surprise: nowhere. The Brazos kit worked flawlessly once everything else was adjusted. Once the trigger could clear, and the safety could disengage, the Prodigy ran like a Swiss clock. The trigger pull obviously dropped massively, but stayed crisp, and the minimal creep was entirely gone. I cannot move my finger a short enough distance to actually feel how much the sear engages the hammer. There might technically be "creep," but I cannot physically perceive it. As you can see, the pull weight dropped to 1.75#. This is what I call psychic range, where I just have to think, and the hammer drops. Overall, I couldn't be happier with the Brazos kit. It's possible I could have achieved a similar result by installing a Lite Speed or Warp Speed kit from Extreme Engineering, but there's no guarantee, and I simply don't have the tools and experience to fit parts like Brazos clearly can. There's also the Nighthawk drop-in trigger, but I don't think I'd be comfortable modifying it to get to where I want to be, not to mention the high cost to play. The Brazos Tuned Trigger Group kit get a resounding recommendation from me. WARNING: One note about the Springfield Prodigy when mounting an optic: Be careful of the length of your screw and how much loctite you use. In mounting my Holosun 407k, I ended up leaking blue loctite through into the extractor channel, and bleeding it on to the barrel.

Aaaand I just discovered the Insert function. Should display properly now.

Below is a short write-up on a test I performed with the DPM recoil reduction system in my CZ P10-F. Background: I am always looking for ways to better control my firearms, doubly so with any polymer framed guns where the weight advantage is not on my side. While good form and strong grip are paramount, recoil and muzzle flip are disturbances in my sight picture that must be mitigated, and any advantage is an advantage. Enter the DPM recoil reduction system; simply, it's a triple-spring guide rod replacement that is meant to counter the inertia of the firearm's slide moving rearward after ignition by spreading out the resistance over three progressively stiffer springs. Other similar systems have existed for some time (sprinco, et al), but DPM is popular and supports a massive variety of platforms, which is why I chose to test it. There are plenty of youtube and forum reviews offering subjective opinions on 'feel' and 'change in impulse,' but little in the way of measurement of factors I am interested in, specifically recovery time and muzzle flip angle. As I come into this from a competition frame of mind, I want to know what objective, measurable difference,* if any,* the system provides. The setup: a modified P10-F (see my other post) firing 147g LAX ammo at ~135pf and measured with a MantisX 10. One string of 10 rounds with each of the following: - Stock guide rod, stock spring - DPM guide rod, short (lightest) spring - DPM guide rod, medium spring - DPM guide rod, long (heaviest) spring Results: Stock Light Medium Heavy Analysis: As you can see, the difference between stock and the lightest spring setup is evident but minimal, with significant movement in both. Notably, the lightest DPM spring did average out to a reduced recovery time. One primary functional difference between them is that even the lightest DPM spring is significantly harder to rack than stock. Even though the DPM feels much stiffer, I did not see significantly increased nose-diving. The major differences came with the medium and long DPM springs. The average recovery time for both was 0.3 seconds, a marked improvement from stock! Also, the muzzle movement plot for both is significantly tamed from the erratic movement of the lighter springs. This was obvious while shooting, as the dot was very constrained and easy to track throughout the slide's movement. Barring an outlier shot, the heavy spring resulted in muzzle movement of a small concentric circle around the target before settling, and readjustment between shots was extremely minimal. The recoil angle and muzzle rise were also categorically reduced from stock and lighter springs, and resulted in a very tight, repeatable pattern. In the end, for my purposes, I decided on the use of the medium spring, even though the heavy spring objectively resulted in the greatest reduction of muzzle flip and recovery time. Why? Because by the graphs above, you can see the medium spring resulted in the majority of muzzle travel above the level X line, whereas the heavy spring produced much of its movement below; this is obvious nose-diving caused by the heavy spring weight, and not a type of sight picture disturbance I am as practiced with countering. I much preferred recovering from the majority-upward motion of the medium spring, as it was closer to the way my conventional spring setups behave.

Results! I've wanted a p10F for some time, but what's stopped me from committing is that I've been spoiled by the trigger on my Shadow 2. I've never encountered a polymer striker fire trigger that I particularly loved. I once had a G34 that, once heavily modded, was pretty acceptable and mostly stayed out of my way, but I ended up letting the glock go very quickly, and haven't ventured back into plastic since. Enter the p10 series: I love my CZ's. I carry a p-01, and compete with a shadow 2, and besides the ergonomics, what I loved about the CZ's is how much I could tinker with them. Obviously not as far as the glock and 1911's I'd built, but there was enough aftermarket support that I thought I might be able to get the trigger where I wanted it. When looking at p10 trigger upgrades, I found 3 very interesting options for lightenting and smoothing it out: HBI: they accomplish a lighter pull with lighter springs and a new shoe Overwatch precision: they accomplish a lighter pull with a new striker with an NP3 coating and new geometry Apex Tactical: they accomplish a lighter pull with a new disconnector and backplate (as well as a difficult to find lighter disco spring). What I noticed was that all three options were not mutually exclusive, and I wondered what the result would be if combined into the same gun. DISCLAIMER: every company advises against combining these aftermarket parts and do not guarantee their proper function. I am not advising anyone to try this So, I ordered all the requisite parts and began putting them in incrementally, taking an average of 10 trigger pull weights. The results were as follows: Stock trigger: 5lb 8oz HBI Red Spring with OP striker: 4lb 4oz OP striker, HBI red spring, OP trigger, Apex disco & backplate: 2lb 12oz I also heavily polished the trigger bar and striker block. I would say that 80% of the grit in the initial trigger pull was due to the rough coating on the trigger bar scraping against the striker block. Once I polished to the point of removing the black coating (careful not to effect the geometry), the pull smoothed dramatically. I would describe the result as a very light pull with a soft wall and very short travel and reset. It stays out of my way when firing, which is all I wanted from a trigger. It's not as light as the shadow, but for a polymer SF trigger, I'm very pleased. So far, no light strikes on a mix of factory ammo. I'll be taking intermittent measurements as I get towards 1000 rounds to see how the gun settles in. I am also on the hunt for alternative trigger return springs. I have seen mention of custom options on some forum, but the search continues.

I've been a big fan of the decibullz moldable in-ear plugs, with 2 caveats: First, definitely go with the foam tips. The silicon mess with my ears, and were useless for an indoor range. Second: When assembled, the center of the plugs is just a hollow plastic channel. The only thing separating my eardrum from the boom is the thin rubber cap on the outside. What I did was slice up a disposable howard leight plug (NRR 32 greenies), roll it between my fingers, then dot the end with superglue, and insert it into the channel. It expands, filling the center of the whole plug, making it a solid piece. Now they're super comfortable, and stood up to unsuppressed .556 outdoors without doubling up. If you're going to do the cutting plug thing, make sure to do it after submerging and forming the decibullz, so they aren't put underwater and retain the moisture.

I put one in my S2, and really like it. I chose it over the straight flat trigger because of the over and pre travel screws, but once everything was put together (along with some other CGW and Mcarbo upgrades) there was no over travel, and the pretravel was maybe 3mm, so the screws were unnecessary (could still move it back if you have tiny child fingers like me). The feel is really nice, and because of my grip, I can get really good leverage on the trigger for DA pull. Also the gold one is solid brass, which I placebo myself into believing makes a weight difference. The downside, which I still need to confirm with fitting, is that the geometry of the trigger didn't play nice with a CGW T5 disconnector, in that it didn't allow the trigger to break in SA once the slide was put on. I might need to fit the face on the "wing" of the disco, but the reset in SA is currently just around 3mm, so I wonder if it would even be worth it. Stock CZ disco worked great, so I just polished it up. As for getting ahold of one state side, I recommend DOT40 in FL, instead of waiting for intl shipping.