want2race

If they do ever stick, dremel the inside of the indention's. It just needs to be smoothed out at the bottom so the follower will slide up and over the bottom of the "ribs" easier. This is more for SVI tubes, but I've had to do it on a couple STI tubes as well.

Made yet another change. Since this has a short recoil system (short plug) I had to chop down an 18# recoil spring. It's nearly half the original length. It had functioned just fine thus far but since the recoil spring was so short there was very little spring preload when the slide was fully locked into battery. In other words, the recoil spring wasn't compressed much with the slide closed. This worried me a bit, if it were to get dirty I feared that the slide may stop just shy of fully closed causing a stoppage. The spring couldn't be any longer due to spring bind. I couldn't use any other spring but an 18 because the 18 has the widest coil spacing (least number of total coils per given length). The cure? A Glock flat wire spring. EGW sells such a kit (flat wire spring, .250" diameter guide rod and matched plug) but I'm too cheap to shell out the $50 for it. I took apart an old Glock guide rod/spring assembly from my old Glock 35. I had previously cut 5 coils off the 16# spring. The outer diameter was just .020 smaller than the 1911 spring. I used an EGW solid guide rod, thinned it down to .235" (spring ID = .245") on the drill press and cut it to a commander length. Compared to the 18# spring I took out of it, the cut Glock spring was still 1 inch longer. The fully compressed length of the flat wire spring is 25% less (or more) than the fully compressed round wire spring. Installed it and it feels perfect. It feels just like a full length recoil system, good tension keeping the slide closed, smooth action while cycling the slide. No spring bind. The only downside is that you can see the flat wire a bit in the open ended reverse plug. There is plenty of shoulder to hold the spring in though, it's merely a cosmetic thing. I may make a .010" sleeve to put inside the reverse plug to keep the spring completely centered for better visual appeal but for now it's fine. There you have it. I took the only good part of a Glock and installed into a 2011.

I buy Old Forester by the 1.75L. It disappears pretty quick.

Kodak Z712 IS. Does pretty good for a point and click.

Some grips are heavier than others too. The G10 stuff is pretty heavy. Of course that could be remedied with a drill press by dimpling the back side to remove some material. I would only do that if your REALLY close on weight. Steel mainspring housing are really heavy compared to aluminum and plastic too.

I have a Caspian (fosters) frame gun. I removed some metal under the grip panel areas since Caspian leaves enough to make it an officers frame. With a flat top slide, double cut cocking serrations, plastic MS housing, aluminum mag well AND empty mag it weighs 39.3oz. That's with a full length steel guide rod. I'm thinking about dropping in a GI type to get the nose a bit lighter. Did that on my carry gun and 6inch gun already. It's interesting that in Limited it's all about light weight, yet in single stack it seems to be the opposite.

I did a bit more finishing on the slide to smooth out some of the original machine marks and also clean up some of the lines. Blasted and Manganese Phosphate parkerized. The barrel now has 3 flats to reduce weight. 3/16th's parallel round file and a couple of 10 inch hand files (and a LOT of measuring and eye-balling). Barrel lock up is even tighter since I parkarized it. The gun is still shiny because it's wet with oil still. I leave them wet after the park job for about a week. This is the magazine I shortened to fit flush. Was a 138mm SVI tube. Cut and reformed the lips. Holds 15. I had the A-grip on my G34. I liked it. Wanted to try it for a carry gun. No more rough checkering on my skin when I carry IWB. I bought a Rock Jr. bench rest and a nice leather bag. I'm hitting the range on friday to shoot it at 25 yards. I'm not worried. Also shown is the "cheap Woodford" bourbon. Old Forester, same taste, costs less. I felt this was appropriate for this project.

Anyone else find Merlin's avatar disturbing? Disturbing because I want to see the rest of it.

I've always like Spade. Just went up a notch.

...uh.. according the the Sig website your 229 has a 3.9 inch barrel. It's physically bigger than a G23/G19. I don't how you get sub compact jokes, it's barely a compact. In fact, it's nearly as big as the M9, in military form it's known as the M11. Or do you have a SIG 230?

I shoot what I carry. Granted, I built it to be "rule compliant", but I built it to carry first. Commander slide, short railed officer size frame STI.

That's a pretty mean looking airsoft crew!

$35 files vs. $2500 mill. I say 2.5G's because any mill worth buying is at least that much. Which is why I have files. It takes less time to use a mill (except for some set up times), however some jobs are still better done with a file. No matter how good the machine, you still need the skill of a file on pistols. That and good dremel skillz too.

I wish I could watch as you are building mine now. It would be cool to see how it's done. Now THAT sounds like a familiar scenario. I looked into going, even had my boss on board to send me. Then I assembled the required tool list, added the class cost, air travel, rental car AND getting paid by the hour to attend it added up to about $5K. Not surprisingly, it never happened.

Yeah, but that buttstock sucks! Hard to shoot well with it. I like the short barrel and standard buttstock. MK46. The light version of the M249 except it's belt feed only, no mag back up. I'd rather have someone finance my dream gun by giving me the money and letting me develop it.

I've seen this recently: The back of the firing pin had a small lip on it (peening from hammer hitting it). It would not come back out and stick out through the hole. There is a small bevel (supposed to be) on the inside of the FP stop. The firing pin burr was catching and not letting the firing pin come back through the hole after the hammer hit it. I deburred the end of the firing pin and that fixed it. Tap, rack would sometimes work, sometimes not. Just one more thing you can look at. This is possible, especially since you've tested it at home and all seems well. That means the FP stop is located properly and the FP is coming back through the hole....now.

Alas, I won't be there either. It's EASTER weekend.

What main spring are you running? Should be a 15 or 17lb spring. You can change the profile of the firing pin stop as well.

...and lucky I didn't show up. (How's that for a call out?)

Now THAT's what I'm talking about! Personally, I would have whacked the rear sight off too, but I can understand leaving it on. Very good.

(puts on inner belt) Man that makes want to practice! Very cool.

I do like Subi's. I used to AutoX a little. Very fun.

Yep, I've seen (and read about) those too. I've actually been able to handle those. Three position switch. Off/Auto/On. Very bright when "on". Still only a 5moa dot though.

I'm not going to 'remind' you about the search function... However, I was just doing quite a bit of research into these for an open gun project. The Docter is expensive and most have them 'doctered' for reliablilty. JP, you know about that one. The Trijicon is a worked over JP, but with a lifetime warranty. Some reviews claim fuzzy dot on both JP and Trijicon. The Burris is the new kid on the block and would sell twice as many if they would offer an 8moa dot. Reviewers found the dot clear and bright in all conditions, like the on/off switch, bullseye shooters like the small dot, speed shooters don't. The Burris can be found for $165. In the end, I ended up going with an Aimpoint. All research led the way of the tube.

All you need is a hacksaw.