Dan Wesson 1911 National Match Barrel Bushing + other parts

[Whoops!]

Hi all, the CZ USA webstore has the bushings in both carbon and stainless steel on sale for only 5 bucks. I picked one up for my Para P16-40. It fits substantially tighter than the stock bushing. I had to work hard to twist it into place on the factory barrel and slide. That being said, no fitting was required. POI did not change by any noticeable amount at 25 yards. Unfortunately, I have not done any formal accuracy testing, but the tighter fit is enough to convince me it's better. Highly recommended.

While at it, I purchased a few other parts for the Para as well. The Ed Brown hardcore firing pin stop is nice. The fit in most areas is not quite as tight as I'd hoped, but it does require fitment to work on one of the surfaces. The bottom left side when viewed from the back had to be filed down for ejector clearance. That being said, now that I have a nice tight fit in that area the slide is not able to move as far from left to right, so there was an added benefit of tightening my slide to frame fitment by a small amount. This is a big plus for my OCD at only 20 bucks and some elbow grease.

The Wilson Combat bullet proof firing pin is a nice, heavy firing pin that is longer than stock, but not quite as long as the extended competition firing pins. I would say it cuts the difference evenly between the two. Now, it is easy to see the end by looking at the breachface, but it does not go all the way to the front of the breach face. It seems to help with hard primers and light mainsprings. One thing that definitely helped with hard primers was removing the series 80 firing pin stop, believe it or not.

The Ed Brown .40/10mm extractor must be set for tension, as must most other 1911 extractors, unfortunately, besides that it seems to work as ok as any other. I'm not a fan of the 1911 extractor design. Aftec is much better, but still leaves something to be desired in my opinion. Someone please design a better extractor for these things. Perhaps if I had the luxury of spring steel for .40 and 9mm I might see it differently, but as of now the extractor is definitely the weakest point in the design.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Whoops!

[Biloxi23]

Yeah, JMB really screwed up when he designed the extractor a hundred years ago. I have a couple of guns with tens of thousands of rounds through them and the stock extractor has never been out. But then again, JMB designed this extractor for .45 ACP. I also have two competition type guns that were built with AFTEC extractors, but the stock ones are not that difficult to tune.

[Whoops!]

JMB designed a spring steel extractor which as of now is only available from C&S for .45. Maybe if i had the luxury of spring steel it would work better. As of now, the stock Para extractor broke its hook after about 3k rounds. As do many other similar extractors. Even SVI extractors are notorious for breaking after several thousand rounds.

On top of that, none of the "bulletproof" or "hardcore" extractors are specifically designed for .40, they jump the gap from .45 to 9 and expect you to tune specifically for .40. In that regard and in my experience, the appropriate tuning window for proper, 100% operation is very small.

Someone please design a better extractor for these things.

Edited November 23, 2013 by Whoops!