Production gun with 1911's ease of detail strip?

[leam]

Currently using a SIG P320, and I like to detail strip and clean fairly often. I really like the feel of the SIG in my hands, but hate that the fire control unit detail strip process is difficult for gunsmiths much better than I. Is there a Production gun that's as easy to detail-strip as the 1911?

[PatJones]

SIG P226

[Jim Watson]

I did not find a P226 to be easy to completely disassemble, but I have only done it twice.

 

Actually, a Glock.  No doubt some study and practice are required, but I have seen Glocksters take them all to bits in very short order.

[ddc]

I'm far from a gunsmith however I don't find detail stripping a 320 to be particularly challenging.

If you have a gunsmith that is having trouble I find that somewhat amusing.

[leam]

1 hour ago, ddc said:

I'm far from a gunsmith however I don't find detail stripping a 320 to be particularly challenging.

If you have a gunsmith that is having trouble I find that somewhat amusing.

Do you tear the FCU down to its components? If so, do you have a video I can learn from? Bruce Gray even said it was difficult, and I hear he's pretty good.

[R.Elliott]

It only takes a minute or two to break a 320 down to the small bits. Maybe twice that to put it all back together.  It's not really a big deal. 

[RedlandsShooter]

+1 for the Glock and lots of tutorials online.

[leam]

1 hour ago, R.Elliott said:

It only takes a minute or two to break a 320 down to the small bits. Maybe twice that to put it all back together.  It's not really a big deal. 

Maybe I'm confused, it has happened before. On the fire control unit , are you talking about taking it *out*, or taking it completely apart down to the component springs, etc?

[R.Elliott]

Taking it out AND then taking it completely apart.  I took it apart the first time to swap out the trigger guts for the Grayguns kit and felt pretty unsure of myself at first. However, there's a ton of videos on YouTube on how to take it all down and put it back together. Coming from a 19/2011 world it looked more complicated at first, but it really isn't.  Once you do it a few times you can almost do it with your eyes closed.  

Edited March 7, 2021 by R.Elliott

[leam]

6 minutes ago, R.Elliott said:

Taking it out AND then taking it completely apart.  I took it apart the first time to swap out the trigger huts for the Grayguns kit and felt pretty unsure of myself at first. However, there's a ton of videos on YouTube on how to take it all down and put it back together. Coming from a 19/2011 world it looked more complicated at first, but it really isn't.  Once you do it a few times you can almost do it with your eyes closed.  

Cool, thanks! I have a match this weekend, and I'll try to break it down afterwards. That gives me some time to figure it out. 

 

 

[leam]

1 hour ago, RedlandsShooter said:

+1 for the Glock and lots of tutorials online.

I love the Glock ecosystem. For a long time I couldn't make one fit my hand; the finger grooves weren't made for someone who's broken finger healed crooked. 

 

We'll see if R.Elliott is correct. If the FCU can be broken down and put back together, with practice, I may lose my argument with myself.

[RedlandsShooter]

Hade you considered having the grooves removed?  If you like everything else about the Glock it might be worth considering.  

[leam]

3 minutes ago, RedlandsShooter said:

Hade you considered having the grooves removed?  If you like everything else about the Glock it might be worth considering.  

Well, to be honest it never crossed my mind.

[Intheshaw1]

I went gen 5 for no grooves and plan to grind them off my gen 4 and do a silicon carbide grip.

 

The glock ecosystem is really hard to leave once you're sucked in.

[ddc]

2 hours ago, leam said:

Cool, thanks! I have a match this weekend, and I'll try to break it down afterwards. That gives me some time to figure it out. 

 

 

 

Check out "The Sig Guy" on Youtube. 

Here is one of his 320 videos on disassembly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYfv9XsUYGQ

He has an assembly video also plus numerous others.

 

Suggestion: Get a pick with a 90 degree angle. It will help with removing/reinstalling the takedown safety lever.

Also: The most challenging aspect is reassembling the sear, sear springs, and associated components back into the sear block.

The first couple of times it does take a while.

It is more involved than a 1911 but if I can do it so can you.

Edited March 7, 2021 by ddc

[HCH]

Glock

[SGT_Schultz]

4 hours ago, leam said:

We'll see if R.Elliott is correct.

 

He IS correct.  He has no trouble doing it.

 

Whether you find it easy or not doesn't change the fact that for him it IS easy.

[davsco]

glocks are VERY easy to take all the way down, and put back together.  helped my BIL take down sig 320x5 and legion and man was that complicated.

[happygunner77]

Tanfoglio stock 2 is very easy to clean and strip. 

[Joe4d]

why ? seems most modern gun malfuntions are caused by folks messing with stuff they shouldnt.
Reminds me of my 24ID armorer days,,,, Doofus's would pull pins from their M-16's to get them squeaky clean. Only to have the frame reamed out and see the pins walk out while shooting

LEAVE IT ALONE,,,, field strip,,, clean what you can see, shoot some gun scrubber on what you cant and go shoot.

[MHicks]

I recently took a CZ Tactical Sport to a gunsmith who shoots with us and worked on this gun for the previous owner. He had me wait with him while he replaced the thumb safety. He said sometimes you can do it without much problem and without breaking the gun down past a certain point. Sometimes you can't.  After watching him I was glad I didn't try myself. 

[twodownzero]

Before the last few years, the most popular production guns were the plastic ones, all of which are much easier to detail strip than any 1911 (S&W, Glock, Springfield Armory).

[B_RAD]

The Glock has to the the easiest gun to dissemble. 
 

Like I’m confused by this thread because of how easy it is. 
 

The 1911 is easy?  It’s not super difficult but there are so many guns that are so much easier to take down. 
 

 

[Sarge]

5 minutes ago, B_RAD said:

The Glock has to the the easiest gun to dissemble. 
 

Like I’m confused by this thread because of how easy it is. 
 

The 1911 is easy?  It’s not super difficult but there are so many guns that are so much easier to take down. 
 

 

Yep. 1911’s are Glock easy until you get to the bottom half.

[ClangClang]

Glock is by far the easiest to physically take down and reassemble. What's a little harder for me to visualize in my head is the relationship of all the angles on the cruciform, sear, etc. But no doubt that's also because I don't shoot Glocks competitively (just a G43 for CCW) so haven't spent any real time playing with the innards and tuning it.

 

CZs (especially decocker models) are probably the hardest to detail strip and reassemble that I'm aware of, but I'm also the most confident polishing and tuning them (thanks in no small part to @kneelingatlas's excellent guides). Then again, that's also due to familiarity after shooting CZs for ~7 years in matches and spending plenty of time fiddling with them.

P320 is somewhere in the middle. Reassembling the FCU is certainly doable with 2 hands, whereas a CZ decocker sear cage really makes me wish I had 3 hands. Or even 4.

I don't have much time with 1911s, but have detail stripped an old USGI 1911 and didn't find anything particularly challenging when following some random youtube video I found. Easily doable with these 2 regular hands.