2010 Dan Wesson CCO 1911

New member of the family: 2010 Dan Wesson CCO. I've been searching for one of these for the past year. Couldn't find any 2009 anywhere. And on 9/10, a dealer emailed me. And now she's all mine.

Springfield Loaded Ultra Compact 1911 - Round 2

So an update to this little pistol. Just worked in the slide and frame with some JB Bore, so that should help in with the break in period. I ran a box of Remington 45's down range and everything works just fine. No problems.

Out of the box, the stock barrel could only feed ball ammo, and wouldn't even take any defense JHP ammo. Even after the 50 rounds, it still felt like it was new and the JHP's barely budged from the mag, and would just hang up on the ramp.

So I gave it a little polishing, similar to what I had done for the Mil-Spec's barrel and frame. I just used some 600 grit sand papers on the ramp, and ran it north-south on the ramp to take away the grove lines that ran east-west. The end result is a mirror finish.

Out of the box barrel ramp, after the range, 50 rounds of Remington ball ammo:

Out of the box barrel ramp, after wiping off the gun powder and grit:

Polished, 600 grit sandpaper. Don't mind the slight markings on there, it was from my fingernail checking the smoothness of the surface:

Now it will feed JHP's without hanging up on the ramp.

Next will be heading to the range for some more ball ammo, and try out some Hydra Shok JHP's.

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Springfield Loaded Ultra Compact 1911

The fever for 1911's is getting worse. So I gave in and added this to the collection...it's a mini-me to the full-size 5-in barrel.

New Springfield Loaded Ultra Compact Stainless Steel:

From the factory, the slide and frame fit is tighter in tolerance when compared to the Mil-Spec. I really like the Trijicon night sights.

Parts already on order:

1. 10-8 flat trigger
2. Ed Brown rebuild kit with 19# mainspring
3. JB Bore compound to lap in the slide and frame to help with the break-in period.

Now I need to get a holster for it. It's going to be a hard decision since I really like the stainless on there and I don't know if I want to go with a Raven Phantom Kydex holster. Another thing is that Raven doesn't have a Phatom that will house a 3.5-in barrel. Might have to buy a Commander size Phantom and cut it down to fit the shorter barrel. The alternative would to spend the money on a Milt Sparks leather holster. Both will take some time for it to come in.

I will also be spending some time on hand fitting the beaver tail to the frame. Currently, it doesn't flush up to the bottom of the tang, and shows a good amount of extra materials on the beavertail. And will also be filling down both left and right thumb safeties to give a narrower profile.

Will take it to the range and post up a report.

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Springfield Mil-Spec Full Size 1911 : Round 2 & 3's : Range Report

After round 2 and 3's modifications, I took the Mil-Spec to the range this afternoon, and I'm COMPLETELY HAPPY!!!

Round 2's recap:

1. new flat trigger.
2. new ambi-safety
3. new lighter mainspring
4. new flat mainspring housing
5. new barrel bushing
6. trigger and sear work

Round 3's recap: polished feed ramp

All of these combinations make for a new found pistol. The flat trigger and sear worked paid off wonderfully. The pull is quick without any creep, and the break is clean! New, lighter, mainspring and tighter barrel bushing helped and kept the grouping tighter. And the new flat mainspring housing also helped my grip and I got back on target quicker.

I also tried a new grip method, which came from Magpul Dynamic's Handgun DVD - Disc 1. Both arms were kept locked straight, and I used equal amount of pressure from both hands.

So now there are another 105 rounds thru the Mil-Spec. One hundred of them are ball ammo from Remington's UMC ammo stash; 230g bullets. And the other five rounds were from Federal's Hydra-Shok JHP collection; 165g bullets. The polished feed ramp is just AWESOME! Every round feed without any objection. And every rounds fired and ejected perfectly.

Next round of mods:

• bobtail stock mil-spec hammer
• reshape stock mil-spec grip safety

Consideration of doing a bobtail mainspring housing from Ed Brown. We'll see how I feel about this later.

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Raven Concealment Systems Holster

I saw this holster in Magpul Dynamics Handgun video and was intrigue as to what kind of holster the instructors were running. After hearing Christ Costa mentioned it was a Raven holster – www.ravenconcealment.com – I was on the internet looking up some information, and seeing what the company's all about.

After some initial searching and reading, I found out the company is a local company, based out of Elyria Ohio. That's great! And their products seems to have really great reviews by everyone who has their holster. The plus is that they are better liked than some of the more high-end leather holsters.

Picture compliment from RCS's store front The Malabar Front

Since summer is approaching so I'm thinking of getting a thinner holster for my Glock 26, which I carry daily. This should help to reduce the printing signature. The positive retention and belt holders should also help with the pistol to stay put.

The cool thing about this holster is that it can be either a IWB (in the waist ban) or OWB (out of the waist ban) holster. It's just a matter of just changing the adapters on the rivet areas. It comes standard with a couple of loops for a OWB option. I've ordered some additional hardware and will try to fabricate my own hooks/attachments and set it up as an IWB holster.

I can't wait to get this new holster and try it out! The only downside... Raven is backed up on their orders, and it won't have something to ship within the next 60 days! Oh well, order placed and will have to wait.

Will give a in depth review when the holster arrived.

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Springfield Mil-Spec Full Size 1911 : Round 3

So I bought some defense JHP for this pistol; Federal Hydra-Shok .45ACP 185g. I loaded up all three mags and cycled them through the pistol. On each one of the mag, the first round never chambered correctly. They would all get stuck, midway, up the ramp, on the frame. However, each rounds after would chambered correctly. Prior to this, the 1911 have only saw 75 rounds of standard ball ammo; Remington UMC .45ACP 230g.

Here are some pictures of the frame's feed ramp after the range:

After cleaning the ramp of any residue, you can see the horizontal machining marks. These doesn't help with ammo feed, especially JHP.

Here are some pictures of the ramp free of any copper residue.

I decided to take some 300 grit sandpaper and hit the ramp in a vertical direction (moving from north to south direction of the pistol) to remove the horizontal machine markings. I was careful not to alter the angle of the ramp. I went lightly and try to just remove the scratches. After the majority of the marks are gone, I follow up with some polishing with 600 grit sandpaper.

After 40 minutes of polishing the end results:

I'm extremely happy with the result. I can see reflections off the ramp. It's amazing. Glass smooth feel.

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Springfield Mil-Spec Full Size 1911 : Round 2

Thanks to a friend of mine, we did some mods to the stock Springfield Mil-Spec 1911. The pistol only had roughly 75 rounds through it, thus far. But I wanted a few things changed. Early last week, parts were ordered and arrived. Saturday was gun mod day :-D.

Parts ordered:

1. Flat trigger by 10-8
2. Stainless steel rebuild kit by Ed Brown
3. Drop-in barrel bushing by Ed Brown
4. Stainless steel ambi thumb safety by Kimber

Before any work was done:

After many hours of filing:

The pistol was completely stripped down and was given a once over. Mods were done to the following parts/area:

1. Tuned sear and hammer. Now it has a solid lock and crisp break on the trigger.
2. Tuned trigger and trigger tunnel and eliminated the sloppy play of the trigger in the frame.
3. Switched to a flat mainspring housing. Along with this, we replaced it with a lighter 19# mainspring. Also removed the Integral Locking System (aka ILS).
4. Polished the stainless steel ambi thumb safety to match the finish of the slide and frame.
5. Flushed the slide lock pin to the frame.
6. Cut one coil from the plunger spring to reduce thumb safety pressure.

Already the pistol feels so much better. The new bushing took a lot of play out of the barrel and frame contact area. This should help with tighter grouping. And the trigger pull is now tuned to a 4# pull. And the flat mainspring housing has improve my grip and aim to quickly be on target.

I can't wait to take this puppy out to the range and see the difference. Will post my range finding.

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Magpul Dynamics - The Art of Dynamic Handgun DVD set

The DVD set arrived yesterday afternoon. And last night, I watched about 1 hour 45 minutes of the first DVD. This is one intense video. Magpul does such a great job of breaking down every motions and mechanics of how one should handle their pistol. Everything from admin reload to tactical reload to pushing out the pistol at a target. Check out the Magpul promo video.

I thought I knew how to grip my pistol, and have been playing around with my grips. But after watching the first DVD, I've learned a new way. Will have to test out this grip at the range.
I can't wait to get into the remaining DVD's! I'll report back.

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Springfield Mil-Spec Full Size 1911

I finally bought my first 1911 pistol. Now I know why it is one of the best pistol ever designed my John Browning. I went with a Springfield Mil-Spec stainless, full size 1911.

It feels great! And took it out to the range to break it in. The grouping was decent for being fresh-out-of-the-box. Before the range, I didn't even field strip it. Just loaded the mags with some Remington UMC ammos and away they went.

After shooting the pistol, I know what I want to mod on it. So we're going to start with these mods:

1. The stock short, curved trigger didn't do the job. So I'm going with a new flat trigger. This will give me an even trigger pull at ever part of the trigger, no matter where my finger sits.
2. The thumb safety will be replace with an ambi safety. What can I say, I'm a lefty.
3. New 19# mainspring.

Future plans:

1. Novak rear sight.
2. Dovetail front sigh.
3. Complete polish of slide and frame to remove the matte areas.
4. Commander hammer. Will have to mod the stock grip safety to accommodate the new hammer, because I don't want a beaver tail safety.

Will post pictures of before and after soon.

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The Crazies

The Crazies opened this weekend, and I went on Saturday to see it.

Don't worry, I won't spoil it for those that haven't seen it.

The movie takes place in a rural area that's pretty isolate. Small town life is such an easy going, nothing to worry, everyone knows everyone else, type of atmosphere that I can see myself living, later in life.

The Sheriff walks around with just a pistol, back up mag, and some hand cuffs. In town, he knows everyone by their first name. If he was in metropolitan city, he would look like he is a private security contractor for a major corporation. And he would only know most of the workers by their first name.

The movie quickly leads into the plot and quickly shit starts to hit the fan, and most of the town is transformed into a living nightmare. The government realizes they must contain the incident, immediately. And the whole town goes under Marshall Law. The army moves in and rounds up all residents and place them in a field hospital or M.A.S.H.

The army goes house-to-house and search for stragglers. Anyone caught running or don't comply are shot on the spot! All I have to say is, thank god we have the Second Amendment! There were a few that were armed, and they were able to escape for their freedom.

The Sheriff goes back to his headquarter and find nothing. All of the department's equipments were looted by the army. But he was able to find a revolver that was hidden in his desk. And the story continues on with him trying to save the day with his 6-shooter.

My take away from this movie: Stock up on guns, ammo, and equipments that could save your and your family's lives! And don't store it all in one spot where if someone else found them, you're going to be shit-out-of-luck! And body armor might be a good investment.

hummmm...time to shop for more stuff.

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