Showing posts with label Ed Brown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ed Brown. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

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.



Sunday, March 21, 2010

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.


Sunday, March 7, 2010

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.