Caspian Recon Rail Install

[wichaka]

As promised by me some time ago, I would do a thread on installing a light rail made by Caspian Arms.........so lets go.

This install is on a Springfield Loaded model, owned by M1911 member Jazor. He bought the pistol from another M1911 member, Jammer Six. Jazor brought me the gun some time ago to go thru it, to make sure everything is reliable for duty use. As well as reliability work, I also installed an Ed Brown Maxi-Well. Its the combination 2 piece style, main spring housing & mag well.

Ok, on to the rail. He was wanting to either add a rail on the Loaded or purchase a Springfield MC Operator. I've seen the MC, and looks to be a very good gun for the money. People who know me on here, know I aint easily impressed by todays 1911's.
Anyway, I mentioned this project to El Commandante and he obtained a donated rail from Caspian for this write up. So not only is Jazor getting a free rail, he's getting it installed for free as well........boy, will he owe both of us big time or what?


Here's the rail by Caspian;


http://w3.gorge.net/scshields/rail1.jpg


Its a very study piece of solid steel, looks to be machined from barstock so you'll know it'll last.

The first thing most notice are the fingers on one end. These straddle the trigger guard, and am guessing to give the rail some lateral stability.
There are 3 holes for mounting to the under side of the dust cover on the frame.
The instructions for the rail can be seen on Caspians web site. It says "For a more permanent installation welding or silver solder is recommended"
After installing the rail, I don't believe the rail will need to be welded or soldered. The rail matches the contour of the dust cover perfectly, for a excellent fit and look. Its very stable and tight to the frame, which Caspian should be commended for their attention to detail.

The first thing I did was check the fit before drilling the mounting holes. The fingers were not wide enough to straddle the trigger guard on the Loaded, yet it did fit all my Colt trigger guards. So taking out a #2 swiss.........after a few swipes it fit.


http://w3.gorge.net/scshields/rail2.jpg



Jazor's choice for a weapon light was Streamlight's M3. I put the M3 on the most forward notch on the rail to get the rail to set back on the frame as far as I could get it. I sat it on the frame to get the proper fit of the light to the trigger guard. First thing I noticed is that the rail can not be pushed up to the trigger guard very far before the end of the M3 makes contact.
So as you'll see in the following pic the M3 has about an 1/16" clearance.

http://w3.gorge.net/scshields/rail3.jpg


You'll also notice how far the rail extends past the frame and light, and how much of the fingers are straddling the trigger guard. The rail can be ground back flush with the light to make it look better. I'm guessing that Caspian makes the rail this way so you can tailor fit the rail to the light you choose.

http://w3.gorge.net/scshields/rail5.jpg


Ok, now that we know where to mount the rail, I scribed a line on the inside of the rail, where the end of the frame meets it. I took the light off put the rail back on and marked the holes for drilling.

I looked back on Caspians installation intructions and found that they show where to drill the holes. STOP RIGHT THERE! If you're going to install one of these, I would suggest doing what I did, use the light you're going to use as a guide where the rail needs to be mounted. If I used Caspians instructions, the rail would have been placed to far back against the trigger guard for the M3 to mount on the rail. Mount your light on the rail, place the rail on the frame, then make a mark as I did.

Well its getting late here now. Will continue tomorrow...........

[wichaka]

With the rail back on the frame and set where I put my mark, I marked each hole with a punch, where the screws holes would need to be drilled.


http://w3.gorge.net/scshields/rail6.jpg

Caspian recommends using a #4x60 degree bit. I advise against this, that bit size is way too big. The frame where this rail mounts is fairly thin, so I want to keep as much meat as possible. I pre-drilled using a 5/64" bit (see above pic), then finished with a 9/64" drill. This fits the provided screws perfectly.


http://w3.gorge.net/scshields/rail7.jpg


Now to the inside of the dust cover. To keep the screw heads from contacting the recoil spring, they will need to counter sunk a bit. I used a 5/16" bit for this, and it worked perfectly.

http://w3.gorge.net/scshields/rail8.jpg



Will continue this later tonight.........gotta go.

[wichaka]

Chapter 3.......

After putting some countersink on the inside of the frame for the screws, shown here;


http://w3.gorge.net/scshields/rail10.jpg


I installed the rail with the screws to see if I had the heads sunk enough.......sure enough, they look fine.

http://w3.gorge.net/scshields/rail11.jpg


But as you can see, the scews are a bit long.......so trimmed they will be.

http://w3.gorge.net/scshields/rail9.jpg


Much better.......

http://w3.gorge.net/scshields/rail12.jpg


So there you go......step by step instructions on the install. Gotta get going again, so will post pics of the gun altogether later tonight, so you can see what she looks like.

[RickB]

Not to hi-jack the thread, but what's the difference among the different add-on rails? I've seen references to "Weaver", "Picatinny", "M1913", etc. What are the pros and cons of the different rail types. I really like the looks of the slim rail sold by Dawson, which apparently will even allow a gun upon which it's installed to be put in a standard 1911 holster? Clearly, the Dawson rail is different from the Caspian; different better? Different worse? Apparently, Springfield says any add-on rail will eventually crack the frame. If that's so, why did USMC specify an add-on rail on their Kimbers, when Kimber makes an integral rail frame?

[wichaka]

I aint a rail guy, so I have no idea what the differences are.

Kimber won't crack?

Rick, I have no idea...........install rail, write thread.