New Here and Accuracy Question

[Kramer Krazy]

Just found this site, as I'm looking for some help with a "sick" 80 Series Officer's model (I also have a 70 Series Gold Cup and 80 Series Govermnet model). My Officer's model was bought used back in '91, and it has some use on it with lots of wear and scratches on the outside of the barrel (not slide). I want to use it as my main gun to keep out of the safe, but it is far too inaccurate for my tastes. At 15 yards, the gun shoots about 6" high from where I'm aiming, but it also has a tendancy to "stovepipe" the empty casings. So......

What should I do to get the accuracy back and to prevent the stove-piping?

I've been told it probably just needs and new barrel link and an extractor, but I know of no one around here to ask or do the work.

Should I find a local gunsmith or send the gun back to Colt?

Thanks.

[stumbler]

Welcome to the forum.

How is the lateral accuracy? How well does it group (even at 6" high)? When was the recoil spring replaced. A new bushing will do wonders for the grouping.

Not knowing where you live, it is kind of hard to suggest someone in your area.

Go to www.m1911.org (http://www.m1911.org/) and check the tech area. I believe that there is a topic on extractor adjustment.

(1911Tuner and Wichaka are members and both are pretty knowledgable. You can take anything they say to the bank. Let's hope they join in)

[Kramer Krazy]

How is the lateral accuracy? How well does it group (even at 6" high)? When was the recoil spring replaced. A new bushing will do wonders for the grouping.

Not knowing where you live, it is kind of hard to suggest someone in your area.

Thanks for the info. I don't ever recall doing any bench shooting with the gun, but standing, it seems to be fairly accurate, except that it is high (no left or right aiming issues - fixed, dot sights). I want to say I can do 2" groups at 15 yards, but I haven't spent much time with the gun the last couple of years due to frustrations of having to aim excessively low. I shoot it mainly at 15 yards, because anything further out, and I'm overshooting the target. I believe the gun is 100% stock, so I don't think the bushing nor spring have been replaced......I'm in the Greenville, SC area. I'd hate to send the gun back to Colt, because I have the slightest idea what kind of repair costs to expect, but I don't want a local person to screw up my gun.

[PaulX608]

The stovepiping sure sounds like an extractor issue. Extractors are quite easy to replace, and shaping and tuning them is something that you can learn with a steady slow approach and a lot of patience.

The main reason for my post, however, is to ask you about your sights. Are they both stock? The reason I ask is that I had a friend who bought a used pistol that did the same thing, and frustrated him to no end. He brought it to me and asked me to have a look. Well, a previous owner had apparently decided to replace the sights. He replaced the rear one, but the original staked front sight must have been beyond his ability to remove. So he left the new, adjustable rear on it, which was a little higher than the stock one, and sold it. I replaced the rear sight with a mil-spec job, and it shot just fine after that.

[John]

First, try bench shooting the pistol, after you get a new recoil spring in there. If you do not know how much it is used, it is a cheap, safe thing to do.

If the bench shooting shows good accuracy (even at 6" high), there is no need to do anything more than trim the rear sight a bit. What sort of rear sight it has? Maybe someone has changed that in the past with something taller?

My 2 Eurocents only.

[1911Tuner]

Yew rang? :cool:

Howdy KK...and welcome aboard.

First, lemme make a couple of bold statements about the chopped 1911 variants.

Anything shorter than Commander-length tends to be a little persnickety.

Most of'em are oversprung...which is part of the problem. The other problem is that they have to be oversprung to compensate for the reduced slide mass.

They can be redeemed from their miscreant behavior...and most of the time, it's just a matter of hittin' the "Sweet Spot."

Need a little more information for the diagnosis. Reliability first...Then to the accuracy problem.

Is the stovepipe on the first round...last round...or at random throughout the magazine?

When it stovepipes...Does it usually happen on the last round, and if so...Does it ever crush the case mouth?

Accuracy:

As Aristotle once said: (I'm pretty sure it was Aristotle, anyway.)

"We must sit down, take off our shoes, and define our terms."

Does the pistol group well enough to stay inside a 4-inch circle at 20 feet?
One thing to keep in mind about the short blasters is that they weren't designed, nor were they ever intended to win target matches. They're meant for close-range, UTYAIA moments...Or as the good Colonel stated:
"Across a table, one does not need to be a virtuoso. They're strictly business, and as long as they function reliably, they're suitable for their intended role. The average distance for defensive shootings...police and private citizen alike...occur at 21 feet or less. Most occur at more like 10 feet. Many are so close that the victim has powder burns. If you want to hit bullseyes, there are more suitable pistols for that exercise.

Movin' along...To lower the point of impact, the rear sight must be lowered.
Not a problem with adjustable sights, but sights that are fixed in the vertical plane require filing and deepening of the notch. Another, more involved approach is to replace the front sight with a taller one. I don't recommend adjustable sights on a social pistol. In fact, if the gun is deployed strictly for
close-range emergencies, you can do quite well without sights at all...or
with only the front sight. if you fall within the 75-80% bracket of people who actually have to shoot in self-defense, you probably won't have time to use the sights..and it will occur in lighting conditions that won't let you see them anyway.

Your hometown is about a 3-hour drive from me. I can't accept the pistol
via FedEx or UPS Ground because I don't have an FFL any more...but if you can bring it to me, we'll get the functional problems addressed for the cost of
parts, if any are needed. A friend of mine used to live in Gaffney, and the trip from his driveway to mine was 2 hours, 15 minutes without breakin' too many speed laws. Easy to find from I-85.

Standin' by...

[wichaka]

Persnickety? They can be down right cranky!

I had a LW model years ago and it ran without a problem.

I changed out the recoil spring in it after a few hundred rounds, and it ran much smoother. Installed a Wolff, with a touch lighter rating.

Is it a LW or an all steel model? If its a LW, be cautious if someone tells you to polish the feed ramp. If you get too deep, you'll take the anodizing off the alum. and ruin the gun.

Has the gun always shot high?

Aristotle? I think we need a new catagory heading "1911 Philosophy" Tuner can mod that one................

[SMMAssociates]

Tuner quoting Aristotle, and having a friend who lives in shadow of the giant Gaffney Peach.... :eek:

(The former day job owned a plant in Anderson SC. I used to drive down there two or three times a year, but the last time I went by the Peach was in about 1992. The business poofed a little later. I never managed to stop and "view" the Peach - it always seemed to be closed. Greenville's nice, too. The wife, who shopped out Anderson in about an hour, made me take her to the old cotton mill pottery store one time. I quit taking her along :cool: .)

I don't think Kramer said anything about LW, but I don't know the Officer's model.... It's definitely smaller in a bunch of places, so your comments still apply, though.

Shooting a good group, but just high, ought to be sights. I suppose you could be holding the thing wrong, too. I was having problems with my Para that way until I finished screwing it up with an arched mainspring housing and Pearce grips. A good bench rest test ought to cover that one.

Stovepiping, from my amateur perspective, is the extractor or the recoil spring, or both. Swapping the sights may be a good reason to pay you a visit.

For the guys who don't know about the Peach.... Along I-85 near Gaffney SC you'll find a large water tower painted and shaped to look like a peach. It's really funny the first time you see it. I had a picture around here someplace, but haven't seen it for a while. You can buy peaches there, too, at a nearby interchange.

The Gaffney "Peachoid": (http://www.gaffney-sc.com/Waterpeach.htm)

As for the Philosophy, don't get me started. That was my college major. (Minors in History and Law Enforcement; got into computers instead. Armed programmer....)

[Kramer Krazy]

Grrrrrr....I typed out a long response, and then the server didn't recognise that I had already logged in and I lost everythign I wrote, so......Here goes, again.....

1911Tuner,

From what I remember from shooting the gun two weeks ago, and from what I recall from the years I've had the gun, I'll try to answer your questions...


>Is the stovepipe on the first round...last round...or at random throughout >the magazine?

I want to say it is fairly random, within the magazine, but probably more often on the last round.


>When it stovepipes...Does it usually happen on the last round, and if >so...Does it ever crush the case mouth?

The case usually gets caught between the top of the slide opening and the magazine, or, it will stick straight up, perpendicular with the slide. It almost always will crush the case and leave two really nice indentions where the slide catches it.


>Does the pistol group well enough to stay inside a 4-inch circle at 20 feet?

I would almost bet money that it will keep within a 4-inch group with using a bench rest at 20 feet.


>To lower the point of impact, the rear sight must be lowered.
>Not a problem with adjustable sights, but sights that are fixed in the vertical >plane require filing and deepening of the notch.

The gun has fixed, white-dot sights that i believe are original.


>Your hometown is about a 3-hour drive from me. I can't accept the pistol
>via FedEx or UPS Ground because I don't have an FFL any more...but if you >can bring it to me, we'll get the functional problems addressed for the cost >of parts, if any are needed. A friend of mine used to live in Gaffney, and >the trip from his driveway to mine was 2 hours, 15 minutes without breakin' >too many speed laws. Easy to find from I-85.

A drive on a weekend is no problem with me. I think with the wife's pregnacy, her motorcycle riding days are over for a few months, so we've been going to the range, instead. I assume you have a place to test fire the gun, nearby?

Kramer Krazy,
Terry


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Wichaka,

It is the steel version and the gun has shot high since I bought it used in 1991.

KK,
T

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SMMAssociates,

I hope I'm not just holding the gun wrong. I was alternating, two weeks ago, between the Officer's and my Gold Cup. I was consistantly shooting high, and always have, with the Officer's.....Interesting note, though, that day I wasn't really shooting well. I usually shoot better with my Gold Cup than almost any of my guns, but five days prior to this, I would have outshot the Gold Cup with my Government model......the GC and Gov were both bought new and are 100% original with less than 1000 round shot through each.

KK,
T

[1911Tuner]

Also known locally as : "The Buttoid."

Gaffney, SC...Birthplace and ancestral home of actress Andie McDowell...
If you're ever where she's makin' a public appearance, and ya wanna see her do a double-take...Holler: "HEY ROSIE"! You will have her undivided attention. Guaranteed. You wouldn't believe how scrawny and homely she was until she hit about 15 years old...and then it was WOWSER!

Also the adopted home of Saturday afternoon Cowboy matinee idol, and one of my personal heroes...Lash La Rue. He really was that good with a bullwhip.
Played a pretty mean hand of stud poker too. :cool:

[1911Tuner]

Kramer m'friend...You've got an extractor problem. One final question to nail it down to one or two possibilities.

Has it ever stuffed the last empty case back into the magazine?

We can run down to the range after we fix it. It's 42 miles closer to Greenville, right off I-85 South...about 45 miles north of Charlotte. I'll
get a list of parts together for ya to order from Brownells if your problem is what I think it is.

Standin' by...

[Kramer Krazy]

Kramer m'friend...You've got an extractor problem. One final question to nail it down to one or two possibilities.

Has it ever stuffed the last empty case back into the magazine?



Yeppers.....I've had the casing get shoved hard enough into the magazine that I keep waiting for it to flair the opening. When this happens, it seems the case gets caught between the magazine and the top of the slide opening.

[SMMAssociates]

Also known locally as : "The Buttoid."

I didn't want to bring up the other "view" of the Peach - this is a family forum.... But you can get that impression, too. I'm guessing that they ferment some of those peaches when nobody's looking... :p

Gaffney, SC...Birthplace and ancestral home of actress Andie McDowell...
If you're ever where she's makin' a public appearance, and ya wanna see her do a double-take...Holler: "HEY ROSIE"! You will have her undivided attention. Guaranteed. You wouldn't believe how scrawny and homely she was until she hit about 15 years old...and then it was WOWSER!

Interesting info.... Good looking gal. I would believe the scrawny bit - some gals seem to "appear" one morning. I know one that suddenly "appared" to the point that she blots out the sun....

Also the adopted home of Saturday afternoon Cowboy matinee idol, and one of my personal heroes...Lash La Rue. He really was that good with a bullwhip. Played a pretty mean hand of stud poker too. :cool:

I'm afraid to ask how you know about the poker part.... I thought they put those mountains up towards Charlotte NC to keep you away from the southern area. Stupid freeways....

Speaking of freeways.... I used to love the on-ramps between the SC line and Anderson. Every six feet, or so it seemed.... If I sat in the left lane, somebody always wanted me to move right so he could pass me. If I sat in the right lane, somebody in a pickup truck would pull out in front of me. At 35mph.... :eek:

[1911Tuner]

Diagnosis complete...Prognosis: The extractor is rotating in the channel and dropping the case before it gets to the ejector. The reason that it happens more often and more dramatically on the last round is because there's not a
convex surface under it to hold it up.

More tension will help...but it could require so much that it causes failures to go to battery. The sure cure is an oversized firing pin stop that is sized to
a light press-fit. I'd also advise a new extractor while you're at it. Brown Hardcore is good, but usually requires blending with the back of the slide
and rebluing.

Do a quick check for me...Go square the extractor up in the channel and look to see if the flat side sits flush with the slide. If the extractor is located too far to the right, an oversized stop may not be able to keep it square, and other steps may be required. This isn't usually a Colt issue...I've rarely seen a Colt slide with a mislocated extractor channel, but it was almost a Thompson Auto Ordnance trademark at one time. I've seen a few early Springfields with the problem. If it's badly out of spec, Colt may be willing to replace the slide pro bono.

Standin by...

[Kramer Krazy]

I'm back at work and don't have the gun here, eventhough, sometimes I wish it was here. ;) I'll have to check the gun tonight and report back tomorrow.

What about it shooting high? Is it just a sight issue? I had thought about replacing the sights a few times. I had thought about putting an adjustable rear on it, but figured it was overkill. I'd prefer some nice, fixed, dot night-sights.

Anyway, I'll check that extractor tonight. Thanks.

[SMMAssociates]

Kramer & Tuner:

Just happened to think.... That gun has white dot sights?

Is that "stock"?

People have been doing that since forever, but I don't recall ever seeing it on a 1911 except as aftermarket.

I've been out of that particular loop for a long time, so I could easily be wrong - I think I made a mistake in 1969 :rolleyes: , but that seems to have gotten lost in the thread.

Since you (Kramer) have more than one 1911, "hold" is probably not an issue. A finger groove type grip or magazine, and the mainspring housing shape, can change stuff, but I think you're ahead of that knowledge curve.

(I saw a Ballastar-Molina - bet I spelled that wrong - in the store the other day with a badly shot-out barrel. Somebody'd drifted the rear sight about 0.020", too. Unknown if it was intentional or not, but the owner's getting a new barrel and will have somebody look at that when it comes in. This one looked pretty close, but they're "not quite" 1911 clones made in Argentina. I had one back in the 60's - purchased for a friend - that was 100% GI except for Argentine military markings. Corroded out smoothbore, but the magazine serial numbers matched the gun! Wish I'd kept that one.)

[Kramer Krazy]

Kramer & Tuner:

Just happened to think.... That gun has white dot sights?

Is that "stock"?



According to the schematic on Colt's website (I've been looking at parts and part numbers the last few days), they have white dots listed for the Officer's model with the part number: "Officer's Models Only with Dot SP54718B".

I spoke with a local Colt dealer that has a gunsmith, and without even seeing the gun, they told me to send it back to the manufacturer.

Hmmmm....just remembered something. Back in '91, when I bought the gun, it shot a little to the left or right, and a light tap on the rear sight got it back inline. If memory serves me right, the site was moved over far enough when I got it, that I had suspected that the previous owner or pawn shop employee had dropped the gun and caught the site just right to move it. It was no where near being centered on the slide.

[SMMAssociates]

Kramer:

Guess the sights could be original then....

I think the "send it back" advice is sound, but a visit to Tuner might be a lot more fun.

Did you try other ammunition? Shouldn't matter at short ranges, but maybe you've got a batch of something even stranger than my dealer carries.... :eek:

[Kramer Krazy]

Ok.....seems a little worse than I thought. I am at home and took the gun apart. I saw things that I didn't like. Here they are:

1) Both of the recoil springs have been cut. :eek:

2) There is a recoil, rubber buffer with the springs (a no-no I've read here for the Officer's ACP)

3) There appears to be a lot of wear on the barrel where it locks into place in the slide (ribbing on the top of it)

4) The barrel wear corresponds with lots of interior slide wear where they meet

5) Looks like the barrel opening has been filed and smoothed for ammo loading. The right-side of the barrel has more material missing from it than the left side.

6) Not sure if it is factory or not, but the ejection port on the slide looks like it has additional milling where the mouth of the casing would be as it is ejected. If it was done outside of the factory, then a previous owner had the slide refinished.

Other than this, I didn't see anything else that was blatantly wrong....as if this list isn't enough. I'd be too embarassed to send it back to Colt. So......should I start off with buying new recoil springs/assembly? Does the barrel and slide sound modified? Do complete slide/barrel assemblies show up for sale often? :(

I took some pictures of these (except #6), but I'm not too sure if you can see some of it well enough to make a determination. I can email them to interested parties. Any advise?

Terry

[SMMAssociates]

Ok.....seems a little worse than I thought. I am at home and took the gun apart. I saw things that I didn't like. Here they are:

1) Both of the recoil springs have been cut. Tuner? No idea there....

2) There is a recoil, rubber buffer with the springs (a no-no I've read here for the Officer's ACP)Sometimes causes FTF's. Dunno about this model. Try it both ways.

3) There appears to be a lot of wear on the barrel where it locks into place in the slide (ribbing on the top of it)Tuner, again? I would think that if you can snap the barrel into the slide (just holding the two of them) and it seems solid vertically, it should be OK, although I'd wonder. Rotary play should be at least partially controlled by the barrel link & slide stop pin, as, I would guess, would be some horizontal play.

4) The barrel wear corresponds with lots of interior slide wear where they meetNot too good.... Maybe NBD for a carry piece, though.

5) Looks like the barrel opening has been filed and smoothed for ammo loading. The right-side of the barrel has more material missing from it than the left side.I don't see how this would affect accuracy, but it sounds like a ramping job gone wrong. You can always get another barrel, but...

6) Not sure if it is factory or not, but the ejection port on the slide looks like it has additional milling where the mouth of the casing would be as it is ejected. If it was done outside of the factory, then a previous owner had the slide refinished. This is common. The original Browning ejection port design can be a little rough on the casings, so a lot of people did that. One of our experts can chime in here but I think you'd want it that way if you had a slide that had been modified. Shouldn't affect accuracy at all. Tuner may have some comments about that, too.

I think it's time to show that gun to a serious gunsmith and see what he thinks. You can get replacement parts for almost anything. It might be better to just put it in the drawer, though, and buy something else to actually use. This could get expensive....

The Colt people probably would get a good laugh out if getting this one back - not much there that they would want to be responsible for. Guess they would be willing to fix it though, for money....

You can get everything from Brownells, but some of the parts may require fitting. Some of that fitting can get interesting. Tuner told me how to fit a new firing pin stop to my Commander. I sure was glad when the old one turned out to be OK.... :D

[1911Tuner]

Howdy Kramer,

Sounds like you may be makin' a trip to Beautiful downtown King, NC sooner than ya thought.

The shock buffer is a no-no in an Officer's model. Hard to tell if the springs have been clipped since one end is normally always open, and clipping a recoil
spring is an acceptable fine-tuning procedure in some cases. It has limits, though.

I couldn't see your pictures, so I can't tell anything about the barrel throat.
Possible that some idiot hack has cut the throat into the chamber and destroyed the case head support in an effort to get it to feed. I'd have to see it. Ditto for the wear on the locking lugs. There's normal wear and there's damage resulting from incorect unlock and linkdown timing...and it's
hard to tell from a picture unless it's in the "Basket Case" class.

The ejection ports on Officer's Models are normally opened up a bit at the front to allow for live-round ejection. This is a factory modification that was also done to Commanders starting with the Series 80 run. Reduced slide travel and the extended ejectors made it a necessary modification as many of the earlier Commanders would hang a live round in the port, depending on the cartridge overall length. The modification looks like a slight flaring forward
at the bottom of the port, and is also done to many customs and semi-customs.

If you're up for the trip from Greenville this weekend or whenever you can arrange it, PM me and I'll give you the directions. Once you get on I-85 North, it's pretty uncomplicated to get here. Just let me know when you're comin' and your ETA. I'll put the coffee on. Hope ya like Collies. :cool:

Standin' by...

[SMMAssociates]

I think I actually drove through King NC in 1975....

The wife and I drove to FL on our honeymoon, and a good part of I-77 didn't exist around the WV/VA/NC border areas. We were on 52 and followed a truck down a mountain while his brakes were on fire.... Talking to the other truckers while keeping the guy appraised of his situation and keeping the wife calm made for a fun ride. That was around Mt. Airy someplace.... We eventually got onto Route 29 but I forget where.

Absolutely beautiful area, though. If the locals ever decide to toss me out of town, I'm heading that way. Cheaper than FL and just about as warm (but more comfortable). 'Course, you do have a couple hours of winter. :)

Sometime around 1980, they had a nasty ice storm in Anderson, and nobody could drive on that stuff. Our plant manager was from Cincinatti, so he got into the office (front-wheel drive Toronado) and then took the company pickup out and picked up the essential crew. Talk about wanting to work.... We bought a very small division of Riegel Textile and moved it into another building. The bank got it when the business poofed in 1994.

I miss that.... (I took the wife down again in 1984, 'round Halloween. The Halloween party at the Anderson Holiday Inn was hilarious. Other than some textile plants and Ryobi, Anderson seems to exist to employ kids from Clemson. You can imagine what that group looked like.)

Good advice all 'round about the Colt (segueing back onto topic). The only thing I was sure about is the ejection port. That's a pretty common mod, and a lot of new production comes out that way, too.

[1911Tuner]

Howdy Stu,

Yep. You were here. You came down Fancy Gap Road behind that truck from Hillsville, Va. When you cross the Va/NC border, you're in Mt. Airy...
the real-life "Mayberry." It's got a real Floyd's Barber Shop, now under 3rd generation "Floyd" management. Mt. Airy was Andy Griffith's hometown...and Floyd the first cut his hair in the same shop.

If you remember the knobbed mountain that you passed on your right...Pilot Mountain...you may remember it better as "Mt. Pilot." It's a billion year-old monadnock that was once part of an island chain in an inland sea. It, and its sister...Sauratown Mountain in neighboring Stokes County...are the only remnants of that chain that ran nearly perpendicular to the Blue Ridge before curving southeast and ending just beyond Stokesdale.

Those two volcanic bumps...along with the Blue Ridge Mountains...were there before the first life forms appeared in the primordeal ooze after the tectonic upheaval that formed the entire Appalachian Range.

Interesting stuff...what? :cool:

[Kramer Krazy]

Sounds like you may be makin' a trip to Beautiful downtown King, NC sooner than ya thought.

The shock buffer is a no-no in an Officer's model. Hard to tell if the springs have been clipped since one end is normally always open, and clipping a recoil
spring is an acceptable fine-tuning procedure in some cases. It has limits, though.

Don't have any plans this weekend, other than a guy is supposed to come buy a bass amplifier rig, but I'm not too sure which day. I'll have to see what the wife had planned. I know we were thinking of going to Rex's Indoor Range in Hendersonville, NC on one of the days. The springs aren't clipped straight, but more like filed to a point with large grooved scratches for a tapered effect. Similar to a wear break.


I couldn't see your pictures, so I can't tell anything about the barrel throat.

I didn't post any, but I can try to email some to you (I brought them to work with me, today).

The ejection ports on Officer's Models are normally opened up a bit at the front to allow for live-round ejection. This is a factory modification that was also done to Commanders starting with the Series 80 run.............The modification looks like a slight flaring forward
at the bottom of the port.....

Sounds like its factory. I figured it may have been, just because the matte finish looks like it's stock.

If you're up for the trip from Greenville this weekend or whenever you can arrange it, PM me and I'll give you the directions. Once you get on I-85 North, it's pretty uncomplicated to get here. Just let me know when you're comin' and your ETA. I'll put the coffee on. Hope ya like Collies.

Yahoo! Maps says King is 210 miles from my house. Collies aren't any problem. We have a year old German Shepherd as a "house dog". I'll see what our plans are for the weekend, if not this weekend, I'll try to make some arrangements, probably, in the near future.

Thanks for the help,
Terry

[SMMAssociates]

Yep. You were here. You came down Fancy Gap Road behind that truck from Hillsville, Va. When you cross the Va/NC border, you're in Mt. Airy... the real-life "Mayberry." It's got a real Floyd's Barber Shop, now under 3rd generation "Floyd" management. Mt. Airy was Andy Griffith's hometown...and Floyd the first cut his hair in the same shop. That sure sounds right.... It'll be 30 years next October.... Sherri's still trying to recover :) . She's not much of a passenger, and blew off about $60 worth of film on the way back taking pictures of signs for Stuart FL! (She did enjoy Disney, and got to spend some time with relatives in Miami.) Quite a ride down that mountain. I stayed behind the truck and kind of roadblocked so nobody'd get stupid and try to pass him, while handling radio traffic.

I wish I had a picture of the car I was driving then. Genuine "wannabemobile" if you know what one of those is. 5" spotlight on the driver's side, big blue lights in the grille, and a Fireball someplace handy, all on a green Ambassador. Definitely looked like somebody's "unmarked", although there were too many antennas on it to really hide. (I've been some kind of rent-a-cop since the late 60's, and used my POV for much of it. Besides, you gotta install at least one radio that the car didn't come with.... Don't you? :D )

So, while I was there, why didn't you come out and say hello? :cool:

(I do that all the time to a gal I know on CompuServe. She's in Roanoke now, but lived in Sharon PA in that era - before I "met" her - and that's about 20 minutes from here.)

If you remember the knobbed mountain that you passed on your right...Pilot Mountain...you may remember it better as "Mt. Pilot." It's a billion year-old monadnock that was once part of an island chain in an inland sea. It, and its sister...Sauratown Mountain in neighboring Stokes County...are the only remnants of that chain that ran nearly perpendicular to the Blue Ridge before curving southeast and ending just beyond Stokesdale.

Those two volcanic bumps...along with the Blue Ridge Mountains...were there before the first life forms appeared in the primordeal ooze after the tectonic upheaval that formed the entire Appalachian Range.

Interesting stuff...what? :cool: Didn't notice much of that - I was busy watching the truck, and then calming down the wife. But it is interesting stuff. We're about a mile from where the glaciers stopped up here. All kinds of evidence of the ice sheets and then it just stops.... Fine with me. I don't like all that ice....

IAC, that whole area around King is really beautiful. I used to jump off the Interstate in Statesville with some regularity. Lunch, and a chance to just wander the woods a bit. I used to take non-Interstate detours from time to time for the fun of it, too, but mostly over around Bluefield WV and near Anderson. I get tired of the four-lanes....

[1911Tuner]

You wouldn't have seen the mountain from Fancy Gap, except way in the distance. Pilot Mountain is right off U.S. 52 about 12 miles north of King.
You couldn't miss it if you came through there...unless it was dark. From the
highway, it makes symmetrical slopes with a round ball on top of it.

[SMMAssociates]

You wouldn't have seen the mountain from Fancy Gap, except way in the distance. Pilot Mountain is right off U.S. 52 about 12 miles north of King. You couldn't miss it if you came through there...unless it was dark. From the highway, it makes symmetrical slopes with a round ball on top of it. You've never travelled with my wife.... If I'd been driving the iceberg, I could have missed the Titanic.... We once travelled between Ocean City MD and here while looking for discount outlets for bed linens. She looks, and tells me all about what she's going to buy. I go to sleep :eek: . Fortunately, I drive very well....

Great area to visit, though. I'd like to get back there again, collies or not :D . We had a coocoo spaniel that had to be put down about two years ago, and are still "looking". Sherri's working about 30 hours a week, and I don't want to be stuck with a puppy. (I work at home.) The cocker was a little confused about the difference between grass and carpeting, and you kind of had to keep an eye on her to find out that she wanted to go outside. Like the time she came up and got me to show me what she did in the dining room.... :( If you asked her, everything was fine, but you had to really pay attention.

(We got spoiled - the previous mutt, a terrier-poodle mix, could be trusted with the roast, and not only knew to go outside, he knew to not bark about it in the evenings so he wouldn't wake the baby. Other than a "pet me or I'll kill you" mode, he was great. Except for the time he jumped through the newspaper I was trying to read.... The baby's almost 19 now, and wants a BIG dog. I prefer the kind you can get off the bed without a forklift. If she still lived at home this would be a problem. If she moves back I'll throw her out :cool: .)

BTW, The Sight (http://www.sightm1911.com/), under "Historical", has a picture of a Lightweight Commander showing a dramatically lowered ejection port. The pic of the Combat Commander (with a .38 Super GM) shows a much smaller port - looks like my Commander except for the big beavertail I just had installed. Kramer's slide cutout is probably stock, or emulates that cutout. I can't tell what kind of sights are on it.

[Kramer Krazy]

Well......interesting results from shooting this weekend.......(This is a partial copy-and-paste of an email I sent to 1911Tuner):


"I believe my high shooting problem is actually a dot-sight issue. When I aimed at the very bottom of the target and lined the tops of the sights (not paying attention to the dots), the gun was scary accurate. You can see my best group here: http://members.aol.com/TBoling125/target.html . It is a 1.25", 5-shot group at 30 feet. For bench resting, I was only resting my forearms on the table while sitting in a chair. The groups, while doing this, were 1.25" to 2.5" with 5 and 10-shot groups. Then, after this, I shot a 3.25" group while standing with the gun, shooting two-hand freehand.

Now, though, I do have an extractor problem, as it was about 50% of the time stove-piping or chambering the empty casing. One casing showed three-points of contact, but usually, it only showed two-points. It did this 4 times in a row, once, and it was always on the last round of the magazine.

I actually left the recoil spring buffer in the gun, though (I forgot to take it out). I used some new shooting gloves with wrist support, and I used a wheel bearing grease on the slide rails, OD of the barrel bushing, contact area of the locking lugs. The gun was much smoother with this grease....moreso, it seemed, than with just plain oil. Anyway, from your earlier post (1911Tuner), it sounds like a definite extractor issue. I appreciate your input on this.

Kramer Krazy,
Terry

[1911Tuner]

Howdy KK,

E-mail answered. Bring the little blaster to meeeeeee so I can fix it for youuuuuuuu :cool: