Tuner and Officer's ACP

[Ken Grant]

Tuner strikes again

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Just returned from several days visit with 1911 Tuner and family(GREAT PEOPLE).
I carried an OFFICER"S ACP that an un-named 1911 Custom Gunsmith had reworked. Wilson barrel and bushing,reverse plug recoil system,thumb safety,grip safety,trigger and Novak nite sights. Beautiful workmanship and finish. Only problem was IT WOULD NOT RUN!!!!!!! :(
Before Tuner had even seen it,he said it sounds like someone "Tried to make a Target gun out of a Belly gun". He was right. I put a .002 feeler guage between the hood and slide and it would not go into battery. I removed .005 from the end of the hood and corrected the the failures to return battery even when empty.
The pistol would still not run as it should,so I took it to see Tuner. Got to Tuner's house Monday PM and the first thing he wanted to do was see the Officer's ACP.
Drinking Turbo Coffee and looking over the pistol,checking things with his caliper,he said yeah we can make it run.
He went and got some tools(headspace gages,finish reamer,file and a homemade scrape.
In less than an hour while shooting the bull,drinking coffee and working on the pistol(all while setting at his kitchen table) he said now it will run.
Tues.AM,we went to the range to try it out and it worked great.Tuner wanted it HOT and DIRTY and while he loaded mags,I ran almost 300 rds. through it,mostly non-stop.
Had a couple of mags that failed to lift the slide stop all the way up and Tuner said "the slide is still running a little fast.
It was very hot on the range(mid 90's) and we quit for the day.
Went back to his house and he wanted to slow the slide down just a lttle and also to give it a little more rearward travel. He took a few thousands off the rear of the guide rod flange and cut the spring a little.
Went back to the range Wed.AM and ran it again while still dirty from the first day and everything worked GREAT
So,with about less than an hours work with handtools(some homemade),Tuner made this pistol run well even when hot and dirty.
I would rather have a TUNERIZED plain Jane 1911 than any of the so-called CUSTOM BIG NAME 1911's.
Ken

[Hersh]

Glad to hear your Colt is running as it should. I tell ya, if I had been a little closer I would have taken my Commander to Johnny in a heartbeat!

[NYCMedic]

I wish that I could take a road trip and just hang around and learn from him for a while!

[Hunter]

Tuner is pretty good ain't he. I have had the pleasure of spending the better part of the day with him and look forward to seeing him real soon.

[OD*]

Glad to hear you got it purring, Ken.

I'd rather have an armorer built pistol than a lot of the custom guys too.


Good on ya, Johnny. http://forum.m1911.org/images/icons/icon14.gif

[Ken Grant]

Tuner is not only good with 1911's but with S&W wheel guns as well. Not only shooting them but tune-ups as well.
Tuner,Kelie,Matthew and Connie are great people. My wife and Kelie hit it off the first time they met year before last.
The next time you visit,talk Tuner into some picking and singing. Pretty good at that as well. Both Sandra and I could set and listen to his picking all day.
Tuner has a friend(TIM),didn't catch his last name, whom Tuner is teaching the Draw Stroke and self-defense shooting with a 1911. He is a great guy as well.
Wed AM,Tuner,Tim and I fired a large number of rounds at the range until it got too hot and humid.

[Hunter]

Don't forget Sassy dog. :D

[Ken Grant]

All of them(12,I think) are well behaved and well kept.
On our first visit year before last,Sandra fell in love with Kelie's Pepper(part Yorkie) and for almost 2 yrs. I have heard Yorkie this and Yorkie that.
On Tues.,Kelie took Sandra Yorkie shopping and guess what? We brought a Yorkie pup back to Ga. :(

[1911Tuner]

Is in the details, so they say...and this one pretty much bore that out.

Sad thing is, that the issues with Ken's little blaster were pretty much covered in "Pistolsmithing 101." Gettin' it to run was a cakewalk compared to some of the shorties I've been into.

First thing that jumped out at me was the end of the recoil spring channel in the frame. Hard coil bind was in evidence, and it had literally relocated the impact surface a good 64th inch. I cut a half-coil off the spring to get the rest of it.

The second thing was the breechface guide blocks. They miked out at just a hair below .480 inch apart. Five minutes with a safe-sided pillar file took'em to .486 inch, and I cut a light bevel on the bottom corners to help funnel the rim in.

The glaring problem was that the barrel was not only short-chambered, but it was tapered a little at the shoulder and had a very short leade. Two minutes with a finishing reamer cleaned it up.

Finally, the barrel ramp...throat to some...had a small defect on the left side, that extended from the leading edge to about halfway up. 5 minutes with a scrape had it lookin' good like Hollywood.:cool:

Just to make sure that we had the thing squared away, I chucked the guide rod up in the lathe and faced a 64th off the rear face of the flange, and a like amount off the butt-end of the rod...and added a light bevel for link and lower lug in-battery clearance. This provided an extra 32nd inch...a 64th comin' and a 64th goin'...more time for the magazine to catch up, and told Ken to go ahead and knock off another quarter-coil from the spring when he got it home.

The 24-pound recoil spring seems to be a bit much, but the spring is proprietary...even though the wire diameter is identical to Wolff's 16-pound spring...the spacing is much wider. If somebody would make a 22-23 pound spring of exactly 14 turns, we'd have a little more wiggle room. Wolff! Are ya hearin' this?

Final analysis:

If the smith had seen to the details...Checked for coil bind...Gauged the chamber...and actually test-fired the gun, all this could have been avoided.
But...lookin' on the bright side...I got to go behind another Pro from Dover.
When Ken told me that it had been worked over by a Top Gun, I grinned and
said: "Ooooh! Ooooh! Bring it to me! That's JUST my game!":D

Ken. Shhhh...Don't tell. Let'em wonder.;)

[OD*]

Ken. Shhhh...Don't tell. Let'em wonder
It might save others some heartache, if he would though.

[1911Tuner]

It might save others some heartache, if he would though.

Yeah, but it also might open him...and me...up to a defamation suit. Better to
let'em ALL wonder if it's THEIR gun, and thinkin' that they just never know when I might be goin' in behind'em on the next one. Maybe they'll all be a little more careful before they sign off on one and ship it. ;)

[ArmscorBA]

Trust Me Guys,
1911Tuner is not a chiropractor, He is a Doctor!! ( Armorer-Gunsmith ) ;) :D
Ivan

[1911Tuner]

Hmmm...Dr.Tuner....Hmmmm. :cool:

Nah, Ivan. Not a gunsmith at all. Just an armorer. Real gunsmiths look down their noses at guys like me.

[Ken Grant]

If I was the one who had this work done and paid for it,I would be screaming bloody murder and would post the gunsmith's name.
I bought the pistol used from the guy that had it done and can only rely on his word about who did the work. Don't really trust his word now as he told me the only issues with the pistol was that it didn't feed hollowpoints well.
I will NOT deflame another's work unless I am sure of what I post.

[OD*]

I will NOT deflame another's work unless I am sure of what I post.
Good way to think.
The gun may not have even been done by a "well known" 'smith. ;)

[ArmscorBA]

1911Tuner,
Stop it! ;) :D
Ivan

[daveohno]

Hmmm...Dr.Tuner....Hmmmm. :cool:

Nah, Ivan. Not a gunsmith at all. Just an armorer. Real gunsmiths look down their noses at guys like me.
They shouldn't look down their noses at you, they aren't as good as you are! BTW, do you work on Colt wheel guns? ;)

[1911Tuner]

Dave, I have tuned up Colt revolvers, but not on any of the new generation guns. Much prefer Smith & Wesson's lockwork. Colt wheelguns can be a real bear to time once they get squirrely, and the old "V" mainsprings were harder to get right. Translated: Smiths are easier. :D

[Frank]

Another good story illustrating Johnny's magic touch. Some times I wish I lived on the right coast (for a whole bunch of reasons).

DVC

[1911Tuner]

Ahhhh, Frank! No magic involved with this one. Just basic pistolsmiffin' 101.
Wish all of'em were as easy as Ken's was. I've been into some real doozies.
The worst are the ones that the owners jumped into with a Dremel. :rolleyes:

[Ken Grant]

I will bet that I have cleaned this pistol at least 50 times since I bought it and also worked on the barrel hood several times,taking a little off the end until it would lock up right.
I never spotted the flaw in the barrel throat but Tuner spotted it right off the bat. It just shows you that a man who KNOWS and CARES about what he is doing can do great things.

[1911Tuner]

Ken wrote:

>It just shows you that a man who KNOWS and CARES about what he is doing ...<
*************

Or a man who is anal-retentive over such things... :D

[Ken Grant]

I am that way with 45 ACP brass :D
Sure did hurt to leave the hundreds of rounds that we fired on both days just laying on the ground just because I was too lazy to pick it up. :o
Don't get me wrong but Johnny offered to help pick it up and I said NAW,leave it. This was on Tuesday.
On Wed. both Johnny and Tim offered to help and again I said NAW.

[auto45]

" Not a gunsmith at all. Just an armorer. Real gunsmiths look down their noses at guys like me".


I doubt that!

I'd "suggest" it's tougher to really fix a "clunker", i.e. knowledge, experience, skill, etc, than to put together a "custom pistol" from high quality, "in-spec" parts.

[Ken Grant]

Went to the range this AM before it got too hot. Carried the Officer's as it was without cleaning or lubing( didn't cut the 1/4 coil off the spring) left it the way it was dirty after firing so many rds. at Tuner's range in N.C.
100 rds. WWB------no failures
100 rds. MFS JHP+P----no failures (it has never ran with this)
100 rds. OLD,FUNKY cast reloads/beat up brass---- 1 FTRB ( a split case that I missed)

TUNER DUN GOOD!!!!!!! This pistol has never ran this well :D

Now for the ULTIMATE test---Clean,lub and Devel follower mags.
(Sorry. Johnny,had to put this in) :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[1911Tuner]

And yet another happy dot org customer!

Now then, John! About that raise...

Oh yeah, Ken...Almost forgot. The Nork project is ready for a test-fire. Will probably do it Wednesday and report back. It's a little tighter in the slide-to-frame than I like for a beater/carry gun, so I may work it down a bit. If it'll run and mow the 25-yard plates down, I'd be tempted to leave it be. I'll put it through the wringer and make a judgement call on it.

[gottripletsNC]

I never spotted the flaw in the barrel throat but Tuner spotted it right off the bat. It just shows you that a man who KNOWS and CARES about what he is doing can do great things.


Hey Ken,

I have a Micro that had a horrible feed ramp angle, and with Tuner's advice I got it right, but its not pretty, and I'm going for a visit next month, and I'm sure he will find all kinds of things wrong with my two guns, albeit they do shoot flawlessly now, the micro is smoother than the full size, but just to let ya know he's gonna find all kinds of things wrong with mine too.... :D

[Ken Grant]

While you are there,talk him into some picking and grinning. Pretty good at that as well

[gottripletsNC]

don't doubt it

[Jammer Six]

The worst are the ones that the owners jumped into with a Dremel. :rolleyes:
I learned from you, Tuner.

I only use a Dremel for trigger jobs. :D

[John]

Don't say things like that to Johnny, he'll have nightmares!