GI Champion short guide rod swap?

[kcshooter]

I'm bored, all my guns are working perfectly. So I'm gonna start another project, and I'd like to make a bobtailed springer champion. I want to start with the GI, but it's a bull barrel with a reverse plug.

Is anyone making a closed-end reverse plug so I can use a normal short guide rod?

If I can't use a short guide rod, I'll start from scratch with a blank frame, slide, and barrel again, but it's just so much easier to start with a base gun and build on that rather than start from scratch.

[CZJedi]

Check with EGW. If they don't make it, probably nobody does.

[Hawkmoon]

You might look at the closed-end reverse plugs Clark Custom makes for the Colt Officers. Yes, I know the Officers uses a 3-1/2" barrel and the Champion uses a 4" barrel, but the Clark plug is slightly over-length. If you mill the back end of the slide dust cover by the thickness of the flange so the pistol timing remains unchanged, the face of the Clark plug may just about flush up with the end of the slide & barrel.

Remember that a standard (short) recoil spring guide for a Commander is set for a 4-1/4" barrel, not 4". You may have to shave a bit more off the nose -- or just use an Officers recoil spring guide.

[kcshooter]

Good point, Hawkmoon, I wasn't even thinking about that extra 1/4". But I did check Clarks and they actually make one specificly for the Champion 4" length. So thanks for the tip, that was exactly what I was looking for.