Pony gets some dental work

[desertmoon]

Well, I've been bored lately and I'm one of those guys who prefers barstock and forged stuff over MIM and castings so I ordered a stainless barstock extractor from Cylinder and Slide and a stainless, barstock, lightly extended mag release kit from Ed Brown to outfit my new, NRM, Gvt. model, Stainless Pony. Both parts were just a bit excessive in tolerences ( the way I like it ) and I spent a few relaxing hours honing and polishing and tuning everything up....ahhhhh so sweet.

The C and S extractor had just the right overall length and was just a couple thousandths tight in the firing pin stop channel, I evenly took just a bit from the front and the back of the channel and polished it up for a nice, tight interference fit with the firing pin stop. There were also some tool marks on the top and the bottom of the whole length of the hook so I judiciously polished those off and finished it with a light wire wheel and fine valve grinding compound to give it a dull sheen on those two surfaces. I then gave it just a bit of a bend toward the hook and assembled everything. It passed the bench test for extractor tension so hopefully all will work out fine.

The mag release to a bit of trickery to get going right. The overall lenght of the catch screw/lock and the overall tight tolences of the release caused a bit of mag binding upon release so I trimmed the catch screw just a bit and also heavily polished the surface opposing the release stud. The new catch and the screw/lock was a bit rough externally and tended to actually unlock itself from the gun so I very carefully gave it a light polish to remove the tool marks and also dehorned some of the edges of the mag catch while I was at it. After a bit of cleaning in the sink and then a oil wash and dry with some WD40 I lubed everything up a bit with some Tetra Lube and whhhaalah!! The catch still feels a bit rough against the inside of the frame but I will let that smooth out naturally.

Next week: a tool steel sear and disconnector!!!


Mmmmmm, I love my Pony!!!

http://photos.ar15.com/WS_Content/ImageGallery/Attachments/DownloadAttach.asp?sAccountUnq=23042&iGalleryUnq=1498&iImageUnq=28369

[Wes Janson]

Most beautiful. And from the sounds of it, the internals are probably in even better condition than the outside ;)

[desertmoon]

YEP!!! Took her out yesterday and fired 200 rounds through it and she shot great. I also forgot to mention that I added a CP shock buffer to the recoil spring guid which smoothed out the pistol even more. I am still having to work on settling into shooting with a flat main spring housing but I'm getting better. I have actually been working with the Pony and the Springie and have been having fun with both. I'm just so much more relaxed knowing I have a Colt....now...back to Brownells!!! :)

[1911slabsides]

Desert Moon,

that looks and sounds nice, A Colt 1911 is nice to begin with it sounds like you've made it much better, Nice work.

[desertmoon]

Desert Moon,

that looks and sounds nice, A Colt 1911 is nice to begin with it sounds like you've made it much better, Nice work.


Thank you. Though the Colt functioned perfectly before hand, I just have a thing about MIM and castings. In some cases they are perfectly suitable...but in a gun that is gonna see thousands of rounds I would rather forgings or barstock....it's just a preference.

Thanks for the nice comments. Though I have forgone adding any parts this week due to some unforseen but cool events I hope to be adding a new sear and disconnector next week...I am still trying to find a good stainless disconnector that isn't cast or MIM.