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/I...iImageUnq=28369

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

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!!!

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.