Concept V Questions

[azdover]

I’ve been out the 1911 game for a while, but got back into it when I traded into a used Concept V. It was in pretty good shape, but somewhere during it’s life somebody tried to turn it into an SRP and sold it as one to the previous owner. They had added adjustable night sights and a poorly installed magwell. The PO had checked with the factory after he bought it and based on the serial number, it was actually a Hillsdale 2002 Concept V. I cleaned it, replaced the dead night sights with a Dawson Precision front fiber optic and Harrison fixed rear, replaced all the springs with new ones from a Wilson Combat spring kit, and replaced the ambi thumb safeties with a single side Wilson Combat. I also cleaned up some minor handling marks by buffing the side flats and bead blasting the matte areas. I finally replaced the old butchered wood grips with some Gunn G10 grips. Nice thing about stainless steel is it cleans up easily.
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First time I shot it, it was very accurate but I had a couple of FTFs that required a very sharp tap on the back of the slide to seat the round. I had no problems with ejection with empties landing about 10 feet at 2-3 o’clock, Taking a closer look at the gun, I finally noticed that the extractor nose was resting on the case bevel pushing the base of the round away from the breech face on the right during the shake test. Also, the extractor tensioning pad wasn’t touching the case rim. I found a really informative extractor fitting sticky in another forum. For some reason, I couldn’t log on to this one for a while. I tuned the extractor according to that sticky and no more FTF problems. I also decided to replace the firing pin stop with an oversized EGW squared bottom one since the original was a little loose. When I pulled the extractor, I found it was it was peening and deforming the metal at the top and bottom of the FPS slot in the extractor. When I originally checked the extractor, it had little dimples at the top and bottom of the slot. I haven’t seen anything like that in other 1911s. I’m not sure if those dimples had any kind of special purpose, but they’re now hidden by the peening. Maybe they were added try to prevent extractor clocking. The gun still feeds and ejects brass to 3-4 o’clock at about 10 feet with no problems. Anybody else ever see anything like this before?
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Another question. This gun is a 2002 Hillsdale build. Externally, fit and finish are excellent. Internally, some of the machining is a little rough, particularly in the frame lower lug pocket. I’ve had a couple LBs in the past, but don’t remember much about the machine work. The gun shoots great, especially after I got rid of that pesky intermit FTF. I’ll take function over form any day but was wondering if this is typical, especially on older guns.
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Finally, does anybody know the purpose of this dimple in front of the disconnector?
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Overall, I’m really pleased the LB. Just have a couple of questions I thought some of the 1911 gurus here could shed some light on.

TIA,
Pete

[Jim Watson]

I have seen punch marks around the disconnector hole to tighten up a sloppy fit.

[azdover]

Thanks for the info

[T-TAC]

The dimple is to keep the Disconnector from moving which helps with the trigger pull.
Les Runs a 18.5 lb Variable recoil spring in his guns so that might not work well with the Square bottom firing pin stop.
I imagine the one from the Wilson kit is a 18 lb.
If you plan to run a Square bottom firing pin stop, you want a 16 lb recoil spring and a 23 lb mainspring. It's kinda a system.

I would be concern about the lack of a Vertical impact Surface or "Bowtie" where the back of the recoil spring guide sits.
This can cause premature beakage of the Barrel feet.

[azdover]

Since this is 19 year old used gun, I have no idea on the total rounds count. It could be a couple hundred or a couple thousand. Just based on it’s external appearance and general overall condition, I’m sure it’s at least past the recommended 500 hundred break in rounds.

I also had no clue if all the springs were original or had been previously replaced. I used the Wilson Combat kit since it comes with an 18.5# recoil spring since I was guessing that the gun had the more common 16# Government model recoil spring. I had hoped a stronger recoil spring would solve the FTF problem. I replaced the original main spring with the Wilson reduced power 19# to balance out the stronger recoil spring.

But the Wilson springs did not solve the intermittent FTF. Tuning the extractor seems to have taken care of that problem for the last hundred rounds of so far.

I’ll keep an eye on the frame and barrel lower lugs. When I first inspected the gun, the lower lug pocket and frame barrel bed had some pretty evident machine marks. The picture showing the bow tie is pretty much the shape that I got it in. There were some small gouges in the frame barrel bed from some sharp edges on the barrel bottom. I hit the rough areas with some 600 grit wet/dry sand paper, more to remove the sharp areas and any raised metal from the parts that were self machining. I was careful not to remove more than the absolute minimum - more of a buff and fluff.

Despite of how it looks, bow tie appears to be doing its job. I’ve checked the VIS after marking the lower barrel lugs with a light coating of lip stick (the Wife’s, not mine). The lugs appear to be making very light contact with VIS. Hopefully that’s due to the thickness of the lip stick. Checking it after a range session, I can’t see any sign of lug/VIS contact in the built up powder residue. Hopefully, all the parts are worn in enough against each other that broken lower lugs won’t be a factor (famous last words?). And maybe the square bottomed FPS will help some.

One thing that’s been a constant is the trouble free ejection. Despite having to adjust the extractor, changing the springs, or adding a square bottom FPS, the gun has always empty brass about 10 feet at 2-3 o’clock. And none of those changes have affected how it feels when firing - it’s been a very flat shooting, accurate weapon from day one.

Thanks for the tips,
Pete