There are a LOT of new Baers appearing on the forum recently, many to first time owners. I thought a reminder might be in order.
Baers come with very soft, urethane (Ed Brown?) shock buffs in them. Baer recommends 500rds before stripping and cleaning the gun, but these flimsy little grommets do not last that long. They become utterly shredded in <200rds and generally find their way into places you'd rather they not.
Now the reason Les recommends the 500, is that shooting the gun dirty for just those few rounds, helps perform a final "lapping" of the slide rails and smooths the gun out in just the right places. What the buff does/does not, is another story and has been beaten to death on there.
You have two options. Personally, I break all the rules and strip the gun out of the box for inspection and buffer removal. Otherwise, run about 150rds through it and then remove it. Either way, that thing needs to come out loooong before the recommended 500, or recoil spring interval.
If you don't want to interrupt the lapping process, leave your precious, self made carbon compound on the gun and complete the half case process.
Also, do not over lube your Baer. This really goes for all 1911s, but especially the uber-tight Baer. When lubing the gun, "wax on, wax off". You do not need to see the lube to insure that you have enough to work. Wipe it off. It's still there, doing it's work. As a rule of thumb, rack the slide several times after lubing. If you see lube collecting at the rear of the rails, you've over lubed.
The reason not to do this comes down to understanding that oil's job is to collect debris. It does it's job brilliantly. However, since there is no pump and filter in a 1911, the debris will sit right where you don't want it. The more oil, the more debris. Hence, the admonission to wipe it off.
I just thought this needed to be said for the sake of all the new Baer-o-philes.
Shoot lots and often.
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