Thursday, April 21, 2011

Of Dogs and Guns...

So early this afternoon, I step out onto my deck and literally trip over a box that had been set there without my knowledge by UPS.

Some watchdog I have, right?
Sigh...

I open the box, and I find a ton of bubble wrap around...a smaller box. I open that and it's filled with styrofoam peanuts. Digging through that, I find more bubble wrap.

I'm getting pissed now.

I slice all of the tape holding that together, and I find this:

Heck, I remember that pistol. It's my Argentine Colt Sistema Model 1927. The last time I saw it, it looked like this:
I sent it out in March for some work. That would be March of 2010. It's been gone thirteen months (don't get me started on that) but now it's back. And now it has a new deep charcoal parkerizing that's still seeping oil, a Wilson Combat ambidextrous safety, Trijicon night sights, and a trigger that breaks like a fine glass rod.

I'm liking this.

Quickly I grabbed a bag of ammo and my range bag and I headed off to the range for a test.

The plus side: It ran flawlessly, and it doesn't group--it just makes ragged multi-round holes in the target. Wow.

The downside: It's shooting a bit high. Not high enough to miss center mass on the evil-doers, but just high enough to keep me from using it for pistol matches or classes where the shooting has to be precise. I'll have to see if I can't get a taller front sight. Also, it's not ejecting the magazines with any real force. When I hit a mag release, I want to hear that mag hitting the ground every time. But that should be an easy fix.

Overall, color me happy with the pistol.

Now as for the watchdog...

12 comments:

  1. Whoa! What was with the previous grips? Was it once owned by Elvis?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wait! I thought he shipped out on a fleet boat! Nice Pistol though!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow your UPS guy leaves a pistol unattended on the porch for delivery? Dang, mine won't even leave a small box of ammo without a signature.
    Go figure.

    Nice re-work by the way...although I liked the Elvis grips. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:27 PM

    Congrats on finally getting the gun back. Jeez, 13 months? That's insane!

    Yep, with every post Murphy reminds me more and more of my dog. I got back from campus today, came inside, shouted "HELLO!" Mama Raptor shouted "HELLO!" back, and the dumb dog didn't even budge.

    -Raptor

    ReplyDelete
  5. Who did you use for the work?

    What fire control parts did you go with?

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ Keads: He's back. And if he ever stops messing with me today, I'm going to work on getting more pictures of that boat posted.

    He's killing me this morning.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The smith is Mike of M & M Gunsmithing in Alexandria, VA. He used to be with Interarms back when Sam Cummings was alive and he operates as a one-man shop out of one of their old buildings along the waterfront. I've used him before, notably for my FAL refinishing. He does good work, but the jobs have always taken forever. Still, if you have time to wait, he's a great choice.

    The thumb safety, sear, disconnector and new ejector were Wilson Combat.

    The hammer is original--I just like it's look and feel too much to change.

    The trigger is a mystery to me right now. That wasn't supposed to get swapped out--I just wanted the safety installed and the trigger pull cleaned up a bit. I worked at it myself for a while but couldn't get things right so I had Mike take a whack at it since I was already going to have him refinish it and install the new sights. But Mike had problems getting it all to work right when re-assembled too, so he switched out the trigger for that adjustable trigger on his own. I don't know what it is and I haven't been able to get an e-mail reply back from him about it yet. But it sure breaks nicely, and I was totally unable to induce any malfunctions in the gun yesterday so once I fix the magazine release issue, I'll likely carry it when the 1911 mood strikes.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Don't get my husband started on the shipping of firearms. Our local "pack and ship" place is populated by Obama supporters.

    Murphy naps like our Bouie! And he's SOOO handsome!

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Murphy, assume the non-violent position!"

    ReplyDelete
  10. LOL- Good dog??? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. OOOOO!
    Me like!
    *drooling*

    ReplyDelete
  12. The trigger probably had to be swapped out because the one-piece machined steel triggers in the Sistemas and older GI Colts will cause sear bounce and doubling if you take the pull much below 8#.

    If he sent you the original trigger back, you can get a few bucks for it on Ebay; some folks use 'em for GI restorations.

    ReplyDelete