ltwguns.com

Greetings all. I've got a Colt LW Commander, circa 1976 or 78 if I recall.



I'm thinking about robbing the top end off for a caspian Ti frame...

This is one of the early LW commander slides - note the exposed extractor, depth of the cut on the opposite side, and material that has been removed forward of the locking lugs.

As I plan on using this for carry, I like the idea of using the lighter slide (10.2 oz with thefiring pin, extractor, etc installed).

Some questions for the Colt LW experts among us...

1. Are there any longevity concerns with this lightened slide? I shoot 5,000 plus rounds a year between USPSA and a couple training classes annually. I'm 30, so there is a lot more shooting to be done.

2. Does cutting the rear of the slide for Novaks, etc, require any special steps due to the missing metal?

3. How hard are these to come by? I ordered 2 identical frames and would like to have two identical slides.

If anyone has one, I may need another!

Thanks!

Look back on this page, there is a thread which has gone through everything with the LW Commander as I was asking the same ?'s

The thread is

? for the smiths re Pre Series 70 LW Commanders for Custom

and its just a few posts below this.

Check around first and you will find lots of people beat us to our ?'s and just running a search will help you get the answers a bit quicker.

Enjoy your LW

I have two from the earlly 60's

_________________
Kentucky Colonel, Tennessee Squire & Combat Leprechaun
"You won't rise to the occasion - you'll default to your level of training." Barrett Tillman

On the extractor side, where the lightening cut runs out, I've seen a few of them crack through to the breach face. This is not such a huge problem, it's not going to go catastrophic, but have seen one where a second crack started just to the outside, such that eventually (I felt) a piece woulda ctually fall out and leave the extractor unsupported.

They lightened these in exactly the wrong way, far as I'm concerned. On the other hand I'm sure a lot of them have never cracked. If I were to work with one, assuming it hadn't cracked, I'd be in there radiusing every little corner I could find to try and prevent cracking.

J Yagoda, your thread actually got me thinking - but my concerns aren't related to the frame at all. I've already got 2 Caspian Ti commander frames.

I'm actually looking for answers about the rear sight cut as much as anything else - if it has to be welded due to the depth of the lightning cuts, that isn't very appealing.

Cracking of these slides is something I've heard about, but not nearly like the frames - but I have to wonder if that is b/c the frames go FIRST.

I know a steel gun should last forever, but I'm wondering if a lightened steel slide on a Ti frame will also last forever And what lengths one must be willing to go to regarding welding the slide up with regard to the sights.

You can do any of the commonly encountered rear sight installations on these lightened slides. Bo-Mar, Heinie, Novak & Yo-Bo are all good to go.

The slide's are also lightened by scooping out the underside of the slide between the bushing area and the top locking lugs. I would probably not want to flat top one of these unless I measured carefully and found there was as much thickness in the scooped area as there was above the top locking grooves.

There's the normal thickness of slide material available for dovetailing the front sight.

_________________
shop.HarrisonCustom.com
www.HarrisonCustom.com

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

Whoooohoooo!

All irrelevant now as I just closed a deal on a Yost I'm going to carry - the whole kit and kaboodle (complete gun) will be up for sale soon.

Thats great!
Congrats and make sure to post pics for all of us to see when you get it.

I do not think you can go wrong with YoBo!!!!

_________________
Kentucky Colonel, Tennessee Squire & Combat Leprechaun
"You won't rise to the occasion - you'll default to your level of training." Barrett Tillman