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Photo of the day... the bottom end of barrel fitting for a current Colt “Classic” project gun.

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Heirloom Precision
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Photo of the day... turning the barrel bushing for the current Colt “Classic” project gun.

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Heirloom Precision
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Photo of the day... measuring and setting the headspace on the current Colt “Classic” project gun. Once the breechface is squared and the barrel fit to make solid contact with no end shake the headspace can be measure/set using a ”GO” gauge and feeler gauges.

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Heirloom Precision
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Photo of the day... sight work on the current Colt “Classic” project gun.

Rear of frame and slide is blended, rear sight dovetail machining, and narrowing the front sight to .110”... which I almost got perfect.

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Photo of the day... delivery day for a very patient client. Everything is important.

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Photo of the day... slide stop and slide stop notch engagement. Gotta’ make sure the contact at the back is square and that there is enough room at the front. Sometimes the notch gets re-cut, sometimes the slide stop, sometimes both.

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Photo of the day... beavertail blending and shaping before and after on the current Colt “Classic” Government Model project.

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Photo of the day... adding a hard stop to the thumb safety on the current Colt “Classic” Government Model project.

I like using these Colt thumb safeties, they are on all my personal guns, and occasionally a client will request one for their build. Most of the time the detent pocket doesn’t align with the ‘stop’ surface that connects the safety lug to the backing plate. The result is a mushy feeling once the safety has been disengaged... basically the safety will move all the way down where it contacts the stop surface and then be pushed slightly upwards by the detent/detent pocket.

I want the safety to stop here in concert with the safety detent/detent pocket...



... but the stop surface allows the safety to move to here...



Machine a small hole in the stop surface, silver solder in pin, cut to size and insure full contact with the frame window, and blend the safety as needed.

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Verah nahze! Mushy, bouncy-back safeties, I hate 'em too.... sometimes there's more work getting the right safety feel than getting the trigger just so. That was a clever fix and great job with the silver.

Agreed, very elegant.

Thanks gents.... stuff like this is lotsa' fun.

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Photo of the day... the best view from the bench, cutting the 30lpi front strap checkering.

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Photo of the day... 30lpi front strap checkering from laid out to full depth on the current Colt “Classic” Government Model project gun.

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Heirloom Precision
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Photo of the day... laying out the 30lpi checkering pattern on the mainspring housing of the current Colt “Classic” Government Model project gun. Once the vertical lines are started the masking tape acts as a visual guide for starting the horizontal lines.

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Heirloom Precision
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Photo of the day... everything will eventually break.

The sear spring from my personal gun seen here, note the broken tab from the left leaf. It happened sometime in the last 2K rounds or so... never affected the function of the gun.

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Heirloom Precision
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Photo of the day... checking for even and complete engagement between the hammer and sear.

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Photo of the day… some pre-range session pics of the current Colt “Classic” Government Model project gun.

Once the gun is shot and the front sight height is confirmed I’ll start the final details like machining the ball-cuts, rear slide serrations, blending the front sight and inlaying the gold line, de-horn, etc.

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Photo of the day... beveled mag-well before and after on the current Colt “Classic” Government Model project gun.

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Heirloom Precision
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Photo of the day... one of the last modifications I add to a build is rear slide serrations. Here is a before and after look on the current Colt “Classic” Government Model project gun.

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Heirloom Precision
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Photo of the day... prep and polish for the current Colt “Classic” Government Model project gun. The diagonal lines you see are the reflection of the rafters in my shop.

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Heirloom Precision
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Photo of the day... before and after, the completed Colt “Classic” Government Model project.

Thanks to another great client for letting me do what I do.

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Photo of the day... the starting point for a new project, completely disassembled and ready to measure. The parts above the slide are what is generally discarded while the parts below the frame may be useable depending on the condition of the parts, scope of the project, and build details.

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That's a lot of hardware to say adios to.

I'm in agreement on your parts-to-discard for the most part and for most projects. Especially the mainspring housing and trigger-- EW!

That FP spring looks like there almost no spring in it although it looks like a brand-new gun. You'd think they would upgrade that at the factory.

I would not use Colt fire-control on a high end gun either but I have actually found them to be very good stuff, and still have Colt sear and diconnectors in my two main 1911's.

I notice the Series 80 parts stay in. You guys find that the 80 extras are not a problem in getting a good trigger pull, and no long-term problems? I know that in the early days I found one after another where the firing pin shoulder was marred, and the plunger chewed up, from the firing pin having to muscle its way past the plunger, which was not always fully lifted by the levers.

Timing the Series 80 levers is everything... and generally no issue getting an excellent 3.5# trigger weight with them installed.

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Yeah amazing the (short) length of the FP spring.... like, why bother??

I like the current crop of Colt slide stops but I inspect and hardness test them all individually. I've no issue with Colt disconnectors either and one of my personal guns still uses it.

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Photo of the day... first things first, flattened and serrated slide top to start the machining on the current Colt Government Model project.

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I don't think I ever went to 3.5 with a S80 but I rarely go into that territory anyway. Patrick, the mangled FP's-- I believe that is mostly from the rebounding of the FP against the FP Plunger during recoil. It's not pretty but I've never seen it actually interfere with function. My biggest beef with S80 is the beating the bottom of the slide takes from the hammer, at the side of the disconnector cut, again a rebounding effect (of the hammer). I never really studied it deeply since, ugly as it is, it does not seem to cause actual problems.

Photo of the day... boring photo of necessary indication... the glamorous life of pistolsmithing.

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Heirloom Precision
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