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The Colt New Agent with its trench sight is a pretty good gun—except for the trench sight. That is a poorly considered and ineffective system. I think they offer it for reasons of nostalgia only; to me it serves no other purpose. It’s not fast and it sure is not precise. It is snag-free, I’ll grant you that but that can be had with much better sights. So, the question was, can the groove be taken out and still have enough metal left to put “real” sights on it? Yes. And what a fine little gun this is, it definitely passed the final test here: “Wish I could keep it”. Not a full custom-- I did not automatically replace everything.... Colt parts being pretty good stuff anyway.....


Function was fine as-received with a pretty wide variety of ammo, even with almost zero extractor tension… that’ll cause problems sooner rather than later.


Top view…. This is not really a full custom, but—I thought it merited the logo.


A little bit of a magwell job. Frontstrap checkering had to be done over the existing vertical serrations it came with. Sometimes this works, sometimes not….. in this case the existing serrations were very well centered and consistent. I checkered at the exact same LPI they were at—which came out at 17 ¼.


Fiber optic, per request. Green was not the spec’d color but it was what I had and not the color he said he didn’t prefer  . Anyway, easy enough to change. Front sight is made from scratch (prehard 4130). I wanted to have one that was less snaggy than what’s available and maybe more durable—even at the expense of less light having a path to the FO shaft. In the end—I think it works at least as well as those available. The sight is T-slotted in from the front and cross-pinned with two 1/16 split pins.



Before refinish. Finish is Brownells Baking Laquer over manganese phosphate on the steel parts, BL only on the aluminum parts. Yes, I kinda would have preferred a re-anodize but with few reliable sources, and considering time, and money—we didn’t do it. Anyway there is still plenty of anodize left where it really matters, like rails and feedramp. The grip safety is an aluminum one from EGW and the MSH is the plastic factory original—here again I cut the checkering in to match the original serrations which came out to something 18.6 LPI. Gave it a nice radius at the bottom, checkering stopped short to go easy on clothing. This also makes it very comfortable to handle.

Nice! Right off the bat I was wondering how you were going to handle the front sight mounting. I like the outcome of that.

Wow, the work on the slide and the sights is just amazing.....

My original intent was to silver-braze the front sight in but I decided it wouldn't hurt to have it removable, and especially for a sight this dainty, two 1/16 roll pins will hold it forever. But were I to do another just like it I might make it a single vertical pin, down through one of the vertical light windows. So it would actually be a rivet from the bottom of one of the cross windows to the top of the slide bore, in other words, not visible but you could still knock it out and remove the sight for repair or replacement.

I weighed everything carefully; don't have it in front of me but it came out close to this: this gun with 9 rounds of 9mm is a half pound lighter than my all-steel Officers in .45 with 7 rounds of 185-grainers. And maybe 5/8" shorter (maybe 1/2" I didn't measure that). Accuracy (now that it has actual sights) is fine. Not fantastic, but as good as many full-sized nines. After my experiences with Colt Defenders being extremely accurate, like better than 5" Colts bought the same day, I was hoping for something really amazing, but I will settle for really good.

The short lockup of shorter 1911's means that in battery, the barrel points down more than in a 5". This usually means the rear sight has to be higher or mounted higher. If you look in the selections of Heinie and Novak you'll find they offer rear sights in an Officers version which is higher by I forget how much. If the rear is too low the front is likely to wind up being nothing but a stub and/or the gun will shoot way low. In the case of this little feller what with getting the trench out and the resultant wide flat, things kinda fell in place.

.050" difference in standard and tall. .325" vs .375"

That is really a sharp sight. Must really be easy to pick up with those of us with older corrective vision

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Be safe and keep the brass flying

Terry Peters

Do your research but you get what you pay for front end or back end
http://www.pt-partners.com
@ptpartners_tx

This project started out as a possible answer to a "senior's carry gun" question. A smaller, and lighter, option for a guy who likes the 1911 pattern. And whose eyes appreciate helpful contrast on the business end. In discussions with Ned, the New Agent appeared to offer a good starting point. I found a lightly used one at a decent price, and spent time with it at the range. Function was good, but that gutter sight, or at least my ability to use it, was abysmal. Ned said he could work with it.

So, it started out as a simple "let's get rid of the gutter and put some visible sights on it. I like the fiber optic, recognizing its shortcoming in the dark. And the relative fragility too many of them have, particularly when trying to maximize the surface area to gather light, but leaving a large section of fiber exposed. So Ned the magician pulled this front sight out of his hat. He removed the gutter, except for the section used for the front sight.

And then, he was done . . . but not quite. I had kept up peppering him with the "What do you think about . . .?" questions. Pretty soon, there was a beavertail here, a mag well there. And who'd a thunk he could turn stripes into plaid (well, serrations into checkering). A beavertail here, a mag well there. As Ned said, not a full house, but one fine little carry piece. Can't wait to get my hands on it!!!

I really dig the minutia like the perfectly milled holes for the front sight retaining pins. Making neat perfectly positioned holes off center in a rounded piece of hardened steel is still a minor miracle for me. Ball end mill?

Spot-on, Bbbbill.

Beautiful work as always Ned! Love the approach and the workmanship is 1st class.

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FedEx delivered the wee beastie from Ned today, and I immediately headed to the range for a test run. Well, not immediately. Ned had packed this thing so well, I thought I was opening one of those Matryoshka doll sets - - - a box within a box within a box.

Range trip was as expected. The gun ran well (one hard primer in some cheap ammo, and one failure to feed from slide lock from a brand new fully loaded magazine, so I can't blame the gun for either). After a few mags to get used to the trigger, the sights were pretty much spot on.

No complaints, only kudos. One fine little shooter. Very, very well pleased. THANK YOU NED!!

Congratulations on picking up such a nice looking piece; enjoy....

Nice pistol, Ned.

And those of you who have not received a package from Ned, I view it as a test. “If I can’t get this package open, then I am unworthy of its contents.”

Sometimes I have even contemplated the use of power tools.

Thank you. Nice to realize a shared experience. I was debating whether getting out my Sawzall would save time.

I sent a tabletop pantograph engraving machine to a guy one time. Once he got the machine out he moved into the box and lives there to this day

Nice job, Ned. As you know, I like the mini’s.

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CT Brian Custom
'Blending Art With Firepower'