This was actually the first time I'd handled the Golfball treatment, and the first time I'd had a chance to really get into some of Chuck's work. I was disappointed-- when I went over it with my OptiVisor and tried like hell to find something to complain about. Chuck and I talk once in a while by phone and we always joke about how similar our approaches are to certain things, for guys who've not yet met and obvioulsy never worked together. Our backgrounds in metalworking are not awfully different, and that explains part of it. We also suspect that we are twins separated at birth (Ned looks off into space, pondering this, and absent-mindedly knocks his coffee over, spilling some on his leg. Miles away in Arizona, Chuck says, "Youch!")
Dunno what to say about the Golfball treatment other than, it is good. Wish I could call it mine..... it gives plenty o' grip and is very durable. The wide-openness of it means it won't get all clogged-- it's self-cleaning. The trigger on this gun is stupendous, Chuck obviously has this down (I still find trigger work trying sometimes). His fit-up of the grip safety is flawless. Chuck gets most of the credit on this gun.
The top end: the bushing is an EGW blank. I buy these basically roughed out, the end and the bore are not finished. I bore them to fit the barrel, then angle them one degree, and rebore, so the barrel has the space it needs to link down, but there is not unnecessary slop. They make them with several OD's so that you can get one that's a proper, no-wobble-but-no-bushing-wrench fit in the slide bore. The flange is extra thick on these do I sculpt them down as you see in the pics.
The hole in the recoil spring bushing is something I've been doing a couple different ways for a while now, either one in the front as seen here, or three holes equally spaced around the side, so they are not visible. They are simply drain holes, and probably just another exercise in the theoretical, but, especially here in Michigan, it would not be so far-fetched to have the gun get dunked, filling that part with water, and then have it freeze. Especially, say, a SWAT guy with the gun in a leg holster where it's exposed to the weather on a minus-10 day...... although, granted, if he's drenched and outside in minus-10, he's got other problems.....
This top end has an extra extractor (Wilson Bullet-Proof) fitted and matched at the rear with the texture on the rear of the slide ("tree bark", I like that, Al). The barrel is a Wilson, and I got some real decent groups with it, will have to check the file before I say just what they were. 'Course, Chuck's trigger made this a little easier.
The flat on the top of the slide-- I like to get sights a little lower than the standard, per-instructions installation, and this necessitates a flat. The Wilson sights, personally I think they are underrated. The more I use them, the more I like the shape. I mean, sight-picture wise, I find all three of the leading fixed sights the same, except that the Wilson in slanted down on the sides. A possible, theoretical, infinitessimal advantage. Or maybe it's just diffeent.
Chuck had sent the gun with the Davidson grips, they were black and turquoise streaked (dunno if that was happenstance or if it's part of that whole Southwest Natureboy thing, Chuck...?). I could not make myself like the turquoise, so I dyed them all black. I find that the dye penetrates G10 about .005, so it's pretty durable except for major gouges. Anyway, the turquoise streaks were maybe 20% to start so these should stay black over the long haul, no problem.
Steve, thanks for more great pics, and guys, thanks for the compliments on the work. Chuck, thanks for the challenge!
PS, Steve, thanks again for dubbing this the "Ched" gun and not the "Nuck" gun
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you always like to think about how the guns will turn out when the styles collide. This team of Ned Christiansen and Chuck Rogers was never going to disappoint. They could have changed sights on a Glock and it would have been cool. 
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