I found this Delta about two years ago at my local dealer. It had been lightly customized, with a jeweled Clark barrel, full-length guide rod, polished slide, a God-awful extended mag release and an untouched extended thumb safety. I attempted a beavertail installation, and muffed the top radius cut. Soon thereafter, my good friend, Mark Downing took me along with him on a trip to visit Ted and Jason. The subject of my poorly Delta came up during the visit. I was told it was no big deal and could easily be repaired, so as soon as I got home, I mailed the Delta off, and proceeded to forget all about her.
In late October, I got a call from Ted. He said it was my Delta's turn on his bench. After asking if my expectations for the gun had changed, (and they had), we talked about what I would like done. I asked him if I would be better off finding an un-butchered Delta for him. He told me not to worry, and that was certainly good enough for me. So, I spewed out a laundry list of things I'd liked to have done: high cut and checker the front strap at 30 LPI, checker the MSH at 30 LPI, flat top and serrate the slide, border the slide, serrate the rear of the slide, install some "decent" sights, get rid of the full-length guide rod if he thought it was a good idea, remove the jeweling from the barrel hood, shape the thumb safety, and "anything else" that would improve overall reliability. He suggested also replacing the internals with modern, higher quality replacements, and getting rid of the oversized magazine release. That's all that was discussed. I felt a little guilty adding all the things I did to my original request, but Ted didn't seem bothered in the least.
The pics show the result. As you can see, he went far above and beyond what I requested. In addition to what's obvious in the pics, he refit the safety I had (tried) to install, hand checkered the front strap and MSH at 30 LPI, blended the MSH to the frame, hand bevelled the mag well, installed a Nowlin mag release (angled, serrated at 25 LPI, relieved to prevent mag binding), a "Best Quality" trigger job using a Wilson Combat hammer and C&S sear and disconnector, replaced and tuned 80-Series components, re-cut feed ramp, polished and throated barrel, re-crowned barrel, installed extended ejector, installed EGW oversized firing pin stop, installed bar-stock extractor, blended rear of slide and frame, flattened and serrated slide top with curved arrow pattern, installed Professional-Grade rear sight with wrapped edges, serrated rear of slide at 50 LPI and blended to rear sight, installed front sight and blended to slide, serrated front sight at 75 LPI, added 24K gold-line inlay in front sight, fit and staked bar-stock plunger tube, installed G.I. recoil system, bordered slide, prepped pistol with satin matte rounds and polished slide flats. The pics show the result. I added the slim VZ grips and weird grip screws upon its return.
She's a shooter! The first two shots I took off hand at 15 yards punched a single, oval hole. The next six were very nicely placed as well. She is far, far more accurate than I'll ever be. I'm absolutely overwhelmed!
-Matt
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FAQ
. Yours is gorgeous. A local shop has a used Delta that I've had my eye on, but the price is pretty high. Mr. Yost did a nice S70 for me years ago when he first started out. Very nice. 