I had to post this…it’s just too cool! Courtesy of Girls and Guns

Interservice was more nerve-racking than I thought it would be…as a shooter. Last year I was consumed with training, bugging the Army and the Marines incessantly (to wit, they gracefully endured my presence, LOL), so I didn’t have to deal with going to the line at all. Let me tell you this: no matter how steady you think your nerves are – they’re not. I didn’t ‘feel’ nervous or jittery – but my shots broke like those of a regular CATM guy, LOL (yea, that’s a poke at the AF’s focus on marksmanship…or lack of it ). I couldn’t pull it together, and I had no idea why. Now I’m not a 2600 shooter by any means – but I’ve definitely done better at practice than I did at Interservice. So the only stray from the norm would be the environment. I guess standing next to some 20 something Marine who can knot-hole a .45 at 50 yards plays havoc with your mind, no matter how you think you ‘feel’, LOL. A hearty salute to PFC Lamb though – this fine Marine helped me pull some of it back together with some quick guidance on the line. I feel a bit of a kindred spirit with this guy because (without getting too much into it) we’ve both gotten a bit of the shaft from our respective services — that and he’s from Jersey; he can’t be all bad.

Then there’s Perry…

Holy crap! When the experienced folks tell you shooting at Camp Perry is unlike any other place in the country – they’re not freakin kidding! I didn’t have the pleasure of the Camp Perry rain, thank God, but the sun and the wind…how the heck do you train for that? I swear, it must be some type of gravitational thing or something because 50 yards at your home range doesn’t mean squat when compared to 50 yards at Perry. Sight adjustments? Forget about it. Due to my inexperience, I didn’t use the warm-up day…at home my sights are dead on, dialed in, doped to perfection. At Perry? Not so much. Anyway, there’s no cover over the firing points, so that’s not something I’m used to. You tote your gear between the 50 and 25 lines; again, something I’m not used to. The sun was unrelenting and the wind was erratic, at best. Trying to hold a .45 that’s been sitting in the sun for a few hours (i.e. metal frame, I’ll let you figure that one out) against a wind that forces you to aim three targets over just to hit your own–only to instantly die when your shot breaks–is absolutely insane. I did what I could, to the best of my current ability. Lucky for me, I’m still a Marksman so there were no huge expectations. I was randomly disappointed with my performance, but did get some good experience and had enough positive things that didn’t make the whole thing a wash.

Of course, there’s a few things which make it all better…the camaraderie, the vendors and – of course – Nick’s Roadhouse, and that lovely, blonde waitress with the glasses who kept me in Jameson, Smithwick’s and Guinness, LOL.

Okay – so I mentioned the machinist, above. We’re trying to get back into the game of supporting the AF teams; trying very hard. I’ve pissed off and ruffled the feathers of many, many people for the past bunch of years to get us where we’re at. The word around the campfire is that we’ve got the money for a support trailer, so I begged and pleaded to bring another set of eyes to Interservice and Perry. There had to be someone else to either support the ideas I had or refute them; an unbiased opinion, as it were. Unfortunately WR-ALC wouldn’t support the expense. Since I joined the AF team I’ve been doing what I can to support them completely out of pocket; paying my way to events (the ones which WR-ALC “let” me go to), buying my own tools (I’ve got probably $3k personally invested) and the lot of it. Sad to say, I have only 3 years or so left (and am due for orders) – I assume any support will die when I’m gone…what an ego, huh? LOL. Luckily there’s an AWESOME team captain who helps me cut costs by putting me up and providing food, if he can.

Anyway – the machinist stepped up – BIG TIME! He offered to go with me out of pocket…yep, on his own dime. Again, the team captain came through and helped us both out; I even saw a few $$ for gas…as I said, he rocks! The machinist spent the total of a few weeks (both events) getting drawings, talking the lingo with the other services and assessing our ability/or lack of it to support the AF teams. Granted, for the moment, this is only the pistol side – but we’ve gotta start somewhere. We’ve got fingers in the rifle side right now with a last-minute shift in ideology from Services (the agency who owns the AF shooting program), thanks to Elisha and Steve. They were able to send one of our guys to the rifle Interservice – I can’t wait for that debriefing.

Slowly but surely things are coming around for the Air Force. But soon, they’re gonna have to sh*t or get off the pot, either commit to it 100% or kill it completely. This half-assed engagement is completely unacceptable. Mad thanks, again, go out to the Army (Travillian, Throlson, Mr. Young, Haidu – I never spell anyone’s name right), the Marine Corps (Tweedle, Sunday, Rains, Capt Traves), the National Guard (Norwood and that guy who fit that slide in 5 mins) and all those others who endured the two of us this year – I hope someday we can return the favor.

Check out the article:

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123214087

Days 2-4: The Slide and the Frame; Continued

Rafe did a really good job at truing his slide, so moving on to the frame to see how it would fit would be our next part of the ‘slide and frame’ process. I feel it necessary to mention a thing or two about the mil-spec slides, like the one’s you can get from Sarco. They’re inexpensive and they’ll do the job – HOWEVER, they’re not oversized. That means you WILL have to work the frame rails and swage or peen them – unless you have the wherewithal to weld the bottoms of the slide. Yes, that can be done – but it’s A LOT of work. You’re almost better off spending the few extra bucks on a Caspian slide – but if you’re on an actual $$$ budget; elbow grease is cheaper than parts, I guess.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are numerous ways to fit the frame rails. Some are preferred by some smiths, some are preferred by others – but some are the only ‘smart’ option. In a perfect world, with perfect parts, all you would have to do is stone the frame rails to the proper dimensions. In that world the slide would slip on with no play – done right, I haven’t even needed oil. That kind of fit is so beautiful it makes baby Jesus cry, hehe.

On our world, that’s not the case. Some would say that truing the slide caused our problems with perfect fit and caused the need to swage/peen…to wit, I would ask; would you fit a dimensionally atrocious slide to a true frame? If your answer is ‘yes’…then I don’t want you working on my guns, hehe. Seriously, some mil-specs aren’t bad and aggressive truing isn’t necessary – but as I said, that was not the case here. The biggest part of this whole ordeal is to teach Rafe how to get it done – so having a ‘worst case scenario’ situation is actually good for him.

I know I’m chasing bunnies a lot – but I realized not everyone may know what swaging or peening the rails means, or what the process is for. Real quick; the end goal is a tight slide to frame fit, right? In cases where the dimensions of the slide and the frame differ to a degree where there’s unwanted play, the rails of the frame have to be ‘moved’ to get tighter against the slide rails. This is done by ‘swaging’ or ‘peening’ or both. Swaging is basically ‘dropping’ the rails, pushing them straight down, moving the metal…think of a set of stairs. Swaged rails will have a step down because the rail has been ‘lowered’ or ‘dropped’ to close the gap. Peening is basically ‘bending’ the rails. There’s no step but, rather, a bend – in many cases, it’s clearly noticed. Swaging is preferred because it lends itself to keeping the sides of the frame rails true, while peening effectively reduces the amount of surface contact between the sides of the rails and the slide because it creates an angle to the sides of the rails. That’s the real quick version – I’ll get more in depth at a later time.

Rafe started with swaging. First, of course, he had to figure out how far to go and which slide fitting bars to use. This is done a few different ways, primarily by measurement or feel. I chose to teach him both. Oh yea – you NEED slide fitting bars or you’ll screw the pooch royally. The slide fitting bars are pieces of ground tool-steel that you insert into the frame when swaging or peening. They are there to take the place of the slide and be representative of the amount of play which must be removed. Anyway…using a caliper, he took dimensions of his slide and frame and noted them via a little doodle he made in his notebook. I think, based on that, we were going to have to start with a .114″ bar to get us within .002″ fit. Then I had him install the slide, run it back to the ‘theoretical’ point of lockup, and give it a jiggle. Then, remove the slide and go through all the bars until he found one that felt like it had the same amount of play – that’s the ‘feel’ part. Yep – the .114″ bar seemed like a good place to start.

He installed the .114″ bars on the holder and set it in the frame and readied the swaging punch. Note: Dad’s – TEACH YOUR BOYS THE SIMPLE USE OF HAND TOOLS for pete’s sake!!! Single Mom’s – MAKE YOUR BOYS TAKE SHOP!!! What’s this world coming to? Poor Rafe had to get ridiculed for about an hour because he swung the hammer like a girL. My bad if you’re a girl who knows what you’re doing…BTW, if you are, and you’re single, drop me a line, LOL. Aaaanyway…Swaging or peening is not done ‘gently’, unless you want to be there for 10 years. You should always be ‘careful’ – but you’re trying to move metal. That’s not going to be accomplished with diplomacy and feel-good words, hehe. Use the freakin hammer.

So after I got all that out of my system with Rafe he went to town. Swaging will generally take longer than peening (which is why a lot of guys go right to peening) because you’re trying to move more surface area. Needless to say – as I mentioned above – 6 of the 9 collective hours were taken up by swaging…coupled with my ridicule of his technique, of course. When he turns 21 I’ll have to buy him a beer to make up for it, LOL. Kudos to him though, he takes it like a man and presses on. He swaged a bit and then tried the fit.

Remember – after each swaging or peening process, you’ll have to return the width of the rails back to the correct dimensions. Since it’s not all that much in this go-round, Rafe was able to stone them back. After cleaning, he’d attempt to fit again. If there was play, he’d keep going – back through the process again. Now, I think I mentioned way-back-when, that when/if he comes to a point where he’s going to screw up – I let him do it and don’t stop him (baring something that would ruin the weapon, of course). I’m an instructor, after all, and sometimes people learn better by failure. A few times he’d not stone enough or fail to break the sharp edges and WHAM! – the thing would gall almost instantly. That’s when the metal kind of ‘rolls’ up on itself and creates a kind of ‘skid mark’ – it’s pretty bad juju, but not irreparable. When that happened, Rafe would have to almost start over completely – find the gall, stone, re measure everything and get back to it.

On the 4th day, the fit of the slide and frame was pretty good and REAL close. So, I opted to have Rafe peen, instead of swage, the last .0005″ or so. It’s not ‘normal’ to do that – rather, it’s not a ‘usual’ step in the process. You generally do one or the other. However, I made the call because of how close we were to a good fit. In fact, most would have probably left it where it was, it was match-fit – but I’m not most. There was a slight bit of vertical movement which could be felt but not tested with a feeler gauge — that’s pretty damn small, LOL. So that’s where we’re at – he’s using the fitting bars and peening the last little bit out. He only does a few taps, then fits, a few taps then fits – toss on some lapping compound, fit it, clean it, fit it again. I think he’s getting tired of this part, hehe – but he’ll be happy when the thing marks under 1 1/2″ at 50 yards.

Back in the day, before the amazing availability of ‘match grade’ barrels, the mil-spec was common. It often required welding of the hood and lugs so it could be re-cut to fit. Often it needed throating – which is NOT the same as re-dimensioning the feed ramp, as other guys may lead you to believe; the ramp and the throat are NOT the same thing. So, word of note – those of you dumping out cash to have your barrel ‘throated’ by ‘reliability guru’s’ (cough) who inevitably end up merely running a dremel over the feed ramp – you’re getting ripped off. That’s all I’ll say about that. Anyway…where was I? Oh yea – so mil-specs usually got their chamber reamed and throated (depending on the ammo) and needed the feed ramp enlarged to facilitate better feeding; especially/specifically for wad-ammo.

These days though, there’s myriad barrel types from which to choose. Drop in fit, Gunsmith fit, Sort-of drop in, Sort-of Gunsmith, and of course, mil-spec…the list goes on. As I’ve always said and written, the barrel you decide on will be based on your wallet, need, ability of installing it and – of course – your opinion. For a true match grade barrel, you MUST have oversized dimensions in areas like the hood and the lugs. It isn’t always necessary, these days, to ream or throat the barrel, or even to re-shape the feed ramp, for that matter – many can be bought good to go. That doesn’t mean that the barrel isn’t any good because you don’t have to ream it or throat it…just for the record. For the average Joe – a ‘drop in’ match barrel could be just the thing he needs; remember, if you have an old gun or shot-out barrel, a new barrel will ALWAYS help – even a drop in. Your need will determine that. If you’re a beer can shooter (empty, of course, we don’t waste here at VG ) you have absolutely no need to spend the money to get a barrel fitted. Conversely, if you’re a 2650 Bullseye shooter – you’d be a choad if you bought a drop in and expected to stay in your class.

Now – back to brands. “Jim” asked me my opinion on Fusion barrels. First I will say – mad props to “Made in USA”…I’d probably give 5 stars just because of that…if I didn’t have a little experience with them, of course Unfortunately, they only get “2″ from me…that’s not to say that I’m instituting a star system or anything; just thought I’d stick with the metaphor, hehe. The pro’s are that they’re sexy as hell (clean machining is always a HUGE plus), their ‘drop in’ is better than some and they have a very good variety for almost any 1911 type. The cons are; too expensive for what they are and what they can do. Questionable QC standards – I had two barrels brought to me whose lower lugs were sheared off; not broken – but completely shredded from the barrel. RC tests (hardness) were all jacked up and not even close to the usual mil-spec of 53-56.5. Yea, the guy’s ammo probably played a role, but surprisingly the chamber was fine…it was really odd. Finally, another barrel’s rifling at the crown was incomplete and horribly burred. It didn’t look like the shooter had messed with it – he might have; all customers lie – but there were clear signs of machining flaws. Now, I am NOT saying they’re trash – 3 barrels is hardly enough for me to form a real opinion; I’m an optimist. It just sucks if you’re the guy who bought the barrel that was made at 4:59 PM on a Friday, hehe. I didn’t have the pleasure of dealing with Fusion, these weren’t my guns and I have no idea if the shooters ever went to Fusion to rectify the situation – so I can’t speak to the customer service. I say – buy one. Yep, despite the former stuff – buy one if it meets your needs. If customer service is good, they should be able to fix any issues if needed – apart from that, I think my little window of experience is probably a tiny hiccup and not indicative of the products as a whole. Although, I’d put a KKM up against them any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

He decided he wanted to build it himself…so I obliged. From 0900 – 1200 on Saturdays, until he’s done, he comes to my house and that’s what we’re doing…building his next .45. He already has one from me; an un-fancy, mil-spec 1911 which I built for him…his team took 1st place at nationals last year (with his scores near the top), so that makes me happy, LOL. It cost his mother under $400, held under 2″ with handloads and is a shining testament to my thumbed nose at the ‘idea’ that a 1911 has to cost $3000 to be any good. Of course, I didn’t charge labor – that was my ‘gift’ to the Junior program – so maybe that’s where the discrepancy lies, hehe. Makes me wonder how much is being charged for ‘labor’ these days…meh, gotta make a living, I guess.

Anyway the project was officially started on the 17th of October 2009. He was commanded (:P) to buy the Kuhnhausen book because, since I actually broke down and bought it, I find it to be a very good tool. Since Rafe has a sparse knowledge of what he’s reading, I’m there to explain it and show him how to complete what he needs to. That and I’m pretty sure his lovely mother doesn’t want him to build a “shop” in his bedroom, LOL. After some lessons in various techniques, we got right into it. For the record…I’m just instructing (translated: drinking coffee and laughing at his fear of hacking metal, LOL); Rafe is doing all of the work.

Day 1: The Slide and Frame Fit

Rafe uses an Alpha Precision rail guage, installed into the slide, as a foundation for measuring the height of the slide rails. He measures them with a caliper fitted with a depth base – a depth micrometer works best, but I don’t have one, LOL. He marks some points on the slide with a marker so he knows where he took his measurements, with the idea that he needs to ‘cut’ the slide rails to a uniform height…this is called ‘truing the slide’. I had him measure the points three times each, ensuring the caliper was ‘zeroed’ each time. This was to make up for his having never used a caliper before.

After he took his measurements, he needed to ‘true’ the rails to a uniform depth. This can be done in a few ways, but it depends on the amount of metal that needs to be removed. It would make very little sense to load the slide up in the mill to take of .001″ of material…it’s just a waste of time. Stones might not take enough and a file might take too much – you have to find a happy medium. Luckily, Rafe’s slide measured out where he could afford using a file and finishing up with carbide paper and stones to clean it up. It was a perfect time to teach Rafe how to draw file…muahahaha. Of course, I’m nice (*cough*) so I let him practice on a piece of steel before I let him go to town on his slide.

Once he was confident and understood the filing method, he put his slide in the vise and started cutting. He cut and measured, cut and measured until he got to within a tiny breadth of his goal. Then he went to a stone to clean up his filing and paper marks…yes, I know the gauge is still in the slide It is imperative that all ‘metal chips’ be cleaned from every part, in every step of the process…so I gave Rafe a rag, hehe.

Of course, not all projects run completely smooth…Rafe decided that he was going to lose one of the tiny screws for the rail gauge…so I made him look for it. He never did find it, so he owes me one screw…I’m still waiting for it LOL.

So, that was day 1.