I AM FURIOUS!

I bought a $2200 custom 1911 from a well known custom house whom I will not name. The gun is supposed to shoot 1.5� groups at 50 yards. More like 6� groups at 5 yards! To make matters worse, this gun was supposed to feed hollowpoints and semiwadcatters. It won�t even feed hardball!

To let you know how bad this gun was, the feed ramps on the frame and barrel did not match. The frame part of the ramp was about 1/32� higher than the ramp on the barrel. It took me a good 5 hours with a Dremel tool and jeweler�s files to get them to match. Now, you can hardly tell they are two different pieces of metal. Why can�t they build a $2200 gun this way?

But first, I had to get the gun apart. The bushing was so tight on the barrel, I almost couldn�t get it off using vise grips. I spent a couple hours filing the barrel so it rides smootly in the bushing. Let me tell you, it�s not easy filing down the barrel and keeping it round, but it looks pretty good now.

Now that I have spent the better part of a weekend correcting the gunmaker�s botched work, I take my new toy to the range. Every other round misfeeds. Did I mention this is factory hardball ammunition? Did I mention this gun cost over $2000? Okay, so I put the magazines aside and single load a few into the chamber. This piece of junk sprays the shots all over the place. I can�t even find the paper at 50 yards. I move the target up to 10 yards and the shots are still all over the place. After about two boxes of single loads, the extractor breaks and I�m about ready to throw this gun in the creek.

I have half a mind to ship this piece or crap back to the maker and ask for a refund. If I didn�t have to wait 11 months to get the gun, it would be in a box on the UPS truck right now. I will call up the manufacturer and give them one chance to make this gun shoot and function the way it should. Those bozos are about to get an earful.

H. C.

I would have sent it back before I started using a dremel or file on it. You just gave the gun smith the upper hand, He could say it is your fault.
I have been lucky so far, but if I had to send one off to be fixed, I wouldnt be happy either.
I hope every thing works out for you.

YOU FILED THE BARREL TO LOOSEN THE BARREL/BUSHING FIT?!?!?!?! Not the correct way to loosen up barrel/bushing tolerances! You should have honed the inside of the bushing. Always work on the cheapest part just in case you need to replace it after going a little too far.

And no wonder the extractor broke.....you fed single rounds into the chamber without a mag! What this does is allow the extractor to SNAP over the rim instead of the round sliding under the extractor as it is supposed to when fed from a mag.

I hate to say it but you just voided any and all warranty that pistol had!

Although I couldn't visualize what was wrong with the feed ramp issue...it probably wasn't as big a deal as you thought.

You shoulda shipped the gun back with a nasty note instead of 'home smithing' it.

Also...custom 1911's are usually very tight and need somewhere between 200-500 rounds run through it, even though you may have to hand cycle every round for awhile while keeping it dripping wet with lube, before it will run right. This should have been brought to your attention by the maker if he hadn't already broke it in.

Good Luck

Don't ya'll know a troll when you see one? Nobody's that dumb.

Right Henry?

Henry? That's right isn't it??

Henry!!! Lay the file down Henry, and slowly back away...

I ain't shittin', Henry!!

And stay away from the wheelbarrow too! You *know* you don't know nothing about machinery!!

Was this post possibly the first 'Aprils Fool' post????? I certainly hope so!

Henry.

Made me laugh. I can see someone actually doing this stuff though. Nice gag.

Jack what was your first clue?

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Having had a custom 1911 built many years ago I see several problems with his post. Why use a vice grips insead of a bushing wrench? After spending $2200 on a pistol are we to belive he would not have spent a few extra dollars on the tools to properly maintain the pistol. Custom fit bushings are supposed to fit tight to eliminate wobble between the bushing and the slide. This wobble is deterimental to accuracy. You want the barrel to be possitioned in exactly the same possition at lockup every time. This is why the busshing is tight and requires a bushing wrench. The barrel would have been lapped into the bushing, and the barrel link would be custom fit between the barrel and the frame. The slide release would have been custom fit with the slide and link holes being lapped in to fit also. A standard barrel uses the frame as the feed ramp. A ramped barrel requires the frame to be milled out to allow clearance for the ramp but it ensures more possitive feed as it eliminates the frame from the feeding equation. Thus the feed ramp not mateing up perfect with the frame is not a problem as the nose of the bullet first contacts the barrel ramp and no longer contacts the frame. Also Dremels have no business anway near a gun. And yes, a custom 1911 will require break in. Mine was so tight it would not go into battery on an empty chamber if you eased the slide forward. After several hundered shots it burnished itself in.

I reasearched all the top custom shops on this project ... Wilson, Les Bear, Springfield, Ed Brown, and others ... I do not recall any promise as to accuracy at 50 yards. They all talked of reliability.

Oh, and mine will place 8 rounds into the black on a NRA Small Bore 50 ft target at 25 yards from a sandbag rest. It will feed hardball, semi-wad cutters, any hollow point I have tried, empty cases, and reloads where I loaded the bullet upside down just to see if it would cycle them.

But yes if this post is legit. By fome smithing it you have voided any manufactuer warrantee he might have given.

The description of your work on this gun has left me speechless....

Go get a 460 Rowland kit for it.$4 Mag plus power
and quality work.Ed.

hubell458 posted a puzzle---

quote:

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Go get a 460 Rowland kit for it.$4 Mag plus power
and quality work.Ed.

---

Now you got me REALLY curious.

He said he has a finely fitted and lovingly tuned pistol and took a friggin DREMEL grinder to it.....(the Devil's tool if there's ever been one).... and needle files !!! Can you imagine that!!

IF he did what he described it would be like waiting three years to take delivery of a Rolls Royce and because the horn didn't sound right decided to "polish" the paint job with a #$%@&% ROCK!!

You you say you have a kit to fix that???
I want a GROSS of 'em!

Make sure they work on Bubbadized Mausers......

[ 04-02-2003, 03:19: Message edited by: JBelk ]

JBelk-The kit you get with 460 Rowland I think
will replace all the stuff he screwed.And you will have more than 44mag power... For 2200
bucks with what I have now I could get a big run of brass made for my 458...But I have seen other
examples of guns screwed up....Ed.

"The bushing was so tight on the barrel, I almost couldn’t get it off using vise grips..."

That is my favorite part.

Kristofer

HenryC470, you nearly gave me a heart attack with that April fool's joke!!!! When I read your initial post, I could not believe what I was reading, then I looked at the posting date and laughed. Good one, you nearly had me!

Henry! You definately got me on that one! I would have to vote your post as "2003 Best April Fool's Post for Gun Nuts".....I started to realize that you might not be as big of an idiot as I originally thought when you mentioned the 1/32" difference between where the feed ramp of the frame stops and the barrel feedramp starts....it was very suspicious because that's exactly what it's supposed to be! Only someone who knows 1911's would say that.

Great One!

Nobody that dumb? Where you guys been hidin'?

This story reminds me of the time I re-chambered a Mauser from 8mm to 30-06 using a long twist drill I ground down into a chamber reamer. Saved me a lot of time not having to pull the barrel. Sold that rifle for quite a profit, but you know, I never heard from that buyer again�???

Thanks for the laugh, Henry.

JBelk,

As you undoubtedly know there are plenty of people who ARE actaully that dumb! I suspect you have repaired more than a few "kitchen table gunsmithing" debacles in your career.
Having worked at a gun store while in college, I saw MANY guns visit our gunsmith in plastic bags when the owners had managed to get them apart, do their butchering and find themsleves unable to get them back together. Total comedy to watch this stuff!

Best Regards,

JohnTheGreek