I Blended The Grip Safety...

[Josh Smith]

Hello,

This afternoon I received a new grip safety, the last one to go on my pistol. It has the stop where it's supposed to be, no friggin' "memory bump," and it's an Ed Brown. It's very comfortable.

I do have to admit that while I can shape metal well, I still have trouble with refinishing a larger area than just a "touch up" job.

What I really should do is pull everything back off, strip it white, and go over it with some very fine sandpaper or polish, then refinish the safety. As is, I used 800 grit to finish, and scratches still show up under the flash and under high magnification.

Here are some pics:


The pistol as it looks now.


The bottom of the safety as it's held in.


A top view...


... bit from the side...


... and under high magnification.

Though I say I probably should polish and refinish, I likely won't. The finish is protecting it, there are no marks visible to the naked eye, and it feels great. I probably couldn't do a better job the next time around anyway - it's just not my area yet.

It feels like a completely different gun, and extremely comfortable, by far the most comfortable I've ever shot.

Comments are welcome, but not necessary. I'm happy with what I've done. My refinishing skills will improve with time. Just posting this as a bit of a guide - things I found out I should have done, things I did right, and things I goofed on.

Josh <><

[pmpmstrb]

What happened to this being a no non-sense carry weapon?

[Josh Smith]

Still has to be comfortable. What good is a weapon if you bloody your hand whenever you shoot it?

There are several people out there, including Lauck and Camp, who believe that the beavertail is mandatory. I tend to fall in with that line of thinking.

To me, a "no-nonsense" carry gun doesn't have anything you don't need. By that I mean over wide extended safeties, match (read too light) trigger pulls, adjustable triggers, and the suicide switch, the extended slide release.

I have a Charles Daly that came with a wide paddle ambi safety, dovetailed sights (not saying their's necessarily anything wrong with dovetailed sights), extended thumb safety, drop in beavertail grip safety, the works.

I changed out half the stuff just to make it a carry gun.

Instead of using the budget-per-gun to make a decent carry pistol, they skimped on areas where they shouldn't have:

The safety was cheap and it snapped (bad, since I'm a lefty)

The front sight fell out of the dovetail while I was shooting

The window for the mag release was cut too low and had to be recut. The bottom of the release had to be soldered and filed back down so it wouldn't ride out under the slide.

Then I stripped it down to fix all this stuff and found the frame was warped from the factory.

By contrast, this "no-nonsense" carry gun is one that's a pleasure to shoot, but isn't all frilly. It's a basic milspec fitted with a beavertail and an ambi safety (which it wouldn't have except for my being left handed.)

It's getting a Commander hammer, then it's done.

Josh <><

[Ri22o]

All I have had to do to my carry weapon is absolutely nothing.

[munky_3434]

you have certianley put a lot of effortinto this piece