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I have loosened and re-torqued every single PSA barrel nut I've ever gotten on an assembled upper.
Only one was not grossly over torqued when I got it.
I discovered it the first time when I just wanted to change uppers from flat-top to a carry handle.
I tend to forget that I do that and I wonder if the sudden shift in zero was caused by this improper assembly.
Got the Wilson Combat Accu-Tac flash-hider installed.
I like the retro-modern look of the AccuTac, and I've used them before.
Olive still sports one, albeit in 5/8-24 instead of 1/2-28 on account of being 6.8x43mm.
Because that upper used to be Dottie's, it seemed appropriate that Dottie return to wearing this model of 3-prong.
FuzzyGeff, has one on his Olga.
Will it make Dottie more accurate? Probably not. Does it do a better job of hiding the flash? Very marginally vs the A2 birdcage I took off. Does it look cooler? Subjectively, yes it does! (YMMV)
Dottie, strangely considering I have a purple AR, has become the gun of whimsy. Hardly a thing about her current build is to make her more functional. But I'm ending up with a carbine that points well, shoots well and is very comfortable.
Accidental functionality in the pursuit of fun? I will take it!
Lavender Linda and Dottie have exchanged forward assists.
Three-prong is in her future!
It makes me giggle that I'm combining modern and retro on Dottie like I am.
A flat-top, middy-gas, R605 with a forward assist.
Dottie is a contradiction in terms in a couple of ways, on purpose, because it amuses me.
I glanced over where she sits and saw the round forward assist button and thought, "with the retro furniture, should I get a tear-drop forward assist?"
That leads, inevitably, to:
Even saying, "a retro one," results in, "which one?"
Duckbill?
OG 3-prong?
Wilson AccuTac?
The OG is cheapest.
All of them give a tuning fork tone when the action is operating.
I think the finish on the Wilson matches the barrel's finish best.
While the MBUS3 sights were functional, I didn't really like how they looked on Dottie.
I was resigned to putting up with function over form until I noticed that the American Defense mount puts the Sparc so high that don't have a co-witness and can readily see over the top of the rear sight to aim with the red-dot.
So I put the fixed A2 stub rear sight back on. Arguably, it's more functional than the Magpul sight because it has a dial for range.
As I was putting the camera away, this angle caught my fancy for how it caught the red of the lens coating.
In this thread, there are pictures of the arched backstrap for the model 59 and x59 guns.
Installed on a 459:
This is what the packaging looked like, way back when S&W still marketed them:
I wish they hadn't cut off the part number...
Did you know they made arched grips for 3rd gen S&W autos?
I do now!
Model 915 before:
Model 915 after:
I have long thought that the 59, x59 and 59xx series of guns needed an arched grip, and I was blissfully unaware that you could fix the 59xx guns!
Allegedly, there's a replacement, arched, backstrap for the 59 and x59 guns, but I have only seen a couple pictures, never the part for sale.
Magazine springs are wear items.
Check every once and while if they've shrunk.
The top magazine is brand new. The bottom one isn't. I think it's an early 80's version of the 59xx series magazine.
The top spring is from an early 59xx 15 rounder. The bottom spring is the same too short spring as the first pic.
Unloading the magazine with the shortest spring had a couple of moments where the follower wasn't following.
It was time to replace them.
Zev connector on top, standard Glock connector on the bottom.
The Zev has just a bit more angle to make the trigger bar drop more easily.
Marv did much the same experiment with his Ex-LEO Glock 21 Gen 3 Slim-Frame.
Stock it ran 7 lb. 8 oz. dirty and gritty. 7 lb. 14 oz. all cleaned up and polished.
Since the safety trigger stands proud of the real trigger, he found it irksome at this weight.
So he ordered the Zev connector and NY1 trigger spring before I did. His talking about it is why I wanted to experiment here.
With the NY1 spring and Zev connector he gets a FIRM 8 lb. 2 oz. pull, exacerbating the trigger safety problem.
Going back to the stock spring drops the pull to 5 lb. 14 oz. This is where he's decided to land.
Like I mentioned before, the best trigger pull is personal and it's cool we can personalize our guns.
My Glock 21 Gen 2 is a crisp 5.5 lb. with the standard connector and standard spring.
Replacing the connector with the Zev using the standard spring gets a scary light 4.7 lb.
Using the standard connector with the NY1 spring gets a gritty 9.6 lb.
Replacing the connector with the Zev and using the NY1 spring gets a gritty 8.1 lb. pull.
I ordered an NY1 trigger spring and a Zev Technologies pro-connector.
My Glock 17 Gen 2 is a crisp 6.5 lb. with the standard connector and standard spring.
Replacing the connector with the Zev using the standard spring gets a crisp 5.5 lb.
Using the standard connector with the NY1 spring gets an erratic 8 to 11 lb. pull averaging at 9 lb.
Replacing the connector with the Zev and using the NY1 spring gets an interesting 8 lb. pull. It builds to that break and is very consistent.
What I don't care for with the NY1 trigger is it binding up on disassembly and needing the trigger pulled again to free it. It's like the worst of Glock and M&P on take-apart.
I also don't care for the little bit of trigger rebound after the sear breaks.
I was happy with the stock trigger, so I've reinstalled it and I'm marking this as an experiment.
I might see if I get completely different results from my Glock 21.
Or not...
Palmetto State Armory used a screw they epoxy'd into the gas tube hole of the front sight base to hold the handguard cap.
So I ordered a pistol gas tube and cut it down to provide a block to rotation at the handguard cap.
A longer gas tube would have been better because it would have been straight here.
No matter! Thag have hammer!
Now there's a stub of a gas tube to help hold the cap steady. There's a washer-like slip on fastener that I cannot recall the name of that would be perfect for holding the cap forward... As soon as I remember what they're called I will order some.
Update: Retaining washer!
Kinda neat looking in the cooling holes and seeing gastubisinterruptus.
Wile E Coyote school of gunsmithing for the win!
I mentioned a bit ago that Cylinder & Slide was going out of business.
I missed that they found a buyer and they would be staying open!
That's awesome news!
I remember talking with New Jovian Thunderbolt when he took a 1911 armorer's class and his talking about fitting parts to a gun.
I was reminded of:
D-P-355a 3.3.2 states, "Interchangeability. Unless otherwise specified on the drawings, all parts shall be interchangeable. Pistols and repair parts shall be capable of meeting the interchangeability tests specified in 4.3.3.4 and 4.4.4 (In normal assembly operations there shall be no objections interposed to preferential assembly of parts provided that all parts are dimensionally acceptable.)"
One thing, in particular stuck out and that was the ejector. It's retained by a notch in the ejector by a pin in the frame.
He described all the careful measuring to properly locate and align that notch in a virgin ejector.
In the Army TM the procedure was to secure the frame in a drill press, install the ejector and drill it in place; effectively using the existing hole in the frame as a fixture.
I am often curious about parts interchange among all the 1911 clones out there.
I know I've watched a lot of vids about how to fit a safety because I'm considering changing the style on my .38 Super. The safety is one of the drop-in parts on a mil-spec M1911A1.
Software Janitor has spoken of fitting a barrel to a slide once or twice.
The dissipator upper came with an 'F' marked front sight base. Those are slightly taller than the normal front sight base and are tailored for flat-top uppers and the rear sights that clamp to them.
I deliberately didn't use an F-marked sight on Linda because I was using the A1 upper. She zeroed no problem.
Most of the time a normal front sight base zeroes no problem on a flat-top. Occasionally, you run out of elevation adjustment before you're on target.
Likewise, you can run out of adjustment in the other direction using an F front sight and a carry handle.
Because the non-F and a carry handle worked fine with Linda, putting her back that way meant returning to a known good condition.
Dottie will have a flat-top and the appropriate F-marked front sight base, which should work fine.
When I, finally, get a bolt carrier group I will zero Dottie and we'll find out.
With all this barrel swapping, I found something interesting.
Linda's barrel nut is really banged up.
That comes from being the parts bin gun.
The (literal) High Speed Low Drag tool does not fit Linda's barrel nut.
The DPMS one still does.
Dissy Dottie is not an accurate clone of an R605.
Barrel is too long, handguards are wrong, A2 instead of 3-prong flash-hider, forward assist is intact.
Still pretty fetching.
Putting the A1 upper on her, I think, solidifies the idea that we're going for a longer sight radius by sticking to irons alone.
Lavender Linda got the "discarded" flat-top.
Ironically, she's rocking irons too because the red-dot I do have isn't tall
enough to see past the front sight. Fixing this is a low priority item.
I noticed something taking this pic. If you have a windowed, or translucent, magazine, you need to have it loaded to show the bullets.
Another thing, they're sharing a bolt carrier group and charging handle. While PSA had a scorching sale on the dissy upper that I couldn't pass by with the risk them discontinuing it, they didn't have such a deal on a BCG.
It's not like I desperately need to have them both up and running for a lack
of AR's around here.
Swapped the A1 upper from Lavender Linda to Dissipator Dottie and vice versa.
Pics tomorrow afternoon when the light is right.
The entire point of a dissipator is to get the long sight radius of a rifle length front sight base. It seems wrong to put a flat-top on such a gun.
Linda is kind of the parts bin gun. She gets the hand-me-down stuff, and that includes the spare red-dot. I just need to find the spacer to put it back at co-witness height.
PSA on LEFT, Brownell's on RIGHT. <-- Lysdexics of the world UNTIE!
From the front:
Outsides:
I don't think there's anything wrong with either set now that I've trimmed some sprue tabs off the PSA version.
