Posted on 09/23/2009 6:19:16 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
I ain't gettin' no damn replacement Meprolight. I'm spending my hard-earned cash and getting a couple of set of Trijicon sights. One set will go on the Sig, my at-home piece. The other will go on the Kimber Ultra Covert. I'll use its still-working front sight to replace the dead one on the Pro. If the tritium went out on one of those custom rear sights, I'd be in even bigger trouble. I'll be getting a lot more use out of that sight pusher.
And I removed the magazine safety from the Walther P22. Much better now. The trigger is a "stirrup" type, like the M1911, and the magazine safety is a large plastic plate that uses a heavy spring to push the front of the trigger bow down, countering another, weaker spring that would keep it in contact with the sear at all times.
With that plastic part, and spring, gone, the trigger pull is much better, the mag release button doesn't have to work against that spring pressure, and mags just drop out, rather than being launched out the bottom. It handles like a grown-up weapon now.
Evening WinMag: Sight pushers can be our friends all right. Kudos on the P-22 tune-up. Even reloading, the ever versatile .22 Long Rifle is still the cheapest way to shoot. (except for the .22 Match Ammo shooters amongst us)
Sometimes we have to push our friends further than we want. Here it is pushing off the original rear sight from the old warhorse. Worked like a charm.
Because they cut some corners on this universal pusher to keep costs down, some key items were changed. Most critical was the substitution with fine-pitch acme threads on the actual pusher with a common hardware store 1/4x20 bolt. I estimate the thread is about five times finer on the specialized Glock pusher. This means that while one turn moves the sight only a fifth as far, you can also apply five times the force with the same effort on the handle.
Pushing the new sight on, some dimension of the dovetail on the sight went a little off about halfway through the job. I could not turn the handle with all my strength, so I used the time-honored dodge of putting a cheater bar on it.
It took a lot of effort, but I was able to turn the handle several more times. Yet the sight hadn't budged. Where did all that effort go? I stepped back and looked at my setup.
The rear sight was still so tight, I had started to push all the mechanical slack out of the pusher, instead. If you look closely, you can see that the slide is now tipped to the right. I had enough leverage to do something, and that something was to jam the pusher until there was no more room for the adjustment block to tilt to the right any more.
While things were now warped out of line, they still lined up with each other, so I took the risk, and applied still more force to the lever. Finally there was no more room for anything else to move, so the sight finished its journey to the right, stopping in the center like it should. The pressures on everything was so great, I had to tap the handle with a hammer to break things loose so I could take the slide out. I saw that the pusher had even pressed a small dent into the solid steel of the sight.
This was almost a "Mission Impossible", but the pusher came back to square when the slide was removed. I hope things work better with the Trijicons I have coming in, but I remember that, even with the proper Glock pusher, one rear sight went on easily, and the other was almost as bad as this one, requiring my cheater bar again. And that was for a $100 set of sights, not a $12 cheapie like this one.
Nicely done Win-mag. Glad the sight finally moved and the gun emergered unscathed; note to mention the sight-pusher surviving to push another day.
I started to give the idea of a shorter trigger on the M1911 clones more thought. I installed a Wilson Combat "short" ultralight trigger on the SIS Ultra, and used the Covert Ultra as a control, since they are both "officer model" frames. As usual, this was a highly-unscientific test, but here's the results.
Maybe I'm deluding myself, but I'm seeing more shots moving up and towards the center, and tighter overall "grouping". There was no special emphasis on accuracy at 10 yards other than being vey careful where I put my finger on the Covert trigger. I used the tippie tip of my index finger, while I automatically was able to get the center of the finger pad on the trigger of the SIS without any special effort on my part. I consider that a "win" for a defensive weapon.
Sooooo, the "medium" triggers on the other two Kimbers, and the old warhorse, will go from medium to short, just for consistency. Here's the difference between the two trigger sizes.
While I had the Pro torn down to get to the trigger, I noticed that Kimber cut a few corners by using sintered-metal parts for the sear and disconnector. They're probably perfectly serviceable, but now that I know, I'll order three sets machined from tool steel stock. Heck, the warhorse has a better sear and disconnector in him. And it's not like these are expensive parts. They've just small, and vey critical.
I pulled a box of those defective FN .45ACP rounds the other night, when I accidentally held the bullet puller up to the light, and saw something that didn't look good. I shone a bright flashlight through the plastic, and determined that continued use would be very bad, or at least very embarrassing.
There are about six or seven cracks in it, with four radiating from the "ejection port". One crack has almost completely circled the puller, and will join up with another crack, or the hole. When that happens, a healthy whack will spray powder, bullet, and an unknown number of pieces of plastic shrapnel all over, but probably mostly on me.
So I'm waiting for a new inertial puller, which I'll use for the small jobs. I'm also getting a RCBS collet puller to finish off this job. It shouldn't aggravate my wrist or shoulder, and there should be no catastrophic failures. Meanwhile, I got this far before stopping. Only about 880 more to go, by my estimate.
Glad that short trigger worked ...
Evening Win-Mag : the miscreant would have been well ventilated. Short trigger, interesting. If you find one you like it should not take you long to convert the other(s). Nicely done. RE: the inertia bullet puller, haven’t seen one break like that before. The collet puller may be a welcome improvement.
First, let me say that being thoroughly confused by the term for quite a while, I think Sig should have called it the "thin trigger". Less confusion with the "short trigger action" on the P220 Elite and the P229 SE.
The "short trigger" is a thinned-down regular trigger that is starting to make its appearance on newer models. What Sig doesn't say is that it's a perfect replacement on their older models, too. For me, at least, it brings nice, if not earth-shaking, benefits. Here's both the P220 Elite and last year's P229, both with the new-style trigger on them. In the corner is the "old" and "new" trigger for comparison.
The "short" trigger is just the old one thinned out in the middle of the trigger bow. That brings the surface closer to your hand. Your "reach" may be shorter, but the trigger is still the same length. If you wanted a longer reach for the trigger, you could put the older one in on any of the new models.
Since this picture was taken, both Sigs, and the Kimber Covert Ultra now have Trijicon night sights. I have a major rant against Meprolight, which I will save for some other day. Let me just say, save your money for Trijicon, and run away from Meprolight.
The major ergonomic difference between the two handguns involves the treatment of the rear of the grip. The new Sigs, with a redesigned hammer strut and hammer spring housing, allow the rear of the grips to be brought more forward for a more compact grip, if you like that kind of thing like I do.
The P229 has a more rounded, droopy "butt" than the P220. It still feels great to me, except in comparison to the new-style P220. I'm sure there will be replacement parts out soon to pull off a conversion, but it probably won't be cheap. And since I have my .40S&W conversion kit, there's not much more in store for the P229 except a .357Sig barrel.
Of course, the other difference in feel is that the P229 has a chubbier frame designed for a double-column magazine, while the P220 is slimmer, despite handling a longer, fatter cartridge. That's due to the fact that the P220 still uses a single-stack low-cap magazine. Here's the main difference in widths, which shows the wider, stubbier grip of the P229.
As far as M1911 short triggers go, the old warhorse has a short trigger now, an alternate brand I bought while checking out various types. I need another Wilson Combat short trigger for the Kimber SIS Pro, to match the Ultra. I also would like to find a black short trigger with three holes to match what's on the Covert Ultra. That one may be harder to find unless I do more searching.
Another major item in the pipeline is a Bar-Sto .357Sig barrel for the P229. It seems that Sig is slow filling orders for lots of parts. Still, even though I'll probably only shoot it once, I want to fire that .357Sig just to see how loud and obnoxious it is, and get back at some of the other people on the range. :)
Finally, this last trip to the range showed me that I was spending more time looking for the laser dot on the Covert, and adjusting my grip to keep it turned on, than actually using the iron sights. I turned off the laser, and shot much better. This is getting me to think about removing the laser grips completely, and going with something else. I just wish I could find some plain plastic grips with the same Marine desert camo pattern on them. I've gotten used to that look.
That, however, is the least of my problems.
Happy Birthday Evelyn!
(That was yesterday actually :) )
But I’ll tell her you said so ;-p
Holy cow, it’s not possible that she’s a year old. I’m afraid I’ll need to see the birth certificate...
Yeah, well, tell me about it. She’s got her one year checkup today so I guess she must be but time does fly.
Proceed with caution. After taking the action out of the plastic frame, there are two phillips screws on the right side, while the work is done on the left side.
The rear screw is short, and can be removed completely. The front screw is very long, but a lot of things pivot on it. You just need to pull it out a little bit so the action cover on the left side can be removed.
A good way to prevent trouble is to wrap a rubber band around the action until you're ready to proceed. Lots of little parts on pins, and they're just sandwiched together when the halves are screwed back. It sits on two tiny pins, and is usually the first thing to fall off when the left cover is removed.
Wrap a rubber band around the action, remove the rear screw, loosen the front. Place action left-side-up, and cut the rubber band. Lift off the left cover. Remove the plastic safety plate and the spring from the front of the trigger. Put everything back, making sure that all the little pins find their holes in the left cover.
That's it, in a very basic view.
A collet puller is the way to go... it’s actually faster too...
kinetic is good if’n you have a few... or theboy... theboy love using the kinetic... we use a block of 6”x6” as a stop... but you made me wanna check out the status of my kinetic... I’v already been thru 2 in the last 17 years...
Hi!
(snatch)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.