Show Me Your Bullseye Pistols

SmokinNJokin wrote:


Found this really cool USGI National Match recently. No SA markings, I suspect it was built by a military armorer. All the usual old school mods, relieved half cock notch on hammer, excellent crisp trigger with shortest reset of my considerable 1911 collection, peened+lapped slide fit.

It appears as if I may have been the first person to shoot this thing off of the armorer's workbench. The parkerizing has not even worn off the sides of the hammer where it rotates in the frame. The barrel bushing is extremely tight, the frame to slide fit is perfect with no movement, and there is no appreciable wear anywhere but the grip panels.

All i had to do to the gun was oil it up, replace the hardball springs with a #12 recoil and #18 main more suitable to the ammo I consume by the truckload; back off the trigger overtravel to prevent the sear and halfcock from dragging (reset is still VERY short) and replace the murderously stiff magazine catch spring with my favorite wolff reduced power. The gun shoots beautifully; it required some serious windage and elevation adjustments to get it centered @25 (more evidence to me it has not been shot much if ever since build) but performed well at that range. Recoil is brisk, probably due to the steep profile on lower barrel lugs and amount of contact on upper lugs; pretty consistent with my other guns of the era (Clark Sr, Giles, Shockey).

All in all, I am very pleased to own another piece of nostalgia (for a very reasonable price I might add) and will ensure it sees action in upcoming CMP matches.

mikemyers wrote:I can only dream of doing things like that!  Must be wonderful to have the knowledge, the ability, the tools, and the time to do it yourself.  Are you a gunsmith, or a hobbyist?  I've read that "hand checkering" is more like an "art" than a "machining" - maybe when you have time, you can post a photo of your own gun?

Looks great.  Can she shoot it as well as you can build it?

rreid wrote:
Kimber pre-series 2 (internal extractor, no firing pin safety) that I fixed up for my daughter. It has accurails and a Kart barrel. I replaced all the trigger parts, hand checkered the front strap, replaced the plastic mainspring housing with a metal one, and added a tungsten guide rod and G10 grips.  The best ransom rest group I got was 1.7" with my hand loads. I did all the work on it myself, except the accurails and electroless nickel finish.

 Pretty nice Ralph, is that 25 lpi checkering? I heard those rails make it smooth as glass, I got a AMT Hardballer I was thinking of having it fitted with them. If you are mentoring her she'll make expert pretty quick. Maybe bring her up to Osage this winter and break her in on scoring and stuff.
  Stan

rreid wrote:

I'm a hobbyist when it comes to gunsmithing. I would describe hand checkering as "tedious."  I've only done 3 guns and each took 8-12 hours. My wad gun is nothing to look at, but here you go