Stainless for a competition gun?

Has anyone got any comments about building a wad gun on a stainless chassis? I believe Colt made some stainless Gold Cups.

I would absolutely stay away fromm stainless steel 1911. They will gall and won't stay tight if frame to slide fit is tightened.  Accu Rails might be an option, but I would highly recommend carbon steel pistol. 
Jon

hmm, S.A guns seem to stay together ok..

James, I've seen many SA Enhanced (I think that's what they were called) with severely galled frame/slide fit that were bone stock. Now tighten it and guaranteed galling. Also the SS is softer than carbon steel and won't stay tight if peened. I've seen SS Colts in late 80's come loose less than 500 rounds. Too much trouble and no guarantee that it won't have trouble later. Accuracy X uses SS with a high tech coating to keep it from galling. You won't find a High Master shooting a SS pistol unless it's the latest greatest methodology for preventing galling. I won't touch one unless I can put a carbon slide on it.
Jon

Thank you gents that was what I expected. Hard to go wrong doing it old school.

Joe Chambers recently built a Stainless Bullseye gun and he was able to get the slide tight enough for his specs without galling, however I do agree with Jon Eulette that it's way easier to get the carbon steel guns to the appropriate tightness.

All that being said, both of my .45s are stainless steel--I wouldn't call either one "tight".

I'm of the opinion you can still break 890 with a less than perfect frame to slide fit if the scope is slide mounted. Barrel predominantly locks up to slide the most and scope is sighting off the slide. You can fit the bottom barrel lugs to take out vertical play and it will still shoot great. Done it!
Jon

I'm of the opinion you can still break 890 with a less than perfect frame to slide fit

I'm of the same school of thought....

I've built Bullseye guns with a blued slide and stainless frame and had no problems, and I like a stainless frame for a .22 LR conversion lower, but I wouldn't even think about building a wad or hardball gun with a stainless slide and frame.

One of the reasons Springfield Armory has had a lot of success with the Range Officer is because they use a carbon slide & frame and fit them and the barrel reasonably well (although I have seen some exceptions). I've owned their much more expensive all stainless TRP and Trophy Match models and the fit was not anywhere near as good as the RO.

Walt Jackson

nothing better than blued steel then!

If you are concerned about either corrosion or cosmetics (most BE shooters aren't), you can have the carbon steel hard chromed.

I have a stainless Gold Cup. After 4000 rounds I peened the rails, squeezed the slide, and lapped the fit. I removed over 10 thou vertical play and no galling. I would not buy a stainless slide or frame again, it's too soft in my opinion. I am planning on having mine nitro carburized.

I would like to hear SA's response to why their Trophy can only be bought in stainless. Actually I'd rather them just start building them in carbon. I don't have to have an answer. Been looking for a carbon steel Trophy Match for forever.

inthebeech wrote:I would like to hear SA's response to why their Trophy can only be bought in stainless. Actually I'd rather them just start building them in carbon. I don't havee to have an answer. Been looking for a carbon steel Trophy Match for forever.

I recently acquired a used SA Trophy Match in stainless. The slide to frame fit is very tight. TW25b keeps the slide running very smoothly. I haven't done any accuracy testing, but so far my feeling is that it isn't match ready out of the box. The only advantage I see over a Range Officer is that it comes with a nicely checkered front strap. Since I had a problem with the gun when received, I replaced the sear, hammer and disconnector with a Cylinder and Slide kit. This kit made a great improvement in the trigger pull (I like a crisp break). The original parts are a little mushy, but probably ok. I own and have owned several custom bullseye pistols. If I were just starting out, I'd probably buy a Range Officer (if I were going to shoot iron sights). If the slide to frame fit was tight and it shot around a 3" group at 50 yards from a machine rest, I'd and send it to a bullseye pistolsmith for a trigger job (new sear and hammer. I'd also have the front strap checkered or stippled. If the gun didn't shoot that well out-of-the box and I was going to use a dot, I'd get a SA Mil Spec and send it off to a bullseye pistolsmith for all of the above, plus have a new barrel/ bushing installed, as well as, a slide mount.

All that being said, IMHO, the SA Trophy Match is a good starter gun for one of the action pistol games. It is a nice looking gun and I can see why you would want one.

I think the best of both worlds is a carbon steel gun that is hard chromed. I own two and the slides are tight and they move like they are on ball bearings. Burnished hard chrome is slippery as well as corrosion resistant.


Most people see the gun and assume it is stainless so if you like that look then hard chroming might be the answer..

Both are extremely accurate as well which I cannot attribute to the hard chrome. I have seen no slide wear on either gun after many thousands of rounds. They started very tight and remain so.

Comment and a question.

Bought my son a SA in stainless mostly because it had a ambi safety and he is left handed.  Not sure which model (not in the current SA catalog) but think of a RO in stainless with ambi safety, two piece guide rod and front slide serrations.  Out of the box the fit is as good as my or my SIL's RO, and bushing was even tighter.  Trigger sucked but a trip to the local gunsmith fixed that, in fact it is even better than my RO or my SILs.  We don't shoot competition, just have fun, and any of them exceeds out ability.  Of course after all this we discovered my son is ambidextrous and shoots pistol better RIGHT HANDED! 

Have seen TW25b referred to as a lube for stainless on other forums as well.  Where do you get it?

Yeah but my stainless Springfield loaded looks better than your carbon crap!

And I look better shooting it too!

So there.

Just an update. I did some bench rest shooting of my SA Trophy Match in stainless steel today. I'm not the best bench rest pistol shooter around and I was only shooting what I consider plinking reloads. I think the pistol has promise at the 50 yard line. With better ammo and maybe a fitted match barrel bushing, I'm thinking that the gun might shoot within the 10 ring. Next time out, I'll try some Nosler loads.

Rich/WIS wrote:Comment and a question.

Bought my son a SA in stainless mostly because it had a ambi safety and he is left handed.  Not sure which model (not in the current SA catalog) but think of a RO in stainless with ambi safety, two piece guide rod and front slide serrations.  Out of the box the fit is as good as my or my SIL's RO, and bushing was even tighter.  Trigger sucked but a trip to the local gunsmith fixed that, in fact it is even better than my RO or my SILs.  We don't shoot competition, just have fun, and any of them exceeds out ability.  Of course after all this we discovered my son is ambidextrous and shoots pistol better RIGHT HANDED! 

Have seen TW25b referred to as a lube for stainless on other forums as well.  Where do you get it?

TW25b grease is available at MidwayUSA, Brownells and Amazon. There are probably a lot of other places that carry it as well.

I've got several stainless guns that have been shooting well for years. My hands will rust even stainless.

We call that poison hands in the group I run with.

Not to reopen something already discussed particularly, but I looked at Accuracy-X, one of the forum sponsors. They go to pretty good lengths to talk about how they maintain super tight tolerances so their frame and slide can be fit to the highest match standards for ultimate performance. You read all the great stuff and find out that they appear to only make their frames and slides out of 416 stainless. Anyone ever shoot one of their guns or build on their frame and slides?

Accuracy X uses high tech coating on frames and slides to maintain the non-galling of the stainless. Coating is applied after fitting of parts. if you used one of their parts without coating you'll get galling.
Jon

Ah. The rest of the story. Thank you for satisfying my curiosity.

DeweyHales wrote:I've got several stainless guns that have been shooting well for years. My hands will rust even stainless.

As soon as I say something good about my pistol, I now fear it may be giving up the ghost.  I am starting to notice a lot of play at the back of the slide.  How does one tell galling from wear?

The other stainless gun is still shooting great, but it has no additional fitting beyond that typical of standard, factory production.