Awesome 1911 cutaway slow motion

1911 slow motion cutaway from Vickers Tactical:



- Dave

Exceptional video!  Thanks for posting.

Chip

Excellent.  Thank you.

This video brings something to light...Chuck Warner and I have been experimenting with using only one upper lug.. Chuck's idea..A great innovator.. We used to do this with 38 spl. 1911s.. Chuck renewed that idea in me for a wadcutter gun.. There has been some heated debate about this experiment.. The gun in the video, has very little remaining lug surface, all while shooting hardball. Since the gun was sacrificial, I doubt seriously that all three lugs were in contact, as I have never seen a factory gun that had all three uppers in contact. Chuck and I have both been shooting our guns with only one lug.. His and mine are running great.. My interest is extending, horizontally, the upper lug surface contact to further stabilize the barrel and gain some additional accuracy...

In the last 25 years of building match 1911's, I've only had about 4 pistols that the 2nd barrel lug made any contact with the slide. I'm in total agreement that one lug will work. Will it help accuracy? I don't think so based on 99 percent of the pistols I've built only really using one locking lug. Woeth a shot though :p)
Jon

Jon Eulette wrote:In the last 25 years of building match 1911's, I've only had about 4 pistols that the 2nd barrel lug made any contact with the slide. I'm in total agreement that one lug will work. Will it help accuracy? I don't think so based on 99 percent of the pistols I've built only really using one locking lug. Woeth a shot though :p)
Jon

Jon
I map out the barrels and slides and machine to achieve full horizontal lug contact.. I think it stabilizes the barrel better than one lug..Now, I am thinking that taking away the unnecessary front lugs and using that area for more contact might afford even more support and enhance accuracy.. Of course the slide will need altered also.. Either way, I enjoy the experimentation..

Looking forward to seeing the final product Jerry. 
R&D!

Jon

Wow that's really cool. Again thanks for sharing.

A cut away is very useful.. Made one years ago. I used it for teaching purposes at MCC  and it also enabled me to figure out how to bury a long link.. I like long footprints on my lower lug contact..But, this requires a longer link.  There has to be a place for the extra length to go when  cycling into and locking up in battery. I do not egg  out my link holes.. Study of the contact points at different locations of the link during a full cycle showed I could bury the link into a pocket strategically ground into the slide stop pin.. Works great..

+1,000,000

Jerry Keefer wrote:A cut away is very useful.. Made one years ago. I used it for teaching purposes at MCC  and it also enabled me to figure out how to bury a long link.. I like long footprints on my lower lug contact..But, this requires a longer link.  There has to be a place for the extra length to go when  cycling into and locking up in battery. I do not egg  out my link holes.. Study of the contact points at different locations of the link during a full cycle showed I could bury the link into a pocket strategically  ground into the slide stop pin.. Works great..

Three cheers for thread drift! I hope no one minds. I don't.

Anyway, Why is "egging out" a long link a bad thing? I've never understood the negative treatment of that I've seen over the years. Seems like the link's work is pulling the barrel down in unlocking, and an oblong hole in it to keep the barrel "feet" doing the lockup on closing should be almost irrelevant.

Just curious.

Thanks!

I personally don't have a problem with minorly egging out a link. Unfortunately many so called gunsmiths butcher it. Majority of pistols I see have improperly fit link. Proper link length in the 1st place helps. 
Jon

Anyway, Why is "egging out" a long link a bad thing?

Have you ever heard an engine running with a bad connecting rod..?? Same thing..The slop and energy created by the poor fit is transferred somewhere..Many issues with lower lug bump is the result of egged out links. The link does pull the barrel out of battery, but in a properly fit link, it also should partially assist lifting the lower lugs over the slide stop pin to avoid the dreaded bump...

Experimentation by 'smiths such as Jerry, Jon, KC, and others, have given us many of the gains in accuracy and reliability we enjoy today. It's great to read about the knowledge they have learned and better yet being a beneficiary of their work and ideas!
A big THANK YOU to these gentlemen!!

Ron Habegger

As an aside, you can pause and step one frame of a video at a time using your "," and "." keys. Just pause the video and use the comma and period keys on the keyboard to watch every tiny detail, frame by frame.
Many may already know this, but being a slow learner, I just did!

@jwax,

Many thanks for the period and comma tip.

I enjoyed watching the barrel move and unlock with the two keys.

Cheers,

David

Excellent video - first time I've seen it.

Regarding + and , thank you.  I didn't know that.  Much easier than what I used to do.

My real question - is there a web page that describes what "egging out a link" means?  My gunsmith qualifications are pre-kindergarten, so hopefully the description will make sense to me, especially so if it has images to show what is meant.

elongating one of the link holes.

I'm not a gunsmith, but I've paid my fair share of money to them... My understanding of this is the following, but then again.  (One thing I've noticed about people that think they are always right.  It's that they are definitely wrong about at least two things.) 

I understand the concept to be that when a longer link is wanted / need to get a longer lockup against the bottom lug, its better to put the relief in the slide stop pin exactly where the link will ride just before and during the complete unlock portion of the cycle to provide a longer reach (freedom to unlock over the longer lug length).  Elongating the link holes can achieve the same thing, but introduces unwanted looseness that the link needs to help the barrel lug during the start of the lock up portion of the cycle and to get complete lockup with the lugs resting fully and evenly on the slide stop pin. 

You will see this, especially on wadguns and sometimes on some hardball guns, from some really good gunsmiths. 

Then someone will change out the slide stop pin and find they have a whole series of issues, especially when a kitchen counter "gunsmith" gets started "working" on the gun and the link binds or breaks.  Then they finally try putting in a new barrel and wonder why the lock up is so short for that frame and slide......

So if you see a slide stop pin with a very small relief cut in the center and perfect wear marks on the rest of the pin, just stop and appreciate the geometry lesson and go shoot that gun. 

CR