Tri-State Firearms Staff Blog

Springfield Armory 1911

chris — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:31:18 +0000

Spent some time at the range with my son & a new Springfield Armory 1911. Very nice gun. Excellent trigger. Brought along a box of Fiocchi 155 grain frangibles for use at my “unleaded” range. Had a great time knocking down steel plates at 20 yards. My only miss occured when I tried to shoot down six plates as fast as I could. Missed number six. My son had never shot a 45 auto, but was able to hit plates with every other shot. I like the ammo too. The inside of the fired cases looked almost new. I’ll have to put some on paper to see what kind of grouping I can come up with. My S&W 351PD 22 mag just came back from the factory. Hopefully it’ll shoot closer to point of aim now. More on that later. Chris

Range Research…

Jay — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:15:17 +0000

Sorry for the delay – but I do hope everyone had as great of a holiday weekend as I did!

A quick update on my S&W Sigma 9VE - I am quite impressed. I’ve probably put 500+ rounds through it so far and I have not had a single malfunction beyond my inability to properly seat the magazine once or twice – but not a single fault attributable the Sigma. I’ve stuck with roundnose so far but have tried a whole spectrum Wolf, Blazer, Magtech brass, Winchester, Federal, etc. Every round has fed, shot, and ejected perfectly. I’ve some standard JHP rounds I’ve going to try next and then some Remington +P rounds on the way - Stay Tuned!!!

Thing is – I haven’t done all that much to it, but as it stands right now I would say the trigger pull is at least a third and probably half of that of a standard issue, brand new Sigma. Chris and I both did a dry-fire side-by-side today between mine and a new one, and we both feel that is an accurate statement.

Here is what I have done to my Sigma: Polished the interior moving parts to remove any burrs and machining marks, disassembled the sear housing block assembly, polished every surface of the sear as well as (very carefully!) the sear face to a mirror finish, and I removed what I will call the ‘pigtail’ and ‘outer’ springs from the sear housing block.

I took pictures as I went through and did every step, so I’ll be posting that next…

Other things I will be trying out down the road – Wollf’s replacement all steel recoil spring guide rod with standard 18lb. and extra power 20lb. springs, a Wollf reduced power striker spring (3.5lb vs. 4.5lb standard - not recommended for duty use, but I want to give it a try), and a Pachmayr grip sleeve.

NEXT: A basic S&W Sigma tune-up!!!

The “Unleaded” Range

chris — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:14:01 +0000

Thought I’d post some info about the range I belong to. It has been in existance for over 40 years. A few years back someone built a house next to it. They were told by the town at permit time that an active shooting range was operating right next door. They built anyway. After they moved in, they hired a lawyer to see if they could close it down. Afer some expense & getting no results, they contacted the State. They State had us drill test wells which we were later billed for. Surprise! There is lead in the soil. Trap has been shot here since the beginning & was the main source of income for the club. The State then said “no more trap can be shot on the grounds & the contaminated soil must be removed”. Estimates for this undertaking are around $80,000. We have been shooting rifles & handguns into our banking in the mean time. Now the EPA has gotten involved & has stated that “no lead may be fired into the banking”. Lead is in the majority of all projectiles, so we are struggling to keep members & pay bills. I have been shooting frangible projectiles made from copper & tin that I reload & copper jacketed aluminum cored ammo. This weekend, I hope to try a Springfield Model 1911 A1 with some Fiocchi Frangible ammo there. More later….

Smith and Wesson Sigma SW9VE

Jay — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:27:10 +0000

I just picked up a barely used S&W Sigma series 9mm. I had a chance to take it out and play with it for a little while and I have to say – I really like it. I needed something besides my .45 – ammo is just to expensive for a lot of range time, and it is getting rather hard to find now too…

The Sigma series has gotten a bit of a bad name because of its rather long and hard stock trigger pull – and to be honest it was a bit of an issue at first; my first trip to the range with it showed me hitting rather low and after about 50 rounds I noticed my forearm getting tired. So I set out to figure out what I might be able to do to make it better – remember, I’m a tinkerer – I ended up learning a lot and I feel made an already serviceable weapon even better.

So – in the next few days I will be relating some of the things I did, without exotic tools or irreversibly altering the pistol, and relate some infomation as to how the pistol functions overall…

Stay tuned!!!

New 22 Mag updates

chris — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:41:50 +0000

Made it to the range with my new 22 mag combo. Started my session with the CZ 452 rifle. Set-up at 35 yards with factory iron sights. First five shots had 4 in a 1/2 inch cluster, one flier. It shoots a couple inches high at this distance with the rear sight at it’s lowest setting. This was a little disappointing. When I got home and started my cleaning, I noticed that under the front sight hood the front post sight is on a ramp that is adjustable. I’ll fine tune it next session. I like this rifle. I may have to beg bossman Eric for permission to R&D a scope for a range test at longer range.

The S&W 351 PD snubbie was next up. With a center hold on the bullseye at 10 yards, impact was approximately 8 inches high & right. As these are fixed sights I have contacted S&W. They want me to return it for repairs. I’ll post an update on it later upon it’s return. It is very smooth actioned with an excellent trigger pull.

My Latest Aquisitions

chris — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:21:57 +0000

Since Jay was kind enough to break the ice on our blog (which he set up also) it is my turn to contribute.

I decided I needed a rifle/handgun combo. Actually, I don’t need an excuse for new guns. I am constantly buying & selling. What I couldn’t live without a month ago could be available in the store on the wall or in the handgun display case tomorrow. I often buy what I may have owned before in my 30+ years of being a firearms afficianado (gun nut).

I just picked up a S&W 351 PD 7 shot 22 Magnum snubbie. Handy little bugger weighing in at only 10.6 ozs. A CZ 452 Lux bolt action rifle in the same caliber completes the package. A pair that I can feed reasonably & a pair with umph enough to slay vermin I may stumble across. Tomorrow I hope to range test them. I’ll post results later.

Chris

“A firearm is a system…”

Jay — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:25:11 +0000

I’m a tinkerer at heart. I need to take things apart, see how they work, and convince myself I can make it better. I play electric guitar and design and build my own effects. I am in the process of building my own hi-fi amplifier. And while I would never attempt to build my own firearm from scratch, I thought my Taurus PT1911, being a 1911, offered the perfect opportunity for me to fine-tune, customize, and just plain tinker – you can get an “upgraded” version of nearly every part in a 1911. So after doing some research, I ordered some stuff and started tinkering.

Mostly – it was a bad idea, I ended up going back to the original set-up.

The majority of my ‘experiments’ were with the various spring weights. I upgraded the firing pin spring to a heavy duty one. I didn’t notice any difference, which in this case is good, and I am going to keep it for the added safety. My PT1911 had an 18.5 pound recoil spring, which is recommended for +P loads, but I use standard loads almost exclusively so I decided to try the standard 16 pound spring. My first ejected cartridge landed a good 20 feet away and there was a significant increase in recoil. I changed it back immediately. Lastly, I changed out the mainspring to a lighter, ‘competition’ version – and never fired a round with it. With the lighter version, when I would drop the slide release, the hammer would drop to half-cock position. Definitely not a good thing.

The two other changes I made were an extended mag release and an extended slide release. I have smaller hands so the extended mag release felt better and more natural to me – it will stay. Then I installed the extended slide release. For one handed operation and convenience at the range, it seemed to be an improvement – before I actually fired the pistol. Defensively speaking, you should be releasing the slide with your off-hand anyway, so an extended slide release is a ‘fix’ to a non-problem. Additionally, and more importantly, because of the increased mass/inertia of the larger chunk of metal, in 50 rounds fired, the slide locked open three times before the mag was actually empty. Again, not a good thing. And again, I went back to the original.

I told my father about my experience and he replied, “A firearm is a system. It is engineered to work in a very specific way.” My experience proves him right.