The Hobbit Hole XXXVIII - There and Back Again!

[osagebowman]

Or a dog-toy; you may recollect that our Samantha dug up a nest of baby bunnies in the back yard, even had one in her mouth. We asked her drop it enthusiastically and the baby bunny seemed none the worse for the experience. She didn’t get back into the back yard till the bunnies moved out.

We’re starting to see patches of lawn, not many but it’s a start. This has been a long winter with snow on the ground.

[Overtaxed]

The daffodils have been trying to come up for a couple of weeks now...some desperate critter has been nibbling on them. Hopefully it’ll stay warm and dry enough for me to dig the beds under next weekend.

[SuziQ]

It snowed all last night, but we got only about an inch and a half. It snowed most of the day today, but it was very light, so we mostly just got a dusting.

We had rain for the past two days, and the temps were almost up to 40, so it washed away the 6 inches or so we got last week. We have lots of bare ground showing in our yard, because the front of our house faces West, so any sunlight melts what snow there is, while houses across the street are in the shade so they have snow on their yards for several additional days.

[SuziQ]

Aw dang, that’s so sweet!!

[osagebowman]

We’ll have to see what’s left once the snow melts. Forecast is reasonable next week, here’s hoping.

[300winmag]

Tonight's Saturday Night Gun Pron, late as usual, should be a quick one for me to write, since there is no major results to show, yet.

First, the Parker-Hale bipod finally arrived, completing a major portion of my Accuracy International .338 Lapua Magnum.

It took one year to get the rifle, 18 months to get the scope, and 24 months to get a crummy bipod. Well, actually the bipod is the Rolls Royce of bipods, but I still had to wait two years.

And just like seed catalogs, and commercials for roto tillers and motorcycles say spring is here (despite the blizzards), so does the arrival of the Sinclair catalog.

The catalog is the mother load of reloading and target-shooting pron, just as the Brownell's catalog (Sinclair's parent company) is for gunsmithing and parts. I foresee a big order for some exotic target rifle accessories starting to form in the back of my mind.

Meanwhile, one of my most ambitious projects has nothing to show, yet, because it's still all in teeny tiny pieces. I've decided that the WW1 Colt M1911 is being brought out of mothballs to once again be ready to defend our country.

While I have no doubt that merely replacing the springs and pins will bring it back to its original 1917 fighting trim, the handgun and I could both benefit from the countless tweaks and improvements developed over the past 99 years.

This is not really a collector's item, so please don't freak out. Rather, this is my way of outfitting the greatest handgun design in history to my own preference. Besides, I'm saving all the original parts, should I ever want to configure what started out as a real beater back to the way it looks now.

I'm keeping the frame with grip screw bushings and plunger tube. The barrel and link will remain original (for now), while the slide will be stripped to the bone. Every other part will be something that has been designed to enhance combat/defensive use of the M1911.

So right now I have a box of small parts, and I'm still waiting on a few key ones. In the meantime, I'm looking over each new part, and comparing it to the old. I've noticed that many of the modern parts are investment cast (something not possible in 1917), rather than machined from solid stock or a forging.

I've been test-fitting each part to its "neighbor", looking for wear spots. In most cases, this is totally superfluous labor, since everything will still work. Still, I'm using my Nanolube and diamond hones to remove each little bit of wear points and interference that I can find. What normally happens in the break-in period I'm doing before I start putting everything together. I just finished spending two hours "working in" the ambidextrous safety with the safety plunger so everything is smooth and positive. The M1911 was "broken in" over almost 95 years of use. The "new" one, if I put in a couple hundred more hours, should be just as "mellow" the first time on the firing line.

Like I said, this is totally unnecessary, but to me it's a labor of love, just like all the ridiculous amount of extra tuning and tweaking I put into every Hobbit Hole knife we sent out. It's also relaxing, and makes the time fly by.

The knight or samurai may not have had a complete understanding of how much of the swordsmith's skill (and therefore soul) went into "his" weapon, but I'm getting a feel for it here. I could never approach the genius of John M Browning in designing the world's most important handgun, but I feel I'm paying my respects to him by doing my best to employ the modifications that have been made in the last hundred years. If the handgun hadn't been so near perfect right off the drawing board, tens of thousands of people wouldn't have spent the time devising their own ideas of how to squeeze that last bit of perfection out of it.

[ExGeeEye]

Went to the gun show yesterday.

If I'm very good, I might give myself a JA380 for Christmas. $199, and I've seen enough .380 blammo on the tables to do what I would do (one box minus six for training, six in the mag, box in reserve) and still leave plenty for others.

I passed up the chance to buy $20 face in pre-64 silver for $260. Mostly because my budget was $40. Got a new wallet. Yippee, now I have a new wallet with $30 in it :)

[ExGeeEye]

It wouldn’t be my first gun. LLSS.

[osagebowman]

We’ve had some melt/evaporation today, parts of the yard and most of the deck (faces west) are now visible. The driveway is still ice except where LSA has been able to chip it off. It’s no longer hazardous to walk, only difficult, to walk around the cars.

[glock rocks]

I couldn't stand the idea of side actuated laser grips for my P229 Equinox, but Crimson Trace has come out with a wrap around front actuator grip... just got it, and love it. About $300 delivered.

[osagebowman]

JA380? Don’t recall that one, could you elaborate? Have to post that 380 ammo seems to be available again, though not at the pre-BO prices; at least at the local shop.

[Squantos]

Looks good......I personally don’t use em on pistols but have a GCP IR Laser on my MP5SDA3 and M4gery for Oh Dark Thirty property inspection.

http://www.nitevis.com/GCP-2B_Detail.htm

I do have a small SW 317 target revolver with CT grips in a survival ruck that can do double duty of signaling and easy game getting.

My Mom has em on her 637 S&W as well.....

[osagebowman]

Well done, Win-Mag. Two years for the bipod? You are a patient craftsman. The 1911, as you said, a tribute to John M. Browning’s genius. We know your improvements will only make it better, again, hats off to you.

[ExGeeEye]

JA-380

Haven't seen any .380 in stores up here. When I had one 20 years ago (!) (Colt Mustang Plus II) it was sometimes difficult.

[glock rocks]

One of my P229's came with the SIG STL-900, nice strobe, good for the nightstand, but now that I've seen the Surefire x400... uh oh... sweet machine. IMO, not useful for much other than the nightstand... the crimson trace fits in the holster and is there if you want to use it. I'd rather hold a surefire L4 off the side (FBI style) anyway.

[osagebowman]

Thanks for the info, hadn’t seen that one at the local shop. Looks like a solid pocket pistol.

[Squantos]

Agree.......I have a Glock 34 w/ a Glock 18, 32 round stick in it with a stream light M3 rail light as a house gun. The rail lights can be quickly detached to use as you describe (Mike Harries) ......if needed. It is always within reach when home and is traded into the safe for my CHL rig when I arrive or depart the house. Things go south fast and shotgun is to far away I don’t want to have to find a light or spare magazine etc ... so I figured this setup was best for oh crap sort of events that hopefully NEVER occur !

http://www.thegunzone.com/people/michael.html

The X300 (have a X400 on wish list) I have as a CHL carry light that can be added as needed or used stand alone.

[300winmag]

I couldn't stand the idea of side actuated laser grips for my P229 Equinox, but Crimson Trace has come out with a wrap around front actuator grip... just got it, and love it. About $300 delivered.

Same thing here, I just didn't know about the front-actuated switch version of the CT grips for the P229 until I got the others. I guess I can't interest you in the side-switch version? :)

CT says to keep the laser activated all the time, but I see real tactical value in keeping them off unless I intentionally want to use the laser. I like the tritium sights on my Kimber to help with muzzle awareness in low light, but I have to keep training my brain to concentrate on target awareness, NOT "sight awareness". Given the circumstances, light, tritium, or laser can be used if they help.

Except for the little bitty Beretta C21a. Even with my glasses, the iron sights are pretty useless. With the CT grips, I can keep all my shots on a 50 foot pistol target at 40 feet. Without it, I can't guarantee 100% hits beyond about 10 feet, which is what I think its design range really is.

[300winmag]

Did I make it in time?