Tweet
Well, after carefully heeding the break-in advice of my fellow Calgunners, I'm back from the range with the first two hundred down the pipe.
Kim (as I have taken to calling it) came from the factory literally wet with oil, in a plastic bag. I took her home and pulled her open for a field strip.
The full length guide rod was not too bad to disassemble; I've done a regular 1911 before and this one differs only insofar as a wrench is required, which actually kind of makes the disassembly process easier.
Inside, the gun is covered with a thin layer of carbon and oil - almost as if it was oiled, test fired, then bagged up without having been cleaned. It's literally everywhere, seeping out along the trigger and through the hammer and sear retaining pins. I cleaned it up as best I could and lightly oiled it with RemOil and Hoppe's per the instructions - on the barrel hood, on the bushing, a drop down the hammer opening, another couple drops on the slide contact areas and the barrel, then dried.
At the range I ran a Chip McCormick Power Mag, a CMC Shooting Star Mag, a Wilson Combat 47 and the stock Kimber 7 rounder. Ammo was 100 rounds of PMC Bronze 230gr ball, 50 rounds of Sellier & Bellot 230gr ball, and 50 rounds of Remington 185gr hollow point. I fed the HP through all the magazines to test for malfunctions.
All ammo fired with absolutely no failures whatsoever. Gun seems to favor right, but I know that's because I have a noobish bad squeeze. Plenty of time to work on that. Trigger feels great - about a quarter inch of lightly resisted travel with a nice, solid glass-rod-breaking feel as the trigger breaks. No creep, no pulling, no overtravel. I don't have any kind of scale, but if someone told me it was at 4.5 lbs, I wouldn't be surprised.
Post-firing I took it it home and broke it down completely. Inside, more of the same mysterious sooty factory oil, mixed in with some fresh carbon from my range session. The barrel, frame, rails and barrel hood area are actually fairly easy to clean - not even that dirty.
Interior parts - sear, disconnector - are highly polished and seem to work fine. I replaced the plastic MSH with an even more aggressively textured metal Kimber MSH with a magwell. Now it feels like there's a nymphomaniac cheese grater attacking my palm. It seems pretty secure on recoil, I'll give it that though.
Inside, some gift horse dentristry shows some flaws. The hammer, on close inspection, demonstrates tiny metal flaws, with a disconcerting raised oval portion. The parkerizing on the hammer and hammer stop are wearing down rather fast; there's a rectangular hammer-shaped patch of silver on the black area of the hammer stop. I can also see the frame coming through the parkerizing under the thumb safety in the down position, where it scrapes the frame coming up. The finish is also wearing down on the recoil face of the slide; over-enthusiastic scrubbing seems to remove most of the parkerizing.
Inside the slide it looks fairly standard, with some interesting (to me, at least) quality notes. The rails on the slide where it contacts the frame are mysteriously two-toned, glassy smooth and polished-looking on the front, slightly stippled and rough-seeming on the back half. The barrel looks to be almost completely unfinished, with the lower chamber area rough. There is wear on the barrel lugs where it comes to rest against the slide. Extractor hook, upon inspection, showed carbon caking around the hook, at least half a millimeter's worth. Soaking in solvent and vigorous toothbrushing solved that.
The grips are very aggressively textured. After the range session, my right hand was raw along the palm, where the rubber grip grabs your hand, and the webbing of the thumb and forefinger, from being pressed up against the safety. The dang thing feels like it wants to chew your hand up alive. Smooth grips are in my future. Initially the slide was very tight, perhaps because of the rough texture on the back half of the slide rails. Firing and working the slide repeatedly has reduced the slide tension almost imperceptibly.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this gun. It's a nice project gun, I can see that. I think I'm definitely getting the extended slide release; it'll be nice to be able to thumb the slide stop in addition to powerstroking the slide. I'm pretty certain I'm going to get it Cerakoted as well; I can see that the finish on this gun might get worn down fairly fast. The barrel should get some kind of finish as well, I think NP3 or also Cerakote. Other than that, it's a joy to shoot and definitely a lot of fun at the range. This will be a fun gun to work on and personalize.
Kim (as I have taken to calling it) came from the factory literally wet with oil, in a plastic bag. I took her home and pulled her open for a field strip.
The full length guide rod was not too bad to disassemble; I've done a regular 1911 before and this one differs only insofar as a wrench is required, which actually kind of makes the disassembly process easier.
Inside, the gun is covered with a thin layer of carbon and oil - almost as if it was oiled, test fired, then bagged up without having been cleaned. It's literally everywhere, seeping out along the trigger and through the hammer and sear retaining pins. I cleaned it up as best I could and lightly oiled it with RemOil and Hoppe's per the instructions - on the barrel hood, on the bushing, a drop down the hammer opening, another couple drops on the slide contact areas and the barrel, then dried.
At the range I ran a Chip McCormick Power Mag, a CMC Shooting Star Mag, a Wilson Combat 47 and the stock Kimber 7 rounder. Ammo was 100 rounds of PMC Bronze 230gr ball, 50 rounds of Sellier & Bellot 230gr ball, and 50 rounds of Remington 185gr hollow point. I fed the HP through all the magazines to test for malfunctions.
All ammo fired with absolutely no failures whatsoever. Gun seems to favor right, but I know that's because I have a noobish bad squeeze. Plenty of time to work on that. Trigger feels great - about a quarter inch of lightly resisted travel with a nice, solid glass-rod-breaking feel as the trigger breaks. No creep, no pulling, no overtravel. I don't have any kind of scale, but if someone told me it was at 4.5 lbs, I wouldn't be surprised.
Post-firing I took it it home and broke it down completely. Inside, more of the same mysterious sooty factory oil, mixed in with some fresh carbon from my range session. The barrel, frame, rails and barrel hood area are actually fairly easy to clean - not even that dirty.
Interior parts - sear, disconnector - are highly polished and seem to work fine. I replaced the plastic MSH with an even more aggressively textured metal Kimber MSH with a magwell. Now it feels like there's a nymphomaniac cheese grater attacking my palm. It seems pretty secure on recoil, I'll give it that though.
Inside, some gift horse dentristry shows some flaws. The hammer, on close inspection, demonstrates tiny metal flaws, with a disconcerting raised oval portion. The parkerizing on the hammer and hammer stop are wearing down rather fast; there's a rectangular hammer-shaped patch of silver on the black area of the hammer stop. I can also see the frame coming through the parkerizing under the thumb safety in the down position, where it scrapes the frame coming up. The finish is also wearing down on the recoil face of the slide; over-enthusiastic scrubbing seems to remove most of the parkerizing.
Inside the slide it looks fairly standard, with some interesting (to me, at least) quality notes. The rails on the slide where it contacts the frame are mysteriously two-toned, glassy smooth and polished-looking on the front, slightly stippled and rough-seeming on the back half. The barrel looks to be almost completely unfinished, with the lower chamber area rough. There is wear on the barrel lugs where it comes to rest against the slide. Extractor hook, upon inspection, showed carbon caking around the hook, at least half a millimeter's worth. Soaking in solvent and vigorous toothbrushing solved that.
The grips are very aggressively textured. After the range session, my right hand was raw along the palm, where the rubber grip grabs your hand, and the webbing of the thumb and forefinger, from being pressed up against the safety. The dang thing feels like it wants to chew your hand up alive. Smooth grips are in my future. Initially the slide was very tight, perhaps because of the rough texture on the back half of the slide rails. Firing and working the slide repeatedly has reduced the slide tension almost imperceptibly.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this gun. It's a nice project gun, I can see that. I think I'm definitely getting the extended slide release; it'll be nice to be able to thumb the slide stop in addition to powerstroking the slide. I'm pretty certain I'm going to get it Cerakoted as well; I can see that the finish on this gun might get worn down fairly fast. The barrel should get some kind of finish as well, I think NP3 or also Cerakote. Other than that, it's a joy to shoot and definitely a lot of fun at the range. This will be a fun gun to work on and personalize.
Comment