It all started (again) with my most recent 1911 purchase. My main problem with the things is that, with the plethora of aftermarket geegaws and doodads for them, I just can't leave well enough alone. When the "Bi-Tone" Springfield V-10 showed up in our showcase, I traded my Border Marshal for it happily, knowing that the basic V-10 platform had all the widgets one could possibly want already affixed to it and that this particular example had already been set up well (ramp & throat, 24 lb recoil spring) by a good gunsmith. This one could therefore stay unchanged, just the way I bought it.
The plan lasted two weeks before everything started going to hell. My roomie needed to order some wood stocks for his 640 Carry Comp, saying "just pick out some nice ones from a catalog". Well, okay, that necessitated a trip to the 'grips' section of the Brownell's book to pick out some cocobolo Ahrend's carry grips. Unfortunately, on the way there, my eyes settled on the uncheckered, contoured "CCW" Officer's Model grips by Navidrex. Hmmmm, "Grained Ebony wood", eh? I bet those'd be snazzy on that stainless frame... Cha-ching! So the grips came in and got screwed onto the gun, exposing one of the big flaws in the Springfield frame; boy, is it ever blocky across the frontstrap! Five minutes later, I'm standing with our gunsmith and the shop's owner discussing the price of re-contouring the frontstrap, and, what the heck, let's re-contour the dust cover while we're at it. Cha-ching! Then a Chip McCormick trigger of the lightweight aluminum persuasion came in by mistake. It sure did look cool... Cha-ching! Only it didn't fit; way too sloppy (As our 'smith put it: "Drop in? Yeah, you could 'drop it in' from across the room"). But that was okay; we had a custom gun lying around in parts that wasn't due for delivery for another couple of weeks, and it had a brand new STI polycarbonate and titanium trigger still in the zip-loc that'd be a perfect fit. It wasn't like he was going to screw the custom together today, we could always order another trigger before we had to put it together... Cha-ching! Then the gunsmith mentions that since we have a nice trigger in it, we may as well order the rest of the Cylinder & Slide action bits to go with it. Cha-ching! After the thing is strapped back on my hip, I gouge my right wrist on the "Sure-Snagtm " shark fin sights for the zillionth time. Better order some Novaks. Cha-ching! And, you know, everybody has one of those cool memory groove or memory bump or whatever grip safeties on their 1911 these days, and I'd better get a good low-profile ambi thumb safety while I'm at it. Cha-ching! Cha-ching!
If you have a 1911, I'm warning you; the Brownell's catalog is pure evil and gunsmiths are the very mouthpieces of the devil! Burn the catalog! Stay away from gunsmiths! (Or develop a taste for ramen noodles and frozen burritos, whichever... )
The plan lasted two weeks before everything started going to hell. My roomie needed to order some wood stocks for his 640 Carry Comp, saying "just pick out some nice ones from a catalog". Well, okay, that necessitated a trip to the 'grips' section of the Brownell's book to pick out some cocobolo Ahrend's carry grips. Unfortunately, on the way there, my eyes settled on the uncheckered, contoured "CCW" Officer's Model grips by Navidrex. Hmmmm, "Grained Ebony wood", eh? I bet those'd be snazzy on that stainless frame... Cha-ching! So the grips came in and got screwed onto the gun, exposing one of the big flaws in the Springfield frame; boy, is it ever blocky across the frontstrap! Five minutes later, I'm standing with our gunsmith and the shop's owner discussing the price of re-contouring the frontstrap, and, what the heck, let's re-contour the dust cover while we're at it. Cha-ching! Then a Chip McCormick trigger of the lightweight aluminum persuasion came in by mistake. It sure did look cool... Cha-ching! Only it didn't fit; way too sloppy (As our 'smith put it: "Drop in? Yeah, you could 'drop it in' from across the room"). But that was okay; we had a custom gun lying around in parts that wasn't due for delivery for another couple of weeks, and it had a brand new STI polycarbonate and titanium trigger still in the zip-loc that'd be a perfect fit. It wasn't like he was going to screw the custom together today, we could always order another trigger before we had to put it together... Cha-ching! Then the gunsmith mentions that since we have a nice trigger in it, we may as well order the rest of the Cylinder & Slide action bits to go with it. Cha-ching! After the thing is strapped back on my hip, I gouge my right wrist on the "Sure-Snagtm " shark fin sights for the zillionth time. Better order some Novaks. Cha-ching! And, you know, everybody has one of those cool memory groove or memory bump or whatever grip safeties on their 1911 these days, and I'd better get a good low-profile ambi thumb safety while I'm at it. Cha-ching! Cha-ching!
If you have a 1911, I'm warning you; the Brownell's catalog is pure evil and gunsmiths are the very mouthpieces of the devil! Burn the catalog! Stay away from gunsmiths! (Or develop a taste for ramen noodles and frozen burritos, whichever... )