I seem to remember a thread from a couple years back where someone had removed the Series 80 fire control components from their Colt. What made this conversion cool was that they went the extra mile and had the hole in the slide welded up where the Series 80 parts used to be. While I know this isn't necessary, I thought it was pretty nice. Are there any smiths out there that do this, and what is the approximate cost?
Plugging Colt Series 80 hole in slide?
- Thread starter trbon8r
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BBBBill
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The currently most highly recommended gun welder is Jim Milks of Innovative Custom Guns - http://innovativecustomguns.com/ . He is formerly of EGW and gets their highest endorsement. Just know that slides are much trickier to weld than frames due to the higher heat treat. It takes a master welder to know how to handle that without ruining the slide. And then, depending on how the job was done, there's the machining to clean up the extractor hole.
Seems like a lot of work for no real gain. Remember if that hole is "plugged" and welded the hole for the extractor and firing pin would need to be redrilled. That little plunger intrudes into the extractor channel and blocks the firing pin.
Two of my 1911's were originally series 80 guns, for one I purchased the little spacer plate to sit it the frame. On the other I simply cut the original levers effectively turning them into washers and eliminating the saftey mechanism.
I left the system in a compact model 1991 that I carry from time to time. They can be tuned to give you a great trigger and still function as a saftey.
Two of my 1911's were originally series 80 guns, for one I purchased the little spacer plate to sit it the frame. On the other I simply cut the original levers effectively turning them into washers and eliminating the saftey mechanism.
I left the system in a compact model 1991 that I carry from time to time. They can be tuned to give you a great trigger and still function as a saftey.
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