Upcoming project: sherman roller bearing action.

A project I'm hoping to do soon is replicate the Sherman roller bearing action. Rather than have the strut and trigger sear in direct contact, he put a small roller bearing on it with the intention of reducing friction.

Given the right bearings, seems like a straightforward project (though the exact placement is perhaps slightly tricky). Unfortunately I've been having difficulty finding ones that look right; hopefully can chase some down this week.

It will be interesting to see how much it helps. For a well fit hammer strut, most of the movement happens when the friction is fairly modest. But, it's a fun thing to try. It's a shame there aren't writeups of all the old colt guys. Most have retired or worse. I've started buying guns just b/c they have had work done by someone good I haven't seen before. Not the cheapest way to learn.

Here's a photo that was helpfully sent to me by someone else showing the basic setup.




Here's the point I'm at now. Obviously I can't use an edgefinder worth a damn. Also, I was putting it in the hammer strut itself in the hopes of preserving the SA function. However, as things currently stand I think the bearing is too large. One option is to mill a groove in the back so the pin can sit there since the strut itself is too thin to support the necessary hole.

Part II: tuning a (now very tight) 2.5" python

NOTE: the stuff below is just for entertainment. I am not suggesting this is what you should do or how you should do it. Consider it a fast way to ruin your gun: DO NOT DO IT ON YOUR COLT! If you see something where I am messing up, please point it out!

So, after fixing the snubby in Part I
http://coltpython.blogspot.com/2009/05/part-i-fixing-most-loose-25-python-ever.html we try to do something about it's really bad action. Heavy, uneven, and gritty.


Smoothing it is pretty easy.

This is what we have to work with:



Anything that touches anything is a candidate for causing grit. And from the looks of the parts its not mystery why it could feel like there was dirt in there. The corrosion level is impressive. And the tooling ridges aren't anything wimpy either.

Bad day for: finishing the job

Oklahoma druggist shoots one robber in head, chases the other, goes back, gets another gun and shoots the first one in the body multiple times. Result = 1st degree murder charges.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090530/ap_on_re_us/us_pharmacy_shooting


There is video here, which adds to the excitement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSBBlEhmWNQ

Hat tip, jd1911.

What values of X,Y,Z ==> happiness?

Interesting article on a 50+ longitudinal study of a group of harvard men that was trying to get at what predicts living well. An excerpt:

What allows people to work, and love, as they grow old? By the time the Grant Study men had entered retirement, Vaillant, who had then been following them for a quarter century, had identified seven major factors that predict healthy aging, both physically and psychologically.

Employing mature adaptations was one. The others were education, stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, and healthy weight. Of the 106 Harvard men who had five or six of these factors in their favor at age 50, half ended up at 80 as what Vaillant called “happy-well” and only 7.5 percent as “sad-sick.” Meanwhile, of the men who had three or fewer of the health factors at age 50, none ended up “happy-well” at 80. Even if they had been in adequate physical shape at 50, the men who had three or fewer protective factors were three times as likely to be dead at 80 as those with four or more factors.

What factors don’t matter? Vaillant identified some surprises. Cholesterol levels at age 50 have nothing to do with health in old age. While social ease correlates highly with good psychosocial adjustment in college and early adulthood, its significance diminishes over time. The predictive importance of childhood temperament also diminishes over time: shy, anxious kids tend to do poorly in young adulthood, but by age 70, are just as likely as the outgoing kids to be “happy-well.” Vaillant sums up: “If you follow lives long enough, the risk factors for healthy life adjustment change. There is an age to watch your cholesterol and an age to ignore it.”

The study has yielded some additional subtle surprises. Regular exercise in college predicted late-life mental health better than it did physical health. And depression turned out to be a major drain on physical health: of the men who were diagnosed with depression by age 50, more than 70 percent had died or were chronically ill by 63. More broadly, pessimists seemed to suffer physically in comparison with optimists, perhaps because they’re less likely to connect with others or care for themselves.

More than 80 percent of the Grant Study men served in World War II, a fact that allowed Vaillant to study the effect of combat. The men who survived heavy fighting developed more chronic physical illnesses and died sooner than those who saw little or no combat, he found. And “severity of trauma is the best predictor of who is likely to develop PTSD.” (This may sound obvious, but it countered the claim that post-traumatic stress disorder was just the manifestation of preexisting troubles.) He also found that personality traits assigned by the psychiatrists in the initial interviews largely predicted who would become Democrats (descriptions included “sensitive,” “cultural,” and “introspective”) and Republicans (“pragmatic” and “organized”).

Fact-filled amicus Heller brief

Interesting: http://www.davekopel.org/Briefs/07-290bsacreprintIntlLawEnforcementEduc&Trainers.pdf

awesome OMS!

Just won an amazing looking officer's model special (OMS). It was not cheap. But has Roy Fishpaw grips (which I very rarely see for sale) and a Sherman roller bearing action, which I've been wanting to dissect. In my weirdo world it's well worth what it cost; I'm more excited about this gun than any in a long time.

Hasn't even been shipped to my FFL yet, so no inspection, but the seller has good ratings. Expectations are high...

blurry pics + low-traffic auction site = a steal on grips

I've gotten my best deals from auctions with horrible photos and/or bad auction titles.

Today one of the best deals so far arrived in the mail: some colt silver medallion stocks from an AA auction that had blurry photos. The final price was $31.25 shipped! In person they turn out to be excellent condition and exactly what I needed for a m357 that had no stocks. While silver medallion grips are not as pricey as the fully checkered gold medallion (python) grips ($250 to $300+) this is still much lower than the going rate.

A pretty good day.

Mispelled titles are great for low prices.

Or correctly spelled, but incorrect model designations. The best one I got was where the seller had written "officers model target" rather than "officers model special." Fortunately put the right year down so a google search of "officers model 1949" turned it up.

Or when they misclassify the piece. Recently, someone put a m357 in the single action part of gunsamerica. That has since been bought for way less than it should have been.

Of course, the big subtext in all of this is that if I just *worked* my normal job for those number of hours, I'd have made way more than the money "saved" by bargain hunting. But that wouldn't have been nearly as much fun...

Part I: fixing the most loose 2.5" python ever.

The stuff below is just for entertainment. I am not suggesting this is what you should do or how you should do it. Consider it a fast way to ruin your gun. If you see something where I'm ruining mine please point it out!

I recently came into possession of the all time most loose python ever. At rest the cylinder shakes more than white trash going through meth withdrawal. It's the worst of any colt I've seen and not by a tiny amount. Oh, and the action sucks too.

Fortunately, it was all fixable, though dealing with bolt/rebound issues took around 6 hours. (Unbelievable!)

Here's the beast. As you can see, somewhat worse for wear: a lot of blueing off, wrong stocks, and (as will be revealed in part II) the insides are pretty messed up:

Blast from the past: Frank Glenn's tricked out XP-100

Frank won a bunch of stuff, and is a serious accuracy nut, so bulids some pretty cool pieces. He trains with a group of people that includes "Robbie" Leatham, among others.

From Guntest 1996

Frank Glenn of Accuracy Unlimited, builder
of this heavily modified XP-100, was the 1992
Handgun Master and for years placed second
or third at the PPC National Championships.
Converting the discontinued Remington XP-
100 requires three to four months and $1,910
to $2,400. McMillan makes the forward-grip
stocks.

To be successful in one of the most challenging handgun matches currently being competed—the Masters International Long Range Handgun event—shooters are turning to a heavily modified version of a now-defunct gun model. The base model, no longer being manufactured by Remington Arms Co., is the XP-100; the tricked-out XP-100 that makes it possible to hit and knock over 6-inch, 9-inch, and 12-inch steel plates at 200 meters is made by Accuracy Unlimited, Frank Glenn’s precision-gunsmithing firm based in Glendale, Arizona.

Glenn’s gun is dominating the Masters Long Range Handgun event because it is uniquely suited for the difficult course of fire. Sixty seconds are allowed for five shots on five steel targets and ninety seconds for ten shots on ten targets some of which weigh as much as 23 pounds. The event is run in six strings of fire, three of five shots in 60 seconds and three of ten shots, at alternating distances, in 90 seconds. One shot is allowed for each of the total of 45 targets. The distances include targets at 75, 100, 150, and 200 meters, and the first fifteen and the last five targets must be shot from an offhand (standing) position. The middle 25 shots are freestyle. If the course of fire isn’t challenging enough, there is also a significant noise factor in the event. While you are shooting your handcannon, eleven other people are doing the same thing. Besides the incredible noise level, each shot from your gun and that of the other eleven shooters hits you with a concussion you feel throughout your body.

Glenn’s XP modifications don’t make the targets bigger, the wind settle, or the muzzle blast lessen. But they can make a handgun accurate and shootable enough to knock over 42 of 45 steel targets, as Jerry Barnhart did in 1994, or to drop only four targets, as I did in 1995. They are also a kick when used to hunt prairie dogs, which can hone your ability to judge distances and shoot from difficult positions. Here’s what Glenn does to the XP-100 to make it perform at top levels.

The Forward Grip
Some shooters use the standard XP stock, which is called a center grip, for competition. It’s terrific for shooting from the Creedmore or other rested position, but it is difficult to stabilize the gun when it is shot offhand. Others have tried the Thompson Center Contender, which has a rear grip, and discovered the same results. It is easily stabilized from a rest, but wobbly offhand.

Glenn started modifying the XP’s grip after he and other top Masters competitors got tired of practicing on the Long Range event targets and took out their .38 Super action pistols to play. After a few shots, they found their holds and could reliably hit the 12-inch targets at 200 meters. “Then Brian Enos commented that maybe the grips were on the wrong end of their guns,” Glenn said. “I went home thinking about the comment and commenced to cutting up some center and rear grip stocks and then whittled a prototype out of a 2- by 8-inch chunk of maple.”

Thus the forward-grip stock was born. It allows the placement of both hands on the one grip that extends below the stock and allows the rear of the gun, where the bolt and chamber are located, to rest on the shooter’s forearm. “I took this sample stock to the SHOT Show in 1989 to get the impressions of Enos, J. Michael Plaxco, and some other shooters,” Glenn said. “There were favorable opinions expressed because of the stability offered by the stock.”

The forward grip stabilizes the gun, but there are some tricks to shooting it well. First, the shooter must not apply pressure to the grip. It is vital to allow the gun to simply rest in both hands. Applying muscle to the gun makes the rear of the gun jump during recoil because tensing the forearm muscles makes the gun move.

The next trick is to form a flat platform upon which to rest the stock. This is done by holding the strong hand out at arm’s length with the fingers spread and the palm facing inward, and then rotating the palm upward without bending the elbow. Paying special attention to the forearm, make sure the muscles have rotated and you will see that an area that was formerly about 30 degrees off horizontal, just forward of the elbow, has now become parallel to the floor. This is where the rear base of the stock will sit. Now rotate the hand back to the shooting position moving only the forearm, not rotating from the shoulder, and the position is complete.

Hope for anacondas, king cobras, and trooper MKIIIs that have heavy actions.

Lighter springs can be bought here.

Unfortunately, if that doesn't solve the problem, about the only thing you can do is send to colt or cylinder and slide and wait.

The problem with these guns (all the revolvers Colt made after they stopped w/ v-spring actions) is that they are made from sintered metal --- you can't really polish or alter any parts w/o ruining them. As a result, there's not a whole lot you can do to the action other than swap springs.

With that said, if you send your gun to Colt or Cylinder and Slide they might actually be able to improve things beyond what you can get by just spring swapping. The trick they can play is that while you can't modify a given part to improve the action you can do "bin fitting" to improve the action. Bin fitting = you have hundreds of copies of the same part, and manufacturing differences will be such that some will fit better or worse together. You can swap parts in and out until you get a better result. Both Colt and C&S are the only places I know of that have enough parts to do this. (I'd be happy to be wrong though!)

A trenchant diagnosis of the current crash + response by someone who doesn't suck with money.

John Allison, CEO of a bank that made money when others begged for it on what caused the crisis.

Sometimes the nuclear option does not work as planned.

Probably not a good idea to call 911 when mcdonalds (purportedly) jacks up your order.

Hat tip, Volokh.