graycrait

This one is giving me fits. It has a threaded aluminum shrouded Lothar Walther barrel with CCI specific chamber, along with a after market bolt, after market trigger group and recoil spring. What I have learned on this one is to never limit your ammo choices to one brand although with 5,000 rds of CCI of various types and speeds it doesn't matter. I think a person is either better off in going Volquartsen drop in parts in a metal Ruger trigger housing or else get something like a Timiney drop in trigger group that is a one-piece drop in. I'm fooling around with the Boyd's barrel a friend gave me, but I may go back to a hard Hogue overmolded. One thing I think I have learned is that at 50 yards minute of squirrel head is good enough and at 100 yards minute of Coke can is just fine. Therefore save your money and don't do what I have done. If you want a bench rest .22 buy one, if you want a decent and versatile field .22 the Remington 552 would be hard to beat as it will digest any .22 ammo. If I would quit buying parts and get a suppressor this 10/22 with the threaded barrel may really prove useful as well as fun. I've been carving on the grip with a Foredom tool trying to improve LOP between web of thumb to index finger pad on the trigger.

I think I got this one just about right, still deciding if the hard stock is better than the soft Hogue stock on this one. Trigger group includes Volquartsen, Tactical Solutions and Harrington to get to a clean 2.5lb trigger. Barrel is by Green Mountain. The Mueller ain't bad. The 3MOA dot is crisp and the other reticles work well and stay zeroed when you change from one reticle to another. http://www.muelleroptics.com/products/MQS12233MB The Green Mountain Running Boar barrel is nice for moving targets. This my second one of these barrels and I let the first one get away. Green Mountain Barrel Company Offers Running Boar Target Barrels For Target Rifles

The trouble is the pin placement. Some have good pin placement others do not. Having said that I think the Phillipino are good base models that seem blueprinted well enough. However if you want basic then Caspian is the place to go: Basic Receivers Foster Industries sometimes have even cheaper frames, Caspian Seconds I believe, but they all require some fitting. I've put together several 1911s from parts and have inherited some build kits that I sold like a KART barrel kit - what a seemingly pain in the butt to fit. The 1911 Project: The Kart of Barrel Fitting I have a longing eye after the new S&W E series, but my notions are often suspect. If I were you I would forget putting together a tinker toy 1911, I've been there and done that and it doesn't really get you anywhere other than learning how the 1911 works. In fact I think that the Phillipino 1911s are so good that spending any more only gets you small degrees of improvement. I don't advocate spending 2-4,000.00 on a 1911 that only shoots incrementally better than any Glock I have or my own Franken 1911. So there are really two courses to take. Buy a 450.00 Phillipino 1911 or a 1,000.00 Springfield or S&W E Series. I've had several of the 1,000.00 Springfields but I don't think their cost is worth twice the Phillipino pistol, but they sure do look better. I have this thing about S&W steel handguns and I sure would like one of their new E Series plain jane ones for abotu 850.00. THey seem to be a good compromize which the combat 1911 ultimately is. If you want to go cheap here is mine and it works - do I carry it, heck NO! I carry what makes sense - a Glock 9mm!

In case somebody else wants/needs aperture sights on a Remington .22. My Remington 552 got new sights ordered through Midway. On the 1971 Remington 552 ADL I put a WGRS-54 from Williams that fits on .22 grooved receivers and then installed a .570M Williams High Streamline Front Sight with a 1/16" gold bead. I also replaced the aperture on the WGRS-54 with a Merit Iris Adjustable aperture that allows me to greatly change the aperture opening for light or accuracy. I also had ordered and received a Williams .340 Front Riser Block but it may be that I don't need it. With a laser boresighter and my rear aperture backed all the way "downhill" the dot is right on the front bead. If the front sight isn't tall enough then I can use the original Remington Sight and the riser which puts me over .600 but allows me to adjust the rear sight forward/up or back/down. I have a sneaking suspicion to be able to use a wide variety of ammo I may need just a bit more front sight height than the .570 gives me. Although the front sight is pretty high, and may need to be a bit higher, I think the sight/aperture combo makes for a pretty clean rifle, yet one that allows "old" eyes to still shoot with iron sights. For the 10/22 I ordered the Williams WGRS-RU22 set for the 10/22. It comes with a .570M w/1/16" Gold bead front sight. However, after boresighting I am confident that the stock Ruger Firesight front sight will work OK with the rear without installing the .570M. If all goes well I will have ordered an extra .570M and .340 riser, but I have 4 other 10/22s, two of which use iron sights. And I am hunting for a spare 552 and I imagine it too will need an "old eyes" sight set up. Craig in Clarksville, TN

Joy of joys, the made from parts 1911 (Less Beer Presentation Grade) works like gangbusters. It fed, fired and ejected 230 grain ball ammo like it had been doing it forever, reasonably accurate too. I used 3 different magazines. Any more accurate and I would have to put a price tag of $3,000.00 on this pistol. Hey it works, better than can be said of many high dollar 1911s. If I put in a new bushing, barrel and link the "thing" would probably shoot as well as the most expensive 1911 in the hands of 98.7% of the 1911 fan-boy club. Description: 1. Essex SS matte frame where someone tried to buff the matte out but failed. 2. Slide is Brazilian Army surplus form the early 50's or late '40s. 3. Barrel is WWII era "P" barrel. 4. All other parts are "found on installation" 5. Had to change out the extactor and recoil spring, plus tweaked the disconnector and trigger group a bit. 6. Changed out and tweaked the 3-legged sear spring. 4.5lb trigger pull and shoots to point of aim. If any of you need a .45ACP 1911 that works you better get your trading materials out: Interests are mainly .22LR Ruger MKII or MKIII in 4" bull barrel or Remington Speedmaster 552. Hard to tell on any given day. A 2nd or 3rd Gen Glock 19 may "move" me or some other .22 pistol or revolver.

Now I find I think I need a backup Speedmaster. So will be looking to trade one of my 10/22s for a Speedmaster. Craig

I didn't know until I got one and confirmed it. Not only will it fully function accurately with S, L, LR but it also shoots Aguilla 60grain subsonics without keyholing or yawing. I got this from the website called The High Road https://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=304951: The question: So what quality .22's out there come with good iron sights and will shoot .22 rimfire ammo of different lengths? The answer: There are many oldies that will do it, plus new ones in pump and lever. But if you want a semi auto to do it, there is really only 1 choice, the remmy speedmaster. I have had several oldies by savage, springfield, winnie, etc., that were supposed to be able to do it, with reliability, but would not. I was about to give up on my quest, until i found a used remmy speedmaster for 150(cheap, really). it is not only 100%reliable, but will fire accurately the super high velocity stuff, which none of my others will do. it has been 100% reliable with even shorts, even when I use diff size rounds , at the same time, in the same tube loading. new ones are 300, and the nice ADL'S are more like 400. but if you want to skip the money spent, the heartache, and the crap, either get a lever, a pump, or the remmy speedmaster only, for semiauto. make sure you download a copy of the owners' manual, so you know how to take it apart. It is quite a bit diff than what you will be used to. Pic of my new to me 70's vintage 552:

I fooled around with one at TN Gun Country in Clarksville. It was mine if I wanted it at about 374.00 before tax and TICs, but I get 10% retired Army discount. I so wanted it to be a Keltec P32 "big." As it is it seems fine. But I am not sure if I personally gain anything over my Star BMsor BKM. My tricked out Sharkskin Glock 26's seem to be the better option.

Try and find one with a metal trigger group at a pawn shop or used somewhere. I have 5 10/22s. 3 have aftermarket barrels, with one of the barrels costing nearly 300.00. 3 of my 10/22s have sub 3lb triggers and one has sub 4lb. Today I was wrasslin' with a new to me 10/22 with a plastic trigger group. I polished everything that touched or moved: Trigger Group Modifications - RimfireCentral.com Forums After having done some work on 10/22s for about 10 yrs I decided to go the whole Monty on stock parts. I couldn't get the parts to lower than 6.5lbs in the plastic trigger group. I took the parts out, got out a metal trigger group I had and stuck the reworked stock parts in. 3lbs 11oz. The 10/22 is good basic mass production design that can lend itself to some interesting variations. I have had many, some wilder than others. I have wasted some serious money on these so I feel like I am qualified to tell you some things not to do. Below are my 4 shooting 10/22s. I have one for parts and quite a few extra parts from projects gone awry. The top one is pretty stock except for a nice trigger and Green Montain Running Boar barrel. These barrels are good for shooting at moving targets. Next is one that the only thing stock is the receiver. Bolt, trigger group and barrel are all Rimfire Technologies. The barrel is a threaded and an aluminum shrouded one that has a chamber cut specifically for CCI ammo. Having a barrel chambered for one type of ammo was sort of dumb, but CCI is available a lot of places so it works pretty well. The next one looks stock but has a nice after market trigger job and a stock barrel that has been rechambered and crowned ny Rimfire Technologies. Bottom one is the one that I had to take off the plastic trigger housing. It is pretty much stock with a lot of stonining and a bit of spring change. If I had a used but stock 10/22 with a metal trigger group I would do the following: Save my money and time and get Randy at CPC to rework the whole rifle: CPC 10/22 Bolt Rework, He can get you a nice trigger in any housing; accurize the barrel, machine and match the bolt to your barrel. You get your barrel, bolt and trigger housing back from Randy, then attach it to your receiver and install in your favorite stock. No FFL required if you keep the receiver at home. The squirrels will never know what hit them. I've fiddle farted around with a lot of scopes & optics and for the money the Weaver 2-7x28 is my favorite on a 10/22.

here is a free site that has clear pics of complete disassembly: Disassembly Instructions for a Glock

nicemac, If you were over in the Clarksville area I would just give you a Rossi "J-frame" to practice on, but with your experience you should have no issues. Heed gregintenn's advice though. Do not get agressive with the stoning. Miculek emphasizes this also. The hardest part is applying enough pressure in prying up the rebound block and not having the spring hit you in the eye. Don't bend the pin. I haven't ruined one yet by accident.

See - you have choices: 1) Do nothing 2) Commission some gunsmith do it for you 3) Do it yourself and learn something in the process. The previous poster may have a point if you are drinking alcohol or doing recreational drugs while working on the gun, have a disorder that prevents you from concentrating, you shake a lot, etc. If you can change and gap the sparkplugs in your car, jump start a battery without blowing something up, sharpen a blade for your lawn mower, you can likely work on the action of your S&W revolver. If you want to do it in 5 minutes, you will jack something up. Sort of like reloading, best have some peace and quiet when you do this and try to allot for enough time to start and finish in one sitting, at least the first time or two. Put a white towel down for your workplace so that things don't roll around and stay in place. A bowl or pan is handy to have to put parts in while you are not addressing them specifically. Barring those things I doubt you will have much trouble, except for maybe that small spring shooting out into the carpet or something like that:) I hate that. And it does happen once in a while. Granted, the J-frames generally won't be as smooth as the K,L,Ns but that has as much to with mass and steel and steel as anything else. Everything in combat handgun action work is nuance. Designing a revolver may be hard science; taking one apart, cleaning it, stoning out a few tool marks and reassembling it isn't. That is all you are doing. Also, you do not have to burn candles and incense while kneeling to the blessed virgin on a purple velvet rug, pleading to the gods for guidance surrounding this unfathomable mystery. This is pretty straightforward stuff.

the guns are all basically the same except for the size of parts and the hammer spring in a J frame is coil, rather than leaf. You'll need a paper clip to take the hammer spring out. Pull the trigger until you see the hole on the strut appear beneath the spring, stick the paperclip through it and take it out. Same same other wise and the DAO hammer vice either the bull nose or new "floating" firing pin in the bigger Smiths.

If you watch and follow the Miculek DVD it will not get you in trouble. IMHO you have to use a gun for self defense then everything else has gone to Hades anyway and you are a deadly force situation. If I am in a deadly force situation then I don't care if I use a Mack truck, 2lb hammer, crowbar, baseball bat, spear, tricked out 1911, HiPoint .45, Lorcin .380 or a smooth running J-frame. A smooth gun is not a dangerous gun, the converse might be more true. If you make the gun dangerous then you have done something wrong. Miculek painstakingly points out how not to make the gun dangerous. You are not looking to make the gun an exhibition or speedy range gun and Miculek is not doing this in the DVD. What Miculek shows is that he is merely making the gun operate as if it had had 5,000 rounds down the pipe, smooth and well within factory specifications. I am pretty sure that Miculek and the Clarks could take a gun to the ragged edge if they wanted to but this DVD is not about that. I started doing a lot of my own gun work after getting what I considered poor results from so-called professional gunsmiths. I'm sure I could have had some of the work done by shipping the guns off to reknown gunsmiths. However, my wallet and upbringing preclude that sort of expense. Plus I wouldn't have learned anything. I am more or less a self-trained armorer who takes stock parts, safely dresses them up, maybe gets some new springs and enjoys the look on faces of people whose guns I work on occasionally or hand my guns to others to shoot. I get a kick out of that "Wow, this gun shoots great" look. I have made a couple of pistols dangerous for me, but I merely had to respring them to bring them back to factory specs. I find nothing amusing about dangerous guns or dangerous shooters. Have I ruined parts trying out this or that - heck yes. However, if you follow Miculek's DVD on the S&W revolver you will not ruin any parts. In a DAO revolver about the only thing you can do that is dangerous is make the gun not shoot reliably, which could kill you. To do that you would have to ruin some part which is unlikely if you follow directions. Or you put in spring combo that ruins proper timing or primer ignition. This will not happen if you follow the DVD. However, it is sort of fun to see how safe and light you can get a revolver to properly work in DAO. The trick most often becomes making the gun ignite a variety of primers reliably. I like a gun to be able to shoot any ammo I find so too light of a hammer strike makes no sense to me. However, a handloader may have other ideas especially in a competition or exhibition gun. In a double action revolver you can do the above to make the gun dangerous as well as make the gun dangerous in single action. Most S&W DA revolvers break at about 1.5lbs anyway, way too dangerous to be running around with the hammer cocked in a defensive situation. That is why so many police departments went to DAO revolvers prior to the big change to semi-auto pistols. I could never justify taking a 400.00 revolver spending money shipping it both ways to a gunsmith to do work that I can do just as well. However, if I had to replace the barrel or have the forcing cone cut and barrel set back, have something milled or lathed, or other technical work requiring a high overhead in tools and knowledge then I will use the smith for revolver work. I know my limitations and realize I have many. I hope you find a smith in your price range, if not get the DVD and take a look at it. If you think you don't want to tackle the job you can likely find someone to buy the DVD from you and you are out very little money and really not much time.

Quite frankly if you get the dvd "Trigger Job" by Jerry Miculek you will never have to find someone to do a S&W trigger job for you again. It is relatively painless and easy. Tools are minimal but a good S&W Screwdriver set will really help. Miculek does the minimum on this DVD to get a S&W revolver working as it should without harming reliability or safety. I looked at an FBI agent's privately owned 442 one time after he had a trigger job by a smith in the Chicago area which cost him 180.00. I showed the agent that all his Chicago smith did was put in 2 shims and nothing else, couldn't have taken 5 minutes from open to close. Also because the 442 is aluminum framed you should not touch the insides of the face plate or frame with stones, dremel etc. However, rebound block hand, hammer block, trigger and cylinder lock can all be dressed up a bit. You can also carefully take some 0000 steel wool and carefully sping the trigger and hammer pins, don't bend them. This just ensures that no burrs are present on pin or boss. You can also take a piece of 2000 grit sandpaper found in the auto body work section at Walmart and roll it up a bit and spin it within the hammer and trigger pin holes just a little bit to make sure they are smooth. Then there is the spring exchange and testing for reliability. It may be that shims may help, but not always on a newer revolver where the bosses are crisp. When working on a S&W revolver it is a lot of little things that add up to a nice action, not just one magic thing. I like a lube that that when you use a little of it easily creeps, bleeds or migrates well. 50:50 CLP and red tranny fluid applied with a needle applicator works for me. Another thing. I have a friend who owns a gun store. We got some snap caps out and tried the triggers on 6 or 8 NIB J frames one day. Every one of the triggers were different, ranging from pretty darn nice to relatively poor. This seemingly proved these are mass produced guns on a design that is over 100 years old, using materials, parts, tolerances and methods that meet economies of scale and price point goals. Even time proven well-designed mass produced guns often times can be improved with a little attention to detail after the sale. Having said all that I really think a lot of both S&W and Ruger revolvers. If you can't find an economical smith for your revolver just get the Miculek DVD, watch it once from beginning to end, then get the right tools (minimal expense and will last you your life) and watch it again with your remote at hand and revolver safely ready for the work.

There are a bunch of Glock disassembly (complete) on You Tube. YouTube - Glock Pistol Disassembly

+1 on using Clark bushings.

The last time someone called me up to "fix" their Ruger MKIII that they had taken apart and couldn't get back together I offered to trade him a fully functional rimfire for his "broke" rimfire. We traded and now that MKIII 22/45 sports a 2.25lb crips trigger pull and a Ultradot Matchdot. Springs: Springs for RUGER Semi-Auto Pistols I would also recommend the "new" Volquartsen trigger either steel or aluminum that allows you to adjust pre and over travel externally. A Volquartsen sear will also help. The Accurising kit would be OK if it didn't have that extended bolt release, that thing gets in the way. Volquartsen Accurizing Kit Ruger Mark III, 22/45 Silver - MidwayUSA https://www.volquartsen.com/category/16-action-trigger-components/4-mkiimkiii Pretty good trigger job website: Real Guns Best resources on Ruger MK pistols: www.1bad69.com and Gun Talk Online

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All the Ruger revolvers are nice hefty revolvers. The thing I like about them is their ease of disassembly without the need for specialty tools. Once the trigger group is out make sure you take a good look at it before you disassemble it, there are a couple of areas that can confuse you when you reassemble. What I have found out is that later models seem to be a slave of mass production but it is not too bothersome to dismantle and with needle files and dental picks take out any casting "slag" and file any rough openings. Just don't round the edges where the frame pieces meet. I have a pdf file, known among the Ruger community as: Iowegan’s Book of Knowledge for the Ruger GP-100. It is on how to tune up the Ruger GP 100, which essentially applies to the SP101 or the Speed or Security Series. I had the Kuhnhausen Shop Manual but this pdf worked just as well if not a little easier. Ruger GP100 Book of Knowledge « Gunner’s Journal This is a pretty good primer on doing a spring change and a bit of stoning. Banana Fufu: Trigger job for your Ruger GP100Just remember, just a little polishing, finding Ruger internal parts is almost impossible at times online. However, you can always send the gun back to Ruger and they will fix it for you at some cost. Here are some parts: Numrich Gun Parts Corp. - The World's Largest Supplier of Firearms Parts and Accessories

An old shooting buddy and I have had probably 10 CZs between us of the years, neither of us has one now. I wish I would have kept that 85 Combat I picked up a few years ago for a good price at The Academy of Self Protection. After a while, like all the other 75's I had, I thought it was too big and heavy for anything but range use and traded it. However, I love the CZ 75 out of the box accuracy at the range. The one thing I did not like about the P-01 was the extreme recurve of the trigger, it always bit me at some point, as do all the CZ extreme recurve triggers. In some of my CZs I replaced the the extreme recurve trigger with the standard trigger you see on other CZs. However, I always thought I would like the Single Action "straight" CZ trigger but I have never run across a used SA, which may tell you something. I wish some brave and well-heeled soul would buy this one and ask me to come to the range and shoot it: CZ-USA -> CZ 75 SA Target by The CZ Custom Shop

Great tip and IMHO better than all those finger grooved slip on grips out there.

I have 2 Star BMs and 1 Star BKM (aluminum frame) but same specs as the BM other wise. Mags are iffy on these too. You can get aftermarket from ammoclip I believe, but I am trying to do something with some Sig mags to see if I can get them to work. DO NOT DRY FIRE A STAR BM!!!!! the old firing pins are brittle and you need to get aftermarket pins from I can't remember where I got mine, either Numrich (e-gunparts) or Jack First Gun Shop or Bobs Guns out of Royal, AR. Wolf has recoil springs. Be careful that you fully engage the safety when carrying cocked and locked. The safety can seem like it is all the way up when it isn't. A review: A Critical Look at the Star Model BM Everything Star: Star Firearms : Information on Finding Spares and Accessories My 3 Stars and one odd duck that is now gone:

If you can make it to Greenbrier from Columbia sometime I recommend you go to Guns and Leather. I haven't seen a selection of 1911s so large in one place. They also have fair prices and are good people to deal with. Their selection runs the whole range of prices, plus you can put your hands on a bunch in one place to see how they feel. If this is your first one I would recommend a full size government 5" model. They tend to be very reliable and don't need recoil spring changes quite as often as shorter barrelled 1911s, muzzle flip and recoil are tad more managable too. In fact I would even recommend getting a Rock Island with decent sights, they tend to be at the lower end of the price range. This way you have a good shooting basic 1911 that over time if you want you can upgrade internals as you learn how the gun operates and best feels for you. I'm sort of a cheapskate and out of the 10 or 12 1911s I have had I only had a couple in the 1,000.00 range. I have just as much fun tuning up the less expensive ones or old beaters. I did some action work to an older friend's Armscor 1911 that was given to him as a gift. That particular gun was uncanningly accurate, and priced right even if it hadn't been a gift. Remember there is a big difference in feel between a 1911 with a flat mainspring housing and one with an arched mainspring housing, but those housings can easily be changed. Also if you find a good deal but don't like the trigger reach or feel of the trigger itself, there are several dozen different styles of 1911 triggers with varying lengths of reach. In fact you can buy a long squared off blank and make your own trigger. Triggers are pretty easily changed and fitted by the kitchen table armorer. I really don't know of any other pistol that has so many options you yourself can apply at the kitchen table after a little study. If you buy a used 1911 you might as well go to Wolf Gunsprings and order fresh springs or get a set of the springs from Wilson Combat. And if you have some MALFs after putting in fresh springs always take a look at magazines or the mag spring itself. The right mag in the right 1911 make a good team, the converse - not so much. My latest project is pictured. It is really nothing but a collection of parts that were in pretty rough shape. Can't beat a free gun if it can be made to work, and even a 1911 like this can be made to be a serviceable combat handgun or a great base for a .22 conversion.

Something I picked up from The High Road. What really intrigues me is the allegation that this rifle will one-hole Aguilla 60 grain subsonics, as well as function reliably with a tube mixed with S,L,LR and Aguilla 60grainers. If this proves true this next week I have found the Holy Grail of .22 rifles. Of course mine was not "rode hard" and therefore is not in the 150.00 class. What are your experiences with the Remington 552 Speedmaster? - THR Just some more detailed though... I consider the speedmaster, to be the best ever semi auto made; I know, big words. but I have probably had every 22 semiauto rifle made, for under 500 bucks, and this includes several oldies going back many years. But they are still hugely popular, and even used ones command a price of 150 or more, even if rode hard. why? Reliability. they fire everything , and do it well. Even the massive 60 grainer Aguila sss rounds, do not keyhole, fire and extract reliably, and give great accuracy. mine is an absolute 1 hole punch with this round. It can reliably fire short, long, and long rifle rounds , INTERCHANGEABLY, becuase of it's unique chamber design. Now then, they are a bit of a Beeeoch to take down and put back together, but most people never do. Again, why? because even after many years, and completely full of crap, they just keep on working. they are a very good looking rifle, the ones with quality wood are beautiful, they are very ergonomic, and nothing really sticks out on it anywhere, to get hung up on anything. they are comfortable in your hands, easy and fast to shoulder, totally balanced. It lacks nothing , and has no shortcomings.