50,000 (now 88K) rounds and counting: Springfield Operator

[one]

Ned,Just out of curiosity, have you gotten to examine any of the Colt Combat Units or commercial M45A1's?

How do they compare to what you're seeing posted in this thread?

[Ned Christiansen]

Taz, it's all one piece; in Colt's case it's from a forging. nothing wrong with the barrel here, I believe it was all about impact at the bottom end of the barrel foot. other than that I think this was a good gun and would have gone a good long time.

one, I have seen all of one single CCU, shown to me by a Marine. This sample of one was not ready for war. Although I confess I did not shoot it and this was a couple years ago now, the main things that stand out were the sharp edges and how thick the paint was and that it was affecting the movement of the safety. I just wish and have for many years now, that Colt would put another ten minutes into each gun and charge three bucks for each of them. It ought to be well worth $30 to have a gun that is not also an edged weapon that works only on the wielder.

Here's the old Colt, welded:

[TAZ]

Taz, it's all one piece; in Colt's case it's from a forging. nothing wrong with the barrel here, I believe it was all about impact at the bottom end of the barrel foot. other than that I think this was a good gun and would have gone a good long time.

one, I have seen all of one single CCU, shown to me by a Marine. This sample of one was not ready for war. Although I confess I did not shoot it and this was a couple years ago now, the main things that stand out were the sharp edges and how thick the paint was and that it was affecting the movement of the safety. I just wish and have for many years now, that Colt would put another ten minutes into each gun and charge three bucks for each of them. It ought to be well worth $30 to have a gun that is not also an edged weapon that works only on the wielder.

Here's the old Colt, welded:

Mr. Chistiansen, thanks for the clarification. I'd venture the underside of those legs have the tell tale striations of fatigue failure. It's amazing to see just how much energy the frame and barrel have to deal with.

[Ned Christiansen]

I've seen a few fail like this and not all were stainless. It's till hard for me to believe 100% that low impact is causing it; and if you look at it, it is not exactly sheared off along the axis of the barrel, it's yanked down and out by the roots all the way up to the chamber.

[Serpico1985]

Ned,

As always really enjoy your posts. What kind of welds were used to do those rails? Micro tig? Laser?

When your re-cutting a welded up frame to fit a slide what kind of clearance are you going for for a work/duty/carry gun? .001" clearance?

Do you use lapping compound on the slide to frame fit?

Thanks for your time Ned!

Zack

[Serpico1985]

Duplicate, sorry.

[Ned Christiansen]

That's laser. I am fortunate to have access to a real maestro of TIG and laser. Although I do a ton of measuring during the process, the final fit is more of a feely thing than a dimensional thing. I have not used lapping compound for a long time although I'm not saying it's wrong.

[Ned Christiansen]

Still working on this old Colt on a catch-as-catch-can basis, almost ready to test fire with the new slide and barrel and snapped a few pics today.
The magwell, and the bottom of the mag chute, show that a boat load of reloads have taken place here. Jeff has actually worn out a mag catch to the point where it was holding mags too low and the gun started misfeeding. If you think about it, even at 150,000 rounds, which we are certain this gun is way over that but at 150 K that’s 18-20,000 reloads. Shooting with him as I often do, and watching him, I can say, “Reloading, yep. He’s got that down”. The S&A magwell would not be my choice for high-end custom gun but it works well and with a little tightening-up stays in place well enough for a good side-to-side match. Anyway it’s Jeff’s preference and I seldom contest what he uses since he uses it so dang well.


Even the top of the mag chute shows some wear from all this reloading. The four-post plunger tube has been on there since before they came out and is staying tight.


This is one of the most interesting hard-use telltales. When you shoot this much you have many magazine. Some may be sharpish at the top edges of the feedlips; as the magazine is inserted and comes in contact with the mag catch it is bumped hard over to the left. Do that enough times and you get this:


….and, on the rear wall of the mag chute, at a certain point there are roundy grooves worn in, about .005 deep, where the rear of a magazine’s upper profile will make contact before the mag is forced into better alignement. I stuck a mag in there to illustrate this. CMC Power Mags were never my favorite but Chip's latest with the rolled lips and improved follower have been great sofar:

[opngrnd]

Makes me think of the distinctly different "stages" of the reload, in the sense of feeling the magazine make contact with all of the aforementioned parts. It certainly does seem like some mags are easier to get in the gun vs other brands, at least in feel.

[jpmuscle]

That's glorious Ned. Thank you for posting.