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

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  1. #1
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    Now at 118K-plus rounds: Springfield Operator

    (UPDATE Oct 2014,round count now 98K plus) (Update 12-29-14, not at 103 K)

    Update 12-2016, now at 118K-ish. 4th barrel, second slide

    Here's an Operator belonging to my good friend Rob Donaldson. I spent the last few days with him and Jeff Chudwin, me filling the role of assistant to the assistant instructor and class armorer. Rob and Jeff were putting on a CQB class for Chicago-area police officers.

    I did some minor work on this gun for Rob a few years back—it was to be his workhorse gun. I have written about Rob before (on LTW): he is a true shooter, a real hard charger. His is a protégé of Jeff and also of Henk Iverson and in addition to being a police officer, is doing training for Strike Tactical Solutions, a company that Henk originally got rolling.

    So now this Operator is at 50K rounds. Here’s what it looks like:

    This Kart barrel is the third for this pistol. Rob felt the first was worn at about 10,000 and had someone else replace it. I did not see the first one at 10K and I’m guessing it may have still been OK. Barrel number two simply was not fitted right nor throated or chambered right. Rob struggled with it for a thousand rounds and then brought the gun back to me and I put in this Kart Easy Fit. It has held up extremely well to the 30,000 rounds he’s put through it. Rob tells me that maybe 1% of those were jacketed, so maybe 29,700 were lead semi-wadcutters with a 5-point-something load of 231. With his very packed training schedule, he is shooting more these days than ever before, and it was a lot before. He reloads to keeps costs down.


    The frontstrap checkering has taken a bit of a beating……


    Overall right side. One version of my Shield Driver sight, made from a Yost Professional, before I started making them from scratch to my mid-eighties design. All other bits are stock Springfield except hammer and sear, plus the slide stop is not stock but neither of us remembers changing it. I believe the S&A magwell was stock on this but not sure.


    Even the original MIM ejector is still there. I must say this Springfield has held up exceptionally well. The frame rail cracked above the slide stop window—common and no big deal….. that’s all there is for cracks.


    The breech face—not as worn and dimpled as I would expect with this round count, regardless of the loads used.


    Like I’ve said, Rob runs the guns and gear hard. Not an abuser by any means, in fact he’s a rare bird in that he really dotes on his guns in terms of maintenance and lube, but—he doesn’t baby stuff. He uses his equipment to the max. I’ve had to TIG on several stops on his Wilson ten-rounders—see how this one is about to get slammed off? And the base pad saw this and took a hike!

  2. #2
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    Nice post.
    Last edited by givo08; 12-19-12 at 18:08.

  3. #3
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    That is a beautiful, beautiful pistol. It's like a great bourbon, that just gets better with age.

  4. #4
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    10,000 rounds is a pretty short life for a barrel. I would've expected more especially in .45. I've been getting between 50-60K with Schuemann barrels as long as I don't run continuous "Bill Drills" and heat up those barrels until theyre brown. One of my .40 guns is a Dawson build and it's over 61,000 on the original STI barrel. It keyholes with some bullets and is a bit slow but with good bullets (Zero) it'll shoot well enough. It ought to fail any time now....

    Worn out, blue/black guns are PRETTY!!!

  5. #5
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    Good post, Ned

    This barrel looks like new, probably because he shoots lead bullets.

    On a side note, how important really are the "middle" sections (on the side of the mag well) of the frame rails? It seems to me most/all the slide alignment is done fore and aft, that's why glocks and other polymer pistols onlly have rail sections there. The question is because I have an old pistol with a long fisure at the base of the left rail, from the slide stop window to the end of the mag well, and I'm thinking of just cutting this section.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by TiroFijo View Post
    Good post, Ned

    This barrel looks like new, probably because he shoots lead bullets.

    On a side note, how important really are the "middle" sections (on the side of the mag well) of the frame rails? It seems to me most/all the slide alignment is done fore and aft, that's why glocks and other polymer pistols onlly have rail sections there. The question is because I have an old pistol with a long fisure at the base of the left rail, from the slide stop window to the end of the mag well, and I'm thinking of just cutting this section.
    Colt does this from factory...

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ned Christiansen View Post

    "... The ejector-- MIM'd-- is one of those when Springfield was gluing them in. I never really liked that but have not heard many complaints.... and Rob's was fall-out loose. He said he just works around it when the gun is disassembled. Although my situation was kinda in field expedient mode, I was able to clean the holes and ejector with mineral spirits and alcohol and red LocTite it back in-- for whatever good it will do."
    Ned, I had to do the same with one of my TRPs.
    "One cannot awaken a man who pretends to be asleep..."

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    Is that 33 etched as Magazine number 33?

  9. #9
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    I love how a hard use pistol looks...

    I prefer it to the "Glamour Shot" pictures I see alot of 1911s in.

    Maybe I'll throw a picture up of my first 1911,a (cough) Tarus PT1911 that has around 12k down the pipe. Still fist sized accurate at 25 yards, but ugly as sin.

    It's soon to be filled with Wilson Combat parts, just because I've never played with 1911s before


  10. #10
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    Going by the last time I rummaged around in Rob's shooting bag, that "33" is the mag number.

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