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

[TiroFijo]

Thanks Ned, I've found the guncrafter .50 GI picure, no rails on the sides of the magwell

[VooDoo6Actual]

thanks for the post.
encouraging & impressive durability.
Interesting margin on front strap radius by grip. Mine checkers around radius under grips slightly different than that one.

[Norseman]

Mr. Christiansen thank you for posting this up, it is always great to see "real world" use.

If you don't mind I would like to ask a couple of questions; 1) How have the extractors fared during these 50k rounds? i.e. replacement intervals etc. 2) Is the factory ejector pinned?

Thanks again for posting this up, truly awesome.

[mattexass]

1) How have the extractors fared during these 50k rounds? i.e. replacement intervals etc. 2) Is the factory ejector pinned?

This.

[Ned Christiansen]

I'll ask The Robenator about extractors. I could tell at a glance that the one in it was not the one that came with it-- shoulda mentioned that.

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.

[Dave Berryhill]

Great post Ned!

IIRC, the STI 2011 frame also has no rails along the sides of the mag well.

[Norseman]

I'll ask The Robenator about extractors. I could tell at a glance that the one in it was not the one that came with it-- shoulda mentioned that.

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.

Thanks for the response, very interesting to see the ejector situation. My long standing gripe with SA is the "glued" ejectors. I realize this is just a personal thing that ultimately is probably not a big deal in the grand scheme, but it irritates for some reason.

Good to see that these hold up over the long haul though.

Thanks again.

[Dave Berryhill]

...My long standing gripe with SA is the "glued" ejectors. I realize this is just a personal thing that ultimately is probably not a big deal in the grand scheme, but it irritates for some reason....

My fear has always been that when one becomes loose, it will move enough to break off. I realize that there isn't much room for the ejector to move about due to the size of the slot in the slide but the glued ejector never gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.

It may not be rational but gunsmiths gotta sleep at night too!

[Norseman]

My fear has always been that when one becomes loose, it will move enough to break off. I realize that there isn't much room for the ejector to move about due to the size of the slot in the slide but the glued ejector never gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.

It may not be rational but gunsmiths gotta sleep at night too!

Wanting to make sure anything that leaves your shop is 100% so you can sleep at night knowing it might be used to save someones life...........weird.

All kidding aside, I just don't get it. I love SA pistols but don't understand how they can NOT pin all of them. Some they do and some they don't, I have a highly worked over mil-spec that was pinned from they factory but my TRP was a no-go.

Back on topic though, I am very interested to see what the extractor life has been on this particular pistol.

Mr. Berryhill, thanks for your input also, its great to see some of the best smiths out there participating here on this forum.

[Ned Christiansen]

Dave, I agree. I was never comfy with ejectors installed that way..... "glue" where there shoulda been "steel". I've pinned several of these "just because" as I'm sure you have.

On the other hand this is the only one I really have some post-mileage knowledge of and other than the not-insignificant inconvenience of the damned thing being in danger of falling out and getting lost when you have the slide off, it does seem to have held up.

I have an inquiry in to Rob as to extractor life on this. I'm guessing that when I worked on this I'd have fitted him up an extra extractor. I know for sure that the one in it is not one I fitted to this gun, so, this must be at least the second, and maybe third.