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

[rushca01]

Rob's comng for a visit in the next few weeks, I'll get few more pics and we're gonna put one of my ESPT's on it:


Showing the “four studs instead of two”. But it’s more than just that. On most plunger tubes the relationship between the boss and the factory holes they go into is, well, sloppy. That makes for an installation that can be even more marginal than it might seem. The ESPT studs are larger than most others by at least a few thousandths. The extra holes, put in with the available drill jig, are several thousandths smaller. This all adds up to a plunger tube and install that is way, way stronger than traditional plunger tubes.


This one shows the increased thickness of the ESPT’s walls and the overall precision machining. The plunger holes are held to a higher standard for diameter and concentricity which can be a huge benefit in, first, getting a perfect safety detent effort, and second, in maintaining it. Between a better fit with the plungers and being made from prehardened chrome-moly steel, the hole does not get wowed-out with heavy use.

Cool, thanks for sharing your method. What is your opinion on silver soldering the plunger tube on?

[SeriousStudent]

As always, Ned, I learn a great deal from your posts. Thanks for sharing that.

[TiroFijo]

Ned, what about the plungers themselves? most of them are made soft and deform after some use.

[Rezarf2]

What a cool thread, thanks for sharing.

[Ned Christiansen]

Silver soldering it on is great..... very technique dependent though, I mean, getting a good silver joint takes the proper prep and nothing else will do. I've also TIG'd the studs inside the magwell. If I were going to do that I would rummage through whichever plunger tubes were available (used would be OK) and get the one with the heaviest wall and the not-oversizest detent holes. They vary greatly in both areas.

Plungers, I've done a whole study on and I prefer Colt parts or Wilson Combat. The W/C's can be counted upon to be .108 diameter, many others go even below .105..... another variable in getting and keeping perfect detent efforts. I find both of them hard enough. I put a lot of time into the detent efforts sometimes-- other times it just happens. I want a stiff, crisp detent action with no bounce-back coming off safe. It can be a bit of work...... and of course the stiffer the detent, the more stress is transmitted to the plunger tube and, if you are using the right side of an ambi, the more stress is put on the slot-and-blade joint. W/C's latest ambi where the whole shaft is split is interesting ad, I presume, stronger.

[R0CKETMAN]

Ned,
How does a stronger plunger tube benefit a LH shooter? I recall reading this some time ago, from you I'm thinking, and rather than speculate, thought I'd just ask.
Thanks

[Ned Christiansen]

I think I'm not understanding the question. 'Cause the benefits of not coming loose and being extremely damage and wear resistant are the same no matter what-handed you are :-) .

If you meant do stiffer detent efforts, I mean making it harder to move the safety up and down, have a different benefit for LH shooters, I would say possibly more since if you are carrying on your left side, you have the left hand safety lever there to bump things and go to the "off" position. Right handers not having an ambi safety don't have that to contend with. Downside is the above mentioned issue of stiffer (stronger) detents putting more stress on the blade and slot joint that connects the two halves of the ambi safety. This can be mitigated by having positive stops on the right-side portion if the ambi. It's nice when you can get them to stop "down" by having the right side lever contact the top of the right side grip. The "up" stop ought to be the right side lever contacting the underside of the slide but unfortunately I have seen very few in the last 15 years that do this-.I believe it was the original design intent by Mr. Swenson that has long since been lost in the many ambis now available.

[R0CKETMAN]

I think I'm not understanding the question. 'Cause the benefits of not coming loose and being extremely damage and wear resistant are the same no matter what-handed you are :-) .

If you meant do stiffer detent efforts, I mean making it harder to move the safety up and down, have a different benefit for LH shooters, I would say possibly more since if you are carrying on your left side, you have the left hand safety lever there to bump things and go to the "off" position. Right handers not having an ambi safety don't have that to contend with. Downside is the above mentioned issue of stiffer (stronger) detents putting more stress on the blade and slot joint that connects the two halves of the ambi safety. This can be mitigated by having positive stops on the right-side portion if the ambi. It's nice when you can get them to stop "down" by having the right side lever contact the top of the right side grip. The "up" stop ought to be the right side lever contacting the underside of the slide but unfortunately I have seen very few in the last 15 years that do this-.I believe it was the original design intent by Mr. Swenson that has long since been lost in the many ambis now available.

I can only assume that better detent effort and maintaining it was the intrinsic benefit for the LH shooter. Makes sense.

[Ned Christiansen]

I did a thread on this one on LTW too, which incudes some links to other high-mileage threads. Is that within the rules (checking, now that I've done it...)
http://forum.ltwguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9204

[Lost River]

(UPDATE Dec 2013,round count now 80K plus)



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

I too have a high round count 1911. The pic of the breech face reminded me of a similar pic I took a few years back.

Mine is a very early Kimber that I tuned up.

Breech face, magwell, etc:









When they are built right, they run and run, and run...

I truly enjoy looking at "hard use" guns like the Springfield that is the subject of this thread. They just scream "tool used by a serious practitioner".

Cheers!