[lelandray]

I have a rotten head cold, and the medicine I'm taking for it is making me kind of shaky, not to mention the low grade fever. But I got a package today from C&S, and I just couldn't wait to get cracking.

The last part will be tomorrow. I have a new trigger return spring to install, but after dealing with bouncing detents and detent springs all afternoon, I don't feel like removing any little pins.

 

[Stephen A. Camp]

Hello and thanks for the excellent photography and update.
Man, take care of yourself first.

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Best.

 

[lelandray]

Having the crud isn't all bad: because I'm sniffling, sneezing, feverish, and can't breathe through my nose, I put off the four tooth extractions I was supposed to have done tomorrow morning.

I'd much rather work on my Browning. I've been testing it with the Ross holster, and the safety's still being pushed off by the safety strap, though not all the time. I think part of the issue is that the snap has to be broken in some.

I'm not going to carry the gun until I've had a chance to fire it at least a few times. The different hammer could cause functioning issues, so I want to be convinced of reliability before carrying this as my primary defense gun. (There's a warning about possible functioning problems in the installation instructions, but I'm not terribly concerned, just careful.)

 

[Stephen A. Camp]

Hello. Reliability checking is something that should always be done and I believe you're making a very wise move.

Best.

 

[Chris Stephens]

Hi there Leland,

I hope that you feel better and I know that its tough to concentrate when you don't feel well.

The photo looks excellent and I know that the trigger spring installation will be pretty quick.

FYI, when I did the trigger mod on my FEG PJK 9 HP, I didn't line up the groove in the pin with spring and it caused me to have a single shot HP because the trigger would not reset.

I like the safety. Is it is as positive as it looks? I need to redo my FEG PJK-9 HP as my first project gun and the safety is on my list.

I want to start with the least expensive pistol first!

Chris

 

[lelandray]

Yes, the safety is positive, as I knew it would be. This is my second C&S safety, though this one was more work to install. Either it was more oversized than the previous one or the other gun's sear isn't as beefy. I had to take considerably more metal off this one to get it to work.

Unfortunately the safety still "scrapes off" with the Ross holster. Regard that this doesn't happen when the gun is riding in it, but when I'm trying to get the safety strap snapped on. I have to manipulate the strap around in such a way that the pressure needed to lock the snap almost invariably pushes off the safety.

This may be an ergonomic thing I can get around. We'll see.

 

[Bob Reed]

Hello Leland,

She's looking good!

You might want to get some boot/shoe oil and apply it to the entire safety strap and the area thats around the safety it's self, work it in real good with your thumb & fore finger and after a few good soakings you will be able to streach the strap alittle and get alittle more lenght outta it, plus soften the holster area around where the gun safety sits, it will then form alittle pocket.

I know all the holster makers say not to oil holsters, but, when I got my Galco Ankle Glove it was so tight that I would nearly rip it off my leg trying to get my gun out, plus the safety strap was a son of a gun to get over the hammer to snap it, now after a few good oilings it's Perfect!

Galco sells DRAW-EZ and Mitch Rosen sells Leather Lighting for slicking up the inside of holsters, it works! But for a problem like your having and like I had with my Ankle Glove, boot oil seems to be the only solution that worked for me.

NOTE: Oiling open top holsters is not a good idea, use either DRAW-EZ or Leather Lighting on them.

Hope This Helps,
The Sockman

 

[lelandray]

Ta da!

Still have to replace the trigger spring, but after that it's just a matter of test firing and practice, practice, practice.

 

[Guest]

LelandRay,

That be a right purty BHP. Always liked the matte nickel jobs ever since the blond gal in the Matrix wielded one.
Both my Cylinder & Slide HP and my new "Practical" model have matte nickel/chrome frames.
Oh, so does my new CZ 75 B, come to think of it.

Wes

 

[lelandray]

Okay, the new return spring is in and working. Truth is, it wasn't nearly as big a problem as I'd expected; I was worried that I'd have problems with shakiness caused by this cold, but doing the work after a good night's sleep seems to have done the trick.

A problem developed with my trigger after the new hammer went in, but I'm not sure I want to mess with it right now. I now have a little bit of trigger creep that wasn't there before, and I attribute this to the new internal parts. After a week or two I'll go in and do some judicious stoning, but for now I want to put a couple of hundred rounds through the gun. If it doesn't rain today I'll dig around and find a couple of silhouette targets and head to the range.

 

[lelandray]

So this is what I did today.

This target was fired with some Sellier and Bellot 124-grain FMJ I found at the gun show last weekend. I loaded ten rounds in a factory 10-shot magazine, loaded the chamber, then popped the mag and loaded another round, making a total of eleven in the gun.

And I had a failure at round number six, which stovepiped. It would be easy to blame this on the gun, but when I dropped the magazine, I saw the spot of red paint on the baseplate. I had marked that mag quite some time back, and while I'm not totally sure why, it was probably marked because it was in the gun when some sort of failure took place.

I was using an old Bush / Cheney yard sign to hold the target, and one of the wire legs had been cut by a .223 bullet, so the target moved a bit in the wind while I was clearing the jam. Range was ten yards, all shot offhand.

My friend Charlie and I headed out later on, and I did a bit of torture testing. My 115-grain JHP reloads (4.5 grains of Bullseye) gave me lots and lots of failures to eject, while the 125-grain Cor Bon and 124-grain Federal Hydra Shok both worked 100% in all respects.

 

[Chris Stephens]

Hi there Leland,

Nice offhand shooting at 10 yards!

The S & B failure sounds like a magazine related problem as you already indicated.

How did the trigger return spring function? Positioning of the trigger pin is usually a critical issue in retrofitting the spring. I put a 1/4' downward bend in the tail of mine several months ago since the mag disconnect went away to make up for the missing part and extra tension on the "take-up" of the trigger pull.

Chris

 

[lelandray]

Hey, Chris. The trigger spring worked great. No problems on that score.

Anyway, I shot a total of 50 rounds of the S&B, and it failed often enough that I would be leery of it, save for one thing: every round came from the 10-round factory mags made by Mec Gar, and while those mags never gave me any problems using 115-grain S&B, I wasn't shooting them with an 18.5-lb recoil spring.

In other words I might continue testing with other mags. Or I might not, considering that I have only 250 rounds of the S&B 124s left and probably won't replace those once they're goine. The thing is that they pretty much duplicate the ballistics--and the recoil--of the Federal 124 Hydra Shoks, and I see the S&Bs as a great way to get some practical shooting done with something approximating one of my carry loads, but at less than half the cost.

I also need to shoot a few of the Winchester NATO rounds, but again, not many, as the supply is limited. I'll burn a box tomorrow if possible and see how things shake out.

 

[Chris Stephens]

Hey Leland,

Interesting info on the S & B ammunition. I might have to get into that as my preferred "carry load" is the Federal Hydra Shoks.

Tomorrow, I have some business on the south end of town and may carry my PJK 9 HP to head to the range to run some Winchester 115 grain "white box" through the PJK.

The PJK is practically new with only about 250 rounds through it so far and I need to wring it out to decide what other modifications I will be making. Right now, the mag disconnect is gone and it sports some Butler Creek BHP grips.

I will also see if the range has some S & B ammo in stock.

Chris

 

[lelandray]

Well, after making my previous post I went outside to try out a few rounds. I loaded up a 13-shot magazine that I know to be good, using the 124 S&B. I had failures to feed on rounds six, ten, and thirteen, and when the last round fired, the empty stovepiped. I'll keep the 124 S&B for the Mark II, the other Mark III, and the $250 Hungarian (which shoots like a dream, by the way).

Then I loaded up the same magazine with 13 rounds of the Winchester 96 Nato 124 stuff.

Pull trigger. Go bang. Hit target. It's noticeably louder than the 115 S&B I normally plink with, and the recoil is higher, but it works just fine.

What I find really interesting is that while the S&B 124 standard velocity stuff won't function 100% of the time, I've had no failures with the Federal Hydra Shoks, which have almost identical ballistics, though probably a bit on the low side of the S&B.

As it stands now, the standard carrying load will continue to be the 125 Cor Bon +P stuff.

 

[Stephen A. Camp]

Hello and thanks for the update. I frankly do not trust S&B for other than range ammo. In 9mm I've never found it particularly accurate and in .45 it is slower than other comparable ball rounds though it has good accuracy.

Some lots are pretty consistent while others have wild extreme spreads and wide deviations shot to shot.

On several boards now I am currently seeing people complain about S&B in 9mm. Extremely hard primers seems to be the main culprit but complaints similar to those you've experienced creep in as well.

Possibly some of their less than stellar stuff has shown up?

Best.

 

[Bob Reed]

Hello Leland,

Please tell us about the extra power trigger return spring... How much stronger than the stock spring is it?

Do you like the extra power trigger spring, and does it fit good, i.e. like the factory spring?

Sorry for all the questions, but I've been thinking about getting some extra power trigger return springs myself.

Thanks Leland,
The Sockman

 

[lelandray]

I'll answer both posts at one time.

Stephen, I've also read some negative things about S&B ammo, and I'll keep this all in mind. I used to carry a single magazine of the 115 stuff with me as an extra reload, but I've experienced just enough failures to change my mind. Understand that I've fired many hundreds of rounds of the S&B ammo in both .45 and 9mm without too many problems, but I have had some few issues, all of them with the 9mm rounds. But it makes nice, cheap, relatively clean and reliable range ammo, so I'll stick to it for that purpose. I've stashed 1,000 rounds of Winchester white box 115 FMJ as a "working stock."

The new trigger return spring is really nice. The reset is faster and seems much more positive, but the actual trigger pull weight doesn't seem affected too much. Truth is, I don't care about the weight of the pull so long as it feels good to me and is stout enough to be safe. (Totally subjective, I know, but there's no other way to say it.)

I have no way of measuring the extra weight of the return spring, but one thing is certain: the new one is made of thicker wire. If I had to guess, I'd say it's 1.5x as strong as the original. The important thing is the effect it has had on the reset.

 

[Chris Stephens]

Hi Leland ,

Leland, your assessment of the C & S extra power trigger return spring is about dead on in terms of thickness and tension compared to the factory spring.

When I replaced the trigger spring in the Hungarian, I immediately ordered a spare which is going in the BHP Mark III when the new hammer arrives from C & S. The magazine disconnect is going in the BHP shortly.

Interesting comments on the S & B ammo and I think I'll stick to the Winchester White Box today! I picked up a 100 round value pack from Bass Pro Shop last night for about $12.00/tax. There is no sense wasting money on ammo that may not work as well while the "white box" stuff is so inexpensive.

Chris

 

[Chris Stephens]

Hi Leland,

Since you own a FEG and the BHP, just a quick question.

I notice that when I pull back the slide on the BHP, the movement with the barrel unlocking is a lot smoother than the FEG. The FEG slide to frame fit is a lot tighter than the BHP and I wondered if this was due to barrel to slide fitting, or the wear on the BHP Slide to Barrel lock-up?

Sorry to double post, but I didn't think of this until I had another cup of coffee.

Chris