AAR for the final Advanced Armorer Course class.

So....  Got my gun back. 

What did I learn on the last day of class?  How to install sights using a sight installing file.  It's just a triangle with 2 safe sides where the angle hopefully matches your dovetail cut.  Not so hard a procedure to do, ones you've done it once.

What can't I do?  Cut the dovetail.  I need to take a machinist class.  And get a mill. 

So, do the sights, trim down the bit of ejector that sticks out the back and looks ugly, and re-assemble with grease and oil in the right amounts and the right places, and safety check it.

And sign up for more classes.

It now is the tightest 1911 I have ever handled with the best trigger I have ever pulled on a semi-auto pistol.  Except for maybe one of OldNFO's pistols.

---

Part 2...

Go to the range and test the new pistol and the Savage 99 again.

The Savage failed again on the third shot again.  Failure to extract.  The ammo is pre-run-on-all-things-firearms-before-Obama-bans-it-all NATO surplus ammo.  7.62, naturally.  Anyway... fudge.  I was hoping it was just user error, but this is something else.  Luckily, I know where to find a gunsmith.

The Improved Springfield 1911, however, shot flawlessly with 2nd rate magazines for 75 rounds (all we had.)

Here is the pistol in all it's finery.

Here is the target.  The red spot cover the holes the rifle made.  The upper left circle is one of my 1911 target aim points.  Still right, but dang, it's like the Easy Button now.  I very much like how it shoots for me.  Now if only I could make myself a better shot.

I was getting ready to adjust windage to the left when the case got stuck in the rifle's chamber.

---

So, on the learning the 1911 smithing T-Bolt, what's the hardest part?

 Well, that may be the finishing.  Especially if you are a professional.  The superficial cosmetic look of the pistol reflects most on you, because everyone has eyes.  They can find the finish flaw and make conclusions about how good a smith you are on that.  You end up spending as much time on making the finish pretty as doing the mechanicals to make it perform, and it is very persnickety detail work, the finish.  And when you are done, take the gun out into the sunlight outside the shop and see all the spots you missed.  Yikes.  But if you are making a first class custom gun for someone you have to also make a first class custom finish.

If I had to do this for a living that is what would get to me.  And luckily, we didn't have to do much of it.  Because it's our name on the work.  Once removed from the professional smith.  Though one guy had some finishing to do, and this conversation about it came up.