Articles and Other News

Custom SIG Sauer P210 duty gun

Here are some snapshots of a new SIG Sauer® P210 duty pistol for a customer, which I imagine might get him some serious points on style.

I assembled it in nearly finished form just tonight for the first time, and wanted to get some pics up. Yes, Daddy’s been busy chiseling away on his backlog, one pistol at a time. I humbly submit this piece in the hope that my clients will be encouraged that the results will justify their patience with me as their turn comes up.

Nothing comes easy or simply with a P210 build. There are no custom parts or routine modifications available, and thus I made everything you see here.

New sight dovetails for the Trijicon HD night sight set that miraculously zeroes perfectly; the beavertail work; the ambi safety that I’m not happy with yet, and will reshape; the frame reinforcement to accomodate the handmade American style mag release; integrated Picatinny equipment rail; 360-degree magazine well with new lanyard loop anchor; recheckered grips; 30LPI hand checkering.

This is what more than 120 hours at the bench looks like, give or take a few details to clean up. I’m going to go have a nice glass of merlot now.

Click on an image to see the full size.

 

Grayguns is growing! New staff photos

As many of you know, the Grayguns staff has grown during the past year, and we’ve been remiss in keeping you updated here on the site. Our staff page is in the process of being updated, but here is a quick post introducing the newer members of our family.

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Bruce Gray takes 4th in 2011 NRA Bianchi Cup Production Division

The 2011 Bianchi Cup took place May 25-27 at the Green Valley Rifle & Pistol club in Columbia, Mo. The Bianchi Cup is the premier action pistol championship tournament in the world, and the only major shooting tournament that has retained its original course of fire since its inception. Bruce won the production division in 1994 and 1996, and took 4th place this year.

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A student’s perspective – Practical Fundamentals

The following review posted on SigForum and written by one of our Practical Fundamentals students who took the class in November 2010 caught our eye and we received permission to post here on our site.

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Practical Fundamentals Orlando class report

The three-day Practical Fundamentals class in Orlando last weekend went really well. There are quite a few comments posted by students enrolled in the class, and you can check those comments out over at SigForum, but we thought we’d provide you with one review here, plus a few photos from the great weekend.

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Reconstructed: Our version of the Sig Sauer GSR

This is a Sig Sauer GSR we did some work on for a customer. Some basic stuff like action work, GGI extractor, Superblack finish, hardtail, flush-cut slide stop, etc…
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Photos from GGI Heckler & Koch P7 M8 custom work

While catching up on our custom-gun backlog, we’ve been finishing a number of H&K P7 projects lately. We’ve had requests to post some pics of our current P7 work, so with your indulgence here’s a few snapshots of an M8 that Torie and I just completed for a good and patient customer from Ohio.

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Photos from the May 2010 GGI Massachusetts Extravaganza

The Massachusetts class this past weekend a big success. This was the third year Grayguns adjunct instructor Scott Conti put together the program in central Massachusetts, and about 20 shooters participated each of the three days.

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Physics and short .45 caliber pistols – a discussion

Let’s discuss some of the factors affecting the functioning of pistols in general, and short 45′s in particular. To contribute to this discussion, head over to SigForum and join in.

Let’s imagine a theoretical pistol, say a .45 caliber firing a given load, in which magazine timing efficiency and lockup were basically constant values. This means that the magazine requires a minimum period in which to present rounds before the breechface, and that the barrel and slide remained mechanically locked together for a set travel.

Let’s say that the variables at play are barrel length and spring tunnel length in proportion; slide mass; breechface over-run (it’s rearward travel past the magazine that, in part, dictates how much time the magazine is given to do it’s job); and recoil spring rate / weight.

Shortening the barrel length reduces total reciprocating mass, while increasing bore pressure at the muzzle which drives slide velocity as a function of the jet effect of expanding gas behind the bullet.

Thus, if we make our theoretical .45 shorter, we get faster unlocking and higher slide velocity due to reduced mass, AND even more slide velocity driven by higher residual bore pressure. Besides rendering our theoretical pistol unpleasant to shoot, excessive slide velocity has obvious consequences in the form of increased wear and breakages, plus the possibility of recoil-induced magazine malfunctions like double feeds and the like. We’ve agreed that in this pistol we can’t decrease slide velocity by increasing lockup travel to (partially) compensate for reduced slide mass.

Yet, our shorter pistol has room for an even shorter recoil spring that is taxed to do even more work in less travel and with fewer coils in a shorter space. So, an obvious answer is to use a heavier-rated spring to slow that slide down. It makes sense.

There are some problems and limitations at work against us here, however. First, our shorter spring needs to exert even more pressure in battery to attenuate the increased speed of unlocking from our lighter slide; to accomplish this, we can open up the coil spacing but at the expense of significantly reduced service life as we see with the various small 1911-style guns. One workaround: the multui-strand spring that SIG has pioneered already. However, that spring’s large net wire diameter limits how short it can go. Another? The flat-wound spring type.

So, let’s say we can engineer a trick 26-pound spring that gives us all the closing pressure against that light slide in battery we want, and slows down that gnarly slide velocity like a champ. Great!

The problem is that we’re up against another variable and one of our constants: we’ve had to shorten slide stroke considerably to arrive at this small package, and thus have reduced breechface over-run. Along with our ultra-strong recoil spring, we now aren’t giving the magazine enough time to function reliably.

Our choice of .45 ACP, being heavier and with a less-optimal transfer factor compared to other rounds like, say, 9X19, makes this timing even more critical.

So, we decide to lose the garage-door spring and back off the tension / rate just enough to allow the mags to feed, without permitting excessive wear and breakages from too much slide speed. Great! Our theoretical test gun survives a torture test in fine form on our test range, fed by a stack of new mags loaded by assistants.

Why, then, do our imaginary customers complain that their pistols start in with FTF’s after a few hundred rounds or so? That likely has to do with the difference in fatigue rates between magazine and recoil springs. The same physics are at play when we shorten the magazines, and magazine springs, as well. Unlike our torture-testers, our customers have only a few mags to work with, and as these mags take a set they no longer can keep up.

Yet another factor needs to be considered: extractor tension. Our imaginary light slide, short barreled pistol unlocks quickly with higher residual bore pressure, and thus requires more positive extractor tension as a hedge to overcome increased case adhesion forces during extraction.

Yet, that light slide carries with it much less momentum during the feeding cycle, and we can’t get as much closing pressure from that short spring to overcome the resistance that our increased extractor tension exerts upon the case rim as it tries to slide up the breechface, much less from a marginally-timed, short magazine with a less-than-adequate mag spring. Thus, the classic 3-point FTF jam we see all the time in short .45′s.

So, we can try another workaround to deal with feeding issues caused by both higher extractor tension and a reduced magazine timing window: we increase magazine spring tension to compensate. That, however, also has consequences as the slide has to overcome more resistance as it strips rounds out of the feedlips.

That, in brief, is an explanation of some of the fundamental problems that make shortened pistols so problematic. The tension between these factors is difficult to balance. If some of these factors seem familiar to your experience with various short .45′s, I hope it will help explain why I generally try to steer folks away from them.

I hope to lend some technical perspective to the subject of short pistols, and hopefully help explain my preference for at least somewhat longer guns. In a world of highly critical, perhaps over-engineered handgun designs, I believe a few extra coils of recoil spring, a bit more slide mass or a little bit longer slide travel can make all the difference.

I look forward to reading your informed input and alternative viewpoints. Head over to SigForum for the discussion.

The cure for the plastic Sig Sauer guide rod

So, why do we consider the Grayguns rods the best? Our beautifully finished and tough FAT rods set the replacement standard for solid stainless-steel P-series Sig Sauer guide rods.

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