Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Happiness is a dirty gun


Field stripped, dirty guns.  Actually, cleaning them isn't really so much fun; it just means that you shot them.  Yay, me!

It's actually pretty scary how fast the 1911 gets dirty.  The barrel is grungy on the outside as well as the inside.  The SIG, of course, has a fixed barrel, so the outside is spotless.  The 1911's barrel pivots down into the grungy innards ...

And while the 1911 is pretty easy to take apart, I have to say that the SIG is a marvel of industrial design.  It's dead easy to break down.  The 1911 needs a paperclip (!) to take the slide off - you can see the blue paper clip attached to the recoil spring.  Pretty standard for Rock Island Armory designs, but I wonder if the hole would fill with dirt and mud in hard field use.

5 comments:

Robert McDonald said...

My Kimber Ultra Raptor had the same type of recoil assembly. It annoyed the hell out of me but I never had any issues with it no matter how dirty the gun got.

JD said...

My Auto Ordanance 1911 does not use anything to take it apart, can do it fully for cleaning without any tools. . . didn't think any of htem needed tools . . . learn something every day around here = )

Firehand said...

Kimber Compact Aluminum, I've had it for close to twelve years and never any problem with the takedown hole getting clogged. And yeah, you need a tool, but that seems to be the cost of a bushingless barrel setup on a 1911.

Anonymous said...

Full length guide rods are the devil's tools and can get you excommunicated from the JMB church. ;-)

Seriously, they're more trouble than they're worth but your bushingless system and bell barrel force you to deal with them.

Terry

Bubblehead Les. said...

Ah, the smell of Hoppes #9 after hard days shooting. Heaven!