I can’t find the thread, but I wanted to share my results since I was very surprised.
FINALLY finished the 2k Challenge with my Dan Wesson Valor.
I ran my mildly custom DW Valor after having it Ionbonded (only 250 rounds prior to this). Just before the challenge I replaced mainspring and recoil spring and a stainless steel Wilson extractor, I put some gunkote on the back and tensioned it, no fitting or blending.
Oil used was Slip EWL, I wish I had used something thicker, I realized soon into the challenge that most of my oil pooled during storage on the rack, the only thing still wet after disassembling was the recoil plug, but the the barrel would “sweat” after warming up for the first 1500 rounds or so. But the gun shot pretty well through all weather, I did start dropping slide via “sling shot” after the FTF on 9/9/11, just to give the slide some extra umph to feed the first round.
Most of the rounds were through the Tripps, after that the Wilsons (with Tripp internals) and CMCs.
Today was the first time I stripped it, pictures kind of degraded as I lost sun light, but there was no way I was putting that thing in the safe dirty after taking a look inside.
Some awesome looking pictures, I did a few 2k challenges with my old les baer, did you shoot factory ammo or reloads? I found lead reloads to really get a 1911 nasty.
thanks.
I shot a mix, mostly factory. All FMJ except for 50rds of 230 Gold Dot loads, i am soaking everything now, i did a detail strip and this is by far the dirtiest gun I have done the 2k with, the reloads probably have something to do with that.
Eternal, thanks for running the Valor thru the challenge and posting results. Those are pretty good results. If I do my math right, your FTF rate is 6/2023 = 0.00296, or basically about 0.3%.
I once read from an AAR hear (believe it was at a LAV class) someone saying “the AK is more accurate than people give credit, and the AR is more reliable than people give credit” (something along those lines). I think the same thing could be said about Glocks and 1911s.
this is true, and why I personally recommend a budget of 1k for anyone looking to get into 1911s, and also why I dont recommend them for a first and only handgun. The 1911 is simply one of those things where you get what you pay for.
Thanks,
I am very happy with it, not much I would like to do to it, possibly new sights and someday welding or soldering the Dawson to the frame.
I changed the extractor because I started getting a lot of extraction related issues, the factory extractor did not have a lot of meat for grabbing cases and it got to the point it was not holding tension very long, I am wondering if being ionbonded affected this, even though the process is relatively low temp.
Stainless was A) in stock and B) went with the whole corrosion/rust resistant theme. I did have concerns regrading stainless for an extractor and its ability to hold tension over a long time compared to carbon steel, specifically spring steel. But it has done fine.
I did not blend or fit because I was prepping for the 2k Challenge and I wanted to see how it would do. Basically I was interested in the aspect of providing tool-less maintenance on a combat pistol, something that I think is semi-important for a modern combat pistol. I plan on blending it now that I am finished, but I honestly feel like I could do fine without.
I do not know how to measure tension for 1911 extractors, is there a unit or method for this? But I did follow the guidelines of being able to hold a live round adequately and drop it when given a brisk shake.
I’ve got well over 2k rounds with very few malf’s. Who did your Ionbond job?