[WoodrowAugustus]

Long story short I wound up with a bullseye pistol for $450 while shopping on Gunbroker for just a receiver. Caspian frame and slide, Kart barrel and bushing. It will soon be a 45 Super woods gun, but today it presented the perfect opportunity to learn how to use files and see if I’m willing to dehorn and chamfer a more valuable pistol another time...since I love Colts but their edges are sharp enough to shave with.

The past week or two I watched some videos from MosinVirus on YouTube, bought a lot of 12-15 files on EBay for $30, and finally worked up the nerve to get started. Fun process while watching bowl games.

Mostly I used a 4” mill ******* file, a round needle file or two, and then polished out the file marks with 1500 grit sand paper wrapped around a piece of wood. Clearly there’s a lot of room to improve, but it was much faster and easier than I expected. Next learning process will be attempting phosphate parkerizing.

 

[Ethank]

Looking good. Those first few strokes are always a little scary.

 

[ReaperCustom45]

Good deal on the gun and good job so far! Good files and patience are key.

 

[nikerret]

You have bigger balls or a bigger budget than I do. Possibly both.

 

[ReaperCustom45]

You have bigger balls or a bigger budget than I do. Possibly both.

 

[WoodrowAugustus]

More work tonight. First time to fit a grip safety, a Wilson Combat 298B, and used their fitting jig. The process was easy enough, but the underside of the tangs on the existing frame didn’t have enough meat and there’s a gap underneath. Oh well, the sides and top look good enough.

Beveled the mag well and trimmed down the slide stop to sit less proud of the frame.

The slide is off getting Novak sights cut. Upon return it will be time to attempt parkerizing.