Gave my boring Colt the Wilson treatment!

[Cheeseybacon]

I really enjoy my Colt model 80, but it's just a tad bit on the bland side, so I decided to dress it up a bit with a few Wilson stainless parts. I installed a Wilson ultra-light competition trigger and sear, skeletonized hammer, and beavertail grip safety. It was a hair-raising install to say the least, but it was extremely satisfying to have done some kitchen table gunsmithing all by myself. I haven't shot it yet in this configuration (hopefully tomorrow afternoon) but the trigger pull is shockingly light compared to what it originally was, it should be fun. I like the way the bits of stainless steel contrast with the blued steel. I like the contrasting colors enough that was thinking about maybe adding a stainless slide stop and/or thumb safety as well, but I'm not sure, that might be overkill... it needs something else though... Whatcha guys think?

Before:




After:









For a "drop-in" Beavertail, this thing sure fit nice, although the blurriness of the photo probably doesn't illustrate that very well.

[ssom003]

Looks great...
Nice job...

[ChamberedRound]

Really like the grips. Two questions:

1. From the medallion on the grips, it looks like they're Pachmayr, but not 100% sure; am I mistaken?

2. Are the checkered inserts and fore-grip wood or synthetic?

UPDATE: Never mind, searched Pachmayr's website and found them: American Legend grips. How do you like them?

[RocketFoot]

Very nice! ALS FTW!! I do love the subdued look with polished accents...good job!

[glassman]

Nice job!! You have more sand than I do. The modifications you've made look great. Personally, I wouldn't do anything more to it. Just my $.02.

[The_War_Wagon]

Ambidextrous safeties. Maybe it's because my FIRST pistol, was - at that time - a brand new 3rd generation S&W - but I CANNOT take a 1911 without 'em. Here's my new S&W 1911, after I had 'em installed! Got 'em on my Springfield 1911A1, too!

Bob

[JSPA]

very nice work on the overhaul!
its amazing how just a few small parts can make a world of difference!

[Cheeseybacon]

Really like the grips. Two questions:

1. From the medallion on the grips, it looks like they're Pachmayr, but not 100% sure; am I mistaken?

2. Are the checkered inserts and fore-grip wood or synthetic?

UPDATE: Never mind, searched Pachmayr's website and found them: American Legend grips. How do you like them?

Yepper, these are the American Legend Grips. They're pretty nice, the fore-grip is especially handy and allow me to deathgrip the thing in total comfort. I have minor two complaints about these grips though, the first being the little medallions came out too easily. The first one came loose about a week after I got them, and the second one popped out a year later. A little dab of super glue did the trick though and I haven't had a problem with either side since. The second complaint is that the included screws tend to back out during a really intense shooting session. I can live with this, however a dab of the weakest loctite would probably help things out.

[Cheeseybacon]

I took it out this afternoon and put 100 rounds through it. The first thing I noticed was how much my accuracy had improved from new lighter trigger. I'll admit I was skeptical that it a new trigger could really help accuracy that much and really only bought it for the aesthetics, but the proof was in the groups! It was quite shocked, I shot better with this thing today than I have in a long long time.

After the initial thrill of shooting better wore off, I began to notice that the new beavertail grip safety was really bashing on the webbing of my hand. I suspect it's because the grip safety does not go in far enough to allow the straight edge at the bottom of the grip safety to lay even with the rest of the grip.

It looks like I have some more filing to do...

[Slim Pickens]

Ohhhh, baby.... drooling on my keyboard....she's beautiful....Awesome job, she's a beaut.