Gunsmithing Stories
from the Bench
Common Fixes & Revolver Sights on 1911s
The slight hump in this 1911 barrel signals that the barrel has been “bulged” in the chamber.
Greg milled out material through the ejection port to clear it.
About twice a year, I get a customer who complains their semi-auto pistol is “locked up” or a revolver has a barrel obstruction. Most often, this is associated with handloads or budget factory ammo. The jam usually is just after a light recoil, a round that did not eject from the gun or a feeling of, “It felt weird.” The shooter hand racks the slide and then the trouble starts.
Squib loads (loads with little or no powder) have plagued shooters forever. Most often, the light load fails to get the bullet out of the barrel, and the second round fired after it creates enough pressure to “bulge” and sometimes split the barrel.
In my latest case, the gun was a numbers matching WWII Colt 1911 used by the owner’s father. The bulge occurred in the chamber area locking the slide up solid. First, I did a complete exam of the gun, seeing what damage may have been done to the slide and frame. Most times, I can get the slide to move with a few whacks of a leather mallet. Not this time. To separate the slide from the frame, I cut the slide stop pin, allowing the slide to come off. Now I could see the issue clearly. The barrel was now too fat to slip out of the slide.
The slide which was serialized to the frame was my main concern, I had to be very careful. After thinking about it overnight, I decided to cut material from the barrel chamber area through the ejection port with my mill. Hopefully this would allow the chamber area to squeeze out the slide tunnel. I cut a lot of material away with a ⅜th endmill, being careful not to touch the slide. Next, I used a brass drift and hammer to tap the barrel out, hitting the lower feet. The barrel reluctantly gave up and came out. The slide was fine, ready for a new period correct barrel. If you ever have a “weird recoil or what feels like a weak round,” please take the time to check the barrel safely for an obstruction.
Master gunsmith Mike LaRocca at his bench just before
closing shop and another chapter in Pachmayr history.
Retirement
Pachmayr is a name that still evokes the golden era of innovation in the pistolsmithing world. One of the last pistolsmiths from the famed Pachmayr shop, Mike LaRocca, has decided to retire after 42 years. Mike started with Pachmayr right out of gunsmithing school, taking a job as one of six pistolsmiths in Los Angeles. Frank Pachmayr took Mike under his wing, and after a year and a half, Mike was lead pistolsmith in a shop with a four-year backlog. Mike brought a more systematic approach to the shop and started to make the backlog manageable.
All the while, he was working on innovations for what would become the “Combat Special.” LaRocca took a lot of the ideas from Frank Pachmayr and turned them into reality for the shop. LaRocca eventually moved back east to start up his own shop, finding the cost of living a little better than downtown Los Angeles. For the next 30-plus years, he worked in his shop on the third floor of an old mill building in downtown Worcester, Mass. During that time, he used the expertise and confidence he learned from Pachmayr to tune pistols and shotguns, many of which won major matches like the Bianchi Cup, and he continued to innovate. He also kept the “Pachmayr Combat Special and Signature Series” 1911 pistols running for clients after the closing of Pachmayr. Mike plans on doing some fishing in retirement and some traveling with his wife Cathy.
S&W revolver sight installation is a tricky process — but worth it.
The Versatile S&W Rear sight
The Smith and Wesson revolver sight has been used for years as a custom install on many pistols like the 1911, Browning Hi-Power, Ruger revolvers and many more. I think it works because it’s small and sits low on a handgun — great for carrying. It’s also one of the more difficult sights to properly install. A lot of people credit Armand Swenson for using it first on a 1911, but it goes back farther than him. Swenson did make the modification popular as his guns got attention in many firearm publications.
It takes nerve to install the sight since many of the milling operations require very small cutters that have a tendency to break during the process. The factory sight did have a flaw. When used on a semi-auto like the .45 1911, the small screw that held the long front tang in the slide used to sheer off under recoil, Swenson came up with adding a steel stud into the sight tang, which eliminated breakage. As an added feature, he would stamp the owner’s initial into the stud. It’s a great sight on so many platforms.
