Initial Shooting

A few weeks passed with much back-and-forth between us. Once the gun was mechanically sound, the day came when Dusty came over for the first test-fire. Loading the magazine with one round, he touched it off carefully — the gun fired and the slide locked back on the empty mag. Just like it was supposed to do.
All was good so far.

Next up was two rounds. Things ran fine. The reason you ease into it is in case something is amiss. If the gun goes “full auto” the first time, you’re not risking trying to control a full magazine.

More shooting that day revealed the gun ran fine and shot very well. At 25 yards, groups hovered between 1.75" down to the magical 1" number at times. Dusty was pleased, I was pleased, and certainly the Nighthawk Custom crew was pleased. They had been an instrumental part of the process.

Often, a build like this needs some final tweaking once things settle in, and this one was no different. Dusty wanted to work on the trigger a bit, and used a Harrison Design jig to cut it perfectly and finish-fit things a bit more. He also tuned the extractor a tad and re-shaped the inside of the slide release to make it easier to put back into the gun. He also filed the front sight to the correct height for his point of aim.