Greetings from JAX FL

[leehype]

Hello thar.

Short version-

A long time ago in a city far far away, I fell in love with the 1911 style pistol. The lines, the reliablility, the history... Of course, I wasn't exaclty close to being old enough to own a gun, let alone in a position to pay for one. That came later.

About a few years ago. It all started with a buddie that had a Detonics Combat master for sale. I liked the gun, and the price, and haven't looked back since. Soon after, I purchased a AK-47 chambered in .223, a 30-30 winchester, RIA fullsize, and a RIA M-5. My Father also passed down a 12 gauge winchester 120 to me.

Now, I'm not one to leave anything alone. The only things I haven't modified are the Detonics and the Winchester's (let's face facts, what could really be modified on those... and I'm not talking about stocks here...)

The AK had a feeding issue that came with the gun. It is a Century arms, and the feed ramp was not modified when the chamber and barrel was changed, so instead of feeding round into the chamber, they would jam the sides of the chamber, and bend in half. I had to add materiel to the feed ram, it now runs flawlessly. I modified the charging handle and added a red/green dot site to it as well.

The M-5, I bought that on a wim... I was in the store and it just jumped off the shelf at me. RIA had allready proven it self as a company to me in my 1911, and now here is a short barrel 12 gauge, right when I'm in the market for a home defence 12 gauge. Bought it, stripped it down, and polished up all the interals. Got an ATI folding stock modified to fit, and a shelth to fit it on the side of the bed. Kinda doesn't feel right putting work into a gun that I never want to use, but better to have it and not need it.

The fullsize 1911, that came with some mods, a bushing style compensator, modified sites, and one of those mag well thingies to help slide a mag in... Those have all gone away, the comp; When firing, carbon is deposited inside and forced down the sides of the bushing. After 3 mags, the slide would start to lock up half way through it's travel. Started having to bring some WD-40 to the range just to fire more than 20 rounds, and spray the barrel after each mag. The replacement was a new barrel with a compensator installed. I believe it is a wilson, but can not remember, been a wile. The sites were worse. The front site was not staked in right, and was loose. Not good for trying to shoot strait. Replaced with Novak night sites. Going to have to re do these, due to an accedent (the slide was off the weapon at the time, so nothing dramatic) the front site was crushed, likely going to replace with the same style. I removed the magwell guide, I saw no use for it. I have no issue getting the mags in with out it, but with it installed, I need to remember what mag I have in the gun, as the flat bottom mags I need to push in with a thumb or I'd bang my hand on the thing. I did a little polishing to the inside of the frame so I can hold the gun upside down and drop mags into it (never tried this with loaded mags, just doesn't sound smart), good enough for me.

Now my reason for joining your little section of the internet. I'm getting that ich again. I want another gun. The problem, I'm not a mainstream kinda guy. I like being different, so long as it works. I'm not one for going the cheap rout for the sake of being cheap, I don't mind spending the money for something I want, but my wants are VERY specific. After spending a week looking for a gunsmith to help me build what I want in the area, I am disapointed to find that the 2 "gunsmiths" in the area are just looking for quick chash doing simple jobs. Guess I need to start calling our of state for someone that, when I describe my want, his face lights up as much as mine.

Hmm, twas hoping to not write a book here, but oh well.

[FXWG]

Greetings from the Westside.