Dan Wesson Commander Bob-Tail

Last week, I picked up a Dan Wesson Commander Bob-Tail 1911 in 10mm. Fit and finish on this little shooter is beyond head and shoulders above anything else I've ever owned or fondled.


The one issue I had with her was the lack of an ambidextrous manual safety. After a couple of days of snooping around, I found a Kimber stainless steel set up that looked like it would work perfectly. The downside was there were some small modifications that I would have to make to both the pistol and the parts.

First, I had to polish up the Kimber parts as they came with a matte finish. About 30 minutes with various grits of sandpaper from 240 grit all the way down to 400 got me about where I needed to be. To finish up, I used the Dremel with a polishing wheel with some jewelers rouge to put a final polish on things.


After that was completed, I had to disassemble the rear end of the pistol to remove the smallest pin. Part of the Kimber setup was a replacement pin that had a cut out on one side to accept the left side of the manual safety without the spur commonly found on standard ambidextrous safeties (see the bottom pic of my custom Delta).


(On a related note, I've disassembled every one of the six 1911's I own and have never had to go chasing the plunger pin and spring across the room. Note to self: If I ever do this again, keep a better eye on that little piece. They fly pretty good!)


When assembling a Kimber ambi-safety, put the left side in first, as you won't be able to get the left side safety onto the pin if you don't. Once that's in, everything else slips right into place ala the usual reassembly procedures. Fortunately, none of the mods I did today are irreversible. All of the parts I took off can be put back on the pistol, returning it to its factory original condition.


So, here's the before picture:

Here's the after pic:

Which should go well with my custom Delta Elite:

Not a bad little collection of 10's, is it?

Happy Birthday To Me!!!!

For my birthday 2 days ago, I went out an picked up my layaway from the local funstore.

It's a Dan Wesson Commander Bob-Tail in 10mm. Now, I'm not real big fan of stainless steel pistols, but this one grabbed my attention by the gnads and wouldn't let go. The action is tighter than any other semi auto I've ever handled or owned. Paid just over 9 bills to get her, plus the guys threw in two extra mags ( a SS colt and MecGar 8 rd mag). It's got the Trijicon night sights, and I was a little disappointed I couldn't find any biblical refernces in the SNs, bummer. Anyway, this brings the 1911 count to 6, and probably growing.

Something's Missing Here

From a report from Iowa, we get this headline:

'Women primary targets, as guns are most often used in Iowa domestic violence cases'.

Reading the article, I could find no mention of the use of firearms in these cases. It does indicate that men were the perpetrators in 94% of the cases, yet nowhere in the report does it mention the type of weapon used to commit these crimes. They also mention alcohol usage as a contributing factor, but again, nothing about guns.

Which leads to me believe someones trying to do something on someones back while the whole time telling them it's raining

South Dakota Firearm Freedom Act

In the interest of jumping on the 10th Amendment bandwagon, there is a bill in SD to follow in the footsteps of TN and MT.

SB 89 is the South Dakota version of these laws and would exempt any firearm, accessory, or ammunition made here in SD from federal oversight. While it doesn't go as far as the NH bill (which makes it a state felony for the feds to enforce federal firearms laws against weapons and accessories marked items marked 'Made in NH'), it's got it's own nifty little quirk (See below.).

I talked at length with one of the sponsors of this piece, one Gordon Howie (who is coincidentally running for Gov) at the last funshow two weeks ago.

I asked candidate Howie his position on Vermont-style concealed carry and he was all for it.

When I asked him whether the legislation he helped introduce was limited strictly to regular-type firearms and would restrict NFA-type guns, his reply was it would apply to ALL firearms manufactured in SD, not just your regular run-o-the-mill stuff.

Will this bill survive committee? We'll see. Given that the last legislative session saw an end to the idiotic 48 hr waiting period to purchase a handgun without a SD concealed carry permit, we'll see.

Will Mr Howie actually go anywhere against Gov Rounds? That too is a wait and see thing. It's still too early to tell, but I'm guessing Rounds will have very little opposition in either the primary or the general come election day.

UPDATE: Upon further reading of the proposed law, it would seem that Title 2 FA would not be included in the 'firearms made in SD' provision. Which really sucks.

UPDATE II: I just sent Senator Howie an email on this subject, and will await his reply.

Sir-

I talked with you at length at the Rapid City Rifle and Pistol Club gunshow on the 16th of Jan. I asked you specific questions regarding SB 89 and whether the law as proposed would affect NFA weapons. I guess I should have been more specific in my questioning.

I read the act in question and it does not exempt full auto weapons from the protections of this act. I would like to know if by 'all weapons' you meant all weapons except full auto weapons.

I await your clarification on this matter.

Respectfully,

Hazmat

I Must Be Important

Got a visit from the Brady Bunch the other day.

They didn't stay around very long and do any snooping around, but they did come directly here. Should be interesting.

Wow!!!!

That's all I can come up with for this.

The Kennedy reign in Mass. is now officially OVER!

Also on the breaking news front, a strange whirring noise was heard from Arlington National Cemetery as three Kennedy brothers collectively began spinning at 2000 rpm.

That is all.

Brady Gets Their Knickers In A Twist

It would seem the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership has its panties in a twist over the supposed lack of reporting of "unstable mental patients" to "a national database".

What's the Brady position? Why, they think the state of Alabama, according to one Doug Pennington, "should not be finding ways to keep people out of the (database) system, the state should be finding ways to put them in".

Great, not that they don't have enough ways to potentially disqualify folks from being able to get a firearm, now the want the state to figure out new and creative ways to add more people to the 'mentally incompetent' roles. Evidently, the watch list thing isn't working out the way they planned, so they're jumping on any and all available means to justify their ends. No surprise, really, when you stop to consider the increasing irrelevance of their movement (tip o the old hat to Jeff Soyer at Alphecca for the link!).

A New Twist

On an old game. This may very well end up being one of things that comes on line and we wonder where the hell it's been the whole the whole time.

Not that I need much more reason to watch the Sportsman Channel.

I'm Back!

Sorry for the lapse in posting, I took a couple of weeks off for the holidays and forgot to come back. But I'm back now!

How's That Working Out For You?

An editorial in Lynchburg, VA bemoans the fact that the legislature there is taking up doing away with their one-gun-a-month law.

He has the audacity to complain the law in question has been so good at stemming gun trafficking, especially into NY, that it needs to stay in place.

Was he out to lunch a year or so ago when Mayor Mike Blowhard decided to 'sting' northern Virginia gun dealers in an effort to extort them into either shutting down or agreeing to abide by a 'code' that put up more hoops for the dealers than the NCAA has basketball teams, because the crime guns found in NYFC were from VA. This was such a big deal the legislature passed, and the Governor signed, a law that made it illegal to conduct these kind of 'stings' in VA in the future.

So, I ask the staff at the Lynchburg News Advance, how's that one-gun-a-month law working out for you?