My 1911...what have I done?

Big_Red

Big_Red

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This is the short version of what happened.

I bought a new SW1911 three weeks ago. It had an ejector problem which was corrected by S&W. I took the gun to the range this Friday to test the ejector and while there I noticed that the front sight was off causing all my shots to go left. Since I do not have a sight pusher I wanted to find an alternate way of adjusting the sight. One thing that was suggested was to use a brass punch. Well, I used it and now I wish I hadn't. The picture posted below shows what my gun looks like now.

Scratch.jpg


The main problem I have is that the punch somehow gouged one side of the sight channel. I thought that brass wasn't supposed to do that [frown]. Anyway, I tried to correct the problem by delicately filing the edge of the channel. I obviously wasn't careful enough as you can now see file marks.

I am so freaking mad at myself! [angry][crying] This is a brand new gun an while superficial, these scratches are driving me absolutely mad.

So I come here with my tail between my legs asking for suggestions on how to correct my screw-up. I would like to smooth out the gouge and cover up the scratches. Any suggestions?
 
Those scratches would piss me off too, but in the grand scheme of things, they have NO impact on the accuracy of the pistol. If they really bother you, you could: get some cold blue and darken the scratched metal, use a bake on finish either applied at home or send it out, send it to S&W for refinish or bead blast treatment, or sell it and buy a new one. I say forget about it and start shooting the pistol. It has character now.


Chris
 
I say leave it alone, put some birchwood casey on there if your really that worried about the scratches, and send it to Smith and Wesson and they will adjust the sight for you.

The SW1911 that I have has a really lousy bluing job to be honest with you, but mine is a tool for things such as home defense and popping steel plates so it doesn't bother me much that it isn't pretty. The finish on mine is worn badly from holstering the gun and sweat from having the gun in an IWB setup(yes sweat makes surface rust on this gun and permanently removes the bluing in a couple hours time). If you want a pretty blue gun you have to be careful where you store it, not to holster it, etc.. What bothers me the most though is how fast the bluing wore off on the frontstrap and grip safety just from handling this particular gun.
 
Are you sure the punch was really brass and not a brass plated steel? I can't imagine real brass doing that damage. Brass is used in ice removal scrapers on glass windshields and won't even scratch glass. I have one.

Doesn't make sense.
 
Executive said:
Those scratches would piss me off too, but in the grand scheme of things, they have NO impact on the accuracy of the pistol. If they really bother you, you could: get some cold blue and darken the scratched metal, use a bake on finish either applied at home or send it out, send it to S&W for refinish or bead blast treatment, or sell it and buy a new one. I say forget about it and start shooting the pistol. It has character now.


Chris
Click to expand...

Agreed! +1
Go have some fun with it...in a few days, it might not bother you so much...and if it still days...shoot it some more.[smile]
 
Look on the bright side, you probably haven't caused the actual "idiot mark" yet.
Click to expand...
Are you referring to the arc shaped scratch on the left side of the slide when the slide stop slips when being pushed into position?
 
Rob Boudrie said:
Are you referring to the arc shaped scratch on the left side of the slide when the slide stop slips when being pushed into position?
Click to expand...

I think that's it and I've had my share...[grin]

Big Red, get some Birchwood Casey, (the pen thing) and touch it up, (go easy). Either that, or send it out for a refinish. I'd just shoot the bejeebus out of it and have a good day. By the way, did your sight move fix the issue?
 
Oye. That'd piss me off too.

But you know what... what's done is done... and think about it this way... if your 1911 is going to be a shooter... you won't be able to keep it pristine anyway. It's like getting a new car... and getting the first ding in the paint job. It hurts. But after that... you won't care next time you get a ding.

Your cherry has been popped.

If you really really hate it... send it back to S&W and get it refinished. Or do what the other guys have suggested.

Weird though... as the brass punch shouldn't have damaged your gun. Brass will leave visual marks though...think chalk on a chalk board... and they rub off.

If it's a shooter... just shoot it [grin]
 
Shoot a couple thousand rounds, get some more scratches on it, have fun with it, and then send it out to be refinished. Once you get that first scratch you tend to baby the gun less and actually enjoy shooting it more. Knowing (in the back of your mind) that you're going to have it refinished someday will allow you to forget about what happened and enjoy your new firearm.
 
I know how you feel, every time I get any minor scratch or blemish on my "painted guns" it haunts me for a while. Your marks are worst then I have ever done [wink] but all you can do is spend a little to fix it or live with it and go shooting.

The first time I took out my M&P45 it "rubbed" up against my Ruger Redhawk, needless to say the Ruger had no mercy. Truthfully it was a very very minor scrape but I still bitched myself out for a few days.
 
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i agree

get the sight straightened and go and enjoy it.

a point of info, if you have any doubts if something is brass take a magnet
to it, if the magnet is NOT attracted to it, its most likely brass.

JimB
 
Executive said:
It has character now.Chris
Click to expand...

It certainly has that [smile]

Pilgrim said:
Are you sure the punch was really brass and not a brass plated steel? I can't imagine real brass doing that damage. Brass is used in ice removal scrapers on glass windshields and won't even scratch glass. I have one.

Doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...

After reading your comment I decided to take a closer look at the punch. I actually cut it in half. Lo and behold, the center of the punch looks to be steel. Only the outside layer is brass. WTF? I can't remember where I got this punch but I am fairly certain that the package said it was brass. Argh [angry]

Hanwei said:
Oye. That'd piss me off too.

But you know what... what's done is done... and think about it this way... if your 1911 is going to be a shooter... you won't be able to keep it pristine anyway. It's like getting a new car... and getting the first ding in the paint job. It hurts. But after that... you won't care next time you get a ding.
Click to expand...

Funny, that's what my wife said but then again you should see her car [wink]

Hanwei said:
Your cherry has been popped.
Click to expand...

That's funny.

MassMark said:
By the way, did your sight move fix the issue?
Click to expand...

The sad part is that the sight did not move at all. How is that for irony.

I ended up ordering a sight pusher from MidwayUSA (something I should have done to begin with) and should have it by the weekend.
 
Last edited:
Mikey said:
The first time I took out my M&P45 it "rubbed" up against my Ruger Redhawk, needless to say the Ruger had no mercy. Truthfully it was a very very minor scrape but I still bitched myself out for a few days.
Click to expand...

The M&P is meant to get scratched up.

I've made a few similar gaffes, mainly on wood stocks (although the massive holster marks on my SW1911 are even more apparent) but I still enjoy shooting all of them.
 
Fsorrent said:
Scratches add character, it's a tool not a piece of jewelry.
Click to expand...


True, and I agree... I have no issue with holster wear- it shows that the gun and owner are both at work. However this kind of stuff make me nuts too. I've dinged my 1911 slide with a punch- it nicked the slide. I was mad but got over it real quick when I realized it didn't cause my groupings to degrade. ;)
 
Big Red, you just learned a lesson that took me over 40 years to learn.

Don't rush.

Get the right tool.

Do it right or not at all.

If you can't be patient with your project, let someone else do it.

The younger I was, the sooner I'd have to have things. Carpentry, Gun repair, boat repair, I always was in such a hurry to get it done, that I seldom got it "right".

I think now, as I get older, I've begun to realize I don't need everything "TODAY". I can take my time and if it takes a few days for a sight pusher to come in the mail, I'll wait. I know now that I'm going to screw it up if I don't use the right tools.

Things like bunged up screw heads, idiot marks and deep scratches from negligence really piss me off these days, because I should know better. Worse than that, I feel like an idiot when someone knows that I screwed up or hurried a job.

Get yourself a good GUN screwdriver set, some brass punches, a nylon and brass hammer and some other basic PROFESSIONAL QUALITY tools. Don't try to make do because you can't wait. The screw up will be in your gun forever. Do it right the first time.

If someone had told me this when I was 20, I would have ignored them and just continued to hurry. But I think you're smarter than I was, and you'll learn a big lesson from this that will stay with you the rest of your shooting life.

Bill
 
Heh. This is like getting your first door ding on your brand new car. Yeah, it'd drive me crazy too if I had to look at it everyday. Good thing time heals all and after a while, it won't matter any more as more stratches and dings occur.
 
yes

what i do for a living requires a lot of patience and common sense.

my best piece of advice is to "walk away" if you feel its not going right.

come back later, even tomorrow it will still be there, if you don't you will

be your worst enemy..

JimB
 
Big_Red said:
This is the short version of what happened.

I bought a new SW1911 three weeks ago. It had an ejector problem which was corrected by S&W. I took the gun to the range this Friday to test the ejector and while there I noticed that the front sight was off causing all my shots to go left. Since I do not have a sight pusher I wanted to find an alternate way of adjusting the sight. One thing that was suggested was to use a brass punch. Well, I used it and now I wish I hadn't. The picture posted below shows what my gun looks like now.

Scratch.jpg


The main problem I have is that the punch somehow gouged one side of the sight channel. I thought that brass wasn't supposed to do that [frown]. Anyway, I tried to correct the problem by delicately filing the edge of the channel. I obviously wasn't careful enough as you can now see file marks.

I am so freaking mad at myself! [angry][crying] This is a brand new gun an while superficial, these scratches are driving me absolutely mad.

So I come here with my tail between my legs asking for suggestions on how to correct my screw-up. I would like to smooth out the gouge and cover up the scratches. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...




There is something wrong here. There is no way a brass rod can damage a slide. The worst these rods do is leave annoying brass deposits on the steel. I would clean the slide up with steel wool and apply a little cold blue. Brownells "Oxpho Blue" is the best stuff I have ever used.
 
Look...I am probably an insensitive clod...but did you buy the gun to shoot or to look at? In Normal usage, you gun is going to get scratched. You learned something from the experience. You have several ways to go: shoot and enjoy, sell the gun (to me preferably, at a good price [for me]) and buy a new one, put it in your gunsafe and only take it out once a month to wipe it down with a silicon cloth.

A gun can be a work of art (like an engraved Italian shotgun) but even when it is a work of art, it is still a tool. Take reasonable care of it so that it will function reliably everytime, otherwise shoot the heck out of it and enjoy.

My two euros, anyway..

Mark L.
 
mark056 said:
I am probably an insensitive clod
Click to expand...

You probably are. [wink] I know this is a tool and with time it will show wear and tear. I am just pissed that I screwed up my 3 week-old gun. And no, I do not buy guns to just look at them. As a matter of fact that 1911 is on my belt as I type this. Shhh, don't tell my boss....or....he may want one too [smile]
 
depicts said:
Get yourself a good GUN screwdriver set, some brass punches, a nylon and brass hammer and some other basic PROFESSIONAL QUALITY tools. Don't try to make do because you can't wait. The screw up will be in your gun forever. Do it right the first time.

If someone had told me this when I was 20, I would have ignored them and just continued to hurry. But I think you're smarter than I was, and you'll learn a big lesson from this that will stay with you the rest of your shooting life.

Bill
Click to expand...

gunsmithing.gif

Excellent advise indeed depicts. You have given me the final push to expend a few bucks and purchase the tools that needs to be used on guns and stop trying to get by on my run of the mill tools that won’t and haven’t done the job correctly, on most occasions.
.
 
I think part of this story has been left out. This gun is a SW1911PD, right? That's not steel, it's a scandium alloy (mostly aluminum). This would make it much easier to mar with a bad strike from a punch.
 

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