Sarge's thread about his R.I. brought back a memory.(That happens a lot anymore) Whenever it might have been, the AMT Hardballer came out as the first affordable stainless 1911. Of course, I took the rent money and the grocery money and the any-other money and snagged one of the first to show up, serial # 000540, if I remember correctly. My pistol-for-life, oh happy day!(that should sound familiar)

My first clue was simply working the slide. The gun felt full of sand. Oh well, it was sand-cast! bada-bump... The first shooting trip to El Rancho De Powell revealed a pistol that would not feed a full mag of fresh hardball without numerous malfs.

Thus began a process of many months. I polished all the rough-cast slide and frame rails, then tightened them up a bit, something AMT apparently felt unneccesary. The gun ran *much* better, but hardly flawless. So I would go home, and perform another trick, then go shoot, and watch the gun improve. Over months of trial and error,I reached the point where hardball was flawless, many trouble free rounds. Then I switched to SWC handloads, and started over with still more tricks. At some magic point, the gun seemed to come into it's own, like an engine sounds when you finally get the carburetor dialed in just right. By then I had learned, and tried more tricks than I had ever imagined on tuning 1911s. We had no "drop-in" custom parts with the work already done. You young waddies have no idea what glorious gun times you live in.

I had the Hardballer many years, it always was accurate, but when my Dad came to shoot one day, he looked at his groups and confiscated it on the spot. It ran many rounds, and never missed another lick. Funny thing, it never was worth more on the market than any other Hardballer, maybe $350 back in their best days. It eventually went on down the road, but I have been applying all that I learned on that gun ever since, and necessity dictated that I learn a *lot*

JLF

That is a fine memory! I hope to make some memories such as that some day. So far my attempts to improve anything haven't been the kind of memory a feller wants to hold on to too tight.

I was down at one of the local shops just killing time and saw a 1911 Colt in the case with a tag on it claiming a manufacture date of 1918. They were asking $1200 for it. I couldn't help but wonder what all it might have seen in its life time. There were two Argentine copies of the same thing that went for considerably less. All of them had seen rough handling by the look of them through the glass. Since I was killing time before going in to a job interview and had no money anyway, I didn't even ask the sales guys to let me handle them.

I can't tell you how many times I went through THAT over the years. What's hilarious is the fact that about 25 years into the learning curve, I finally bought a Kuhnhausen manual.

drastic shenanigans to tune up my series 70 Colts and a 1968 vintage Commander. Tuning extractors, polishing feed ramps trying to find rear sight pin that wouldn't break for my NM Gold Cup etc. I really enjoy being able to buy a new or used 1911 that works as it should right off the shelf. At the same time, I really learned a bunch about the insides of 1911s back then.
Rob

--
Of the Troops & For the Troops

I seemed to just absorb stuff from many sources. I had the George Nonte book, which was a huge help, but I also devoured all the gun magazines, which were also full of tips. My Dad was a championship pistol shooter who did much of his own work, along with his good friend N.R. Plunkett, who was a legendary shooter, and postolsmith in his own right. I spent a lot of time paying attention and being quiet.:)

JLF

I contacted Rock Island's service department yesterday, explained the problem, and they were polite and anxious to resolve the matter. Also emailed an explanation with pics. A barrel exchange or reaming is in the works & the boo-boo barrel went out in today's mail. I'll let you know how it sorts out.