Progress update to follow, but first some commentary...

This has been and will continue to be my dedicated ccw piece. While the 4516 is very well suited to that role I feel there is much room for improvement to make it perfectly suited to that role as well as ideally suited to me. Thus these modifications. Dehorning & melting makes the weapon much more comfortable to pack as well as easier (when the need arises) to simply slip in the waistband or drop in a pocket. The final finish/surface treatment will be Isonite QPQ. End result will be a uniform satin blue/black finish that is tough in the extreme. The only shiny bits will be the flash chromed hammer & trigger. Everything else goes in the salt bath. And, the preparatory blasting will erase all the surface blemishes including all my tool marks.

So what's left to do? A little more contour work at the rear of the slide/frame. Re-cut the checkering on the front of the trigger guard and I need to do something to make the front strap more grippy. It already has verticals machine cut at what looks like 30lpi so I think I'm going to use those existing cuts and go 30lpi for the front strap checkering. I'd really prefer something coarser but I would need to remove the existing cuts and true up the front strap to do so and I'm not inclined to remove that much metal. I've had to order some more files so updates will slow while I'm waiting for my stuff from Brownells to arrive.

With that in mind I offer the following:

Port & starboard side overview.



Starboard side overview with the grip on for perspective.


Port & starboard detail of the trigger guard mods with grip on.



Muzzle detail.


That's all for now. More to follow next week once I attack the checkering.

Methinks I'll also need a fresh set of night sights too

Cheers
Bill