^ Nice mods!

Yes,very nice job of removing the IL! The area was the lock was is undetectable by my old eyes. I wonder if as good a job could be done on my model 329 with its scandium frame? How would the hole be plugged/what would be used to fill the hole on a scandium gun? My next question is,"Who the heck can I get to remove the stupid lock and fill the hole? I'm pretty sure S&W won't do it
cameron

You can see a VERY faint lighter colored ring where the bolt is. I suppose it's from the steel compressing in this area.

If you have a stainless steel gun, this would be easier, as there's no blueing to fool with. Use a SS bolt and dress it down and polish/sand/blast/whatever to get the finish desired.

Scandium.....I don't know, can you get a piece of scandium to make a bolt out of???? You could use a bolt made of SS or aluminum. I would LocTite it in rather than try to peen on it. You would be able to see it, but it would look no worse than what was there to begin with, and it would be nice and circular and just look like a bolt or a pin in the frame and look like it was supposed to be there.

With the lock removed, I tapped the hole for a 1/4-28 bolt. I counterbored the outside just a little bit so that the shank of the bolt would draw up tight in the frame with no thread showing. I used a top jaw screw from a flint lock, which was handy (I build flintlock rifles www.photobucket.com/albums/v326/Fatdutchman/Flintlocks ). Thread it in, and cut off the excess on the outside, leaving maybe a sixteenth of an inch sticking out. I left the excess on the inside so that I had something to put on the anvil to peen the outside so that it is tight. Then I cut off the excess length inside VERY carefully with a Dremel tool, peened it a bit on the inside just to make sure it would be solidly locked in place, and filed it all down.

At the moment, I don't have anything in the slot beside the hammer. At first I thought I'd solder a slip of steel in there, but you would always be able to see a silver line around the insert. I'll probably end up doing this anyway, but the small opening is not so offensive to my eye.

The lock itself is VERY easy to remove yourself. Plugging the holes requires some actual gunsmithing. I can't do it for anyone else as I'm not a licensed modern gunsmith. If you have mechanical inclinations, you can do this yourself too. It's not terribly difficult, and the process of plugging the hole took me less than an hour.

All that filing on the frame side took rather longer...

Stophel,I have the utmost respect for those as blessed as you to have high level gunsmithing/machinist skills;I am a mandolin picker with very little mechanical ability.
The scandium frame seems very much like anodized aluminum to me;there are three pins(?) in the left side of the frame that look sort of like brass to me,one of them being located just beneath the cylinder release almost perfectly at 6o'clock from the "key" hole I want to plug(they are in stark contrast to the black frame). I wouldn't want to go to the trouble of having the frame re-anodized...I can't imagine how it could be done without scratching the frame badly; I may just go ahead and try to remove the lock;but I shudder at the thought. I know a very good(I've heard)gunsmith locally;might he be
under legal restrictions in regards to removing the lock on my revolver(pistol?)
Thanks for your reply. I am going over to look at your rifles. I once did a small amount of work(filed metal parts) for a man in Las Vegas,New Mexico who made black powder guns.Wish I coulda spent more time in his shop.
cameron

I know absolutely NOTHING about Scandium. I'm not much help in that area.

No real legal problems in removing the lock. Maybe some imagined ones, but no real ones.

I only hope that someone high up in the S & W management team is monitoring these posts. I have never owned one of the ILS guns and will NEVER buy one. With so many used S & W guns (in great condition) in the marketplace, why would someone buy a ILS gun?? If the gun is to be used for target shooting ONLY, I suppose the worst thing that could happen is your day of shooting could be ruined, but to actually depend on one of these devises to protect your life.........,well, NOT ME!!

To the best of my knowledge, S & W is NOT mandated to use these locks, and they are doing so strictly voluntarily. Being that their stock just lost about 75% of its value, you would think they might be listening to the people that buy their products. Let's hope so!! WAKE UP S & W BEFORE YOU WIND UP LIKE COLT!!!

How DID Colt wind up!? I just bought a Colt pistol last year that is one of the best pistols I ever owned.
c

Colt basically went out of business (for the umpteenth time). They stopped all handgun production. I think the only thing that kept them alive at all was gov't contracts for M16's. It was like this for years. Only fairly recently has there been a new Colt company making handguns. I THINK that someone basically bought the Colt name and rights to designs, and strictly speaking, is not the "old" Colt company...however that works. I'm not sure exactly what the deal is.

Colt has never gone out of business. They have gone bankrupt, but then so have a number of airlines, hospital, and energy companies. Colt is the same old Colt it has been, but Colt mfg is the civilian company and Colt defense builds m16's. Colt is building some of the best handguns it ever has including an expensive but very nice SAA. In fact an ex USMC Col. is now CEO. People decry the demise of Colt every so often but they sell every 1911 they build.

I do wish they would build the Dick special and the Python again.

This kind of garbage is the stuff spread by gunshop commandos selling Kimbers.

I have been buying a few Colt's 1911s for the past decade or so. Don't always keep up with their business/political situation. I think maybe some unscrupulous gunstore guys just want to sell another brand. I sure like my new Kimber Ultra RCP II;I used to slam Kimbers every chance I got;sorta like my brother used to make rude comments about anything that wasn't a Harley-Davidson. Nothing wrong with the Kimbers I've shot(not many). I like Colt's,Kimbers,S&Ws etc. Let's just not let the G-mans take them away from us!
Still don't have the ILS thing outta the 329.
I feel OK stripping down a 1911;but the big revolver has me studying everything I can find about revolver dismantling. I hate the learning curve whereby you finally get to a point that you know you can't get it back together right

quote:

Originally posted by Stophel:
Scandium.....I don't know, can you get a piece of scandium to make a bolt out of????

Some high end mountain bikes contain scandium bolts... perhaps a bike shop could be a source?

Cowart,
I would just use/accept a brass-colored bolt like the other "hole-filler"(?) dots on the side of the 329 frame;or even a hard plastic or some such hole-filler. I just don't want to have to refinish the alloy frame. I have to get up nerve to even field-strip the revolver. Just have no experience with them. "Newbie with a screwdriver".(I do have a couple sets of gunsmith-type screwdrivers.) and know just enough to be dangerous
cameron

My CCW is a brand-new 642. Now I'm reading about the IL locking itself and I wonder; where is the liability if a BG is about to shoot or stab me and my 642 doesn't fire because the IL is engaged? I carry the key on my key ring but I doubt I'll have time to unlock it after I'm already injured or dead. Is there someone/somewhere I can send it to have the IL removed? I live in North Caorlina. TIA.

quote:

My CCW is a brand-new 642. Now I'm reading about the IL locking itself and I wonder; where is the liability if a BG is about to shoot or stab me and my 642 doesn't fire because the IL is engaged? I carry the key on my key ring but I doubt I'll have time to unlock it after I'm already injured or dead. Is there someone/somewhere I can send it to have the IL removed? I live in North Caorlina.

I have owned a 642 for almost 4 years. I shoot it at the range at least once a week, and it is my carry gun when I don't carry my M&P. Living in Arizona, I have to leave my gun in the car if I go into a restaurant that serves alcohol and that's when I use the IL Lock. I carry the gun unlocked, as I imagine most people do. The gun has never failed to fire and I trust it completely. I imagine that I will get flamed for making that last statement, but it's the truth!

Well, my M&P 340 still hasn't 'locked up' on its own yet. It seems to tolerate .357 Magnum loads a bit better than my hand does.

The other day when I was teaching a CCW class I saw that one of the renewal folks was shooting his S&W 637, and that it was equipped with the ILS. He never mentioned experiencing any problems with his J-frame, and the gun functioned fine during the course of fire.

One of the guys in my small unit is still quite pleased with his 442(equipped with the ILS). He continues to shoot it fairly often, carries it as a Secondary/Back-up weapon and still hasn't had any problems with the ILS 'engaging itself'.