I recently purchased one of these. It's a nice gun, but there were a few things I didn't like about it. The Miculek grips are pretty, but didn't fit my hands all that well. Also the gold bead doesn't work well with my old eyes, especially in bright sunlight. The action was pretty smooth out of the box, but could use a little work. A couple of weeks ago I shipped it off to a gunsmith for a little tuneup. The big brown truck dropped off my revolver from the gunsmith on Wednesday afternoon. It's not readily apparent from the photos just how much work Greg did on this thing. Believe me, it is quite a transformation.
List of modifications:
Replaced rear sight blade with a target rear sight.
Replaced gold bead Patridge front sight with a ramp front that he made.
Polished the sharp edges from the trigger face and smoothed up the trigger grooves.
Polished the extractor star and the area beneath (rear cylinder face) the star.
Added an internal trigger overtravel stop.
Chamfered the edges of the chambers to facilitate quicker reloads.
Polished the chambers.
Trued up the barrel extension and added a bit more cylinder gap.
Polished the forcing cone.
Polished internal action parts - trigger, hammer, etc.
Installed, reshaped and refinished a set of Hogue grips.
Installed a longer firing pin to ensure good ignition.
Smoothed up the cylinder stop and cleaned up the notches in the cylinder
Bobbed and rounded the hammer spur to prevent pinching using double action.
Knowing Greg, he probably did some other little things to get everything just so.
Double action trigger pull is now as smooth as glass. Single action is unbelievable! Smoothing the trigger face made it much more comfortable to shoot. The cylinder locks up tight on each chamber. He added the target rear sight which provides a sharper sight picture. I asked him to make sure there was plenty of light visible on each side of the rear sight to accomodate my old eyes. When he made the front ramp sight he narrowed it and the sight picture is perfect for me. I don't have a trigger pull scale, but double action trigger pull is about 2/3 the weight it was out of the box. He could have made it lighter, but I shoot CCI pimers and they have the hardest primer cup around. If I ever find any Federals I can take tension off the strain screw and make it even lighter. The reshaped Hogue grips fit my hand like a glove and feel much better than the Miculek grips. He also added a strip of skateboard tape on the right side to keep the gun from twisting. Overall, I couldn't be happier with the work he did on this gun. I would highly recommend him to anyone who needs 1911, revolver or Ruger 10/22 work done. I'm sure he works on other guns, but these are the ones I have personally seen and shot. His name is Greg Copeland of Copeland Custom Pistolsmithing in Arkansas City, KS.
Now for the shooting. First of all the full moon clips are a pain to load - especially when the moon clips are new. I'm going to order a tool to make this job quicker and easier on the fingers. The full clips drop right into the cylinder and they definitely speed up reloads. The empties stay attached to the moon clips when they are ejected. This sure beats chasing brass from a 1911. I had several loads ready to shoot. I tried 2 different 200 gr semi-wadcutters with 3 different powders that I've had good success with in my target 1911. I also tried out my everyday 230 gr hardball loads. For accuracy testing, I shot at 25 yards from a sandbag rest. Most of the loads were not that great. One of them shot a nice 1-1/2" group which is excellent considering my shooting skills. (or lack of them) Misfires can be a problem with these revolvers using moon clips, but I experienced none in 100 shots. After the accuracy testing, I moved to the 50 yard gong. Using my everyday hardball loads, I averaged 4 out of 5 hits, shooting double action. Overall, I love this thing and the work that Greg did on it.
625 JM Range Report
Linear Mode
