inboost
Member
I picked up my first S&W auto, a '3rd gen' silver CS45E (Police trade-in gun, ambi-decock only) and have been working on it for the last few months trying to improve it's fit and function. The ultimate goal was to get it softened up and pocket carry it. There wasn't a lot left on the table so I had to be creative. Here is my best effort to make it what I wanted. Not as close to the goal as I would have liked but in the end a fair bit better than what I started with. Thanks to the members that helped with questions, your guidance was most appreciated.
My completed job list:
So in the end the length didn't change but the overall height with a mag in the gun is now 4.805" down from 5.196" for a reduction of nearly 0.4". This is mostly because of the magazine chop but the XS sights helped here too. The widest controls (decocking levers) narrowed down to 1.256" from 1.386" (reduced 0.130" , a little over an 1/8th). The grip thinned up a bit too with the BigDog mod, down to 1.090" from 1.280" (reduced 0.190")
My completed job list:
- Trimmed mag and custom fit modfied Sig P220 floorplate
- Cut down larger delrin grip and fit with custom grip pin (BigDog grip modification)
- Relieved trigger guard area to reduce knuckle bite
- Retrofitted frame with traditional mag catch (Ditched plastic button)
- Scallop cut slide to mimick custom shop gun slide features (like Shorty 45)
- Bevel border cut top of slide
- Melted slide to remove hard edges, rolled rear of slide top towards sight
- Cut dustcover on frame to blend with new slide features
- Matched frame to slide at backstrap
- Cut down and dehorned slide stop
- Cut down and dehorned ambi-decocking levers
- Lowered extractor surface to match scallop cut in slide
- Installed XS big-dot night sights
- Bead blasted frame / slide to remove old finish
- Deleted magazine disconnect
- Replaced plastic disconnector with SS version
- Crowned and polished muzzle (Typical factory burr still on it when I got it)
- Frame hard anodized black (Type III - Class 2: black)
- Hard Chromed: Trigger, trigger pin, mach catch, mag catch button
- Laser marked factory model/ser# back in original location
- Laser marked RHS of slide for manufacturer and location of manufacture
- Laser marked LHS of frame with S&W logo and CHIEFS (S&W) SPECIAL
- Built tooling, experimented with making my own sights, and wasted a lot of paper in the middle of it all
So in the end the length didn't change but the overall height with a mag in the gun is now 4.805" down from 5.196" for a reduction of nearly 0.4". This is mostly because of the magazine chop but the XS sights helped here too. The widest controls (decocking levers) narrowed down to 1.256" from 1.386" (reduced 0.130" , a little over an 1/8th). The grip thinned up a bit too with the BigDog mod, down to 1.090" from 1.280" (reduced 0.190")






Last edited: