This was another blog with a daunting title challenge. I went with the one you see above. Other choices were “The 6.5 Creedmoor No. 1” and “Surfing While Under The Influence.” The story goes like this: A few years ago Ruger built a limited number of their elegant single-shot No. 1 rifles chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. They were built exclusively for a Ruger distributor, and as is that distributor’s habit, they were fitted with 28-inch barrels (the normal barrel length for the beavertail fore end No. 1 Rugers is 26 inches). If you tell me a rifle is a limited edition you have my attention. Tell me it’s a Ruger No. 1 and I’m about 90% of the way there. If it has fancy walnut, you can hear the cash registor go “ka-ching.”
I’d been watching the Creedmoor No. 1 rifles on Gunbroker.com, but I didn’t see any with wood that caught my attention. Then one night I’d had a beer or two (okay, maybe it was four or five) and I was surfing the Gunbroker.com site, and this 6.5 Creedmoor No. 1 appeared:
The Ruger No. 1 first hit the market in the late 1960s, and it is about as classy a rifle as ever existed. It’s a real specialty item. Today the craze is all about black plastic semi-automatic rifles with big magazines; but none of that nuttiness has ever appealed to me. A single shot rifle, on the other hand, gets my attention immediately. They are just cool. There’s something inherently worthy about having to make that one shot count.
The 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge was developed specifically as a target round, and it’s been catching on for the last few years. It has the same trajectory as a .300 Winchester Magnum but with substantially less recoil, and everything I’ve read about the Creedmoor said it is inherently accurate.
So, back to my quest for a 6.5 Creedmoor No. 1. The price on Gunbroker seemed right, I hit the “buy now” button, and the rifle had a new owner. The next day I looked at the Gunbroker ad again, and something I had not noticed the night before caught my attention. It was listed with a 26-inch (not a 28-inch) barrel. Hmmm. So I did a bit more research. What I had purchased was a rifle from Ruger’s earlier run of 6.5 Creedmoor No. 1 rifles, which folks tell me is even harder to find than the more recent group of 28-inchers. Hmmm. A rare No. 1 in the chambering I wanted with beautiful wood. Sometimes you just get lucky.
When the rifle arrived, I bought an inexpensive Redfield scope, a set of Lee reloading dies, a box of 6.5mm bullets, and a bag of Starline brass. I only loaded two different loads, and I was off to the range. All the hype about the 6.5 Creedmoor’s inherent accuracy? Hey, I’m here to tell you that if you’re looking for an argument, I’m not your guy. My No. 1 convinced me that the 6.5 Creedmoor is indeed an accurate cartridge.
I loaded two different recipes with the 140-grain Speer jacketed softpoint bullets seated to an overall cartridge length of 2.700 inches, IMR 4350 powder, Winchester large rifle primers, and virgin Starline brass. At 100 yards, I fired five rounds with the above load using 38.5 grains of IMR 4350, and those five went into 2.272 inches. I was just getting warmed up. I then tried the same combo but with 39.5 grains of IMR 4350. The first three-shot group was 0.701 inches, and the second three-shot group was 0.978 inches. This was outstanding for the first outing. Maybe I just got lucky. But I don’t think so. I think that the 6.5 Creedmoor is everything folks say it is.
Last week I was on the range again with a different rifle, and good buddy Dan asked if I shot 6.5 Creedmoor. I do, I answered. It seems somebody shot a box or three of factory ammo and didn’t keep their brass. Dan wanted to know if I wanted it. Does the Pope poop in the woods? Is a bear Catholic? You bet, I answered. Any kind of brass is hard to come by these days. But 6.5 Creedmoor? For free? Like I said, sometimes you just get lucky.
6.5 Creedmoor brass in the vibratory cleaner. It’s looking good.6.5mm bullets in Speer and Nosler flavors. I only tried the Speer bullets so far. I’ll bet the Noslers are going to be more accurate.
I’ll keep you posted on 6.5 Creedmoor developments right here on the ExNotes blog. I’ll load more ammo this week and I’ll get on the range shortly after that. Stay tuned.
Help us keep the lights on…please click on the popup ads!
In 1975 Greg Smith and I went on a long motorcycle ride. Greg had one of the first Goldwings, a pretty metallic blue motorcycle with a Windjammer faring. I had a BMW R75/5 also with a Windjammer faring and Samsonite bags. The ones with the soda machine, round key lock to hold the bags into the frames. We visited 41 US states and were on the road 3 months: Florida to California to Canada to Maine and most of the states between the coasts. In all that time I think we stayed in a motel three times; the rest was camping. Mostly we stayed at state parks for a dollar or commercial campgrounds with showers and toilets at the cost of around 2 dollars a night. If it was late or we were lost we would pull off the road and find an out of the way place to set up our tents. If it was really late or we were tired we would toss our sleeping bags on the ground and sleep just about anywhere.
Modern campgrounds are more like mini subdivisions now and the huge RV’s jammed cheek to jowl cost way more than houses did in 1975. But when we were discovering America on the Goldwing and BMW, tents were still popular. People camped out of their cars. KOA campgrounds were a luxury stay with plenty of hot water and clean bathrooms. We were on a strict 10 dollar-a-day budget back then, so eating at a restaurant was off limits except for cheap fast food places. We cooked all of our breakfasts and dinners. It was fun.
The very first motorcycle camp stove I bought was a Peak 1. Greg had one too.
New, the Peak 1 cost like 20 dollars, which was a huge amount of money back in 1975. I had bought many motorcycles for less money. The Peak was worth it, though, and has proven to be indestructible. It still works fine some 47 years later. Starting the Peak 1 has never been a simple process. You pump up the tank pressure and fiddle with the two fuel levers (instructions are printed on the side) and then a big yellow flame erupts from the stove. After a minute or so it settles down and you flip the small lever to normal operation. To adjust the flame use the long lever.
My Peak could use a new pump diaphragm but with determined pumping you can build enough pressure to light the thing off. After the cross tube gets hot the stove makes its own pressure. The colder it is the harder the stove is to start but it has never failed to start. The Peak 1 burns Coleman stove fuel or some stuff called white gas. White gas was available at many gas stations in the 1970’s so it was easy to fill the little tanks on our stoves for a few cents. A full tank would last a week of meals and coffee.
The Peak 1 is sort of big and heavy; I wouldn’t want to backpack with the thing. I don’t think gas stations sell white gas any more so you need the Coleman fuel. Any Wal-Mart has Coleman fuel. I used the Peak for many years until motorcycle camping became less likely to happen and I shoved the old warhorse onto a shelf.
For economy, nothing beats a penny, beer-can stove. They cost nothing. These little alcohol-burning stoves are super lightweight, probably the lightest you can get. You can’t buy a beer can stove, you’ll have to make one and YouTube has probably 1000 videos on how to build your own. The Cliff’s Notes version is you cut two beer cans and fit the two bottom bits together. Then you punch some holes for the flames to shoot out and a hole for filling the contraption. The penny serves to slightly pressurize the stove for a nice long flame. You’ll need some rocks or a wire frame to hold whatever you’re cooking. I used a bit of bent brazing rod.
Fuel for the stove is available everywhere. Drug stores, liquor stores (Everclear), auto stores (Heet) alcohol is ubiquitous in our country. The way it works is you fill the stove with a few ounces of alcohol, put the penny in the middle and light it up. The one I made lights easily. Some builders complain about hard starting. One fill up will boil a quart of water and burns for 12 minutes or so. The beer-can stove has its drawbacks. Once the thing is lit you don’t want to move it or tip it over. It’s all too easy to set your arm on fire. Don’t try to conserve fuel, let the stove run until it’s out of alcohol. Lastly, the stove is fragile and easy to crush: pack accordingly.
Now we come to my favorite stoves: these little butane stoves cost between $10 and $15 on Amazon. They are extremely compact, like beer can stove size but not as light weight. They use slightly hard to get butane canisters (Walmart again) but they start easily and boil water fast. I have two sizes. The larger one was the first type I bought and it’s now my go-to motorcycle camping stove. My buddy, Mike, bought the smaller burner so I had to get one, too. They’re cheap. The small one will fit anywhere. Folded up it’s about the size of your thumb after you smashed your thumb with a hammer. The larger one actually works better because the flame is spread over a larger area. Water seems to heat faster with the big one but I haven’t timed it.
You can get butane fuel in several sizes. For a short, 2-3 day camping trip the small canister will do. Oddly, the large canister of butane costs less than the small one and it’s good for a week of camping. When I pack for a motorcycle camping trip I try to save space everywhere. It kills me to pay more for less fuel.
My newest stove is this wood burner. It’s so new I haven’t even used it yet. It’s bulky but not so heavy. The photo shows the stove fully assembled and ready for use, it breaks down to about 1/3 the size for packing. The big idea behind this stove is you don’t need any fuel to run the thing. Wood twigs, leaves, bits of brush, anything that will fit in the stove and burn are fair game. The stove is designed with side-draft vents to help cut down smoking. I got it because I like the idea of free fuel in an unlimited supply. I’ve yet to camp where there wasn’t enough stuff on the ground to make a pot of coffee. The top is cut away so you can feed a steady supply of soiled baby diapers, 12-pack Budweiser cardboard cartons and discarded Covid facemasks into the beast. Cook your dinner and clean up the environment at the same time! Drawbacks are you have to use the stove outside. No brewing a nice cup of Batdorf & Bronson coffee in the motel room.
There are many other types of small camp stoves. Everyone is trying to design a better, smaller, lighter stove. Some stoves cost hundreds of dollars. That’s not my bag, man. I guess I am into motorcycle camping stoves like Berk is into armaments: a stove for every pot, as it were.
A couple of years ago good buddy Joe Gresh told me he was going to do a listicle for the blog. My first thoughts were that a listicle was somehow gonad related, and if he was going to do one for the blog, he was really into the whole ExNotes thing. Nope, it had nothing to do with parts south, Gresh explained. Listicle is a mashup of “list” and “article.” It’s an article that contains a list, and Gresh had it on good authority from a magazine industry contact that listicles get lots of hits on the Internet. So Gresh wrote one and it did. Wow, I should do listicles, too, I thought. And I did.
Now, truth be told, hits are nice but what we really like is when you, our readers, click on the popup ads in our blogs. That’s how we get paid. Every time you click on an ad, we get paid. If the popup ads annoy you, click on them and the advertiser has to pay. And some of that money goes to us. See how cool this is?
Anyway, back to the listicle topic. We’ve done a bunch and we’re going to do more. I tried to capture them all (maybe I missed one or two), but here’s the list. Of listicles, that is. Yes, we are offering on the blog today a listicle of listicles.
So there you have it. Our list of listicles. We hope you enjoy them. And don’t forget to click on the popup advertisements wherever they appear. You’ll be slimmer and more attractive, you’ll shoot straighter, and it will make you a better rider.
Happy New Year from the staff at ExhaustNotes.us! Our best wishes for a healthy and happy New Year to you.
Highway 395 closed yesterday just north of Bridgeport due to snow. I know that road well. I’ve ridden it a bunch of times and it’s a favorite, but wow, the weather can turn on a dime up there. Once you leave Bishop heading north, the elevation goes up abruptly, and in the next 30 miles or so it can go from cold to damn cold mighty quickly.
Highway 395 in warmer times. As I recall, temperatures were in the triple digits when I shot this photo around Manzanar.
I once rode my KLR 650 up to Lake Tahoe on a press junket and the weather was okay. Moderate, not too cold, nice riding weather on the roads in and around Tahoe. The ride home was something else, though. Tahoe is pretty high in elevation and I dropped maybe two or three thousand feet coming down the mountain to Highway 395. That’s when the cold really set in. I had good gear on, but no electric vest, and the cold was brutal. I stopped at the Bridgeport Inn maybe a hundred miles down the road and went in for breakfast. Well, that’s not entirely true. I went in to warm up, and I wanted to just sit there for a couple of hours sipping coffee after breakfast. It worked, but it took a while.
The KLR 650 on Highway 395, with the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background. It was cold going north; it was way colder coming home. This is an interesting photo – you can see the moon peeking out just above the mountains.
You know, the funny thing is that another hundred miles or so south when I rolled through Adelanto on the 395, it was so hot I took most of that gear off. The temperature had gone from near freezing on the 395 north of Bridgeport to nearly 100 degrees down in the desert.
The KLR 650 was a good road bike and a great traveling companion. I rode it all over Baja and through a lot of the American Southwest. It’s gone down the road now (I sold it to a friend of a friend who may still have it). Good fuel economy, it could touch 100 mph on a good day, and the thing was just comfortable. The ergonomics were perfect for me. It was was one of the great ones.
I remember the bad weather rides way better than any of the ones with clear skies and moderate temperatures. That ride back from Tahoe will stay with me for a long time.
The .222 Remington, known as the triple deuce, is an inherently accurate cartridge. I have an old Savage 340 chambered for this cartridge and I’ve written about it before. The Savage was inexpensive and the stock was well worn (it was only $180 from a local shop used gun rack maybe 3 or 4 years ago). I bought it because I never had a triple deuce and I wanted a refinishing project.
The refinished Savage 340. Port, and…..starboard. It looks brand new. It’s at least 50 years old.
The Savage 340 was an economy rifle back in the day. I have a library of old Gun Digest books, and my 1956 Shooter’s Bible shows that it sold for $62.
The refinish, with TruOil, turned out well.Mine is a 340D. I think that means it was the Deluxe model.Note the cantilevered Weaver mount and the Bushnell 3×9 Banner (an el cheapo model if ever there was one) were included with the rifles’ $180 price at Turner’s.The detachable box magazine. The bluing is in excellent original condition on this rifle.
I recently bought an 8-pound bottle of XBR 8208 propellant (these days, you buy what’s available), and I wanted to see where the accuracy was with this propellant and 55-grain full metal jacket boat tail Hornady bullets. I use these bullets in my Mini 14, and I was pretty sure they would do well in the .222 Savage, too.
Loads for testing in the Savage.
The accuracy load for the Savage is 23.4 grains of XBR 8208. Not bad for $180, a little elbow grease, a little TruOil, and an hour on the range at 100 yards.
For a pencil weight barrel and a really screwy bedding approach, the Savage did very well.And another. You gotta love conistency.
The rifle could do better. The stock has a lot of drop at the heel and it is designed for the iron sights on the rifle. And that would be okay, but the Savage has a scope on it and I wanted to play with it. It’s difficult to get a consistent cheek weld because of the scope’s height and the stock’s drop (I’m shooting with my chin almost on the stock). I may cast about for one of those leather cheek pads that lace onto a rifle, or I may leave it as is.
This lightweight and accurate rifle would be a hoot chasing jackrabbits in west Texas, which is what I spent a lot of my earlier years doing. Maybe someday I’ll go back.
About those other links…here’s the series on refinishing the Savage:
A day or two before Joe Gresh and I began our ride across China on Zongshen RX3 motorcycles, the Chinese took us to dinner in Chongqing, the megacity in which the Zongshen company is located. It was a typical summer night in Chongqing, which is to say it was hot, humid, and steamy. Sultry is a word that comes to mind. Exotic is another one.
Chongqing is where two of the world’s great rivers meet (the Jialing and the Yangtze). Downtown Chongqing is in the center. We were returning from dinner on the south shore of the Yangtze River (the lower river in the map) when I grabbed the photo you see above with my Nikon. Where it says Yuzhong…we were right about where the g is in that word.
Chongqing is huge. How big? We think New York is big (and it is) with 8 million people. Chongqing has 34 million people. It’s hard to imagine, and it’s hard to imagine we rode 250cc motorcycles through it (as well as many other Chinese megacities). I like everything about Chongqing, and you’ll see more favorite photos from there in upcoming ExNotes blogs. But this one stands out for me.
You can read more about what we saw in China in Riding China.
Earlier Phavorite Photos? You bet! Click on each to get their story.
I’ve been on a tear the last few weeks, playing with the Mk V 300 Weatherby and developing loads for it. I developed loads with cast bullets and with jacketed bullets, and at reduced-load levels and at factory ammo levels.
The Internet weenies advise going hotter with this cartridge to get better accuracy, but I don’t want more accuracy that badly (don’t get me wrong; I like accuracy, but not at the expense of this kind of recoil). The recoil with this cartridge is severe. I shot some sub-minute-of-angle groups with the 180 grain Remington jacketed softpoint bullets. I also had a few larger groups, but I’m chalking that up to the wind and me still being a bit recoil sensitive. For me, it’s close enough to call it done.
All groups presented here were at 100 yards from my Mk V Weatherby. It has a walnut stock and a 26-inch barrel. I bought this rifle about 10 years ago but I had not shot it much until recently. I have a 4×16 Weaver on this rifle and all groups were with the scope at 16X. The scope is no longer available, but it is a good one.
This Mk V initially had a terrible trigger. It was creepy and gritty, and it was so bad it surprised me. I was thinking about spending another $200 on a Timney trigger and then a funny thing happened: The trigger suddenly and spontaneously improved. It’s about a three-pound trigger now with zero creep. Don’t ask me how or why. Maybe there was some grit in the trigger, or maybe there was a burr somewhere in the mechanism. Whatever it was, it’s gone.
I now use a Caldwell shoulder pad for the full bore stuff. It helps tremendously with recoil, but it is probably degrading my shooting position because of the unnatural stretch to get a good scope picture and cheek weld. Even with that pad, though, I still get kissed by the scope on occasion. The rifle likes to let me know who’s the boss.
The Caldwell shoulder pad really helped tame the 300 Weatherby’s recoil.
Cast bullets are okay for light loads and practicing, but to keep the groups below 3 inches, I had to use a bore brush between every group. If I didn’t bore brush it every three shots, the groups opened up. If I use a bore brush and run it through the barrel three or four times after each group I can keep my shots in the black.
After calling Hodgdon to make sure I wouldn’t blow myself up, I tried a few jacketed loads with 130 grain Hornady and 150 grain Winchester bullets and Trail Boss powder. They grouped okay. The jacketed bullets with Trail Boss were more accurate than the cast bullets, but not as good as the full bore stuff. It’s good to know, but I’ll reserve the Trail Boss for cast loads.
Hornady 130 grain jacketed soft point bullets. In my 30 06 Ruger No. 1 with IMR 4320 powder these bullets will group under an inch all day long.Winchester 150 grain jacketed soft point bullets. These bullets shoot into a half inch from my 30 06 Winchester Model 70.Remington 180 grain jacketed soft point bullets. These bullets shoot well in any rifle I’ve tried them in (a single-shot Browning 30 06 B78, a custom Howa 1500 30 06, a Ruger 308 GSR Scout rifle, and others). They are no longer available, which is a pity.200 grain Sierra jacketed hollowpoint boat tail bullets my good buddy Marty gave to me.
I shot neck sized brass with the Trail Boss cast and jacketed loads because the Trail Boss loads don’t expand the case very much and it’s easier to reload if I neck size only. I don’t have to lube the cases and it goes a lot faster.
180 grain cast .309 bullets from my good buddy Roy.
The Trail Boss sweet spot with cast bullets is 20.0 grains. That’s near the bottom of the charge range. I went down to 19.5 grains and there was no improvement in group size. I went above 20.0 grains and the groups opened up. I’m a quick study. 20.0 grains. Got it.
I tried neck sizing only (instead of full length resizing) with full bore loads and I found that was not the way to go. I had a lot of cases that wouldn’t extract when I shot neck sized only full bore loads, and then I found when I neck sized a case it stuck it in the chamber even without firing (it was difficult to extract). Full bore loads have to be full length resized in my 300 Weatherby (with an extra quarter turn on the sizing die after it touches the shell holder for this rifle; that’s a trick a tech rep at Sierra turned me on to). The cases expand too much if you neck size only after firing full bore loads.
With cast bullets, crimping the bullet is necessary for better accuracy. Not crimping opened up the groups substantially. Crimping brought them back down. But that’s only with cast bullets. For jacketed bullets, the rifle doesn’t care if you crimp them or not. There’s no accuracy gains to be had with crimping jacketed bullets in my rifle.
Keeping the bore clean makes a difference (duh), and you need to get up close to make sure the bore is clean. Simply judging cleanliness by the patch coming out clean isn’t good enough. After my patches were coming out clean, I took a photo of the muzzle. I looked at it on my computer and I was shocked. Before examining the photo, I thought this was a clean barrel:
A macro photograph of the Weatherby’s muzzle after I thought it was relatively clean.
I realized I still had a lot of copper and lead streaking in the barrel and I went to work on it with Hoppes No. 9 and Butch’s Bore Shine. That reduced most of the copper, but the lead was not giving up. A bit of online research, and what do you know: Solvents (like Hoppes or Butch’s) don’t affect lead at all. I’ve been a shooter for 50 years and that was news to me. Nope, lead has to be mechanically removed. I soaked a pad with Kroil penetrating oil, ran it through the bore and let it soak for a while, and then I ran a bore brush down the barrel repeatedly. It was better, but it needed more. I repeated the process several times over the next two days and got the bore down to this:
The Weatherby muzzle after a much more stringent cleaning. Additional effort did not remove the minute streaks of remaining lead and copper.
The bore wouldn’t get any cleaner that what you see above. To the naked eye, it looks clean. But then, to the naked eye the first photo looked clean. I was probably penalizing my inspection with that macro photo. I know I could probably get it cleaner with something like JB Bore Paste, but I’m hesitant to use an abrasive in the bore.
It’s Trail Boss for cast and reduced jacketed loads, and IMR 7828 for the factory level loads.H1000 is a powder I had not previously tried in the 300 Weatherby. That’s the Mk V behind it. Weatherby has discontinued walnut stocks on their regular production rifles; they are still available on rifles through the Weatherby Custom Shop. Nothing looks better than fancy walnut, in my opinion.
I loaded various permutations of IMR 7828 and H1000 propellants, and the Sierra 200-grain jacketed hollowpoint boat tail and Remington 180-grain jacketed soft point bullets for the factory level loads.
So how did the above combinations perform at 100 yards? Take a look:
The rifle is unquestionably capable of better results than you see above, but not with me. I’m usually not recoil shy, but this 300 Weatherby at factory ammo levels is a bit beyond what I’m willing to live with on a regular basis. A better rifleman could probably keep most of the above loads below an inch. But an inch and half is good enough for me, and several of the factory-level loads above did that. I can hunt with this rifle, and that’s what I’m going to do.
So what’s next? I found a couple of boxes of 180 grain Hornady jacketed soft point bullets, and I have a few Nosler 180 grain bullets as well. I’m going to try a few loads with them. I haven’t tried too many loads with lighter bullets, mostly because earlier results were disappointing. But I haven’t given up on the lighter bullets. I’m going to revisit a few loads with them. And I have a couple of powders I want to try as well. Bottles of powder don’t last long with a 300 Weatherby, though, when you look at kind of powder charges these cases demand. When you’re dispensing 80 grains of propellant per round, 100 rounds of 300 Weatherby consumes an entire bottle of powder. And powders (like everything else) are somewhat difficult to find these days.
Truth be told, the 300 Weatherby is specialty item, and it’s a punishing beast. It’s surprising how much of an increase in recoil there is in going from a 30 06, a 300 H&H, or a 7mm Magnum (in either Remington or Weatherby flavors) to a 300 Weatherby. But shooting the 300 Weatherby is fun in its own way. I sure enjoy mine.
If you shoot a 300 Weatherby, we’d like to hear your thoughts on the cartridge and the rifle. Please leave a comment here on the ExNotes blog.
More Tales of the Gun…revolvers, rifles, pistols, pellet guns, reloading, and more. It’s all right here!
The last time I had the Compact 1911 on the range, I shot worse than usual. At 25 yards (with me resting my arms on the bench), I can typically keep my shots in the black with the Rock Compact. This is how I shot last week:
Maybe adequate for defense purposes and probably close enough for government work, but terrible shooting.
That’s pitiful (there’s a few 9mm holes on that target above; ignore those). Then I noticed the slide was not going fully back into battery, which was something new to me. It wasn’t jammed, it just needed a slight nudge to finish the trip home.
The slide sitting about a tenth of an inch from returning to battery.
Another view of the slide not returning to battery. “Battery” means fully forward, ready to fire the next round.I knew that Compact 1911 recoil springs fatigue earlier than the springs in full-sized 1911s, but this one snuck up on me. Armscor (the Rock Island Armory folks who manufactured my Compact 1911) were out of stock, so I ordered a new spring from Wilson Combat. Wilson Combat is a recognized “go to” shop in the 1911 world. I received my new recoil spring a few days later.
A brand-new Wilson Combat 24-pound recoil spring.
Online research said the life of these springs in a Compact 1911 is only about 2000 rounds, tops. That surprised me. The literature from Wilson surprised me even more:
The Wildon Combat bubble-pack literature.
1000 rounds. That’s 10 boxes of ammo. Wow. I probably had several times that many rounds through my Rock. Small wonder the slide wasn’t returning to battery.
When the spring arrived, I was eager to put it in my 1911. I dropped the magazine and cleared the weapon:
The TJ-customized and polished feed ramp and chamber entrance on the Rock Island Armory Compact 1911. Yep, it’s empty.
Then it was time to turn to my custom, German tool steel, carefully configured to exacting tolerances, Rock Island Armory Compact 1911 disassembly tool. It’s a bent paper clip:
A bent paper clip 1911 disassembly aid.
The drill is to lock the slide back, put the paper clip in the guide rod hole, and ease the slide gently forward to engage the paper clip.
The 1911 guide rod hole that accepts the paper clip disassembly aid.With the slide forward on the guide rod, held in place by the paper clip You bend the paper clip so that the guide rod, recoil plug, and recoil spring can be pushed rearward in the slide to remove these three components as a subassembly).
Once I had the slide forward, with the paper clip disassembly aid in place like you see above, I withdrew the slide release from the left side of the pistol. At that point, the entire slide assembly can slide forward off the receiver.
Another view from underneath the slide.
The next step was to extract the recoil spring, the guide rod, and the recoil plug out of the slide. It’s best to leave the paper clip in the guide rod (i.e., with the recoil spring still compressed), and then slide the entire recoil plug/recoil spring/guide rod rearward as a unit out of the slide. After that, I pushed down on the recoil plug, withdrew the paper clip from the guide rod, and released the compression on the spring. I was careful when I did this; parts could go flying if I just let them go. Don’t ask me how I know this.
The recoil plug, the guide rod, and the recoil spring removed from the slide with the paper clip removed.
Here’s what the guide rod, the original recoil spring, and the new Wilson Combat recoil spring look like. The new spring is on the bottom:
Quite a difference, huh? In case you were wondering, both springs have 14 coils.
I think the new spring wire diameter is larger than the original spring wire diameter. I didn’t think to measure it before I installed it; I will do so the next time I have the gun apart. And there’s a huge difference in free length, as you can see in the above photo.
Installing the new spring on the guide rod with its recoil plug was a challenge. I had make to a tool to compress the spring and the recoil plug enough to get a paper clip on the guide rod to hold everything together so I could install it in the slide. Again, I was super careful. I didn’t want to release these parts, and I always wear eye protection when I do this sort of thing. A lot of people get hurt by being careless with springs.
The reassembled recoil plug, recoil spring, and guide rod, ready for insertion in the slide.
At this point, I reinstalled the subassembly in the slide, I slid the slide onto the receiver, and then I reinstalled the slide stop.
Once the gun was back together, the first time I tried to rack the slide I was shocked. I couldn’t pull the slide all the way back. I muscled it and then did so several times, and it seems to be okay now, but wow, it is stiff. The 24-pound recoil spring is way stronger than what the Compact 1911 had in it. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the problem with the slide not returning to battery is gone.
The Compact with the slide in battery.
You know, I was playing around with the Compact 45 when I was cleaning it before the above spring replacement and I noticed that because the slide only went limply into battery there was a lot more play between the receiver and the slide. I thought maybe it was me, but I noticed the accuracy was really falling off the last couple of times I shot it. I’ll bet when the recoil spring holds the slide firmly in battery keeps the slide in the same spot each time. With a weak spring, it stands to reason that the slide would swim around a bit more and accuracy would suffer. I shook the gun in my hand with the old spring in it, and it rattled just like the 1911s I carried in the Army. I’ll bet they all had worn recoil springs, too.
When testing a recoil spring to see if it’s the right one, the drill is to load one round in the magazine, fire it, and if the slide locks back after that round (as it is supposed to do), the spring is good. I tried that with seven rounds of factory hardball and the new Wilson Combat 24-pound recoil spring, and it worked each time. Then I tried my 230-grain cast hardball load with 5.6 grains of Unique (my reloads are less potent but way more accurate than factory ammo), and it worked great. Then I tried my 185-grain cast semi-wadcutter load (with 5.0 grains of Bullseye; my Compact 1911 accuracy load), and it worked great. It’s a little easier to rack the slide now, but it’s still way stiffer than it was before.
Like 1911 stories? Or maybe other handgun stories? Or good reloading info? Hey, it’s all available on Tales of the Gun!
Help us keep the content coming: Please click on the popup ads!
More stories on the Rock Island Armory Compact? Yes, indeed!
Good buddy Peter and I go back about 40 years now. That’s hard to believe when I think about it….he must be pretty old now. We grew up together in the So Cal aerospace industry, chasing each other across companies that made bombs, aerial refueling equipment, helicopter blades, and more. We’re both retired now, and we’re both enjoying life. Peter and I have a lot in common (you might remember him as Python Pete), including an interest in guns, motorcycles (Peter bought one of the first RX3 motorcycles to arrive in America), photography, and travel. Peter and his wife recently wrapped up an epic road trip in the starship Wingnutz (it’s the roadburner you see above), and he wrote a guest blog for us showing just a few of the highlights. Here you go, folks…it’s a great read. Enjoy!
My wife, Sasi, and I went on an epic road trip a couple of months ago. The impetus for this trip was our nephew’s wedding in Massachusetts. We figured this was the perfect opportunity to camp our way across America (and get the hell out of California for a while). The vehicle for this journey was a 2019 Ford Transit van that we had converted into a 4×4 camper van. This van is pretty much self-contained and we can live off the grid for three or four days before we have to resupply the water tank. With this setup we can choose not to stay in campgrounds thereby avoiding other cranky people.
Map showing the general route we took.
Starting in So Cal we drove north through Nevada. At our first campsite in Nevada at Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, we watched in utter amazement one evening as a hawk used its talons to snatch a bat right out of the air mid-flight no more than 15 feet directly in front of us. Never saw that before.
We continued north into Idaho and Montana enjoying the spectacular scenery of the Sawtooth and Bitterroot Mountains. One day we drove a measly 50 miles because we just kept finding fantastic sights and places to camp. Our campsites in this area were usually way up dirt roads next to streams (with very cold, invigorating water…like 44 °F cold.) and a couple of times at altitudes exceeding 8,000 feet. We thought we were gonna see and smell a lot of smoke from all the fires in the Pacific Northwest, but nada. This is definitely an area we are going back to in order to explore more extensively. We spent too much time in this area jeopardizing an on time arrival to the wedding.
So, we quickly made up time heading east across the Northern Plains to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. You don’t wanna see people? The UP is one place to do that as it’s pretty sparsely populated and very heavily forested. The few locals we encountered were extremely friendly and helpful. Sasi was excited to be able to pick wild blackberries at our campsite which was just off a snowmobile trail. There was no snow as it was late August and nobody else was crazy enough to drive something other than a snowmobile on this trail. Solitude is great as it gives you the opportunity to observe and listen to the wildlife (the forest kind of wildlife as opposed to the city kind).
The Mackinac Bridge, five miles long connecting the UP to the rest of Michigan
Next significant stop was Niagara Falls which was one of the highlights for Sasi. It was her first visit and she was absolutely overwhelmed as was I even though I’ve visited before. We walked to all the scenic overlooks and did the Maid of the Mist boat tour (worth it). Joe spoke previously of these electric motor driven boats. They are indeed quite quiet; however, the falling water is not. Our campsite in this area was on Lake Ontario and in the evening, we could see the sparkling lights of Toronto across the lake. Unfortunately, we could not visit the Canucks because of crazy COVID-related border rules.
Sunset over Lake Ontario
Off to the wedding in the Boston area. It was nice.
The next highpoint of the trip was to eat live Maine lobster in Bar Harbor, Maine. This is a beautiful island and although there were way too many tourists visiting, we managed to get a table in an otherwise deserted restaurant overlooking the water. The lobster has a better, fresher taste in Maine than the so-called live Maine lobster we get in California. The food was amazing and so was the scenery as we drove around the island after lunch.
Sasi’s live Maine lobster, finally!
I wanted to go see the northern parts of Maine because the maps show hardly any roads in that area. Hell, we have a 4×4 so who needs roads, right? “Wrong!” said the boss/copilot/navigator/cook/wife. Never piss off any of those people or you will regret it many times over (I keep learning). So, we headed west into New Hampshire and Vermont and bought copious amounts of locally sourced maple syrup.
We followed the Appalachian Mountains south all the way to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee. We did not see Dolly Parton but did find great places to camp including one place where we met a couple from Spain who are five years into traversing a good part of the world in their custom RV that looks more like a military vehicle than an RV. See www.erg-adventure.com.
One beast of an RV Carlos and Magy are using to see the world
We then meandered kind of Northwest and finally just west across the very flat Great Plains stopping for a few days in Colorado to visit family we had not seen in two years. A few more incredible campsites came our way in the Rockies. The Forest Rangers here were super nice in guiding us to the out of the way camping spots we prefer.
Hell yes, lets go!Aspen trees changing color on our type of road
We finally made it home after five weeks, 30 states and 9,000 spectacular miles. Don’t ask about fuel economy because a 4×4 van does not understand economy. However, you can’t put a price on the sights and experiences we enjoyed on this trip!
That’s an awesome story, Peter, and it looks like you and Sasi had an amazing adventure. Thanks very much for sharing it with us!
In Part 4 of the KLR Chronicles I managed to damage the water pump oil seal. Never one to stand pat, in Part 5 I damaged the new water pump ceramic seal. It wasn’t easy and I’m still not sure how it happened.
After cleaning off the old gasket material stuck to the clutch cover I managed to get the new oil seal installed without drama. Next I used a suitable sized socket to pound the new ceramic seal into the water pump housing. This all went well and as such was probably where I broke the seal.
The clutch cover has two locating dowels but the gasket was sort of floppy and would slip out of place when I tried to install the cover. I ran down to NAPA and picked up a can of spray gasket High Tack goo and used that to hold the gasket while I messed with the cover.
Reassembling the mess was easy from then on and I filled the radiator with new coolant expecting success. I took the bike for a short ride and dammed if the water pump wasn’t leaking worse than when I started. Resigned to never getting the bike going I removed the water pump cover and water pump impeller. I thought maybe the impeller o-ring was the culprit so dismantled the cover and replaced the o-ring and tried again. It still leaked. Dismantling the pump for third time was when I found the crack.
The ceramic seal is a multi part extravaganza consisting of a flat seal area, a spring, a rubber bellows and the metal ring part that fits into the housing. I tried pulling the ceramic part off but it just crumbled. It took a bit of tugging to remove the bellows and spring from the metal. And then I remembered that when I removed the old seal the spring, bellows and seal fell out into my hand. This made me think that the old seal wasn’t leaking at the ceramic interface and, in fact, was leaking between the bellows and the metal ring part.
If you’ve followed my mechanical exploits you can guess what happens next. I cleaned the metal ring (still stuck in the housing) and the old seal bellows. Then I blobbed black RTV silicone on the ring and glued the old seal/spring/bellows into the new ring.
And it worked! The water pump no longer leaked. This kind of repair is not the sort of thing you want to rely on 50 miles out into the desert so I’ll have to order yet another water pump seal. This time I’ve got an idea and will try something different to remove the metal ring. I hope to not pull the clutch cover again. We will see.
