[scl888]

Would love to go the route and put down $ and grab the rebate, except the CA roster says I can buy as many M&P as I want, as long as it's the 1,0 Shield. Damn roster I tell you.

 

[M1A4ME]

@M1A4ME So what's the plan on the second slide? am waiting for the EPS Carry to be back in stock and shooting mine with irons for now. Haven't started on the second build, not sure what to do yet.

It's an optics ready slide, like that first one and I plan to put another Holoson on it and put it on my older 8 shot Shield for a start. That will increase the versatility of that pistol. I can no longer see the front sight without glasses and who can guarantee they won't lose/damage their glasses in a fight? Without the glasses the dot is just a blurry dot. Not hard at all to put a blurry dot on a target and hit what you need to hit. The original Shield was a sort of bag gun. I carried it on road trips, in a smaller backpack with the first aid kit, extra batteries for the flash light, a small battery charger for the cell phones, nice sharp knife, etc. My wife's primary carry gun has been her Shield PC 9MM for a couple years now and I figured an extra Shield would be a good bag gun with extra magazines that fit her gun and the bag gun.

It's not the destination, Grasshopper...It's the journey...

That's a good one. And very true. I just enjoy tinkering. Like that old Pre B CZ85. I could have bought a new one. It would have been like all the rest. That Pre B is different. I figured out what had to be done to make parts fit/work that people said wouldn't work. I've also figured out what to do to convert a couple CZ75s to CZ85 controls. If you're a CZ owner/shooter (I realize most people aren't) have you ever seen a CZ75 Compact with ambidextrous safeties and slide release levers? I've got one I "built." Did similar mods to a CZ75B in .40 S&W (that was easier as those come out of the box with ambidextrous thumb safeties.

Like I said, fun to tinker with stuff.

 

[M1A4ME]

Got the extractor pin shortened and driven flush with the top of the slide this afternoon.

Also got the front night sight installed. Funny, it seemed really tight when I first pushed it with my thumb. I grabbed the brass punch and the "big" hammer and started tapping it in. As I got closer to the center I tapped it one more time and it fell out the other side of the notch. I could slide it all the way to the middle with my thumb from the right side of the slide. Had to do a little "mod" to the slide to get things snug enough require the hammer and brass punch to drive the front sight to the center after that. I'm hoping it holds. Seemed pretty darn tight but I know the right side of the notch is looser than the left side for some reason.

Now all it needs is a barrel and another Holoson. Then we can put it on the old Shield frame and try it out. I may have to be on the look out for another Shield Plus frame at some point.

 

[Grizdad]

Got the extractor pin shortened and driven flush with the top of the slide this afternoon.

Also got the front night sight installed. Funny, it seemed really tight when I first pushed it with my thumb. I grabbed the brass punch and the "big" hammer and started tapping it in. As I got closer to the center I tapped it one more time and it fell out the other side of the notch. I could slide it all the way to the middle with my thumb from the right side of the slide. Had to do a little "mod" to the slide to get things snug enough require the hammer and brass punch to drive the front sight to the center after that. I'm hoping it holds. Seemed pretty darn tight but I know the right side of the notch is looser than the left side for some reason.

Now all it needs is a barrel and another Holoson. Then we can put it on the old Shield frame and try it out. I may have to be on the look out for another Shield Plus frame at some point.

Is this a case for red loctite?

 

[M1A4ME]

I didn't even thing about loctite. It might work. I used some of the black loctite (they say only use it on stuff you never plan to remove) on the front sight of that CZ85 Pre B pistol. It was a 1911 front sight with a rounded off tenon (originally square) and between that and the modified staking tool I wanted to make sure the front sight stayed in place. It has so far.

Not sure if the front sight of the dovetail was the issue. Something not quite sized right. "Feels" like the dovetail since the sight was hard to move when inserting left to right (muzzle to the front) and then fell out when it got closer to the middle/just past the middle, since it began to move so easy. Being easy to insert from the right side is another sign the dovetail was wider on that side.

The other 4" slide I bought at the same time didn't have this issue.

 

[scl888]

@M1A4ME Finally got the 407k in and mounted everything up (EPS Carry OOS), however, I think I want to rid the use of a plate, did you have to shave the front at all or simply get rid of the rear posts? Dremel?

 

[M1A4ME]

@M1A4ME Finally got the 407k in and mounted everything up (EPS Carry OOS), however, I think I want to rid the use of a plate, did you have to shave the front at all or simply get rid of the rear posts? Dremel?

On my 3.1" Shield Plus slide I removed the rear posts. Didn't know about the plates at that time and I'm impatient, sometimes.

I did it with a small hobby belt sander. Very carefully removed the rear posts (managed to do that without messing up the finish in the slide cut and still don't know how I did that

With the back posts gone I found the 407 would still not go flush, up front, with the slide/cut. I had to remove just a very small amount of metal off the top of the front posts with that 1" wide belt desk top (yeah, Harbor Freight) belt sander to get the Holoson to sit down flush in the optics cut.

I think I've got a picture. Can't find on showing the removed, or shortened pins. I guess when I got it right I just left the Holoson on the slide.

Here's a picture showing why I had to shorten the front posts. After removing the back posts the optic sat down perfect in the back but high, with a gap in the front. I took just a few thousandths off the tops of the posts up front and fit tested till I got it right.

Very happy with how it's working for me.

A file should work, but it's slow. A dremel should work if you're very careful and have a steady and strurdy hand/grip. You know how a dremel can kick out/sideways on you sometimes. I've used that little benchtop hobby sander on several small gun projects in the last few years and just figured I'd give it a try.

The plate is quicker and easier and not too expensive (the DPP plate from Amazon). It does raise the optic up a little but I can still see the top of the front sight on the 4" slide where I did use a plate.

 

[scl888]

@M1A4ME Thanks. I read over on CalGuns that someone also shaved the front posts down on this specific slide to fit the 407/507. I have the DPP plate on and it's fine, I can still barely use the factory night sights so it's not really a big deal. Maybe I will shave the posts on the second slide when I get to it. I was planning on mounting the dremel on a Dremel-type press so that the tip will at least be perpendicular to the top of the slide with the slide is clamped down, then when I get close to the bottom of the posts, just do manual fine filing. While those dremel press setup helps, they lack any sort of precision, but still much better than freehand.

Thanks again for sharing! I am just glad that this slide was available since we have near-zero OEM option on the left coast, save for the complete $300 3.1" OR slide from the factory, which is still debatable for retrofitting to the CA 1.0 frame since it also lacks the LCI.

 

[M1A4ME]

Just take enough off the top of the front posts to allow the optic to sit down on the slide. The posts, even through shortened slightly still help center the optic and provide strength to resist movement from recoil.

 

[Jay T]

I used an adapter plate from CHPWS that worked perfectly. It was a little pricey at $50, but it was just what I needed. It’s really thin and doesn’t add much rise to the Holosun.

 

[M1A4ME]

Those are sweet looking pistols with the 4" slide on them. Should have my second one ready to try out on the old Shield frame in another few weeks.

 

[M1A4ME]

Got the 2nd 4" ported barrel in today.

It was just as dirty, if not worse and took a pile of patches to get "mostly" clean. First Hoppes#9 and a brush with patches, some wet, some dry between brushing. Then the jag and patches with JB Bore Paste and those came out way dirtier than the patches from the Hoppes and brushing/patching. Finally got to the point where the patches were only a little tan/brown in places vs. the heavy black/dark brown mess I had on the patches at the start and for the first couple/three patches I put JB on. Definitely cleaner than it was to start. I think I'll wait till next month to order another Holoson for this 4" slide.

 

[Jay T]

Finally got to the point where the patches were only a little tan/brown in places vs. the heavy black/dark brown mess I had on the patches at the start and for the first couple/three patches I put JB on.

Ditto...I've never received a new part (for a pistol or anything else) that arrived in that kind of shape. I called the vendor about that and another issue and never got a reply.

 

[scl888]

Have to agree that the extended ported I got from them took a bit of cleaning, more so than other new barrels I bought before. Two things though, it locks up tight and shoots straight, besides, can't buy the 4" straight from S&W so this is the only game in town for a new unit. I was going to get the standard 4" from them at first, but it's been OOS for some time, they thought they would have a new batch but it hasn't shown up, so I ended up with the ported due to my eagerness to try the 4" slide, which I actually like. I think I should just buy another before those become OOS as well. I also have been waiting for their G26 optic cut slide but that has also been OOS. This outfit is a bit strange, never got email reply, and never could reach a live person when calling, BUT the few times I left VM, I got call back on the same day. BTW, they also don't respond to messages off eBay.

 

[M1A4ME]

I guess the only reply I've had from TR-Enabling is the e-mail to say they got my order and then an e-mail a couple days later to say the order had shipped, also with the tracking number so I could check up on it.

I think I e-mailed RemSport (the name of the maker of the barrel I think) and they told me to contact/buy from TR-Enabling. Got two barrels so I'm happy about that.

Still have not shot the first one enough to say it's going to be harder to clean that a S&W barrel. I may still, every so often, do the JB Bore Paste thing just to see if those patches keep coming out as dirty as they did when the barrel was new or if the barrel will eventually polish up enough to not get dirty, or some other thing happens (or I draw the right/wrong conclusion from the cleaning/polishing effects.)

For the time being I'm not going to polish the feed ramp on the new barrel. The ramp on the barrels, as received is kind of odd vs. other barrels but if it works that's okay. It's kind of angled sharply in both bottom outside corners vs. a nice round contour. Don't think I've seen that before. I polished the first one because I was polishing the Equalizer (had a nose to the feedramp jam on our first range trip) and also had the rough spot at the chamber entrance on the 4" Shield Plus barrel that was causing chambering jams so I figured I might as well polish the feed ramp on the Shield Plus 4" barrel at the same session.

That reminds me, I've not yet attempted to put this 4" unit on the frame and see if it will hand cycle rounds through okay. I ought to do that before going to the range to shoot it only to find I've got to polish the left side entrance to the chamber on this one, too.

Oh, the fun we have when buying and tinkering with the new and different parts.

 

[scl888]

Nothing to do and went to the store, these days there's not much to buy in CA, literally nothing new from the last decade can be had. I was still looking for a CZ P-01 but those are always OOS, though they had some SP-01's so I said what the heck, got one finally even though CZ now switched out the NS's and put a FO front, and in CA, we get those funky plastic extended baseplate/block. Then there's this 10-day wait, no joy, besides, local ranges are packed.

Went home, finished up the second 4" slide, then I stared at the first one with the 407k atop DPP plate, took out the dremel press and spent some time to remove the rear posts and trim the front. Came out good enough (read "I didn't F-up the finish"). Now I don't need to get taller sights. Idle hands are simply dangerous.

I was surprised that people were getting excited with ordering those FA320 in single shot config, true that one can drop the FCU into other configurations, but it is a grey area I am not comfortable in testing. For $920, that's within striking distance of private party off-roster sale on 320's, so why bother with the single shot.

 

[M1A4ME]

Not bad for the dremel. I figure I'd have messed it up. Probably lucky I didn't mess mine up with the1" hobby belt sander. Let's say, I was very happy with the way mine turned out. Sometimes lucky is a good thing.