Of 30 shooters, Neil came in 5th place, Martin came in 9th place and Mounce came in 12th place. First time competitor, friend and great customer Jimmy came in 6th! Very happy Jimmy came and even chipped in by helping to keep scores for his squad! That's the way we like to roll!

Neil using a KAC gun with BCM 11.5" barrel, Aimpoint T1 in KAC mount and KAC Triple Tap Brake 

Martin using his MK18Mod 1 clone with BCM upper, LWRC 10.5" barrel, DD MK18 rail and AAC muzzle brake with EoTech 553

Mounce using his home made AK74 with Vortex flash hider and wood handguards he finished himself

Jimmy using his LMT MRP with 12.5" piston barrel, Aimpoint T1 in KAC mount and KAC Triple Tap brake with NT4 silencer

Just a few more pics from the build. Here's a couple from fitting the barrel.

Lapping compound and oil were used to get all the parts to fit together.

I thought the barrel would never get past this point. It's messy work.

Checkering the mainspring housing 

Mers is checking the fit between the hammer and sear. Dave said the sear and hammer have as perfect an engagement as he's seen.

Taking what amounts to a giant drill bit to your barrel? Also completely normal.

Dave talks about the reasoning behind lightening the physical weight of the trigger as well as the internally adjustable over travel screw on the Harrison Design trigger we're using. 

Stoning the surface of the sear 

Our friend Mers from Advanced Armament Company (www.advanced-armament.com) and I were invited to spend a week with Dave Erickson of Condition One Pistolsmithing (www.conditionone.us). Dave is showing Mers and I what it takes to build a truly custom, hand built 1911. What's the most fun is that we're learning how it's done by building a gun for me! Nighthawk Custom (www.nighthawkcustom.com) sold me a blank frame and nearly blank slide to fill with parts that Dave picked after finding out what style gun I wanted to build.

We're three days in and the mechanical part is done. There was not a drop in part in the pile. Everything was oversized and nothing fit together. It took us roughly 40 hours of effort to get the gun in shootable condition. It has blown my mind to see the work involved just to be able to pull the slide to the rear and have everything come to rest at lock up. We just got back from the local range and put 80 rounds through the bare steel, sharp edged, diamond in the rough. More to come...

Day 1: Mers spends hours working the slide back and forth using only oil to achieve a tight, smooth fit

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Day 2: Adding serrations to the front sight! (they're sitting on top of the Koa wood that will be my grips )

Starting to shape the wood for the grips.

Results at the end of day 2:

So far, Mers and I have broken one front sight, two 1/16" ball end mills, and a 1/4" end mill!

Day 3: Round will not drop into chamber. KKM barrels come undersized so you can cut the chambers to your liking.

Mike reams the chamber:

Until the gauge shows the round will fit.

While I fit the bushing to the slide and barrel to the bushing, this orange hammer, pair of gloves, a jar of lapping compound and I became quite friendly with one another over the next couple of days. 

Early on Day 3: The frame/slide/barrel/bushing finally all fits together. This is the first time the action locked into position after working it for hours over two days! "BOOM!"

Dave explains the relationship between the hammer and disconnect

Breaking out the welder:

End of day results, the gun fits together and is ready to shoot the next day.

Day 4: Head to the range and shoot for function: 

We all give it a go, watch ejection, look at spent cases, primer strikes etc to see if any fine tuning needs to be done. It was all good to go. Top-bottom: Myself, Mers and Dave:

Now the gun shoots like we want it to shoot, the work begins to get it to look like we want it to look! As I started this blog post, Dave's already put the ball end cuts into the front of the slide and Mike's cleaning them up while Dave starts cutting the magwell. I'll see what I can do to help.