Friday, April 06, 2007

Boomsticks: Gratuitous Gun Pr0n No. 41

Here's my Delta Elite project, all... mostly... probably finished:


Stainless Colt Delta Elite. Ed Brown grip safety, mainspring housing, hammer, sear, and disconnector. Wilson Bulletproof slide stop and Wilson grip screws. Cylinder & Slide ambi thumb safeties. STI trigger. Novak night sights. Home Depot tape on the front strap. Big-ass fireballs by Double Tap Ammunition. All custom work done by Shannon and Bob at Coal Creek Armory. Unreasonable demands, fretting, and nagging done by me.

21 comments:

Weer'd Beard said...

Oh why don't they make more guns in 10mm?

Such a pretty Boomstick.

Still could you explain to me the appeal of an Ambi-safty? I never did understand those....

BobG said...

If that was any prettier it would bring tears to my eyes.

Anonymous said...

Cylinder?


TheSev

Anonymous said...

Brand name, hence the capital letters.

theirritablearchitect said...

"Oh why don't they make more guns in 10mm?"

$$$. Too much to engineer these correctly leads to big bucks at the cash register equals too few purchasers.

Price of ammo is also high, and that is probably a function of too few thinking the extra wear-and-tear on the user, much less the firearm is worth it.

That said, full-house 10mm loads are putting out very respectable numbers on the naughty end, and some folks have taken to hunting with them, including the Nuge no less.

My two cents, anyway.

Anonymous said...

Ah, thanks, should have caught that I guess.

All is well....proceed.

TheSev

Anonymous said...

Did they re-radius the corner on the firing pin stop correctly?

SpeakerTweaker said...

I am INSANELY jealous.

Cabela's has a fine example of one of these pistols (bone-stock, I'm pretty sure) for about $1,100 last I checked. I want it. BAD.

My brother had a blued D.E. back in about '96, and offered it to me for $500. If I'd only known...

You ever think about letting that one go, Tam, I got first dibs!



tweaker

Anonymous said...

I love Delta projects. I stuck an Ed Brown thumb safety, Wilson drop-in beaver tail and mag well, plus S&A mainspring to tide me over until I could manage to pull off a custom job like what you have.

Matter of fact, I had to get ya'll to clean up the thumb safety after the orginal smith put it on.

Anonymous said...

Sweet!

Matt G said...

I like it.

But I'd like it even more if:

-The stocks were prettier. (I'm speaking as a person who hasn't shot it-- you've seen the ugliness that are the preferred shooting stocks on my main 1911.)

The sights weren't designed to be more snag-free going in the holster than coming out. (I have a thing about wanting the sights to be flat-fronted so that they could be used to rack one-handed, if necessary. Again, this is completely hypocritical of me to say, as my own fave 1911 has the same fault.)

I dig the slide stop and grip safety.

I trust it's a short recoil spring guide rod?

How's it shoot?

What kind of magazines are you using?

What kind of ammo does it like?

How's it shoot?

the pistolero said...

Wow, I am turning about fifteen shades of green over here...that's a beautiful gun, Tam.

Price of ammo is also high

A-yep, and most of what you can find in the brick & mortar stores is loaded down to .40S&W levels. I've seen Buffalo Bore at Gander Mountain, but at almost a buck a round I can't afford to shoot that every week. The 10mm is more of a handloader's cartridge, they say, and it's one of the two biggest reasons I made the jump into that part of shooting...the other being .45acp. ;-)

Tam said...

At CCA, I stock:

Double Tap 135gr, 165gr, and 200gr JHP, as well as 180gr FMJ.

Remington UMC 180gr FMJ.

CCI Blazer 200gr FMJ.

Cor-Bon 135gr JHP.

Winchester 175gr STHP.

and Hornady 200gr XTP JHP.


We loves us some 10mm. :)

Tam said...

"-The stocks were prettier."

I have to keep using those 'till I can get the grip medallions relocated to another set. You can't carry a Delta Elite without the red triangle grip medallions. I'm pretty sure that's in Deuteronomy someplace.

Goldwater's Ghost said...

What sort of recoil spring arrangement does it have? Did you keep Colt's double spring, go with a FLGR, or what?

Inquiring gun nut minds (with their own stainless DE) want to know.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, 10mm. The answer to the 9mm vs. .45 question.

Anonymous said...

1) Personal opinion - very nice and pretty much what I would like to do my Delta.

2) I'm still not sold on the standard vs FLGR debate that goes on in 1911 circles. Gee, you can't do a press check with a FLGR in - use the sterations on the slide instead. It's an issue that to me is just beat to death. The 24 lb duplex spring in the Delta is too much for the standard stuff available. The pistol pounds itself in both directions setup like that. I put a 22lb Wolff spring on the FLGR and a Wilson shock buff to try and lower the pounding. It seems to be doing okay.

3) Damn, I wish I was down near your store! All I can get here for ammo ( MA ) is Blazer, PMC, and Remington. I would love to see what Double Tap does in the guns.

Joe R.

DesertRat said...

Gotta love the Delta Elite. Mine is 17 years old, has 50,000 rounds down range and the only thing I've had to fix was a broken ejector.

Sigivald said...

And to think I'm still perfectly happy with a stock Norinco 1911A1.

(Mind you, I'd *love* a shiny stainless custom gun, but...)

Kim du Toit said...

Ya know, it's bad enought that women cause men to get a woody just because of their pointy bits.

But when they start posting pics of pretty guns like that as well...

I call "unfair".

SpeakerTweaker said...

Concerning your grip issue (the Red Triangle, and Yes it's a must:), I was floating around the net and found vzgrips.com/gallery.html. Scroll down until you see a Kimber with pretty black and red grips with, what's that??? A beautiful (and sized correctly) red triangle!

I'll still buy it when you sell it!



tweaker