12-30-2018, 03:40 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-30-2018, 04:09 PM by Roadracer_Al.)
I've been away from MWF forum for a while, but thought I'd drop by with a couple updates.
The Unique now has about 800 rounds through it, and I've tinkered with it continuously to improve feed, ejection & accuracy.
I can't figure out a good way to tighten the fit of barrel in the receiver. The major problem is that the top locating surface is actually the slide. If I take all the slop out of the barrel mounting, the slide won't move. I've pretty much accepted that it's a crappy French engineering shortcut and can't be improved unless the design is substantially changed. I have ideas, but they'd be major, irreversable modifications.
I examined the trigger assembly, and found a couple burrs on different parts which I stoned off, and I put a **very** light polish on the sear faces. I didn't want to move a lot of metal. I also wound a substantially lighter trigger return spring. The trigger work reduced the size of the groups literally by half! It's still not accurate by any means, but it's much better, and quite gratifying to see the results of the work.
Recently, I noticed an upswing in ejection jams, and upon inspection, the ejector had broken in half at the pivot point and disappeared, along with the spring! I was utterly astounded that it functioned as well as it did without an ejector. So, I made a new ejector and hardened only the tip which is in contact with the case. I haven't shot it since, but anticipate it will go back to ejecting "most" of the time. :)
The Unique now has about 800 rounds through it, and I've tinkered with it continuously to improve feed, ejection & accuracy.
I can't figure out a good way to tighten the fit of barrel in the receiver. The major problem is that the top locating surface is actually the slide. If I take all the slop out of the barrel mounting, the slide won't move. I've pretty much accepted that it's a crappy French engineering shortcut and can't be improved unless the design is substantially changed. I have ideas, but they'd be major, irreversable modifications.
I examined the trigger assembly, and found a couple burrs on different parts which I stoned off, and I put a **very** light polish on the sear faces. I didn't want to move a lot of metal. I also wound a substantially lighter trigger return spring. The trigger work reduced the size of the groups literally by half! It's still not accurate by any means, but it's much better, and quite gratifying to see the results of the work.
Recently, I noticed an upswing in ejection jams, and upon inspection, the ejector had broken in half at the pivot point and disappeared, along with the spring! I was utterly astounded that it functioned as well as it did without an ejector. So, I made a new ejector and hardened only the tip which is in contact with the case. I haven't shot it since, but anticipate it will go back to ejecting "most" of the time. :)