[sousana]

First, congrats on a fine purchase. Once you get your new baby home, field strip it, and give it a complete cleaning, inspect each part for cracks and or faults then apply a LIGHT coating of gun oil. What I do with a new gun is fire 500 rounds of ball ammo before switching to HP rounds, which I usually fire around 2-300. Every 100 rounds I clean the barrel untill all 7-800 rounds have been fired. Then I detail strip the gun and check for cracks or warping, give it a full cleaning and apply a light coat of oil and reassemble.
At this point, I would send it off to Wilson Combat to have a few bullet proof parts installed, firing pin/extractor/ejector, and have Armor-Tuff finish applied, usually the same color scheme as my CQB's, OD green frame and black top-end.
Keep a log book of all your range work and change your recoil spring and firing pin spring every 3k rounds.

Good luck on your new gun, I await your range report as my next purchase will be the VALTRO.

 

[Lupey]

Originally posted by sousana:

Keep a log book of all your range work and change your recoil spring and firing pin spring every 3k rounds.

Never really thought about keeping a good log book. I will now though...THANKS

 

[Sammy Fan]

Good point! This would be an ideal time to start a log book and this is what I'll do. Thanks.

 

[sousana]

A log book give you an idea of which rounds work best, when you have a failure and about when to start changing out parts. I have 30 years of gun logs and they do come in handy. I have 32 1911's and many more revolvers and other semi's and I've joined the modern age. I've now gone to a Palm 505 with hotsinc and all my logs are now digitized so all I need is my palm and 20 guns for a fine day at the range. On the very rare occasion that I do trade or sell a gun, the log goes with it. Included in the log are all receipts for any upgrades along with the original receipt as I know that when I buy a used gun I always wonder if it really has only had "200" rounds through it.

 

[JohnnyO]

32 1911's!!!! I want to come to your house and play...

 

[sousana]

I'm addicted JohnnyO, In 30 years I've only found 1 1911 that I DIDN'T like at all. That was the Thompson Auto Ordnance, it handled like a 200 year old russian pistol. No matter how much work went into it, it didn't function it wouldn't function at at round 2,145 the darn frame cracked.

The number of my 1911's is higher, but 32 is the number of SHOOTING 1911's, the others are either Presentation grade, or NIB unfired WWII models.

 

[JohnnyO]

Oh sousana! That sure is a lot of 1911's. I hear Kahr Arms has improved on the AO. You might want to think about number 33! Maybe they can make right for the 1 that got away. More power to ya.....Hope you get to enjoy each and every one of them.

 

[sousana]

Sammy, as soon as you get a range report, I'd appreciate you posting it here. I've got a call in to Valtro's CA(PRK) importer so I'm going to be getting one soon.

Thanks,

 

[77Bronc]

Pardon the dumb question, but what is a Valtro, I thought is was up to speed on all handguns, but I have never heard of this one.

Thanks,

77Bronc

 

[n2299]

Sammy,

Congrats on your new purchase!

If you don't mind me asking....

Did you happen to get your Valtro from Wolverine Supplies? And how much did it set you back?

Do give us a range report when you get a chance to shoot it.

 

[sousana]

N2299: From my talks with Valto's rep in the PRK, they run around $1100.

 

[Sammy Fan]

N2299: Purchased it from Lever Arms at $ 1600 Can. excluding taxes.
Just finished stripping, cleaning and inspecting it. Looking forward to trying it out.

 

[Sammy Fan]

77Bronc: If you go further down this forum, you'll find a post by Sousana with very descriptive reports and photos from the Electric Armadillo!!

 

[n2299]

sousana: Thanks for your info.

Sammy Fan: I'm interested to know why you chose the Valtro as your first new single stack .45? I'm sort of looking for single stack .45 too, and understand that the choices are quite limited up here in the Great White North.

 

[sousana]

Ah Sammy, I just noticed your from Canada, so your $1600 is Canadian Dollars? I was given a final price of $1215 for my Valtro.

http://www.mts.net/~jhipwell/1998.htm

 

[Sammy Fan]

Sousana: Yes , the $1600 I paid was Canadian. The exchange is approx. 1.56 Canadian to one US dollar.
Did they quote you US dollars?

 

[Sammy Fan]

N2299: The reason I picked the Valtro? You see, I am new to handguns, my other gun (my very first)is a Series 70 Gold Match which I bought used. I paid over 1800 Can for it. It has a Briley barrel, match bushing, Bomar sights, match trigger assy, light wt. hammer ,mag well, nice checkering, good walnut grips etc. It is a nice looking piece.
The first 500 rounds or so with SWCs, no problems. Then I had problems with hammer following the slide. Soon after that I found the gun would not feed the 1st couple of rounds in a full mag. This problem surfaced because the range I practised at only allowed 5 rounds in the mag. So I never had the chance to fully load it up. Sent the gun to another smith and $400 later, the hammer follow problem is fixed but it still FTF like before.
My line of thinking was: If I have to spend this kind of money and time for the gunsmiths to work on it and at the end I still cannot have a reliable gun, why not try something semi custom built at the factory?
The Valtro has all the features that my other one's got, all in one ready package.
I read the reports on this forumand they are all positive.
The price is reasonable and it is in stock! The shop is only 45 min away so I don't even have to pay shipping.
I still expect to pay a couple hundred $ to get it fine tuned later on. All I want is a reliable gun that I can use at this time, and the Valtro fits the bill. I may buy better and more expensive pistols later on, but I hope I made a good choice with this one.

 

[n2299]

Sammy,

Thanks for your very detail and informative reply.

I'm from Ont, but have been told great things about Lever by a couple of people. Will definately check it out when I'm in BC in a couple of months.

BTW when you were there did you happen to notice what other single stack .45 they had in stock. Alas Lever doesn't have a web site for me to check.

 

[Sammy Fan]

N2299: May be next time you are there, you can check out their Norincos. I believe they are the Canadian importer for Norinco.

Last time I checked, the Govt Model was going for 350 Can. ea.
They are out of stock now, but by the time you come, who knows. Friend of mine just bought a commander model for the same price.

Best of luck