HK P30 Modifications...

[BaiHu]

Forgive me if this was covered, I couldn't find it anywhere...at least in the fashion that I would prefer :D

I have an HKP30L and I would primarily like to hear only from 9mm owners.

I have done nothing to my P30L except marker in the rear sites.

Here's what I would like to know:

What modifications have you done?

How many rounds or how many days, months, years past before you modified?

Why did you modify?

What did you get out of your modifications and what were you disappointed about in your modifications?

Thanks!!

BH

[F-Trooper05]

Heine Straight Eights because the stock sights sucked.

Light LEM springs because the V2 trigger was too heavy.

P2000 slide catch because I didn't feel like changing my grip.

I did all of my mods almost immediately after I got it. Not disappointed in anything.

[ToddG]

Off the top of my head:


sights
took an emery board to the magwell
took an emery board to the underside of the trigger guard and right mag release lever
before I started getting them straight from the factory in this configuration, I set mine up with the LEM trigger spring, non-LEM firing pin block spring, and non-LEM mainspring

[JodyH]

Shortened the left side slide release lever, installed the non-LEM firing pin block spring and added Trijicon night sights (took a Sharpie marker and blacked out the rear rings, made a orange front ring).

pic of my homemade "Hackathorn" sights:

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p82/JodyHuggins/p2ksights.jpg

pic of the shortened slide release lever:

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p82/JodyHuggins/p30sr.jpg

[Serpico1985]

Details on how you acheived that JodyH please.

[JodyH]

Details on how you acheived that JodyH please.
Take a fine point red Sharpie permanent marker.
Use it to color in the white ring that surrounds the tritium vial on Trijicon night sights, I usually just mash the tip into the hole and swirl it a bit.
Quickly wipe down the front sight with a paper towel, get the tritium sapphire especially clean.
If you wipe it down immediately after coloring with the marker, the tritium vial sapphire will come clean and the metal will be clean but the white ring will be an orange/red color.
I practiced on an old set of sights first and now I do this to every set of Trijicons I own and haven't screwed it up yet.
I use a black marker to black out the white rings on the rear sight using the same procedure.

This does not work with Meprolights, the entire vial comes out a pinkish color.
If you screw up, a Q-tip with a little acetone on it will clean the marker off as long as you haven't let it sit for more than a minute or so.
If you let it sit the white rings will still be pink even after the acetone.

[JM Campbell]

Details on how you acheived that JodyH please.

Unicorn and pixie dust sprinkled at dawn on the first Tuesday following the third Friday.

I'm very curious as well.

[YVK]

See below.




What modifications have you done?

Shorten slide releases, widen rear notch on factory tritium sights, emery to trigger guard groove, light filing of magwell, Gray Guns reset job

How many rounds or how many days, months, years past before you modified?

Instantly, although I had some 300 rounds through rental P30s before

Why did you modify?

All of the above are known issues/limitations of P30, I wanted to give myself a best chance to succeed with this pistol.

What did you get out of your modifications and what were you disappointed about in your modifications?

Shortening slide releases is the best thing I've done. Widening rear sight was a $35 investment that converted horrible sights into OK sights; should've also narrowed the front sight. I am undecided on reset job; if I were to do it again, I would've waited on this one a bit.



BH

[wrt81]

See below

widen rear notch on factory tritium sights



Can you share any details? Did you have someone do it or just take a file and take some off?

[YVK]

Can you share any details? Did you have someone do it or just take a file and take some off?

Since I sent gun to Grayguns, I asked them to do it. The front sight width on factory night sights is about 0.140 or 0.145, and rear sight notch is the same. I had them open it to 0.180. These dimensions and proportions are similar to now popular AmeriGlo Hackathorn sights for Glocks. They actually work quite well, the front is easy to pick, and I've turned some pretty decent groups at the distance.

What I've learned from this is that I still prefer 0.125 wide front sight, and the tri-dot arrangement with white visible dots is somewhat distracting for me. I may try to blacken those white outlines. However, these sights now are perfectly usable for anybody who is new to P30/LEM to learn the system, and for those who prefer such sight arrangement, this could be a final destination for small cost. I am sure any qualified gunsmith can do it, as I had the same done to many other sights.

[LOKNLOD]

The only mods I have made to mine are the Heinie sights and I converted the V2 LEM to the light V4/ToddG setup with the non-LEM hammer spring and P2000 firing pin block spring. I painted the front sight bright orange (it's a Testor's fluorescent red model paint, IIRC) and that made a huge difference for me.

Todd and YVK, any way you could give a little more detail as to what you did with the emery board work? I can use my imagination on the magwell but not sure about the function of the work on the triggerguard.

[YVK]

That little trigger groove inside the guard, the edges very rubbing my trigger finger at times. I took emery paper and got them nice and smooth, problem solved.

[BaiHu]

Wow! Thanks for the early Christmas presents guys. Do you think I should hit an AFHF class or any other class before I decide I need any of these mods other than the sight coloring? I'm just not confident enough to know that my skills have exceeded the stock configuration. For instance, I've never had a problem with the slide release length-maybe my grip isn't right, but I'm inclined to believe that it's the length of my thumbs. I also haven't had a problem with the trigger guard and perhaps my mag reloads are too slow for me to notice that smoothing out the magwell will help me.

[YVK]

Do you think I should hit an AFHF class or any other class before I decide I need any of these mods other than the sight coloring?
Yep. Todd has skill pre-req list on his site and if you're up to that level, there are very few people who teach TDA/LEM guns better than he does. If you are not up to that level yet, take Ernest Langdon's basic class. There are very few people who can shoot these guns better than he does. I would consider better sights though, either cheap modification like I described above of quality aftermarket set.

I'm just not confident enough to know that my skills have exceeded the stock configuration.
I usually look this slightly differently. First question I try to answer if there are fixed, uncorrectable properties that might make a given gun a bad choice for me. For P30, it is really only a trigger pull length and how you need to work it. Since you can't change that, you just shoot a gun and see how it works out. The second question is a cost-effectiveness of changing correctable properties, and this is a highly individual question that can't be answered by anybody but a user.

For instance, I've never had a problem with the slide release length-maybe my grip isn't right, but I'm inclined to believe that it's the length of my thumbs.
Practicing your fastest first live shot out of the holster is the best way to test it out, loading one round at the time.

mag reloads are too slow for me to notice that smoothing out the magwell will help me. This is mostly psychological and nearly inconsequential for me. P30 is a wonderfully designed pistol, and these are the few things they could've done better; I just finished it for them. There are other areas I might touch up, like edges of lanyard loop recess on backstraps, but that's not even for function, purely comfort.

[Sparks2112]

Trigger trench removal and converted from v2 lem to v1. I'm going to be doing something special to it soon though. :D

[newyork]

Heine Straight Eights because the stock sights sucked.

Light LEM springs because the V2 trigger was too heavy.

P2000 slide catch because I didn't feel like changing my grip.

I did all of my mods almost immediately after I got it. Not disappointed in anything.

F-Trooper, did you switch out the left side only or both sides of the slide stop to P2k slide stops? I am thinking of doing the same as I don't want to change my grip either.

[wrt81]

Since I sent gun to Grayguns, I asked them to do it. The front sight width on factory night sights is about 0.140 or 0.145, and rear sight notch is the same. I had them open it to 0.180. These dimensions and proportions are similar to now popular AmeriGlo Hackathorn sights for Glocks. They actually work quite well, the front is easy to pick, and I've turned some pretty decent groups at the distance.

What I've learned from this is that I still prefer 0.125 wide front sight, and the tri-dot arrangement with white visible dots is somewhat distracting for me. I may try to blacken those white outlines. However, these sights now are perfectly usable for anybody who is new to P30/LEM to learn the system, and for those who prefer such sight arrangement, this could be a final destination for small cost. I am sure any qualified gunsmith can do it, as I had the same done to many other sights.

My P30 has the Meprolight Night Sights on it currently (they came with it). I just measured and it looks like the front sight is .140 and the rear notch is .156. I've been toying with the idea of widening the rear to the .180 you mentioned.

It seems like something that I could do with a small file and patience. The way I see it is I'd have to take .012 off of each side. Does anyone have any tips on widening the rear notch yourself? It seems simple enough to me.

Another thing I'm going to try is putting some red high visibility tape on the front sight like in this article:

http://pistol-training.com/articles/the-johno-diy-high-visibility-front-sight


I've thought about just getting Heinie's but I've never used the straight 8 set up so I'm not sure if I'd like it. Then there is the possibility of getting a rear sight from them that has the notch or tritium dot off center, which I've heard happens. Plus the above items are cheap to try. I figure I can maybe just improve what I have for cheap and maybe some more sight options will be available soon for the P30 as I believe there are a few companies that have some in the works.

[JohnN]

Rather than hacking on your rear sight why don't you just buy a narrower front sight from Dawson Precision?
http://www.dawsonprecision.com/CategoryProductList.jsp?cat=SIGHTS+FRONT:HK+Front+ Sights
I painted over the white dots on the stock rear sight and installed a .115 fiber optic front, painted florescent orange. Seems to work pretty well so far. Just waiting for the 10-8 rear sight to be released that will work with the stock or Dawson front sights.

[wrt81]

Rather than hacking on your rear sight why don't you just buy a narrower front sight from Dawson Precision?
http://www.dawsonprecision.com/CategoryProductList.jsp?cat=SIGHTS+FRONT:HK+Front+ Sights
I painted over the white dots on the stock rear sight and installed a .115 fiber optic front, painted florescent orange. Seems to work pretty well so far. Just waiting for the 10-8 rear sight to be released that will work with the stock or Dawson front sights.

Thanks John! I did not realize Dawson offered a front site with tritium in it. I think I may order it then just paint the front sight orange or red.

The Mepro's have the white rings around the rear tritium dots but maybe the will not be so distracting if the front sight is painted red. As JodyH mentioned above, the Mepro's don't take well to just coloring in the rings. The clear cover/sapphire is flat and smooth over the white rings. I'm toying with a few ideas on how to do it but haven't tried anything yet.

If I had the Trijicon's I would do what JodyH did above and maybe even order the Dawson front sight still to get a more narrow front.

[JM Campbell]

These are the Dawson tritium front sight and Black rear.

[SamuelBLong]

Converted my P30L from V3 to V1 LEM and added Heinie Sights

Sticking with everything else for the time being.

[YVK]

These are the Dawson tritium front sight and Black rear.

SkyLine, do you know, by any chance, if Dawson's tritium lamp with white outline is similar in size/brightness of lamps on factory night sights? I am considering having a Dawson front with factory rear, but I am concerned with possibility of factory dots/lamps visually overpowering the dot/lamp on front sight.

[JM Campbell]

I can verify in the next few days. I sent my P30LS slide out for evaluation. I have stock trijicons on my P30 that I can compare them with. IIRC the Dawson's is a smaller tube/vial but have to confirm.

John

[YVK]

I can verify in the next few days. I sent my P30LS slide out for evaluation. I have stock trijicons on my P30 that I can compare them with. IIRC the Dawson's is a smaller tube/vial but have to confirm.

John

Thanks, it would be very helpful.
Just to make sure we're talking the same sights, stock tri-dot tritium on my P30 are Tru Dot Meprolights, not Trijicon.

[JM Campbell]

Ok I'll have to look too. Not in a friendly area to check now.

[wrt81]

Thanks, it would be very helpful.
Just to make sure we're talking the same sights, stock tri-dot tritium on my P30 are Tru Dot Meprolights, not Trijicon.

I'm interested in this as well, thanks Skyline. I'm considering ordering the front Dawson tritium but am curious about the rear white circles of the Meprolights also.

[JRL]

How difficult is the spring change from v2 to v1, and does doing so affect the warranty in anyway?

[JM Campbell]

They are Mepros on my P30. The vial appears to be smaller and is not as bright on the Dawson's which can be worked around by using a black sharpie on the rear Mepro sights to darken them out.

10-8 is supposed to be working on a rear sight so I'm very interested to see what they come up with.

John

[YVK]

John, thanks.

I am somewhat less enthused about 10-8 sights, unless they come with conventional rear sight notch. I don't particularly like their shallow rounded notch design.

[dsa]

John, thanks.

I am somewhat less enthused about 10-8 sights, unless they come with conventional rear sight notch. I don't particularly like their shallow rounded notch design.

Something to consider for those of you who don't care for the u-notch; for $35 MARS cut a traditional square notch in a 10-8 rear for one of my M&P's. Turn around was < 1 week and I like it alot. And I believe MARS is local to you YVK.

[YVK]

Something to consider for those of you who don't care for the u-notch; for $35 MARS cut a traditional square notch in a 10-8 rear for one of my M&P's. Turn around was < 1 week and I like it alot. And I believe MARS is local to you YVK.

That's a great info. I know that good gunsmiths can do that easily, my 10-8 1911 sight was bought through Dave Berryhill who cut that notch wide for me. The problem is to find a gunsmith who would take on such small standalone jobs; I didn't know Steve would do that.

[JohnN]

Can the Wolff USP +10% mag spring be used in a P30 magazine? Are they any better than H&K springs?

Not having any problems just thought I would buy some extra mag springs in the event I need them.

[JRas]

p2000 slim slide releases, my grip interfered with the slide release just enough to not to lock the slide back on the last round. *note they make noise when jiggling the gun, worth it IMO

soon to be Heine sights, stock sights suck and I wanted true night sights

I recommend shooting the gun at least a couple hundred rounds before modifying it.

[JRL]

Can someone link the alternate LEM springs/p2000 slide stop for reference? Also, can those be changed fairly easily and without voiding the warranty?

Edit: Do the Trijicon's improve the sight picture at all?