It's Not a Tumor, and it might help with recoil on P22X series guns

[OlongJohnson]

For my P229 I've designed, coded, and machined a SS guide rod; and designed and 3d printed mag baseplates to mate P226 mags to my P229 without the gap.

The tubular steel guide rods are the exact same diameter as the unthreaded shank of a long, grade 8, 5/16-in bolt. Cutting it to length and hitting the OD and flange thickness of the head is a simple manual lathe project of a few minutes. You could do it with a hacksaw, files, hand drill, and belt sander if that was all you had. No need for CNC. Because of the heading of the fastener, the grain flow goes around the shoulder from the shank to the flange, not that that's needed in the application. It's even mostly zinc plated to protect against corrosion.

I did the calculus, etc., but I like finding the easy answers, too.

[tyrusasmith]

The tubular steel guide rods are the exact same diameter as the unthreaded shank of a long, grade 8, 5/16-in bolt. Cutting it to length and hitting the OD and flange thickness of the head is a simple manual lathe project of a few minutes. You could do it with a hacksaw, files, hand drill, and belt sander if that was all you had. No need for CNC. Because of the heading of the fastener, the grain flow goes around the shoulder from the shank to the flange, not that that's needed in the application. It's even mostly zinc plated to protect against corrosion.

I did the calculus, etc., but I like finding the easy answers, too.

Eh, we just bought a $125k swiss-turn lathe, and the stock size we had setup to run was going to work for this part. I took a few measurements and a few lines of code made it work. It was a fun passion project as my first foray into machine programming. The size stays true to .0005" and I like the mirror finish on the 316 Stainless.

Edit: Isn't the 5/16" bolt .3125" or a hair under? My old guide rod was .330", and I made these in various diameters from .330" - .335". I think Grayguns also makes his slightly oversized. I'm running .332" in each of my P229s.

[Duelist]

I enjoyed my SIG time, but wasn’t nearly as ambitious as you are about the slide lock and thumb involvement: when I couldn’t get it worked out to get the slide lock to activate reliably, or to stop pinching my finger on reloads, I got a Beretta.

Interested to see what your finished product looks like.

[tyrusasmith]

I enjoyed my SIG time, but wasn’t nearly as ambitious as you are about the slide lock and thumb involvement: when I couldn’t get it worked out to get the slide lock to activate reliably, or to stop pinching my finger on reloads, I got a Beretta.

Interested to see what your finished product looks like.

The problem for me is dividing the time amongst family stuff, work, dry fire, ranch stuff, and stand at the computer for hours drafting the part.

[OlongJohnson]

Edit: Isn't the 5/16" bolt .3125" or a hair under? My old guide rod was .330", and I made these in various diameters from .330" - .335". I think Grayguns also makes his slightly oversized. I'm running .332" in each of my P229s.

Jealous. There are some screw machine parts I'd like to be able to make.

You made me go check, to make sure I wasn't insane or r-worded. You're right, the P229 is bigger. Didn't know that. Maybe it's to keep from mixing up springs between slide lengths or something. Would be interesting to check other short-slide models.

The plastic guide rod in my P226 and the steel tubular guide rod in my P220 both range from .309" to .312" depending on where you measure, generally with the bigger numbers toward the flange, especially right adjacent to it. The 5/16" bolt I checked is more consistent, but also ranges .309" to .312" just under the head. Both springs (red and green) slide over it perfectly. So I stand by the suggestion for the P226 and P220.

While I was measuring stuff, I pulled the left Hogue off the M11 and figured out that the lump over the decocker has ~0.023" thickness over the clearance hole for the decocker pivot axle. So there's room for a little improvement, but not much.

[tyrusasmith]

How have your splits changed with it?

Well, you had me doubting myself ever since you posted this and I wanted to make sure I wasn't succumbing to confirmation bias. I went out and tested the crap out of gripping the gun with and without the grip mod. On paper, for me, the grip mod does improve my hit percentage in the A-Zone at distance, but doesn't improve my splits. I think my split deficient might be due to grip pressure.

5 yards
Grip Mod, .23 splits average, all A Zone
Normal Grip, .22 splits average, all A Zone

7 yards
Grip Mod, .24 splits average, all A Zone
Normal Grip, .23 splits average, 97.5% A Zone

10 yards
Grip Mod, .26 splits average, all A Zone
Normal Grip, .25 splits average, 91% A-Zone

I'm going to walk it out farther and shoot a headbox size target and see what happens, but I ran out of time this morning.

With the grip mod I was grouping really tight even at speed, and the normal grip was really skirting the edges of the A-Zone.

With a normal grip it seems as if the gun is tracking straight up and down really consistently, but it is much more pronounced and hard to follow the sight. The grip mod seems to make the gun recoil up and right a little, but it comes back to the same position every time. I can watch the sight easily.

More to come...