So, this is not a covid thread. Yay! My little 43x project is rounding the corner to completion. Still needs to be vetted with rounds down the tube, but I’m feeling pretty good.
What you will see in the pics is my 43X outfitted with an Agency Arms threaded barrel and Arc Division Sparc 43 comp to tame the recoil of the mighty 9mm! This, riding in a JMCK Wing Claw 2.0 in, of all colors, PF Orange (mainly cause I am too cheap to spring for white kydex, plus PF-Spirit!). The holster is sized for a G48 and the comp still has just a little extra room at the muzzle end. I like how those two have paired up. It optimized about as well as I could hope. Lastly we have it fueled with a Shield Arms 15 round mag sporting a +5 baseplate.
Whether by design or happy coincidence, the comp clocked exactly right on the barrel when it bottomed out on the threads. (I am happy to take yes for an answer here.) I like this too because that means the set screws ought to be impinging on the shoulder, not the threads. There is still room to pass a business card between the comp and the slide. I like the way the comp helps just a little with the balance of the pistol.
One little niggling thing that I’m not too sure on is that the muzzle protrudes more than I would like into the chamber on the comp. Seems like a flush fit would be optimal. That said, the chamber is more spacious than I expected so we wil see how she shoots.
So far, only the gun and one regular 15 round mag have been somewhat vetted. Still needs more rounds. I am hoping to get a few rounds through by the weekend. I will post up how it goes. In any event, here is a little eye candy.
Okay, so here is some news you can, maybe, use. I put a variety of ammo through the set-up pictured above with mostly good results. I will break down my observations by each piece of gear. The ammo used, in varying quantities for each was: Winchester 124 gr. NATO; Atlanta Arms 147 gr. TCJ; MEN 9B 124 gr. FMJ; CCI Blazer Brass 124 gr.; Perfecta 115 gr.; and lastly 15 rounds of HST that had been previously chambered a few times and thus rotated out of the carry mag.
A lot of the shooting involved drawing from concealment at about 18 steps from the target; moving off-line, coming to a stop, breaking a shot on an empty mag so, slide lock reload on the move (again), reacquire sight picture, re-holster. Or some variant thereof. I was not running a timer. In fact, the movements were largely more deliberate because I was trying to fine tune some things. So, with *that* out of the way...
No malfunctions of any kind were observed. Ejection of spent brass was strong and consistent. Call it 8’ - 10’ at 3 o’clock, more or less.
JMCK Wing Claw 2.0 (no wedge) - Performed as you would expect. No issues. Very nice. DC clips are a PITA to deal with - but worth it.
JMCK High Ride AIWB Mag Pouch with DC Clip: Performed well. Retention may be a little snug, but that’s on me. For me, this pouch combined with the AIWB holster is a bit much. I think that, for me, this might pair better with a holster worn at 3 o’clock. Working from home lately and thus sitting a lot in an office chair has me looking at an OWB hip holster simply for reasons of comfort. But the mag pouch itself - no issues. This was the first time I put in very many reps with this pouch. Frankly, it worked well enough that I didn’t even think much about acquiring a grip on the mag - it just happened - which, of course, is great.
Shield Arms S15 mags: Zero issues across three mags, two of which were equipped with the +5 baseplate. Now, I only loaded these with 15 rounds (they should hold 20) because of the friggin’ spring tension. I could have jammed more rounds in, but I felt like if I slipped, I might lay open my thumb. I did notice that my S15 with the standard baseplate has had the spring tension ease up considerably after being loaded/in the pistol for several weeks. Let’s hope the same holds true for the 20 rounders. So probably 40 iterations on each extended mag of firing one round and then going to slide lock. The slide locked back every time on every mag. Reloads, as noted, were pretty effortless. I had one moment loading one of the extended mags when I could not get the ammo to compress into the mag body. I suspect that the nose of a round got caught on the cut-out for the mag catch. I slapped the back of the mag on my thigh a couple of times and the problem disappeared. Non-issue. One thing I will do is to get some grip tape on the baseplates where there are channels machined in. The anodizing is a little slick, but with the channels, hopefully the grip tape won’t chew me up. To date, I have had zero issues of any kind with the S15 mags. Call it 300 total rounds through them, so still early, but nothing even slightly hinky about how they function.
Agency Arms threaded barrel: Accurate, shoots to POA, functions fine. No malfunctions of any kind.
Arc Sparc 43 Comp: So this was the piece I was pretty stoked to get to drive. I probably need to acknowledge that the only other comp I have shot is a KKM on a G26. It is pretty sweet, and from what I can tell, pretty much the gold standard for comps in terms of pure performance. That said, I am a little let down on the performance of the Sparc 43. Across all the loads mentioned, I am going to say it helped somewhat with muzzle flip/rise, but felt recoil seemed pretty much the same as with no comp. Note: it has probably been at least six weeks since I shot the 43X with the factory barrel, so it is possible the comp is doing more work than I think. Call it a 20% reduction in muzzle flip and 5% reduction in recoil. Whereas my perception/recollection is that the KKM cuts things in roughly in half and smooths everything out. Now, there is the issue of the barrel protruding noticeably into the expansion chamber of the comp. That can’t be helping. On the next go I think I will use some red loc tite on the barrel threads and un-thread the comp so the muzzle is flush with the expansion chamber and see if that helps. Of course if it helps, that means a trip to a machine shop with the barrel - maybe. On the upside, the comp does not diminish reliable function of the pistol at all. This is with the factory recoil spring. As noted above, it was flinging the brass with vigor - especially the NATO and HST brass. ETA: The OAL length of the 43X with Sparc 43 is almost exactly the same as a 19X.
So there you go. Again, it’s still early, but I am still liking this set-up. It carries great and I do not feel under-gunned at all with the S15 mags onboard. If I can get this comp thing sorted, so much the better.
Well, I unthreaded the comp to the point that the end of the barrel is exactly even with the edge of the expansion chamber on the comp. Sure enough - it makes a difference. So while I’m tickled that the comp takes a decent amount of snap/flip out of the recoil, I am not super-stoked about the big ol gap between the comp and the slide/frame. Also, the two set screws will be impinging on the last bit of threading in the barrel. As it sits right now, the comp has red Loctite on the barrel threads. This was done just to see how it was going to shoot with the comp situated correctly on the barrel. I guess I will go ahead and throw the set screws in with some blue Loctite, and just not go crazy cranking them down. The pistol still fits in the JMCK holster just fine even with the extra length generated by unthreading the comp.
If anyone has any guidance on the a good and expedient way to take 1/8” (maybe a little more) of the end of this threaded barrel, please advise. As it happens, I was contemplating re-crowning a couple of rifle barrels, and a Brownells video depicted a sort of reamer that looks like it will cut back the muzzle end while maintaining square. That said, this seems like a lot of material to remove with a hand tool.
I will note for the record that ejection is still strong and consistent with the comp and factory recoil spring. I am half tempted to try something like the Agency Arms dual port comp and see whether that plays better with the barrel threads and cuts the muzzle flip even further.
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