My First Love
Entry posted by chris u'5 ·
422 views
I have been spending a fair bit of time recently concentrating on my AEG and gathering up all the bits and pieces required to start skirmishing (damn you VCRA) but last week I made the decision that I was going to concentrate more time on my first love...GBBs.
In the past I have bought many GBBs of various shapes and sizes but I have never made much of an effort to upgrade them in any way. The main reason for this is I have always doubted my ability to do these kind of things properly and my worst fear is ending up with a very expensive paperweight!
So I figured I would start with a reasonably easy project, installing a Creation metal slide on my KSC Glock 17. I decided to go with the Creation slide as I had been informed that they are very good quality (which they are) and that they required no real fitting to install, what could be easier than that? I also decided to replace the stock recoil spring and guide with a Hurricane recoil guide and Zenith spring.
I managed to remove the blowback unit from the stock slide and inserted it into the new metal slide without any major problems. Initially the slide was a bit tight on the frame but rather than sand the rails I decided it would be best to work the slide back and forth until the operation was smooth.
My problems really began on firing the pistol, for some reason it shoots fine but the slide will no longer lock back when the magazine is empty.
I removed the BBU for a look and gave everything a good clean before replacing it again and on this occasion I tried dry firing the pistol to see what happened and the slide locked back perfectly. I thought my problems were over. Wrong.
As on the first occasion I loaded the magazine with five BBs and the pistol fired perfectly as before but once again the slide refused to lock back.
I had been using Abbey Predator Ultra gas at all stages at indoor temperatures but I decided to purposely warm the magazine under the radiator to see if this would improve things. Unfortunately it didn't. At that point I became a bit stuck.
I did speak to hkssr20det about it who suggested checking the floating valve which I hadn't done previously so I decided to go ahead and order a Shooters Design floating valve. Even if it isn't this, the stock floating valve tends to wear over time anyway so I might as well replace it. I also ordered a PGC high flow valve and a Guarder recoil spring and guide, fingers crossed these new items make the difference. I will keep you posted.
So that where Im at after my first real encounter into the world of GBB upgrades. Its not went as smoothly as I hoped but I suppose these things never do. I have enjoyed the process so far however.
Hopefully I can get this problem sorted soon and move onto my next project which is fitting a PGC Springfield Armory metal kit to a TM 1911. I think I have caught the bug!
2 Comments
Recommended Comments