Well UN Company finally shipped the correct Springfield frame to me and on Tuesday I began my first attempt at fitting a full metal kit.

To be honest I was pretty nervous about the whole thing as its a pretty expensive kit to *fruitcage* up but I took my time and thought about every step and it actually went a lot better than I thought.

I had to trim the leaf spring slightly as expected but this took a bit of time for the simple reason that my files are rubbish (I must invest in a decent set) and I also had to file a bit from the trigger guard area as the trigger was a bit tight.

The slide was also pretty tight on the frame but before removing any material I thought I would try lubing the rails first and then working the slide back and forward. I hoped this would do the job as I would prefer to remove as little material as possible in case of mistakes and thankfully it worked.

While doing this I installed the stock inner barrel to avoid any damage to the chamber of the PGC barrel and after a bit the pistol was cycling very smoothly. (I did not use the barrel that is supplied with PGC Springfield kit but a standard black PGC barrel I had lying around)

I reinstalled the PGC outer barrel and proceeded to test fire the pistol and the results were excellent. It wasn't until later that I realised the the barrel chamber was becoming quite badly damaged. When I removed the outer barrel completely the damage was even worse on the areas that are not visible. Obviously this was disappointing as I basically ruined the barrel (in my eyes anyway)

I knew that most people reshape the areas in front of the chamber on the slide and sometimes the rear of the chamber area but I decided not to do this as it appeared the pistol was operating so well initially, I thought I had got lucky! The fact that I neglected to do this was the cause of my problem as the metal edges on these area are pretty sharp and they were catching on the outer barrel causing it to become marked and chipped. So basically Im looking for a new PGC black outer barrel, PM me if you have one please

So thats some more experience under my belt, next time I will know to pay more attention to the inside areas of the slide and break out the files before any test firing but overall the whole thing went better than planned.

Unfortunately I don't have a decent camera at the moment but I will try to borrow one soon and get some pictures up.

At this stage Im a bit unsure what my next project will be, Im thinking maybe a TM Glock 17, a PGC Colt 1911 kit or a PGC Delta Elite kit.

I'll think about this over the next few days.