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West H sighting them in.....I'm not kidding!


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When I started working at West Hurley in the spring of 81, I was fresh out of PA gunsmith school and learned to use extreme care in handling and building custom built firearms. One day a customer return came in with a "Not able to sight in" problem. The floor forman wanted to teach me how to sight in these Fixed Sight Thompsons using this guy's return as the example. So, Tom says grab a big screw driver for the butt stock and forend. Off to the shooting range we went that was located behind the facility. At the range, there was a old large wooden table and to the left of the table there was a big log standing about 20" high. We set up a target, benched the gun to see where it was printing. Then I was told to remove the wood. At that point, Tom grabbed the woodless gun by the square receiver with both hands, stood over that log, raised the gun way up high over his head and came down as hard as he could onto the edge of that log's outer edge with about the barrel / receiver junction. I put the butt stock back on and we shot it again. Normally 2 or 3 more blows on the stump was required to get the barrel bent toward to point of aim. I was shocked at first but be dambed if we didn't get that tommy to tearing out the bulls eye of the target by whacking that barrel with just the right amount of swing for just the right amount of bend to zero that puppy. If yopu leave the butt stock on for this tuning, it would split the stock right off the bat. That's how hard the swing has to be.

Yes folks.... THATS how it was done at the factory!

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I'm surprised WH bothered with targeting at all, with so much else out of spec. I bought a LNIB WH M1, and couldn't even begin to check targeting because the gun had some sort of failure on every firing attempt. Off it went to PK for the whole treatment. The gun shoots to point of aim today, 50 yds. using the hole in the rear peep, as I had requested. I didn't have to touch a thing after PK returned it to me. Receiver, frame, and barrel are original, so I know it can be done.

Edited by TSMGguy
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I'm surprised WH bothered with targeting at all, with so much else out of spec. I bought a LNIB WH M1, and couldn't even begin to check targeting because the gun had some sort of failure on every firing attempt. Off it went to PK for the whole treatment. The gun shoots to point of aim today, 50 yds. using the hole in the rear peep, as I had requested. I didn't have to touch a thing after PK returned it to me. Receiver, frame, and barrel are original, so I know it can be done.

The M1 was on the drawing board when I resigned late in 83. Im not surprised your M1 had issues. In the 32 months I worked there, I trained 9 people on how to assemble the 1911A1 pistols. NO ONE there had any gunsmith (school) training at all before I started there or when I left. I had trouble teaching some new hires how to do assembly simply because they had no idea whatever on how a gun works. Ira Trast president & Doug Nichols gen Manager were not shooting enthusiasts.... AT ALL! They thought building guns was like assembling old washing machines. No mechanical talent required! When I started the 1911A1 production line, It was a great job and gun. But once our large inventory of GI and Colt parts started running out, the aftermarket parts they wanted me to incorporate into the line was an atrocity. I warned them, but they thought I was too picky like when I told them the guns would & did jam on the new cast barrels, the answer to me was test fire with 5 rounds rather than 7. I quite not long after. I'm glad you had some one to get your Tommy running right. Their heavy, but quite reliable when built right.
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