Ordered a Range Officer and now ...?

At the initial suggestion by DavidR and eventually driven home by what JayhawkNavy02 stated I went ahead and ordered a Range Officer.  It should arrive in a couple of days.  It was not the direction I wanted to go but it seems to be a solid choice based on my inexperience and the many suggestions on this forum.  If memory serves me correctly the gun is good to go out of the box but many have suggested a trigger job and a different barrel bushing to improve accuracy without spending a lot of money.  Is there a specific bushing to get?

If your doing the bushing yourself, then EGW makes a easy fit that already has the proper inside angles cut, just requires minor fitting if your having a gunsmith then a Kart or other national match will be fine. The only thing wrong with the trigger set up is it comes set to 5-6 lbs, just take out the hammer and sear, polish the sear face and the hammer hooks with a dremel and a felt wheel with some polish for ss steel, or you can use a smooth stone used for trigger jobs, object is just to get everything nice and smooth but not to alter anything. then bend the left leg on the sear spring back just a little. You will need a weight set to test the trigger weight, you can make one with a coat hanger and some kind of weight that all parts weigh a little over 3.5 lbs bend the spring back till the weight makes the trigger drop the hammer picking the weight up then bend the spring a little at a time forward till it will just pick the weight up and not drop the hammer.when you get the spring bent right you should be able to lift the weight off the table with the hook bent on the end of the coat hanger in center of trigger and gun pointed vertical. Of course this is the economy route, you could buy nra weights , these and the bushing can be bought from brownells, The other way is to get a good gunsmith to do the work for you.

A Dremel? Oh, lordee...

james r chapman wrote:A Dremel? Oh, lordee...

Dremels are great tools if you know how to use them. For trigger jobs its Only to lightly polish, once the sear nose or hammer hooks are stoned smooth, try it, you will get a smoother roll or softer release, I use a media stick for polishing stainless steel and it only takes a few seconds to do it.
Putting down the dremel tool is funny cause every gunsmith uses one or the same thing in a commercial form of the hang up cable driven tool, here is what one of the great gunsmiths and a forum member here had to say about it on the 1911 forum.



I've worn out/exhausted several Dremels.. I bought a 1/4 hp Foredom, and it has never missed a beat in ten years. I am not condemning Dremel..It's is a fine, quality product, but the Foredom is a heavy duty unit designed for constant/daily use. I wouldn't and couldn't be without it. I use it countless times a day.. Rotary hand tools are no different than a milling machine, lathe or a belt sander..it's a tool designed for a specific purpose.
Jerry Keefer.

I bought a Range Officer & had Roddy Toyota build it up as a wad gun. The test target was 1.5" with the stock barrel. Here's what he did to it if you're interested:

-Clark scope base & a brass deflector (filled rear dovetail)
-Wolff 10# recoil spring
-NM blued barrel bushing (he said blued was better than stainless for the stainless barrel in the RO)
-Wolff 18# mainspring
-Colt #50179 sear spring
-tighten barrel lock-up (involved a silver-soldered shim, Giles style)
-Tighten frame/slide fit
-bow-tie frame cut, fit MSH, cut frame saddle
-NM sear & 3.5# roll trigger job (stock sear wasn't great)

bking wrote:I bought a Range Officer & had Roddy Toyota build it up as a wad gun. The test target was 1.5" with the stock barrel. Here's what he did to it if you're interested:

-Clark scope base & a brass deflector (filled rear dovetail)
-Wolff 10# recoil spring
-NM blued barrel bushing (he said blued was better than stainless for the stainless barrel in the RO)
-Wolff 18# mainspring
-Colt #50179 sear spring
-tighten barrel lock-up (involved a silver-soldered shim, Giles style)
-Tighten frame/slide fit
-bow-tie frame cut, fit MSH, cut frame saddle
-NM sear & 3.5# roll trigger job (stock sear wasn't great)

What did he charge for all of this if you don't mind me asking?

beeser wrote:What did he charge for all of this if you don't mind me asking?

Its been a few years, I don't recall. I'm sure he has a very long waiting list, but you can contact him at toyotaroddy@juno.com

When he did my gun he built another for my friend Gregor (Sakurama on this forum). Gregor's was built from a Springfield GI & both of us ended up paying about the same on the gun + the gunsmithing. I know Roddy gave Gregor a serial number range to look for when buying the base gun (to get an American frame maybe?) Like I said, its been a couple of years & I don't have perfect recall.

I believe he prioritizes doing first guns for new shooters over doing bigger builds for people who already have a bullseye gun.

Not a substitute for a professional trigger job with hi-quality parts -but for $3-$4 definitely worth it.
I suggest simply replacing the RO ILS mainspring (hammer spring) with a 24# reduced power one from Wolff and putting a tiny bit of Neco Molyslide on the sear/hammer hooks every few hundred shots. Several of us have done this and are happy with the results. - I just weighed my RO trigger: 3¾lbs. --- - Trust Wolff on their spring #s. --- Russ

Its also worth lightly polishing the trigger bow (outside, top & bottom edges) and the channel it rides in in the frame. You're not looking to remove much material, just smooth things (like 1500 or 2000 grit sandpaper.)