SR40c upgrades.

I just got done ordering up some parts upgrades for my SR40c, hope to get them in my hands then into the pistol soon. I will take some before and after pictures, talk about the ease/difficulty in installing the parts, as well as give a performance report after I get them installed.

A list of the parts I ordered;

Ghost Inc Tactical Trigger Bar (5lbs)
Ghost Inc Ultimate Trigger Bar (3.5lbs)
Galloway Precision Stainless Guide Rod kit (16lb)
Galloway Precision Smooth It Trigger kit stage 3 ( includes springs, polished safety plunger, polished aluminum striker indicator )
Galloway Precision Heavy Striker Spring
XS Big Dot sight kit

* I ordered the two different trigger bars because I wasn't sure which I was going to prefer pull weight wise after all the other upgrades, and I know enough 40/9 compact owners that I can sell the other one off easy enough *

Only upgrades left on the list are extended mag release button (out of stock at Galloway ) and extended slide lock release ( still haven't found anyone making these )

Well hope to update this and you all soon on the progress of turning my SR40c into an IDPA Enhanced Service Pistol

 

Got the emails today, everything but the sights have shipped so I should have all the internal goodies sometime early next week.

 

**update**

Took my lil 10 year old nephew to the range to break in the Crickett I got him for his birthday. Got home to find two packages waiting in the mailbox.

The goodies from Galloway and Ghost have arrived.

Here is a pic of all the goodies laid out, I have been taking shots as I go along as well of the stock components next to their replacements. I'll put those up when I am finished with taking her all apart and reassembling her.

Got all the parts in the gun!!!

Overall the process was pretty simple and straight forward. There are quite a few YouTube videos detailing the disassembly process.

Taking her out tomorrow to see how she shoots.

 

About to head out to the range and put 100 rounds through her.

KDE, as chelboed said the installation of the Ghost bars is pretty easy and straight forward, the "ultimate" bar that I have in now is a drop in, no fitting required 3.5lb bar. The "tactical" is a 5lb some fitting required, and the "rocket" is a 3.5lb some fitting required. If you are going to attempt this yourself watch the YouTube videos a few times first as they tend to go fast on the disassembly and reassembly.

The hardest part was getting the new trigger reset spring in, after watching the Galloway troubleshooting video he mentions you can cut off a portion of the hook. After doing that it went right on no problem. This was of course after a good half an hour trying to get it to fit with no luck, just a lot of cursing.

Well time to go shoot her, here is a pic of most of the parts before and after. I forgot to take a predisassembly striker indicator from behind but you can clearly see how the aluminum one stands out now.

 

So range report time!!!

Lets start by prefacing this by saying I had a quality pistol to start with. I have close to 2000 rounds thru it and have only one malfunction. That was a failure to fire, that round was a reload I bought at an indoor range here. That round went flying down the range when I racked the slide to clear the malfunction. So I will never know if it was a light strike or just a bad primer. Since that is the only time that has ever happened I would say its the primer/reload. I will also add I don't baby this pistol, I abuse it, pushing it to its limits.

So after mod report;
I don't have any way to scientifically measure the weight of pull on the trigger. The weight felt the same to me simple feel wise ( caveat, I added to the striker spring, and took away in the fire control system ). With the weight feeling the same and perceived break at the same point I will say I was quite pleased with how smooth the trigger felt getting to that break point. I thought the stock trigger was good, this is a drastic improvement on the constitency of the trigger as it is being pulled. There wasn't much "stickiness" there stock but now that there is none at all I can tell there was some there to begin with.

I did find myself mesmerized/distracted by the shiny new striker indicator at first, but after a few rounds I got over watching that move and concentrated on the sight picture.

Do also have to mention that after the first three rounds fired the trigger didn't reset. It tried every time just the trigger safety wasn't clearing the frame. I quickly dumped the mag, cleared the chamber and removed the slide. Forgetting that I reassembled her dry last night I lubed up the contact points quick, reassembled her. I then proceeded to run through the rest of that mag and another real quick. Trigger reset everytime there after.

After getting home from the range I disassembled the pistol again, gave her a good cleaning and inspection of the new parts. The polished stainless safety plunger that came with the smooth it kit definitely shows signs of wear on it already. I will be keeping my eye on that as I continue to put rounds through her.

Overall impressions I quite pleased with the performance of the upgrades and have confidence with the firearm and look forward to using it as my IDPA gun starting in late June. Still need to get the new sights, get them installed, and get use to them before then though. Gives me a great excuse to keep abusing her and pushing these upgrades harder.

 

I neglected to comment on the stainless guide rod/recoil spring. Since I got the same weight as the stock spring set up I didn't notice any difference in recoil or speed of the slide functioning. It looks sweet and the build quality is awesome. I don't expect to ever see this one end up like the stock versions. If you've looked at yours you know the cant/bend that happens to them.

I don't reload, yet, if I did I would have considered ordering the different weighted springs, they are inexpensive enough to just get one of each. Would definitely help fine tune the functionality of the firearm to your loads and preference of light or hot loads.

 

So, now that I have gone through and made all these upgrades I have decided to get a black SR40c to end up using as my IDPA gun, mainly because if I ever do have to use my EDC I dont want to be put in a position of having to defend my choice to have such a light trigger. I'll be putting the 5lb Ghost tactical into the stainless 40 and use that as my EDC. As for the comp set up I will be putting the Ghost Ultimate in it and getting pretty much all the rest of the same goodies except the heavy duty striker spring.

So hopefully soon I'll have a pair of sexy looking 40compacts to show off.