9/4/2018 5:11:08 AM
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Section 8: Handguns Subject: ODI Viking Msg# 1024512
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As soon as you mentioned the DE's decocker falling off I remembered the story--it takes some prodding to get my brain working these days. Yikes, what a mess!
I can see the double triggers on the Viking, but am having some problems seeing how the first trigger activated the second. I guess the first trigger just operated the hammer and the rear trigger released the sear... I take it none of those guns are any longer in your possession? Re: galling on early stainless guns. In a 1980s review of the AMT Hardballer Jan Libourel, who gets my votes for one of the finest, most honest gun writers to ever put pen to paper, reported that he was advised at the time by AMT to use white lithium grease on the rails of the Hardballer, and after using it liberally he had no malfunction issues at all. Today we can buy a pistol specific white lithium variant in the form of Lubriplate Aero, which is what garage door mechanics use to lube door rails. It's the perfect viscosity for pistols. I have also used pure white lithium grease, sold by the tub, and while it works, I believe it to be too high viscosity for pistols, it's quite thick, and tends to dry out too soon. I realize today's stainless pistols use different grades for the stainless between the frame and slide to avoid the galling problem altogether, so this problem might be considered moot by some, but stainless is steel is even today not as buttery smooth in operation as well-polished carbon steel, in my opinion. The recommendation for white lithium still stands today as a good one for stainless pistols, and still works very well for all pistol rails. Company info on Aero below. Image below from Mark Freburg - Image Title: Lubriplate Aero |
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For reference, the above message is a reply to a message where: I wouldn't call the Viking a cheapie Seecamp, as it used the Seecamp parts for the double action. It also had a cross slide safety of all things, in addition to the regular 1911 manual safety. I think that was because the firing pin safety had been removed in the conversion. The one I bought was used, and obviously someone had done some home smithing on it. One of the problems the Viking had (as with many of the early stainless pistols at the time), was galling. When I got mine back, I made sure I had the pistol highly lubed, although that might have been psychological on my part. As for the Double Eagle, I had the .45 Commander version. I bought it new, and when I did some dry firing with it, the decocker fell off! So it went back to Colt for repair.Frown I was never very happy with the pistol, and ended up selling it to my cousin to go with his .38 Super version. There were differences between the mechanisms in the DE and the Seecamp/Viking, especially in the trigger set up. The Seecamp version used 2 "triggers" vs a single trigger on the Colt. You can see that on the photo of the Viking. I didn't care too much for the DE's curved trigger guard either. Harvey |