S+W 422 rebuild/restore

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Shoot Summ

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Bought this pistol about a year ago, cheap, abused 422, that had been in a fire. No damage to the frame, although the grips were a little toasted. The seller appropriately named it the "Crispy Critter". I tore it down, internally it was fine although I did clean up the internals a bit. I then went about making some subtle changes to the frame. I cut off the hump on the trigger guard, fit the pistol to my hand better by under cutting the trigger guard, and raising the "beaver tail" just a little. I also did a little milling on the muzzle, similar to the cuts on the 4.5" 622VR. Then I blasted the entire pistol and slide.

Here is the before pic:

i576.photobucket.com_albums_ss208_havsummfun_GATS_pix942573861_zpsoleb0fkv.jpg


This is after all of the first round of work, it shoots great, but I still want it black like a 422 should be:

i576.photobucket.com_albums_ss208_havsummfun_GATS_7399A61F_858b5af7d6e096fecd3d072cb2237dd71e1.jpg


So I found a local guy that does Cerakoting(Steve's Cerakoting), and he is very reasonable, had the "critter" done in tactical black. Added some silver accents, and some nice wood grips, really pleased with the final result. Now I want to 'cote all of my 422's.

i576.photobucket.com_albums_ss208_havsummfun_GATS_4f4db99c_a8e80008b2970624f1611fd362467d13108.jpg
 

Shoot Summ

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Thats quite a turn-around.

Well done.

Thanks, I'm working on a 6" 422 right now, I mentioned the 622VR, here is what they look like:

i576.photobucket.com_albums_ss208_havsummfun_GATS_a4a8c6ce_2e71764a01c95c6ce6126d8cbe5afc2ba76.jpg


I have what started as an old used and abused 6" gun that I restored and tried my hand at making some muzzle mods. The look was close to what I wanted, but my methods didn't produce the quality of cuts I wanted. I actually made the cuts with a router, not bad for using the wrong tool, but hard to make accurate, clean cuts.

i576.photobucket.com_albums_ss208_havsummfun_GATS_a6084053_3153b9d42166c70e2eb4c1fad719a34ac5a.jpg


I finally got my mill back together and all set up, did a few practice runs on some parts gun frames where they had been cut in half. Then did just the narrowing cuts on the 422 4.5" "Crisply Critter" build shown above.

And now finally re-cut the 422 6" muzzle. I'm very pleased with the results now, just need to smooth, blast, and Cerakote.

i576.photobucket.com_albums_ss208_havsummfun_GATS_84ADD1E2_13B478590de9f3ca40fa4e26a6ef38e8011.jpg
 

Buzzdraw

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Did the various springs in "toasty" seem to have same strength/travel as those in your non-toasty 422's? Depending on the kind of fire, they may have needed replacement.
 

Shoot Summ

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Did the various springs in "toasty" seem to have same strength/travel as those in your non-toasty 422's? Depending on the kind of fire, they may have needed replacement.

Good point.

There are 5 springs in these pistols, 2 that are really of any consequence. As a general rule I replace the recoil springs on all of this model pistol that I get, it's the most important. The slide stop spring is very small, works fine, and the firing pin spring works fine also, as well as the mag release spring. The sear spring is a leaf type spring, and I typically replace/modify them as well. I remove the mag disconnect and spring on these so that one didn't matter.
 

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