Range trip with CBOB and PM-7

[RandallZ]

Yesterday, I put the finishing touches on a new barrel bushing for my CBOB, so today I had the perfect excuse to go to the range. Not that I really need an excuse, or anything.

I bought my CBOB as soon as I could after the first range session with my PM-7--which proved to be one of the sweetest shooting pistols I've had the pleasure to handle. It was tough waiting California's mandatory month and 10 days til I could pick up my CBOB. And it was torture waiting for range time while I took a two week cruise. OK. It wasn't really torture to be on a transatlantic cruise, but my anticipation sure built. Imagine my disappointment, then, when I finally did shoot my new CBOB, and it didn't hit anywhere near point of aim and sprayed the target like a shotgun blast. It wasn't me, I swear. I could shoot the PM-7 fairly well, and while I'm not shooting anywhere near that level any longer, I once contended for a spot on the Olympic team. Really.

Rather than whine, complain, and send the gun back to the factory, I decided to put at least 300 rounds through it to be sure the fault wasn't just a tight gun that needed running in. As I approached 300 rounds, the group tightened a bit, and the point of impact moved from 8" left of center over
to perfectly centered. The group still wasn't very good, and it still shot about 8" high (I shoot working guns to center of target vs. low hold).

Changing the point of impact was easy, now that it was centered over the bullseye--I just swapped in a higher front sight from a Valor (.180 vs .140).

The gun was reliable, and I loved the way it feels in my hands, but the scattered group--6-8" (with WWB ammo) at 15 yards--still bothered me. As
I pondered it, I discovered that the barrel bushing seemed to be very loose. Lose as in feels the same as the old USGI 1911 I was issued during Desert Storm. We don't need no stinking barrel wrenches lose. It measured within spec, per the blueprints, it was just on the loose side of the tolerances.

So, I looked at options and decided to mount a thick flanged "oversized match melt bushing" from EGW. When it arrived, I spent a couple hours carefully fitting it, and a couple more re-contouring the front edge and cleaning up EGW's slight machining marks. That was yesterday....

I took both the PM-7, to which I had added a Smith & Alexander magwell and smooth grips, and the CBOB. The plan was to shoot a few rounds

to see if my barrel bushing made any difference. I'll cut to the chase and tell you it did. The CBOB now shoots as well as the PM-7. I can also tell you authoritatively that a range session after an intense gym workout is not a good idea. At one point my arms and hands were shaking like a palsied old man. Between my bad eyes and inability to hold a gun still today, I'm surprised I even hit the target.

I know threads like this are worthless without pictures, so here are 'before' and 'after' CBOB targets and a couple pretty pictures of the slightly modified guns.

Here's the 'before' group:


Here's the 'after' group:


Here's a close-up of the beautifully fitted slide and frame typical of new CBOBs:


The new bushing, and new business end of my CBOB:





And, here are the pretty pictures of my new favorite shooting irons:





Randall