Looked in the 2016 rules and did not see any comment about refinishing a Production handgun. I have a gun with some minor rust pits that I would like to get blasted to remove the rust then Cereakoted. There is one comment about engraving is OK as long as it is not a shooting aid. Now I don't have a clue how engraving could aid your shooting and feel the same way about refinishing a handgun to a different finish. I thought there used to be some statement in the older rule books but couldn't find it.
Soooooo
Can a handgun be refinished, say using Cerakote and still be Production legal?

Many of these rules originated from the early 1980s in an effort to maintain ''Production'' as ''the way it left the factory''. This was to thwart those who might polish all the internal parts to eliminate friction or to do any number of things that might generate an advantage. Today, some 35 years later, we have allowed non-original sights, non-original barrels, non-original grips, and other deviations that at one time drove the ''Unlimited'' category. As Hillary Clinton stated recently ''At this point, what difference does it make ?'' Engraving wont alter the usage. Neither will refinishing. So, make your appeal to the Rules Committee and see what we get. RP

Richard, I agree. It is still a NO-NO to polish hammers and internal components according to the 2016 rules but there is no mention about refinishing. Several versions back of the rule book there used to be some statement that guns could be refinished. I wonder with the new finishes that are now available for firearms if I will be able to use one of those new finishes or do I have to have the gun reblued in my case. I know there some surface rust that may not polish out and would just prefer a bead blast type of finish then a Cerakote finish. I know Cold offered the Anaconda in a camo hunter finish and I'm sure that would be Production OK. We now get into the area do we need to have a handgun refinished by the original manufacturer back to original finish. Just like the rule about engraving as long as it isn't a shooting aid. Don't know how that could possibly considered a shooting. Would a matte finish applied to a handgun be considered a shooting aid? I know years ago some tech inspectors would get picky how far down a barrel could a shooter smoke his/her front sight. Seems like there was a limit since some inspectors thought smoking the complete top of a stainless barrel was a shooting aid!!!!! When I saw that years ago I thought sure some rule Nazi would try to break out blued guns from stainless guns thinking the blued guns had an advantage and wouldn't reflect light as bad as a stainless gun. Then you would get into the fuss of bright stainless vs brushed stainless. Can you see where this rule about finishes could go? I think I will just get my gun Cerakoted and if it is not Production legal I will still shoot it for fun anyway. I'm thinking a hot pink would look great!!!!!!!

Lynn,

The only place a gun is going to get even a cursory inspection anymore is at the World Championships.
And I have a $100 bill I'm willing to bet that nobody is going to notice, comment or even know.

I have done the gunkote finish on several of my unlimited guns and the matte black finish you have to look at real close to realize that it's not a nice factory finish.

Coat it, shoot it, enjoy it. You have so many guns that if anybody questions it, pull out a different one. That's what I do. ;)

Jim

Engraving as you envision it is not an aid, but take it to the front of the trigger guard and call engraving and not checkering what do you have?

Sometimes these goofy rules have to cover the way out there thought process of individuals. Same applies to smoking a full barrell. The rules allowed sight painting, not barrel painting. Then there was the fight over gold filled letters. Stupid rule but not production.

I agree Cerrakote should not be a problem, but it's all in the interpretation.

I loved the old production rules, but we shot ourselves in the foot by screaming that the mfrs make better sights, grips etc... That created high dollar production guns that were almost unlimited and production slowly died to "production" race guns.

I am glad we have rules but you guys are right, some of the old rules were designed with a single purpose in mind but without thought to other consequences.

The refininishing/engraving rule....I understand the purpose of it not being an aid. That said, the engraving only applies to metal work. If you paint or laser burn your name into the wood forend of a production TC, it falls into Unlimited.

Ditto with a Browning forend. I made Diana a forend for her gun from a pink and purple laminate, duplicating the same outside dimensions of the factory wood. But it was "custom", and it was a nuisance to swap it when changing from P to US, so we never did shoot it.

Likewise, the old rule (I don't think it's still in effect) that you must shoot Unlimited with a bonafide U-gun for your initial classification. That rule prevented new shooters from using their P-gun in Unlimited. I wanted my young kids to shoot P and U with the same gun, so I slit a piece of 1" PVC and rubber banded it to the Ruger front sight, creating a front hood and voila, now it's an unlimited gun.

Here we are 20 years later and we're saying "what were we thinking?"....and the evolution continues.....we're back to the original purpose, bring it, shoot it, have fun.

Personally, I'm trying to get rimfire rifle shooters to come out and play. Our match is having a hard time surviving on pistol shooters. We resort to swingers only when attendance looks sparce. I can't set up 40 big bore targets for just 1 or 2 shooters. Rant over. Didn't mean to hijack thread.

This stirred up an old memory. It may have been fostered on this site.

we were talking about these rules that make no sense and were trying to work upa reasonable answer.

I just remember something in the proposed rule change about firearm changes that were cosmetic or did not affect fire control. I'm sure it died on the vine.


Now I'm going to do a search....

As far as home made "custom" grips or forends go I don't see a big deal about considering them to be production legal. Our current rules allow for Olympic style adjustable grips to be used as long as they are not changed during the course of fire. Now those grips are probably more of a shooting aid than any home made grips. It is inconsistencies in our rules that drive me nuts. Ported barrels not allow in Production or Revolver but OK in PH. DUH, if the are safe in PH then why aren't they safe in Production or Revolver? Given our method of changing rules I don't see any changes ever being proposed by the general membership and being adopted. I have also seen aftermarket sights on some Production guns that are very clever since they use several adapters to fit the sights to the guns and they are absolutely legal. Did the shooter automatically shoot a 40? NO
Production guns are getting to be rare birds these days from manufacturers. Even current TC G2 barrels are not Production legal.
IHMSA needs to rethink some of the Production/Revolver rules that were OK in the 70s/80s but are behind the times now.
I guess I just hijacked my own thread.
By the way Rich, I want to see that fancy forend.

As someone said, "At this point in time, what difference does it make?". The production & revolver rules were prostituted long ago. When you have production and revolvers that take six months to a year to receive, indeed what difference does it make?? This sport is on the ropes, folks. I love this game but I'm afraid it's not gonna be around much longer.