American Handgunner May/June 1977

tive magazines seem to be floating around the country. Minewere wrapped in GI wrappings and sealed in plastic. My guess isthat they are military rejects. I have a half dozen of them thatwon't work in any of the three .45s I have. They certainly weren'tmuch of a bargain for three bucks each.A lot of things can be done to a .45 to accurize it. Probably themost important of all of them is the proper fitting of the muzzlebushing to the barrel. The Hardballer is certainly not fitted astightly as a custom gunsmith would fit one for maximum accuracy.The Hardballer isn't a custom target grade gun sufferingfrom all the disadvantages of a tightly fitted target gun. Therearen't any alibis in a combat situation. The Hardballer is de-prior to "Behlertizing" was 3.40 inches at 25 yards. Austinended up doing a combat conversion on it and it's a good onenow. His work will stack up with anyone's and his brochure picturingthe various conversions and accessories for just about anyhandgun is an evening's entertainment in itself. He recently patentedand is marketing an adjustable rear sight for S&W "K"and "N" frame revolvers that anyone who shoots them seriouslyshould have.The Hardballer is designed for full power ammo. Individualguns may or may not work with mid range target ammo. Thetest gun functions flawlessly with Speer 200 grain match ammobut several popular mid range target handloads do not generatesigned with the police market in mind and reliability is theprime consideration. Overall fitting is certainly not sloppy. It's ahappy medium between reliability and accuracy. Particular careis taken in manufacture to insure proper dimensions and polishof the feed ramp in the frame and corresponding area of therear of chamber. Unless the feed ramp and rear of the barrel areproperly proportioned and polished, jams will result with manytypes of ammunition. Several years ago I bought a Colt CombatCommander that wasn't even reliable with hardball ammo.Austin Behlert of Behlert Custom Guns Inc. (725 Lehigh Ave.,Union, N.J. 07083) straightened out that gun for me. In checkingmy machine rest records, the best 25 yard group it firedenough recoil to function the gun. Obtaining an extra recoilspring and clipping a few coils off of it should allow it to functionwith light loads. With full power ammo the Hardballerhasn't jammed in over 1200 rounds without cleaning. Abouthalf of the rounds fired were full charge cast bullet loads andabout half were at least full charge jacketed bullet loads. Possibly100 rounds were light loads to check functioning and 4-500were extremely heavy loads to try to accelerate wear and/orparts breakage. Nothing broke and after cleaning only one part,the flange on the recoil spring guide showed any sign of wear or"battering". Some of the early Hardballers contain Colt internal(Continued on page 62)AMERICAN HANDGUNNER MAY/JUNE 1977