EFR Custom Tristar P120's the work has begun

[Brian Ahearn]

Range testing went perfect today for the P120.'s -the swap to a .125 front sight solved all point of aim verses impact issues It was point and shoot at 3 inch shoot and splat circle targets at 7 and ten yards. Pistols were dead on and the cobalt one with the short reset trigger shot nice groups. The black is not ready to get the short rest treatment as well . Later this week when I get some free time I will finish that one as well.
  On a side note I did spend a little time with the Tisas GI 9 mm pistol and that one with crap GI sights had no trouble hitting the 3 inch target when I focused on the sights . I believe that one will make an extremely nice match 9 mm when i am though with it.
  If you are considering a P120 and don't really want to mess with the internals that's fine because in stock form they are not bad pistols, but adding the Cajun or CZ tactical black rear sight combined with a CZ 75 front .125 fiber optic sight from Dawson Precision is an excellent upgrade to improve your shooting. I will talk to Dave at Cajun and let him know that for Canik /Tristar owners who want to use his sights that he should stock the .125 front for them for that application.  For a full on custom P120 with an outstanding trigger then you will need the Cajun Gun Works  adjustable sear components with the competition hammer. The reset is not as short as my accu shadow with accu bushing ,but for $700 less in cost it's not bad  and it's a pretty good shooting pistol for those who don't have the cash for the custom CZ. We will pound the crap out of these this year and see how they hold up

[jwc007]

Sounds like your projects are progressing very nicely! 

[Brian Ahearn]

Really all that's left to do is add the Cajun parts to the black one and go out for 20 and 25 yard shooting which should go as well as today did. At that point we will take final gun and target pics and post them.  I have already built one of the custom Tisas a 45 - just needs to go for sight in and reliability shooting evaluation. I shot the stock 9 mm Tisas's 1911 this morning and was very pleased with how that performed. The only issue that I had was with my 9 mm Wilson Combat mags the pistol will not function with those. The factory issue Mecgar mag worked flawlessly. I will get the slide milled on that one for better sights.

[HighWay55]

Brian,
What's the advantage of putting cerakote on a hard chrome pistol? Is it more durable than one that's blued? I ask this question because hard chrome pistols usually cost more than the same pistol blued. Based on my limited knowledge, if I wanted to cerakote a pistol, I would buy one blued and then have it coated. What am I missing?

[Brian Ahearn]

the current run of caniks / tristars that are being sold in the hard chrome are actually a silver cerakote not hard chrome. Second having owned two of the hard chrome models I had one that had the chrome peel and another that after several thousand rounds the hard chrome did not clean up well on the front of the pistol it always looked dingy /dirty. The p120 that I got had a hard chrome look but was a cerakote. I coated it for two reasons I don't like the look of light colored guns and in a darker grey is more my style. Second I was making a lot of modifications that sometimes results in damaging the factory coating so I always coat my projects to suit my tastes to have a good looking final product.

[HighWay55]

Brian,
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.  I don't know if it helped others, it certainly has given me a better understanding on pistol cerakote, stock finishes, and modifications . Your willingness to share your experiences is valued by me, and I'm sure others on this forum.

[CZ173]

What is the actual weight of the p120?
manufacturer says 2.6 lbs but everywhere else it says 1.8 lbs

[rmantoo]

Brian,

First off, your pistols look AWESOME! 

This thread, and several by Dave at CGW inspired me to order an S120 and send it to Dave for enhancement.  I have high hopes for this gun.

Secondly, I'm a little confused.  You call your pistol a P120, but on gunbroker, the P120s don't have full length dust covers, and the slides are scalloped.

like this:  http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=407166144

To me it looks like your pistol is a T120?  like this: http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=405049240


Are all of the S, P, and T series 120 guns the same, except for the frame/dustcover/slide dimensions?

[Mike Russell]

The pictures are wrong. The P120 is a fairly new release and rather than doing a little leg work to get a proper picture, most advertisers are being lazy and using pictures of over versions and putting a disclaimer. Ran into the same issue with Grabagun listing a P120 but showing a L120 pic.

[rmantoo]

Wow.  Thanks.  After reading that, I zoomed in on the OPs pics, and the slide clearly says P120... lol.  My eyes are getting old.