The Seecamp Conversion

An unusual handgun crossed my path a few months ago. Frankly, I was very interested to see this firearm as I had not seen it’s like in many years. The Omega Defensive Industries Viking Combat pistol is typical to many of the 1911 handguns emerging in the 1980s. ODI, Randall, Auto Ordnance, and others tried to carve out a niche for themselves, however, only Springfield survives in its original company organization. These handguns often used cast frames and slides, often built as cheaply as possible.

This particular ODI arrived with a list of complaints but some of the problems were the result of honest wear rather than a poor design. It wasn’t a safe queen as this handgun had been used long and steadily. It showed signs of being cleaned and maintained but also of hard use. The ODI illustrated featured a cast stainless slide and frame that appeared to have been supplied by Essex. It is a Commander-length handgun with a 4.25 inch barrel, rowel-type hammer, extended beavertail safety, and nice rubber Hogue grips.

The pistol features a full-length guide rod and adjustable sights. The Bomar-like sights are high quality and stamped "STI International." The beavertail is well designed. The biggest difference between this handgun and other 1911 handguns—and what a difference it is—is being fitted with a Seecamp double action conversion. At American Gunsmith we write topically instead of historically but sometimes a bit of background is in order. Ludwig (Louis) Wilhelm Seecamp was a brilliant gunsmith and designer.

After retirement as a designer for O. F. Far

Mossberg, he went into business for himself. While Seecamp did many things, he is best known for his innovative double-action conversion of the 1911 handgun. Seecamp Design During the 1970s there was a serious debate concerning double-action versus single-action handguns. Seecamp, a veteran of the Russian front, considered the Walther P38 superior to single actions. At the time, the only widely distributed double action, first-shot handguns were the Smith & Wesson Model 39 and Model 59.

They were not .45s and these first generations were far from first class. Seecamp designed a set of parts and a gunsmithing procedure to convert the 1911 to a double action. There were only about 4,000 genuine Seecamp conversions. Many years ago I examined a 1911 a well-heeled bodyguard had sent to Seecamp to have his mechanism installed. The pistol was a Colt and the quality of the conversion was high. The pistol illustrated here is among several thousand ODI pistols built with a licensed Seecamp conversion.

There are small differences in dimensions according to my references but I have no original Seecamp pistol to compare the ODI to. The Seecamp conversion and this ODI license-built pistol are very similar and operation is identical. The ODI isn’t a high quality, well-fitted handgun. It has its points but the fit of the slide to the frame is fair at best. Having examined many of the other types, this pistol isn’t as well put together as the Randall but is above the Auto Ordnance of the period.

While the Seecamp conversion in this ODI isn’t identical to an original Seecamp in every dimension, it is a licensed copy and has the same manual of arms. The frame is cut out and a cover supplied to shield the resulting opening with the conversion. One might think the frame were cast with this opening by ODI for mass production but I do not know for certain. Some Seecamp conversions featured a smooth, rear strap without the grip safety.

Considering the double action mechanism and its peculiarities, this may not have been a bad idea. The pistol is field stripped as other 1911s. The plate that covers the double action mechanism is a press fit and readily removed, not a tight fit like a revolver side plate. There is a wedge with a lip toward the front/trigger that fits into the frame to stabilize the cover. Internally, there is a drawbar with a return spring behind it. This drawbar leads to a hinged trigger.

The trigger is pressed and the drawbar is moved to the rear. The hammer is pressed to the rear against hammer spring pressure and then breaks and fires. The geometry of the drawbar allows this. The return spring then resets the trigger when the hammer is manually lowered. Those familiar with the Colt Double Eagle may see some resemblance in that system. A problem with the design is that a true double action such as the SIG P226 has a different geometry.

The finger swings down in an arc While replacing the part is better, it may not have been an option as parts are often scarce for this piece. Far and presses the trigger to the rear. This leads to a higher bore axis. With the Seecamp conversion the trigger must be pressed to the rear in a straight line due to the lower 1911 bore axis. The result isn’t ideal. The trigger action is very heavy; I estimate 16 pounds.

One of my "testers" tried the action and actually stressed their forefinger to the point of pain after a half dozen dry fire runs. The double action press moves a drawbar to the rear, cocking the hammer and firing. A trigger return spring is attached to the drawbar and a pin in the frame. All firing is accomplished by the double action trigger, although it isn’t a true trigger for subsequent shots in single action but a type of actuator.

At the end of travel it meets the true single action trigger and presses it to the rear. The single action press on this pistol is 7.1 pounds, heavy for the 1911. I see no reason a trigger job could not be performed, providing the original, shortened, highly-modified trigger is retained. It is interesting to note that actuating the trigger without depressing the grip safety causes the hammer to rise and drop, however, the single-action trigger remains in place, held by the grip safety.

It appears the pistol would fire in this mode as there is no firing pin block/ drop safety. The trigger meets the single-action trigger after the first shot is fired for single action. The safety cannot be applied when the

hammer is in the fully down position. There is a half cock notch. Repairs The major problem the owner complained of was that the trigger action was not working. He had never removed the sideplate and wisely brought his malfunctioning pistol to a qualified gunsmith rather than attempt to fix it himself. The trigger had stopped working after he field stripped the pistol and left the frame laying on its side. He was very detailed in his description and this helped with repair work.

There were other nagging complaints that had built up over the years, such as a failure of the slide to lock to the rear on the last shot and inconsistent extraction. I studied the mechanism but found very little to go on in any of my research material. Remembering the original Colt Double Eagle and the spring under the grip that would fly loose when the grip was removed, I warily field stripped the pistol and removed the covering plate. There were no springs flying.

The drawbar had come loose from the hammer and I looked for the reason. There were no obvious broken parts, such as the hammer hook for the drawbar. The drawbar did not appear wallowed out. The customer stated that the gun worked fine until field stripped. The slide seemed to be holding the plate tightly, keeping the internals together. If the slide assembly were removed and the frame laid on its right side, it’s possible the drawbar could fall off the side hammer hook, yet, the cover seemed tight.

There were wear marks on the drawbar that seemed to be from meeting the cover. I replaced the drawbar in the correct position. All my information indicated the drawbar is a press fit without a pin, spring, or washer over the hammer hook. While this is based on the original Seecamp, not the license built ODI, the information proved valid and there was no such part under the plate or loose I could discern.

The drawbar was a tight fit to the hammer hook and there were no wear marks indicating the presence of a washer or pin. Note, these aren’t like the 1911 hammer hooks we usually think of but aside-mounted hammer hook connecting to the drawbar. The pistol was reassembled and worked as designed. The double action is a heavy 16 pounds but worked properly after reassembly. The trigger showed signs of a previous break and had been welded.

Not surprising given the leverage isn’t ideal and the action heavy on this curved trigger. There are few parts in stock for this pistol, such as hammers or drawbars, but Numrich had a trigger and that was the only part needed for this repair, which was affordable and simple to install.

Next, I addressed the owner’s other complaints. The pistol had stopped locking the slide back many months ago. The magazine was marked ODI but looked like a Metalform and probably is. It’s first class, spring tension was tight as if new, so I discounted that as the likely culprit. With the pistol assembled, I checked the slide lock. It was quite loose in the frame and I could pull it out without locking the slide to the rear! It looked as if the tip that meets the magazine follower had broken off.

The fit to the link was very loose. I had an Ed Brown slide lock on hand. It was a tight fit, so I installed it. The pistol then functioned normally, locking the slide to the rear with the magazine in place. Now for a firing test. The owner had complained of erratic case ejection, with some to the right, some up, and others hitting his face. I presumed either poor extractor or poor extractor tension and tested with Fiocchi .45 ACP 230 grain FMJ, a clean, aboveaverage hardball load.

Case extraction proved erratic, with some right and left and one going over my head and down the back of my shirt. I took the pistol down and examined the parts. Adjusting extractor tension isn’t difficult. The extractor hook looked good. The extraction force was fine but the erratic nature of extraction was problematic. I took the slide off, removed the barrel, and slipped a dummy round of correct overall length under the extractor hook and dead flat against the breech face.

Shaking vigorously had the cartridge case falling out. I removed the extractor and placed a half-inch of the forward end of the extractor into the slide’s extractor tunnel, applying sparing pressure to slightly flex and bend the extractor, but not much as excess extractor tension creates feeding errors. Just behind the extractor hook is a pad on the extractor body that positions it and determines contact of the extractor groove with the cartridge.

There should still be tension even with the cartridge case pressed 0.075 down when locked into the extractor. Insufficient tension indicates the extractor The ODI extractor had to be tuned. American Gunsmith Reader Services 1.

groove needs to be closer to the firing pin channel. This is done by filing the extractor pad and must be done sparingly as a little force is most often all that is needed. The extractor must not be loose in the channel. Sometimes, the firing pin stop is loose and may adversely affect extractor tension. This was the case with this handgun. The standard operating procedure for a 1911 reliability fix used to be peening the firing pin stop to prevent falling out.

A better course is installing a high quality firing pin stop. I used an Ed Brown Hardcore Firing Pin Stop and minimal fitting was required, filing on the edges for a perfect press fit. The firing pin stop should require only normal finger pressure to install and shouldn’t bind. Material is removed from the right side—the contact side for the extractor—to properly fit the extractor. The owner also mentioned that the double action was heavy and presented some difficulty in manipulation.

He had no problems with single action and generally fired his handgun at seven yards for personal defense practice. The problem of the hard double action wasn’t easy to address as the action didn’t offer any obvious spots that would profit from a careful polish. The primary reason this double action is so heavy is it requires cocking the hammer against an originalweight (23 pound) 1911 mainspring. I seated CCI primers into sized cases for an experiment.

CCI primers are consistent, especially with Magnum loads, but harder than others. This makes them less likely to experience blowback, pierced primers, or other problems with heavy loads. I used a 17-pound mainspring. The ODI’s mainspring housing was easily removed and the lighter spring in place offered a slight but noticeable difference. While still heavy, the strain was gone but I experienced a 20% misfire rate.

While primed cases have more give than a loaded cartridge and may run forward in the chamber more easily, this isn’t acceptable. An off-specification cartridge must be ignited and the gun must function when dirty if the handgun is intended for personal defense. I had to admit I could not help with the trigger action. When reinstalling the original spring, a worn plunger tube spring was replaced to put snap back in the slide lock safety.

In the end, the pistol required straightforward steps to upgrade it into a useful and reliable personal defense handgun. Seecamp’s conversion is an interesting part of history that I well remember. I am glad I was able to get it up and running. Parts I used include an Ed Brown Hardcore Slide Stop (087-000-071), Ed Brown Blue Rebuild Kit (087- 814-000) provided a plunger tube spring, Ed Brown Hardcore Firing Pin Stop (087-000-037), and ODI Viking Combat 1911 (#1495980) from gunpartscorp.com.

Series 70 parts must be used for this pistol. AG Far The drawbar fits the trigger pin on the side of the trigger.