Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Multi-CCaliber
Chameleon
I
n an era rife with modularity, the rack grade pistols will run you close to are not slap together affairs. A fair
salient competition sidearm has $3,000 without the inevitable up- amount of professional pistolsmith ef-
held itself as a purpose-built affair. grades. fort is required to hand-fit each slide
The Government model 1911 is and barrel to the single frame. Along
lots of things but modular isn’t one of Another approach would be fitting with the caliber appropriate extractors
them. three top ends to a single frame. In and ejectors. Not to mention the three
days past this was accomplished by fit- slides themselves, with duplicate
You want a Government model in ting a slide with the correct breech face sights, cocking serrations, etc.
9x19 set up as a Limited division steel for each family of cartridges, based on
challenge slayer? No problem, “ching case head diameter: one slide for 9mm Enter Springfield Armory and most
$$ ching,” nothing a handful of hun- and its lineage, a second slide for the notably the wizard at the helm of their
dred-dollar bills can’t cure. What? .40 S&W / 10mm to include the .357 custom shop, David Williams. He and
You’re a devotee of SS matches and Sig and 9x25 Dillon, and lastly the his crew have conjured up a new sys-
only the gamey .40S&W will do? beloved 45ACP and its descendents. tem for the multi-caliber 1911. Dave’s
Again whip out the ol’ debit card and (Semi-rimmed .38 Super is sufficiently tack employs a user-interchangeable
get yourself one of them too. Oh, you different from 9mm that Colt and STI “cartridge positioner” to allow one
are also an avid 3-Gunner and Heavy offer 9mm and .38 Super as separate masterfully fit slide and frame to accept
Metal is your calling? Order one more slides – editors.) any caliber suitable for the 1911.
in .45ACP to round out your full set of
three 5” 1911’s. While you’re at it, you An expensive proposition in parts Before we get into the “what-and-
better get a second job, as even a trio of alone, but one must consider that these how” of this multi-caliber system a
Custom Shop feature for the time be- The test gun I received will ulti- “Not to worry,” were Dave’s words of
ing.” mately remain in Dave Williams’s comfort “go ahead and shoot the heck
hands as it is the ONLY one in exis- out of it let me know how it shoots!”
A single 9mm ejector is used for all tence outside of Springfield’s Geneseo,
calibers, but extractors remain caliber Illinois facility at this time, and it is
specific. Beyond that, it is only a mat- A Plan Comes Together.
Dave’s personal pistol. When he of-
ter of picking your desired cartridges I picked up the pistol two days be-
fered up that tidbit of information I
and appropriate magazines. The cus- fore the Washington State Steel Chal-
was a little uncomfortable about beat-
tom shop will do the rest. lenge, where I had planned to put the
ing up the only gun, let alone his gun!
pistol through its paces dressed as a
9mm. Since I was match director and
the lead dog on the set-up crew I was
left with only one day to sight in and
get used to this pistol. I had no time for
pistol problems or break-in considera-
tions, heck I did not even snap a photo
of the gun until after it had been hol-
ster-worn from 100 draws. But thanks
to the quality hard chrome and the
supreme workmanship of the Spring-
field Custom Shop crew the pistol is no
worse for the wear. In over 500 rounds
of CCI Blazer 115’s, all I did was lower
the rear sight ¾ of a turn, oil and add
ammo. This gun’s a winner, even if I
(for lack of 1.1 seconds) am not.
Let’s Go .40.
I own a couple of single stacks in
10mm but this is my first experience
with one in .40 Smith and Wesson. In
anything other than “high-perfor-
mance” loads these two cartridges are
ballistic fraternal twins. Most factory
“plinking” loads run within a 100 fps
of each other, and for our uses we load
to power factor so it is all moot any-
way.
48 FRONT SIGHT • July/August 2008
STI and SV .40 guns actually em- that a number of pistolsmiths fail to ad-
ploy magazines designed for the 10mm dress and one I notice immediately.
length, and shooters often “load long”
to get best results. The single stack As I continue to “gray” I find my-
1911 has .40 S&W caliber-specific self enjoying things I scoffed at in the
magazines available, and two of Wilson recent past, one of these things is
Combat’s finest accompanied the pis- checkering. Pick your flavor 20, 30, 40
tol. or more lines per inch, routinely ap-
plied to create pyramids with lines in-
After taking a 5-minute detour to tersecting at 90 degrees. Dave and
swap the 9mm parts for .40 S&W, I de- crew have created what he refers to as
cided to see if THIS pistol needed the “diamond plate checkering.” A visu-
40-specific magazines. It didn’t. I put ally new and effective pattern that is
a good 650 rounds of CCI Blazer 180’s the result of cutting lines that intersect
through this set-up using five different at 60 degrees. This pattern is applied to
10mm Metalform magazines I had on both the front strap and main spring The Guardian Angel®
hand without a failure of any kind. Ac- housing and I like it. If I had to pick launches an extremelyy p
powerful
non-lethal inflammatory agent at
curacy, as one should expect from a something I didn’t like it would be the 90 MPH.
MPH The solution instantly
custom shop pistol, was excellent. This grip panels. They certainly rank high incapacitates an assailant.
.40 cal. 1911 was able to create multi- for style points but were a little too ag-
ple 8-shot groups of less than 2” at 25 gressive. I had to change them out as
yards from a supported position. The the shooting progressed to protect my
9mm iteration faired even better, with "sensitive” hands.
many groups hovering at or near the 1”
mark. In both instances CCI Blazer It would be foolish to expect a
was the “match” fodder employed. hand-fitted multi-caliber single stack to
be an inexpensive proposition. They
Just like the 9mm we have to let the are not, but to my thinking they are
infamous Mr. Murphy take his shot reasonable. While it would take about Rimfire Target Conversion Kits™
and test this pistol in competition, be- $4,000 to duplicate Dave’s personal fit most brands of 1911 pistols.
Installation takes one minute without
cause if it is going to fail it will fail at a shooter, a less feature-laden base tools. Adjustable sight is included.
match. This time the match is the Ore- model complete in 9, .40 and .45 can
gon Single Stack. be had for around $2,700. You could
easily pay that for a single caliber gun
Had I shot better I could have with a few extra touches. Remember
walked away feeling better about my these are full-house Custom Shop
match performance, but over the eight pieces and are built to standards not
stages I could not find fault with the available outside of a skilled pistol-
performance of this Springfield Ar- smith’s shop.
mory creation. Standards, speed
shoots, field courses and many a re- Deadline and time constraints pre- The Kimber Custom Shop
p™
load, Murphy had his opportunity and vent me from performing any mean- offers premium 1911 night sigh
sights
sights,
lost again. I am starting to think I don’t ingful testing of the .45ACP version of magazines,
azines, grips, performance
parts and refinishing in the
deserve a gun this good! this pistol, but I would expect an equal high-tech KimPro II ® process.
measure of success to that of the 9 and
Before I close this article I must .40 editions. In my mind the ultimate
mention that this pistol not only runs examination is within the crucible of mP ® Tac-Mag®
KimPro
Kim
flawlessly but is nearly flawless in aes- The ultimate .45 ACP
The
competition. This is where this multi- magazine
maag for any brand of
thetic execution. From the flat-topped caliber chameleon can change its color mil-spec
miil-s full size or compact
and serrated slide with “melted in” faster than we can change games. 1911.
1991 Three quick-change
Champion adjustable sight to the ex- bases.
baase Stainless steel with
pertly fitted grip safety and perfect There is much to be gained from Teflon-coated
Teefl follower.
2.25# trigger. No detail has been this pistol as I believe there is more
overlooked. truth than lore to the adage "beware For more information
infor
inf or on Kimber products,
the man who shoots but one gun; he ple
please send $2 to:
I don’t know if the gentleman who probably knows how to use it." This @^bWZg!9Zei#&*+
fitted this gun’s ambi thumb safeties is multi-caliber Chameleon from Spring-
DcZAVlidcHigZZi!Ndc`Zgh!CN&%,%*!
XVaa-%%--%"')&-dgk^h^i
a lefty, but I am, and not only do they field Armory could certainly be that lll#`^bWZgVbZg^XV#Xdb
feel good, their operation from my side gun!
Guardian Angel products not to be sold to minors or where prohibited by law.
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