Several years ago I decided to show my appreciation to an old friend who I felt deserved a big thank you from me. The way I chose to do so was to get him a nice pistol. In the end the whole project took about 3-4 years and it went through multiple iterations. I rather quickly settled on a 1911; a plastic gun simply didn't seem suitable for a presentation gun and besides, there are lots of customizations to the platform. I originally was looking at an Ed Brown 9mm, but over time I settled on a Springfield Range Officer 9mm not due to price, but because the lead time from the custom shops didn't fit into the timeframe I needed to get the gun ready and present it. The plus side to this "downgrade" was that I got to bring my buddy along when I went to pick up the base gun at the store, although he had no idea the gun was actually for him (his exact words were: "Man, I wish I had the cash to buy something like that"). In the end he was presented with a very nice gun with custom finish, trigger, sights and inscription on the slide, plus grips to match the finish and a whole pile of ammo. I don't have any pictures of his gun I can post, but needless to say he was blown away by the whole thing.
The side effect of all that work was that it planted the seed for me to also get my very own custom - or at least semi-custom - pistol. Again I started at Ed Brown, but a buddy at the range pointed out I that I couldn't likely do much better than whatever I was shooting at that moment (it was a Makarov oddly, but the center of the target was simply gone). He had a pretty good point, but I still wanted something "nice". Until recently my focus was on a Stealth Arms Platypus, a milled, semi-custom 2011 that uses Glock 17 magazines.
That all changed when I walked into my local shop and found an odd colored gun in the case. This shop has done lots of work for me over the years and I actually drive 40 minutes out of my way to do virtually all of my gun-related business with them. The gun in question turned out to be a Sig P320 X-Carry Legion with a spare Wilson Combat full size grip frame in addition to the regular gray frame with tungsten insert. The slide and WC frame are finished in Jesse James Blue. This started out as a compact gun (4.6" barrel), so the slide doesn't reach the end of the WC frame. To fix that they installed a Faxon compensator and cut the lower face of it so it angles into the frame. They also installed a Sig Romeo1 Pro optic with shield while including the original rear sight plate. While the gun ships with (3) 17-round magazines, the shop included 4 and at $40-50 per mag this was a nice bonus. The best part was that they gave me a deal since I shop there often and I basically ended up buying the basic gun and getting all the extras for free.
I realize this is a far cry from an Ed Brown or similar pistol and it certainly won't suit everyone's taste. The color caught my eye first, but I was sold on it when I learned what they had done with the gun using what amounts to the spare parts they had laying around. I am always happy with their work and I know I'll have more satisfaction shooting a gun that was locally customized. Range report to follow soon!
In the pictures below the gun is sporting a "gas pedal" takedown lever but that is no longer installed as it does a lefty like me no good. The color is closer to the pale blue than the bright blue in the mix-match photo.
The side effect of all that work was that it planted the seed for me to also get my very own custom - or at least semi-custom - pistol. Again I started at Ed Brown, but a buddy at the range pointed out I that I couldn't likely do much better than whatever I was shooting at that moment (it was a Makarov oddly, but the center of the target was simply gone). He had a pretty good point, but I still wanted something "nice". Until recently my focus was on a Stealth Arms Platypus, a milled, semi-custom 2011 that uses Glock 17 magazines.
That all changed when I walked into my local shop and found an odd colored gun in the case. This shop has done lots of work for me over the years and I actually drive 40 minutes out of my way to do virtually all of my gun-related business with them. The gun in question turned out to be a Sig P320 X-Carry Legion with a spare Wilson Combat full size grip frame in addition to the regular gray frame with tungsten insert. The slide and WC frame are finished in Jesse James Blue. This started out as a compact gun (4.6" barrel), so the slide doesn't reach the end of the WC frame. To fix that they installed a Faxon compensator and cut the lower face of it so it angles into the frame. They also installed a Sig Romeo1 Pro optic with shield while including the original rear sight plate. While the gun ships with (3) 17-round magazines, the shop included 4 and at $40-50 per mag this was a nice bonus. The best part was that they gave me a deal since I shop there often and I basically ended up buying the basic gun and getting all the extras for free.
I realize this is a far cry from an Ed Brown or similar pistol and it certainly won't suit everyone's taste. The color caught my eye first, but I was sold on it when I learned what they had done with the gun using what amounts to the spare parts they had laying around. I am always happy with their work and I know I'll have more satisfaction shooting a gun that was locally customized. Range report to follow soon!
In the pictures below the gun is sporting a "gas pedal" takedown lever but that is no longer installed as it does a lefty like me no good. The color is closer to the pale blue than the bright blue in the mix-match photo.
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