API Brochure: A Blast from the past

[JRH6856]

I came across this while cleaning out a storage building. It has no dates on it but it has to be from early 80s. Anybody want to guess what gun was used in the logo?

 

[Rock185]

I did the 250 and 499 in the early '80s. Those photos do appear to be from that general time period. Notice the rear sight on Col. Cooper's pistol is from a S&W revolver, a very popular adjustable sight for Colts and Browning Hi Powers in those days, before the Bo-Mar adjustable became dominant.

No clue what pistol is depicted in the API logo. Looks like an artist's conception, or an amalgamation of several European pistols...

 

[JRH6856]

To me the logo pistol looks most like a Walther PP, with the hammer spur edited out and the image reversed. Which is ironic given the Col.'s love of the 1911 (and the brochure says the course requires a full size pistol.

Also interesting to note that there are only 3 rules for safety, not 4. Definitely puts it in the pre-Glock era.

 

[twofifty]

What about the Colonel's grip technique?
Was that state of the art at the time?

 

[JRH6856]

Classic Weaver stance with a "push-pull" grip. Yes that was a predominant stance and grip at the time. Only a few were beginning to use the isosceles stance and I don't remember anyone using the currently popular thumbs forward grip.

 

[Nom de Forum]

I came across this while cleaning out a storage building. It has no dates on it but it has to be from early 80s. Anybody want to guess what gun was used in the logo?

I am not so sure that is a real pistol. It may be just a graphic artist's chimera to avoid endorsement or copyright problems. It appears to be the frame of a Beretta Model 70s mated to the reversed image of the slide assembly of a Walther PP with a spur hammer.

Edit: It could also be a stylized Bernardelli Model 80, but the sweeping curve on the grip panel is more like the Beretta.

 

[Nom de Forum]

Classic Weaver stance with a "push-pull" grip. Yes that was a predominant stance and grip at the time. Only a few were beginning to use the isosceles stance and I don't remember anyone using the currently popular thumbs forward grip.

IIRC it would be about 1981 when the current thumb position would begin to be used. Notice he does not have the squared-off trigger guard that was also making its appearance in about 1979.

Edit: Notice what appears to be a hard chromed frame that was also in vogue at the time.

 

[JRH6856]

I'm pretty sure I acquired that brochure between 1979 and 1982 after I started shooting IPSC. Almost certainly no later than 1984 considering the age of the stuff I found it packed with.

I don't recall ever seeing a picture of Cooper with a Swenson (square) trigger guard which ISTR seeing several years before 1979, maybe around 1972?. (sometimes the years all run together).

 

[Nom de Forum]

Another interesting thing about the photo of Cooper and his two-tone 1911 is his lack of ear and proper eye protection. No ear plugs and what appear to be inexpensive, Drugstore purchased, plastic Foster-Grants providing no real protective ability other than from sunlight and blowing dust. Things sure have changed.

JRH6856 I think you are right on the timeline for the Swensen trigger guard. I was thinking about the M-S Safari Arms 1911 clone available in '78-'79 that came from the factor with a squared-off trigger guard. The 1979 second edition of Jeff Cooper on Handguns has a photo of a M-S Safari Arms 1911 clone as the primary cover photo.

 

[JRH6856]

One of the items packed with the brochure was my mint copy of Cooper on Handguns, 1st edition with the red cover, sealed in a plastic bag.

The M-S Safari 1911 had a concave trigger guard, not a square one like Swenson's. Both illistrate that the normal way of gripping, which Cooper called a "natural 5 finger grip" was expected to place the index finger in front of the trigger: Strong hand finger inside the guard, weak hand finger around the front of the guard. Swenson's square guard was usually checkered (30 lines) to give better purchse. The Safari concave guard took it a step further and mimicked the shape of the trigger.

 

[Nom de Forum]

One of the items packed with the brochure was my mint copy of Cooper on Handguns, 1st edition with the red cover, sealed in a plastic bag.

The M-S Safari 1911 had a concave trigger guard, not a square one like Swenson's. Both illistrate that the normal way of gripping, which Cooper called a "natural 5 finger grip" was expected to place the index finger in front of the trigger: Strong hand finger inside the guard, weak hand finger around the front of the guard. Swenson's square guard was usually checkered (30 lines) to give better purchse. The Safari concave guard took it a step further and mimicked the shape of the trigger.

Hang on to that "Red Cover" it is an influential and tangible piece of history!

You are absolutely right about those trigger guards. I was being sloppy in designation. Do you remember that someone actually made a bolt on kit for converting standard trigger guards? Lots of nutty doodads back then. I never had much respect or use for "square" trigger guards after trying out the technique and after seeing that neither did Leatham or Enos. That dynamic due set the example every Thursday night, and many emulated but few duplicated their results. I do recall "square" trigger guard technique was used by some top competitors in those day, Mickey Fowler comes to mind. What I find interesting is that none of the pictures in his book show Cooper using the technique. BTW, my H&K 91 was purchased in Tempe, Arizona from the "M" of M-S Safari Arms, Don McNab. All this stuff seems like it happened a thousand years ago.

 

[Leanwolf]

I have that exact brochure. I received it in late 1980 from Gunsite/API. I attended the pistol course in the first week of April, 1981. Yeah, that is a real Govt. 1911 .45APC in Cooper's hands.

L.W.

 

[JRH6856]

Nom, I used to be really good with a checkering file and a stippling punch. I checkered or stippled several front straps, trigger guards, mainspring housings and slide tops for friends as well as my own. This is the first stippling I did.

I never thought much of that bolt on arrangement either. Only pistol I ever wrap my finger around the guard on is my Llama IIIa .380, because there is no place else to put it.

Leanwolf, thanks for the date confirmation. 1980 fits my timeline.