Date of my Les Baer

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JoeHenry

JoeHenry

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Probably 15 years ago or more I purchased used a Les Baer Premiere II with a long 6” slide. It’s old enough to have the real Bo-Mar sights and not the Bear-Mar that they currently use. The number on the frame is LB41##. Last two numbers deleted. I tried to contact Les Baer to find out the date of MFG but have been unsuccessful in getting info from them. Does anyone have knowledge of their production numbers and years? Would like very much to know when this piece was made. D0D588D6-AC38-41AF-96D3-B0DCA2650532.jpeg
 
That's an early one, I would guess around 93 or 94. I can tell you this much, I did the checkering on that gun. I went to work for Les in 92, when he was still at Springfield Armory. When he left them, I went with him and we worked for about a year out of the old Freeland's building in Rock Island, Ill. Shortly after we moved to the Hillsdale shop, which was next to Les' house. I'm guessing you pistol has the Hillsdale address on the frame. With that four digit # I would place it as being made on the dates mentioned above.
 
tark said:
That's an early one, I would guess around 93 or 94. I can tell you this much, I did the checkering on that gun. I went to work for Les in 92, when he was still at Springfield Armory. When he left them, I went with him and we worked for about a year out of the old Freeland's building in Rock Island, Ill. Shortly after we moved to the Hillsdale shop, which was next to Les' house. I'm guessing you pistol has the Hillsdale address on the frame. With that four digit # I would place it as being made on the dates mentioned above.
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tark, thanks so much for your information. I checked the frame and it does have a Hillsdale Ill. address. Really fantastic to know some history on one of my favorite handguns.
 
I could write volumes about my time with Les. He is a bit of a polarizing figure in the gun world. You either like him or you don't. He has a quick temper and he doesn't suffer fools. Conversely, he doesn't hold a grudge and mistakes are quickly forgotten, as long as you don't repeat them. He is a very private man, and does not easily open up to strangers. There is not a racist bone in his body. We have had our squabbles over the years, but we parted friends, and I consider him to be a dear friend today. It may not be widely known, but Les has probably the finest collection of Ford Mustangs on the planet. He has around 50 of them, all V-8s. He has a Boss 429 in every color made. seven, I think. He stores them in a secret location.

Les kind of pioneered the concept of "Assembly line custom production." The guns are still bespoken, but the customer orders a gun to his specifications and it is built to them. The jobs are broken down and each man specializes in one or two things. My job was checkering and slide to frame fitting. Over time I learned all of the work, excepting final assembly and barrel lockup. I learned frame to slide fitting around the time your gun was made. If you look at the bottom of the slide, it might be stamped "W" with the full serial #. If it is, I fitted it. If not it was fitted by Stan Hague, who moved on a few years later.

Enjoy your long slide, Joe. Hope these bits of information will further you enjoyment of it.

John Williams
 
Tark, I will check if there is a “W”. I have yet to find one of my reloads that my Les Baer will not feed. Lately I have been loading a hard cast 155 gr. SWC. The Baer has no trouble feeding and extracting these light SWC’s.
Thanks so much for the valuable info.
 
Tark, I checked the inside of the slide, the only members were the last three numbers of the number on the frame and the same three on the bottom of the barrel. I really appreciate your information. This old pistol is a keeper and so much fun at the range. Years ago I had a trigger job done by Ross Carter of Harrison Arkansas, measured a crisp 4 lbs and never seems to change. Thanks again.
 
Your frame to slide fit was done by Stan Hague, as mentioned above. Lennie Brown did the final assembly on your gun. He was (still is ) a wizard with action jobs. Both men moved on about a year after your gun was made. Lennie started a Parkerizing business and Stan went back to being a Tool and Die maker. The Hillsdale shop was a fun place to work. We only had a few people at that time, and the office, shop and Les' office were all in one building. Les was still racing in those days and every so often he would fire up his race car outside the shop to warm it up. Every so often, Les would terrify the office girls with a rubber snake he loved to wave around. Les had a mischievous sense of humor in him that few people ever saw.

In those days, before he hurt his neck, (too many parachute stops with the race car.) Les really did test fire every gun that left the shop, He would load up a couple of racks of guns and drive over to the indoor range he had built. When he returned, sticky notes were placed on the respective offending guns. Those were few and far apart. Of course, the real bosses were Les & Karen's two Scotties, Becky and Buffy. They had the run of the offices, but not the shop. Metal shavings on the floor would get stuck in their paws. Those years were a lot of fun.
 
Really good to read all this history about Les Baer and his guns. Kinda makes my Baer a little more special. I don’t keep track as to the number of rounds put thru each of my guns but there has been a lot down the tube on the Baer and it is still tighter than any 1911 I own.
 
One question I've always had, is how are the pistols with a 1.5″ guarantee tested? Is the gun shot in a Ransom or off a bench?
I never could get a straight answer on that.
 
As a funny side note about my (older) PII, when I first received it soaked in oil, I wiped the excess and tried to work the slide. I continued to increase the rearward pressure and could not get it to move; I am a fairly strong guy so the pressure I was applying seemed to be in great excess but it would not budge.
I called the Baer facility and explained my concerns. The person I spoke with chuckled and advised me to really put the muscle to it, that I was not going to break it. At their advice, I really put the muscle to it and to my surprise, it suddenly broke loose - in that process, I sliced a nice gash in my right index finger - that handgun was a very tight fit.
Fast forward, I have (about) 3,000 rounds thru the piece and you would think that with that kind of tight tolerance it would malfunction but, it never has once. The slide moves a little easier now combined with my experience of knowing what it takes to rack it. The gun remains very tight; I dare not disassemble via the barrel bushing - I feel that putting the necessary muscle to it for the turning will compromise the tight fit, so I disassemble via the slide stop technique. A very tightly fitted handgun that is very accurate - I cannot imagine affording a round count that could wear it out.
 
Otto said:
One question I've always had, is how are the pistols with a 1.5″ guarantee tested? Is the gun shot in a Ransom or off a bench?
I never could get a straight answer on that.
Click to expand...
Yes, they are ransomed at an indoor range at the shop. Very, very few guns were ever returned with complaints that they didn't measure up.
Steve S. said:
Fast forward, I have (about) 3,000 rounds thru the piece and you would think that with that kind of tight tolerance it would malfunction but, it never has once.
Click to expand...
Les is famous (or infamous) for his tight, "hard fitted" guns. They are also known for working flawlessly after break-in. If the customer desires, Les can have the guns "Loosened up a bit" so they aren't so hard to rack. Les built a couple of 1911s for Steven Segal a few years back. For those who may not know, Mr. Segal is a HUGE 1911 fan. He specifically requested that the guns not be so tight. My Avatar is a 1 1/2" gun. and it was a bear (pun intentional) to rack on the one time I put a magazine through it. Just to say that I had fired it.
 
^ For over ten years, I've been curious as to how Baer tests his 1.5" guns. Equally important would be the ammunition that he uses in those tests.
From the accounts I've read, the test ammo is Federal AE ball. But in my opinion, there's no way in hell American Eagle is going to print 1.5" groups on the long line. If that were the case, the AMU would have no need for any other ammo. American Eagle simply isn't that consistent and that's why Federal makes Gold Medal Match 45.
Concerning the Ransom Rest testing, I suppose what Baer did 20 years may have changed since your tenure there. But most recently, a thread at Bullseye-L touched upon this. I'm reluctant to post a link to that thread because I have no desire to throw shade on Baer. But I think that's up to the prospective buyer to decide for himself before spending hundreds extra on the guarantee.
https://www.bullseyeforum.net/t17602-les-baer-custom-beware
 
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