Today, we have the Jim Boland-designed Mitchell Arms Alpha widebody pistol. If certain price-guides can be believed, this was cataloged from 1995 to 1997. However, any escaped from the factory for retail sales it would be news to me.

The Alpha had a weird set of design features. It could be user configured as either single-action, double-action only, or DA/SA. It could also accommodate either its proprietary 10-rd double stack magazine or any standard M1911 single-stack magazine. If you’ll remember, this was also a feature of Boland’s earlier “FK Gun.”

For the morbidly curious, here is Boland’s patent for the frame:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5533291A
And here is Boland’s patent for the skirted 10-rd single-stack M1911 magazine shown in the 1995 advertisement:
I recall seeing this in literature at the time. My thoughts on it now are the same as back then
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It was the Solution to a Problem that no one had? The multiple interchangeable lockwork configurations would have been a QC nightmare for a decent firearms company, much less Mitchell Arms.
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Browning had their BDM that did that same basic thing, right? Hard to believe that anyone thought that was a good idea, let alone two different companies.
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The Alpha apparently had to be reconfigured internally to get the different trigger modes. The Peter Sodoma-designed BDM could be switched immediately between its two modes via a slide-mounted dial. Reportedly, Browning had a potential US Secret Service contract all but wrapped up for the BDM, but they could never get the long-term durability that the agency wanted.
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Imagine that. The KISS principle joins the other gods of the copybook headings.
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Iirc Mitchell made a copy of the Luger in stainless steel,
I looked at one in a LGS and the “Quality” was horrible.
Gaps and toolmarks everywhere.
Hands down the worst fit and finish of any handgun I have seen.
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