In my previous article on custom competition handguns, I mentioned previous attempts to make widebody M1911 that predated the Para-Ordnance, Caspian, and STI.

The following is one of Jim Boland’s modified frames for Astra A80 magazines. The Spanish pistol was a rough clone of a SIG-Sauer, available as a 15-rd .38 Super. The styling details like the beavertail point to an early 1980s build, or perhaps he recycled an earlier custom gun. It looks like it predated his FK Gun built around the HK P7M13 magazine. I can’t quite figure out how he managed to snake the trigger shoe and bow into the slot in the side of the frame. Maybe he used a single-sided trigger bow like on the FK Gun?

You might ask why didn’t someone just comp an Astra A80? Well, it was a DA/SA gun with a heel-located magazine release and no manual safety.

Jim McDonnell of Mac’s .45 Shop built this frame circa 1985 for Bob Hostetter. It used 15-rd Smith & Wesson Model 59 magazines. Sadly, it has been parted out, and there no photos of it in its former glory. McDonnell also built competition guns for Jim Zubiena of “Miami Vice” fame and is best known these days for the .38 Super carry comp used by Don Johnson on “Nash Bridges.”