By Pistol_purview

AE Berdon was born in Seymour Indiana on December 8th, 1884. In 1907 he graduated at the top of his class with an electrical engineering degree from Purdue University. Out of college, Berdon (likely a genius) worked in the automotive industry and was credited with countless inventions and patents used by some of the biggest auto makers in the country. In 1934 he left the auto industry and turned this brilliance to custom handguns. It wasn’t long before he began to patent inventions to improve the accuracy of 1911 used in BE competition. To counter the effect of progressive wear, he employed a barrel alignment device, which would become known as a mousetrap. Many believe RL Shockey invented the mousetrap, but Berdon was using it two decades before Shockey. The “mousetrap” is two springs built into the recoil plug, and it brilliantly forces the barrel upward into the slide, with locking lugs in full engagement. The slide in turn is pushed upward, and this upward thrust is distributed to keep both the muzzle and breech of the barrel in a constant uniform position. The barrel and slide are therefore always returned to the same relative positions regardless of wear on any opposing metal parts. His second invention was his “anti-slap” mechanism. It operates so that the resistance of the trigger to the finger does not change after the hammer is released, preventing muscular spasm called slap. Here’s how it works. At the instant of hammer release, the trigger impinges on a spring which is balanced at the same weight as the trigger pull. Instead of going from 4 pounds to 1 pound, the trigger goes from 4 pounds to 4 pounds.The result was a trigger that won countless championships in the 40s and 50s. Berdon guns are almost impossible to find in the wild. This example is shod in period correct (rare as hens teeth) custom orthopedic grips by Walter-fuckin-Roper.