1965 Colt .45 ACP by Daniel Batchelor out of Powder River Precision in Clark SD. A few years ago, I sent this pony to Batchelor and then I forgot about it. For those of you new to the custom 1911 game, that’s how you do it. Send the gun and forget it exists. When Christmas comes, Christmas comes—but Christmas doesn’t come before Christmas comes. Get it? A few weeks ago, Dan texts me, “she’s done and she’s in the air.” This gun is (dare I say it) an absolute work of art. All of it. The slide-to-frame is surgically mated. The low-mount Bo-Mar is beautifully flushed. The Barsto pipe is expertly fit. The checkering is exquisite. The high polish blue over chrome finish is stunning. I could go on and on, but this is Instagram not Tolstoy’s War and Peace. I haven’t shot it yet, but I don’t expect that I will be disappointed. Totally enamored with the gun, I grabbed my phone and texted Dan “I don’t see a bill, how much do I owe you?” Dan (President of the American Custom Gunmakers Guild) texts me back “go to the Guild website and make a donation.” Pure class. I say it all the time: these guns have stories. You won’t see a lot of Batchelor 1911s in the wild, so this one means a lot to me. The grips are by Craig Spegel, because the best gets the best. That’s it. My wife once told me, “all of your 1911s look exactly the same.” That’s right honey and if I collected supermodels, they’d all be blonde, blue-eyed, and stacked. I have a type. And this is it.
Scattered Shots 