Category Archives: Guns

By Luis Valdes In 1975, a company in my ancestral home of España (Spain) released to the shooting community what was then one of the most desired handguns in the world. A compact, lightweight aluminium framed, .45 ACP pistol styled after the 1911. That company was Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. and the pistol was theContinue reading “Spain’s Star PD 45 Pistol”

From 1911_purview I post a lot of esoteric gunsmiths, but it is time to get back to the masters. This is a “space gun” in .45 ACP by Jim Boland —the most innovative 1911 pistolsmith, maybe ever. Through the 1980’s and early 1990’s Boland was among the early pioneers of 1911 customization. He used his expansiveContinue reading “Jim Boland Custom 1911”

By Luis Vakdes As a child in the 1980s who came of age in the 1990s. I lived through an odd era of the gun culture. With the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, a lot of survivalists and those preparing for WWIII suddenly had less to worry about…untilContinue reading “A Look Back at Pre-Y2K Survival Gear and Conventional Wisdom”

Pistol_purview Colt rail gun built by Dave Severns. Dave, who began gun-smithing in the late 1970s, was a hard-hat diver and engineer by training. A self-taught pistolsmith, he was known for producing a series of internet “shootout articles” in the early 2000’s, where he evaluated and tested high performance 1911s made by other custom shopsContinue reading “Dave Severns Custom Colt Rail Gun”

From 1911_purview This 1975 large letter pony (chambered in 38 super) was created by legendary Colorado gunsmither Don Fisher. Fish was a top pistol smith in the late 70s and early 80s. his most famous customer was World Champion Ross Seyfried, who frequently touted Fisher’s work as some of the best in the country.