Category Archives: Thoughts

By Kevin O’Brien A couple of years ago, the Army gave the lousy three-round-burst selector switch that was used on the M16A2 and successors, and the original M4, two in the chest and one in the head. There are still firearms with the bad trigger mechanism kicking around the services, but this decision was theContinue reading “Burst Selector: An Idea Whose Time has Come and Gone”

1911_purview Long before he had a custom shop pumping out dozens of Kobra bobtails, Missouri native Ed Brown was himself a custom gun maker…and a damn good one. In November 1988 I had just graduated from high school and two sequential serial numbered Colt Maxi Comps adorned the cover of American Handgunner magazine. Thirty yearsContinue reading “Ed Brown Custom Compensated 1911”

1911_purview I post a lot of esoteric “one off” guns, made by men who were simply footnotes in history. They are mostly stupid, but the historian in me likes them. But, there are a handful of 1911s in my safe that were made legends of craft. Here’s the latter. Compensated Colt 70 series chambered inContinue reading “Jim Garthwaite Comped 1911”

1911_purview Way before he was racing cars and supervising a semi custom 1911 mill, Lester (the gun molester) was one of the baddest pistolsmiths in America. This 1985 Colt 80 series comp gun is testament to that. He called it the “Baer Custom Compensator II System” and it was engineered to mitigate muzzle flip andContinue reading “Les Baer Custom Comped 1911”

Classic deep-carry conversion by Behlert’s shop, this mini Hi Power is just part of the full repertoire of Austin, who built mini 1911’s and Smith 39’s.

Classic 44 Special conversion by one of the very best in the business, Bowen Classic Arms.

The Goncz pistol is one of those oddballs that is all but forgotten.