Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Custom, odd, rare, or interesting handguns

They aren't custom, odd, or rare, but they are interesting. Here it is.


That's right! I wish Sig would start making this type of old school P-series again with the folded/stamped slide and breach block insert like shown in this photo.


Now I have an brand spanking new Sig Elite Dark P226 and put exactly one mag of Blazer 9mm thru it. The slide to frame fit is like that of an worn out rattling 1911, but it's an brand spanking new gun. Needs to go back to Sig

My old German Sig doesn't rattle and the slide to frame fit is perfect and functions without flaw. Also Sig now uses crappy junk magazines made in the USA rather than the Mec-Gar works of art the old P220 used to come with.

Basically I'd like to see Sig take an step back so they can move ahead. In other words bring back the quality, and perfection in manufacturing they once had instead of the mediocre crappola that they now charge an big price for.

Slide to frame fit is one of the least critical things on a semi-auto pistol. The stamped slide was a brilliant idea for its time, but with CNC machining it makes less and less sense now. The stamped slide guns need to have the roll pin changed at regular intervals (I wanna say it�s 2k rounds), and the fully milled billet slides need pretty much nothing. Sorry, but I�ll take the loosy-goosy but better made Sig.

I wish I'd bought the S&W M520 when I saw it, way back when. It was basically a fixed-sight .357 Highway Patrolman, with a 4" shrouded barrel, built, I was told, for the NYSP back in either the '70s or early '80s. N-frame chunky, but it sure seemed nice. Price was right, too, as it was an over-run gun on the contract.

That�s a rare bird indeed.

I�ve always had a hankerin for a S&W model 58, which is roughly the same gun in .41 mag.

Hello Kevin
My daily carry Gun is a S&W Model 431 as well. I have had mine abour Seven years Now, and swapped a nice 6" Blued K-38 Model 14-2 for it New in Box. I Treated mine to a set of Factory S&W Smooth Presentation Grade Bird's eye Maple stock's. I Bought them for $10.00 of a vendor at a Gun show last Year. He was Whinning as they were Square butt J-frame stock's so I bought them for $10.00 What I did not tell him is that I have in the Past Made Round Butt J-frame stock's from square butt stock's. I used the Outer frame Line's of my Gun to Transfer the round butt configuration onto the back of these square butt stocks. I Then Placed them on their side into my Bench top grinder stopping just shy of the Round Butt Pencil Line. I then used some 60 Grit sand paper to shape them into what I wanted. Here is my 431 shown with the J-frame square butt stock's that I converted to Round Butt configration. Regards, TheGeneral


















Here is Our daily carry Holsters. To me they are the Best holster out there for Pocket carry as they do not Print, and when the gun is drawn the holster remains in your Pocket. They are made by Hand by D.M Bullard of Azel, Texas. Mine is six Years old and is the black one and show's no visible sign of Wear. He Places a small leather Tab on the top of them to Keep the gun's Hammer from chewing on your leg when you pocket carry with them. They are The Ball's to me... TheGeneral


[img]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/D_M_Bullard_Pocket_Holsters_002.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/D_M_Bullard_Pocket_Holsters_001.jpg[/img]

How about an alloy-framed Browning Hi Power?
Bob

I can throw out the P220 Super Match. Yes that is a single action auto. It was very reliable and accurate. The rear sight did not adjust properly, though, and it needed a trigger job. And the lovely grips were too large for me. I eventually traded it on a shotgun. Reckon I'll stick to 1911's for target .45's



The High Standard Victor isn't real common. It shoots well, though I need to round up an extra magazine and maybe a tune up kit for it.



H&K P7 PSP police surplus squeeze cocker. Interesting pistols, and pretty quirky, but very intuitive to handle, reliable, and accurate.

Brilliant�

Oh man did you hit it out of the park with that one. One of these days I�m going to find one of those, then I�m going to build up my �ultimate� carry gun and never sell the sucker. Wanna get rid of that one?

General,

Good score on the grips. Mine just has the factory Hogues which are quite fine for carry purposes. If you carry the Hogues enough, and handle them enough, they get impregnated with the oils from your hands, which takes away the �tackiness� of them, so they don�t catch on clothing. I�ve always wondered why Hogue didn�t use Neoprene like Pacymayr. Pacymayr�s soak up sharp recoil nearly as well as Hogues, but the Neoprene doesn�t grab clothing.

Anyhow, I carry mine in a Milt Sparks pocket holster when I�m carrying in the pocket. If I�m headed into a restaurant, then I�ll slip it into a Renegade ankle holster because an ankle holster is much more accessible from a sitting position.

I�ve never felt the P7 was �better� than conventional pistols, but I appreciate it for being truly �different�. And while some other pistols have been different, not all �different� pistols really worked well, and the P7 does. It has a weird feel, and the squeeze cocker is odd and takes some getting used to. Trigger is long and mushy, but not too stiff; with some getting used to, you can do some very good work with the P7. I think what I like about the P7 is just how �European� it is and it does have a certain cool factor. You can almost imagine James Bond carrying it.

What would have been interesting would be further development of the platform to include .40 & maybe .45 ACP. The M-13�s kinda sucked; the ergonomics were horrible. The grip on the P7 is pretty big, so I�ve always thought that further development of the design would have thinned out the grip, and added some larger cartridges. And a longer barrel/slide would have been interesting as well.

There was a P7M10 in .40 cal. They are fairly rare and usually bring well north of $2000 - I think most were bought by collectors. There was also a .380 version, which is probably more rare yet - I have not seen one of those in over 10 years. Both were scaled to their caibers and were quite expensive in their day. I've handled a P7M13, a double stack 9mm, and the grip is very large, too large for me.

Mine is the PSP police surplus model, with Euro mag release. The P7M8's had the mag release by the trigger guard and usually bring a lot more money. They pre-dated the Glock.

The guns are all steel so while compact, they are fairly heavy. There's about 6 or 7 significant variations, and all are sought by collectors.

If a single stack 9mm meets your needs, it would be hard to find one more reliable, and faster to put in action. Safer than a Glock, too.

Colt SAA 1st Generation (1913). Completely restored by Eddie Janis (Peacemaker Specialists). This one had been re-nickled sometime in the past (a very poor job) and used as a fast-draw gun. Hammer and trigger were rebuilt, gun re-cased (including hammer), and rust-blued. Markings were perfect and unmolested (thank God). I added a new, Colt 2nd Gen .38 Special barrel and cylinder for Eddie to fit. I now have a superb SAA that is cheap to shoot and won't make a Colt collector cry.
Bob

I do recall the M13 had a most interesting looking magazine. I�ve never seen the .40 version, but I wanna say I did see a .380 version behind glass once.

$39 in 1935, would be about $650 in today's money.

Hello Kevin
I use the Pocket carry in the hot summer Months here in Knoxville. I switch to my Factory S&W shoulder rig during the winter Months. I have a Bunch of Factory S&W Leather shoulder rigs to fit my J-Frames, K-fRames as well as my N-Frames here is what they look like. These were made back in the 1970's and fit S&W's very nice. They are super comfortable to wear and do not Show the gun or rig when worn. Regards, TheGeneral

Hello Kevin
Being that my whole gun collection as far as handguns is all S&W Target gun's a few years ago I decided to locate a S&W Model of 1899 single shot Target Pistol. S&W made these in the Late 1800's to very early 1900's and this one shipped out of the factory in 1904. Originally this gun was built off of the top break .38 S&W Caliber double action guns and they offered spare barrels for them in .32 S&W, .38 S&W as well as the .22 L.R. Caliber. It did not take D,B. Wesson Long to see that many guy's were buying Barrels rather than complete gun's to add to his pistols so in the second variation which mine is they no longer came with the cylinder hand or cylinder stop in the lower frame area. There was a Third Variation of these single shot Target Pistols and that was of double action. It was made in the early to Late 1920's and after that S&W stopped making them. S&W Won Many shooting competition Event's with these hand guns as well as Many Olympic shooting even'.s. Mine is shown with it's Original 6" .22 LR Barrel as well as an 8" Barrel chambered in .32 S&W caliber and a 10" Olympic chamber Barrel.




The .22 L.R. Caliber Olympic chamber barrels were different than any other barrel offered by S&W for these gun's as you had to Seat the round down into the barrel Lands for the last 1/8" Of it. You simply mash it down with your thumb or close the gun's action. The idea of this type of barrel is to prevent Bullet jump and it provided supreme accuracy. There are not many Olympic chamber barrel out there to be had they are Very Rare. I got mine from a friend that gave me 6 spare barrel's that fit my gun. Most of the barrel were still in the whie in different stages of completion. When S&W Ceased making these single shot Target Pistols they sold off the existing parts and that is where he got the spare barrels he had them for many years, but had completed his Three Variation's of this gun in his collection, so he wanted to see me do something with the spare barrels so he gave them to me as a Gift with the Understanding that I would do something with them. I sent my 6 Barrel's to David Chicoine in Gastonia, North Carolina as he is about the only guy that work's on these old guns. He fitted and finished my Olympic barrel as well as the 8" .32 S&W caliber barrel. I swapped him the other Four Barrel's for his Labor and parts as he had to add the barrel locking sight Latches, Front sight's, Fit them to my gun and finish them in High Polished Bluing as shown. Regards, TheGeneral
















Here is how my Model of 1899 single shot Target Pistol looked when I first Got it, shown with it's 6" .22 L.R. Barrel. It is a Transitional Model as it has the Feature's of the First Variation Model of 1899 Yet is Missing the cylinder hand & The cylinder lock that came on the first Variation Target Pistols. Supposedly, The second Variation Target Pistols came out in 1906 Yet Mone shipped in 1904. I have not gotten a factory letter on this gun Yet but there is a strong possibility that it was a proto-type gun or salesman sample.






[img]http://img.photobucket.com/alb...delof1891SecondVariationBarr-4.jpg[/img]


[img]http://img.photobucket.com/alb...delof1891SecondVariationBarr-2.jpg[/img]


These are the spare single shot Target Pistol Barrel's that my friend gave me. As you can see they are at different Level's of completion some still in the white Including my single shot Olympic chamber .22 L.R. Barrel. These are the one's that I trade David Chicoine for his labor and parts of which completed my .32 Caliber 8" Barrel as well as my Olympic chamber Barrel of 10" Length




[img]http://img.photobucket.com/alb...delof1891SecondVariationBarr-1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/alb...elof1891SecondVariationBarrels.jpg[/img]

aaarrrgggghhh...I sure would like one of those to go with all my single shot rifles...

Never have found one that wasn't fetching high prices.

But I did win a Model 610 S&W last night. 5" barrel, to boot.

How about an M9 National Match, built at the AMU (Army Marksmanship Unit) at FT Benning, GA? This one will shoot 10-shot 1.5" groups from a machine rest at 50 yds all day. Very fussy on ammo, though.
Bob



Steel inserts in the aluminum rails of the M9.