Obsolete Race Gun

[D Brown]

I sold all my race guns around 1997 but was able to purchase this one from my brother in 2007. It's a Caspian 6 1/2" comp gun with hard chrome finish. The gun was built by Mike Watkins of Lubbock, TX and has been sitting on a shelf in pieces from 2007 to just a couple of days ago when I finally reassembled it.

Here it is sitting in my old Ernie Hill FAS-TRACK Holster.

While it's no longer competitive, it's got plenty of shooting fun left in it.

 

[.38SuperMan]

Very nice looking gun. 45 acp I assume?

I had a Caspian 38 super race gun built on the high capacity frame. Wayne Bergquist in Naples built it. He may be retired now but owned Glades Gun Works. It was quite the pistol. It had an Aimpoint red dot but after several Aimpoints self distracted I had a new mount installed and a Propoint put on that. I put many thousands of rounds through that gun and finally cracked the frame. I had it welded and used it for a few more months and then sold it. What a pistol.

My stock gun was, is this 45 acp 1911 built by Fon Farley at Advanced Technologies in Kentucky. He built it in the days when there weren't many choices in frames. I had a mil spec Springfield and sent it to him to work his magic and he did. He turned it into an amazing machine that I put thousands of rounds through with 100% reliability. I kept this one and occasionally pull it out of the safe and shoot it.

 

[D Brown]

Very nice looking gun. 45 acp I assume?

I had a Caspian 38 super race gun built on the high capacity frame. Wayne Bergquist in Naples built it. He may be retired now but owned Glades Gun Works. It was quite the pistol. It had an Aimpoint red dot but after several Aimpoints self distracted I had a new mount installed and a Propoint put on that. I put many thousands of rounds through that gun and finally cracked the frame. I had it welded and used it for a few more months and then sold it. What a pistol.

My stick gun was, is this 45 acp 1911 built by Fon Farley at Advanced Technologies in Kentucky. He built it in the days when there weren't many choices in frames. I had a mil spec Springfield and sent it to him to work his magic and he did. He turned it into an amazing machine that I put thousands of rounds through with 100% reliability. I kept this one and occasionally pull it out of the safe and shoot it.

That's a nice looking gun!

Yes, the Caspian is in .45 ACP.

 

[.38SuperMan]

I wouldn't call your gun obsolete, I'd call it an enhanced 1911.

 

[stansdds]

Not exactly obsolete, but certainly a blast from the past. I was competing in USPSA matches during the time of transition from all single stack 1911 platforms to the double stack versions. I never made the transitions, I stayed in single stack class (45 ACP) until I had to give up competing.

 

[D Brown]

Not exactly obsolete, but certainly a blast from the past. I was competing in USPSA matches during the time of transition from all single stack 1911 platforms to the double stack versions. I never made the transitions, I stayed in single stack class (45 ACP) until I had to give up competing.

I switched and had a double stack built and competed with it for about two years. After that, I had a colt Series 70 built as a 5" Single Stack with all the bells and whistles, including a Krieger AccuRail installation. I still have the 5" gun in pieces at the moment, but it is probably the most accurate .45 Auto I have ever owned.

 

[Gripgrabber]

I only have one race gun courtesy of Bob Cogan at Accurate Plating and Weaponry, Safety Harbor, Fl. Circa mid 1980's. The others are just Hot Rods from Bob.

 

[ameridaddy]

While it's no longer competitive, it's got plenty of shooting fun left in it.

Neat looking gun!
A few questions -
1. in the game you played, what was the purpose of the longer barrel/slide? - longer sight radius? Or just to enable the compensator port?
2. How was the slide extension fastened to the slide?
3. is it not possible to mill the compensator port in the original slide?

 

[gdogs]

I love that the body of the Bo-Mar sight was chromed, but the blade assembly was left blued. You never see that, looks great!

 

[AJ]

I sold all my race guns around 1997 but was able to purchase this one from my brother in 2007. It's a Caspian 6 1/2" comp gun with hard chrome finish. The gun was built by Mike Watkins of Lubbock, TX and has been sitting on a shelf in pieces from 2007 to just a couple of days ago when I finally reassembled it.

Here it is sitting in my old Ernie Hill FAS-TRACK Holster.

While it's no longer competitive, it's got plenty of shooting fun left in it.

I had one like that built by Jim "Mac" McDonald of Mac's .45 Shop of Seal Beach, Ca. in 1988. Mine was built on a Colt Series 70 Government Model frame & slide. Shot it a bit in competition. When I stopped shooting that it went into the safe until I decided I no longer needed it is. Probably should have kept it. Still have the Rogers competition holster though. Enjoy your gun

 

[sigp220.45]

Oh man, I love that gun!

 

[D Brown]

Neat looking gun!
A few questions -
1. in the game you played, what was the purpose of the longer barrel/slide? - longer sight radius? Or just to enable the compensator port?
2. How was the slide extension fastened to the slide?
3. is it not possible to mill the compensator port in the original slide?

Thank you!

I'll try to answer your questions:

1. The competition was sanctioned by USPSA (United States Practical Shooting Association), you may have heard it referenced as IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation), which is the original and worldwide organization of practical shooting. USPSA is the American member of IPSC.

The extension on the slightly longer than normal barrel is a Compensator, in this case particularly, a "ported" compensator. Some of the early compensators were just a heavy weight attached to the end of the barrel. This led to the introduction of the "ported" compensator with a gas port/expansion chamber combination. The purpose of the compensator was to reduce recoil and muzzle rise and thus enable the shooter to get back on target faster. Did it work? Absolutely. I kept track of my split and transition times, and at 15 yards back in the mid-1990s my splits averaged .15 seconds and transitions averaged .27 seconds. The splits defined as the time between shots on a "double tap" and transitions were the time between the last shot on one target and the first shot on the next target. These times were good enough to be competitive in my class, and were from a time when the power floor to make Major Power Factor was 175,000 (muzzle velocity X bullet weight).

2. What I assume you're referring to as the slide extension is in fact the compensator. The compensator starts out as a block of steel that is milled out to form the expansion chamber and is drilled and tapped to screw onto the end of the barrel. The fact that the compensator on my Caspian gun has a profile to match the standard 1911 slide is not really all that common. It takes a lot of work and time to get the slide and comp profiles to match up with just a fine line separating them. This is because the centerline of the barrel and centerline of the slide are not parallel when the barrel is locked up.

3. Yes. It is possible to mill ports into the barrel and slide of a conventional 1911, but it will not be anywhere near as effective since you won't have the weight of the external compensator and also won't have an expansion chamber.

 

[AJ]

The compensator on the one I had was the same profile as the Colt slide. Jim custom made them in his machine shop for each gun he made.

 

[CALREB]

Well, I don't know if it would classify as a race gun. My old PPC auto from 1998? S/W had not come out with a 6" gun yet, but Springfield custom had started making them. Much more custom than a PPC 9 as far as Schuemann bull barrel, tungsten guide rod, grip plates, trigger etc. I still liked the lever style trigger from the PPC9 so I had a lever trigger put in, and the grip plates made it wider like a S/W auto, it's very nice. Like shooting a 380 or less recoil.

At 60 OZ you wouldn't want to get it swinging from target to target. But it was great at what it was built for. Funny my action pistol buddies used to call PPC, practicing pistols comatose. To which I would reply Oh yeah you guys shoot that IDPA, I don't practice anymore, stuff.

 

[Borderboss]

Great looking old-school comp gun. Certainly it would have been used for USPSA competition. But it also looks like the guns that would have been used for bowling pin competition back in the day. .45ACP was the preferred caliber in order to knock those things down.

 

[Patrick L]

I have an old Wilson Super Grade .45 ACP that I used to shoot bowling pins with back in the 90s. That was back when you sent your gun to Wilson and Bill and maybe 6 or 7 others worked their magic on it.

It was already obsolete as an IPSC gun when I had it built ( the .38 Super had already taken over, and optics were well on the way) but I shot far more pins than IPSC.

I'll have to see if I can scare up a picture.

 

[AJ]

This is a Ruger SR1911 in 10MM. It looks as if someone tried to use it for a IPSC/Bowling Pins Gun. It is ported. Shoot well and recoil is reduced when compared to a friends Colt Delta Elite 10MM.

 

[D Brown]

Great looking old-school comp gun. Certainly it would have been used for USPSA competition. But it also looks like the guns that would have been used for bowling pin competition back in the day. .45ACP was the preferred caliber in order to knock those things down.

Thank you!

Yes. There really wasn't much difference in build parameters between a USPSA Unlimited Comp Gun and a Pin Gun. This particular gun was ordered and spec'd by my brother, strictly for USPSA competition.

 

[Borderboss]

Thank you!

Yes. There really wasn't much difference in build parameters between a USPSA Unlimited Comp Gun and a Pin Gun. This particular gun was ordered and spec'd by my brother, strictly for USPSA competition.

It's a great looking gun and probably and fun shooter.

 

[SWDan]

second chance

hi folks, never made it there, but my friends were to crazy to go with. but it goes with the race guns.

 

[A10]

I think a bunch of us here shot the gun games in the 80s and 90s. That old Ernie Hill holster brings back memories! I shot a comped Commander back then. Never did that well but it was a hoot!

 

[Patrick L]

I did manage to find 1 picture of my Wilson Super Grade .45 ACP

It started life as a Colt Combat Elite. I bought it used from a corrections officer who didn't need it anymore. I did a lot to it myself. I did the beavertail, the magwell, and put in a Chip McCormick drop in hammer/sear set, with a titanium hammer and firing pin. also the Wilson trigger and ambi safety.

In 1992 I sent it off to Wilson, and Bill and crew checkered the frontstrap and front of trigger guard, match fitted the barrel and compensator, tightened the slide/frame fit, checkered rear of slide, low mounted the BoMar sight, and serrated the slide top.

I did well in the local pin shoots with it. I also shot a little local IPSC, but decided I didn't like the game. Pins were it for me. But then the pin shoots fizzled out. I kept the gun though.

Think I might shoot it this weekend for old time's sake!

EDIT I did shoot it this morning and it's still phenomenal! One thing, my memory failed; I guess I had the rear of the slide serrated, not checkered. IIRC they purposely matched the serrations on the Bomar sight blade (they definitely match,) so it all blends together

 

[Nightowl]

I love the checkering on the 1911 frames. All the other stuff, like fish scales and stippling just look unsophisticated!!!

When I started PPC shooting, a long time ago, it was only for police officers and was the only shooting competition other than bullseye, that I knew about. We started an IPSC club, which was one of the very first, back when you could shoot a revolver and still be ok. When they started hiding the targets in the grass and trail walking, that was more than my partial color blindness could handle. Back to PPC!

I still have my Ernie Hill holster and belt. I had a PPC gun built from a model 27 and loved the holster with it. I still wear the belt, but it was a closet queen for years, until I eventually shrunk down to it! What great workmanship!

 

[A10]

I still have my Ernie Hill holster and belt. I had a PPC gun built from a model 27 and loved the holster with it. I still wear the belt, but it was a closet queen for years, until I eventually shrunk down to it! What great workmanship!

Those were outstanding belts. Ever go through a metal detector wearing it? Talk about confusing the guards!

 

[Nightowl]

We were travelling to England and I forgot I was wearing the Ernie Hill belt until we were nearly at the airport. We were still unbelting then and I was just sick to think of losing it. So, I placed the belt vertical, around the edges of the tray, brief case in the middle and went through at least 4 screenings. I still have the belt!