Jul/Aug - uspsa

BY DANNY DRUMMOND, A-36397
1 t all started out as a dream. As
sponsor coordinator for the
USPSA Florida State Championship,
I was thinking abour talcing
all the best, most cutting-edge
highly advanced parts we have heard
about, read about, or got the inside
scoop on and building a gun with them.
Leaning back in my chair, meditating
on these thoughts, I went into a trance
(OK, some might call it a drunken stupor
). I had a vision. There was a
LARGE Boll Weevil walking in front of
me with a sign painted on his back saying,
"Don't do it, its too much trouble,"
then following him was a LITTLE Boll
Weevil with a sign painted on his back
saying, "Go ahead, build the gun!" So,
after careful consideration, I decided to
choose the lesser of the two Weevils.
Don Kemble, from match sponsor
STI International, said they would supply
the frame. Now how could you get
a better start than that? Caspian is
known to have the best slides in the
business. A C:aspian slide is made from
PRO-TECH CO.
CUSTOM
PLAQUES
&TROPHIES
AWARDS FOR SHOOTERS
MADE BY SHOOTERS
WWW.PROTECHCO.COM
2411 E.
Illinois
eb@protechco.com
PLAQUES
STAR71NG
7-10 day
turn
around
AT
1\5.00
660-665-3171
Building The "Prize" Gun
Kirlcsville
Missouri
63501
\#4
FULL COLOR OR
BLACK & WHM
one solid billet of steel, no welds, no
nothing. Just a solid chunk of steel, heat
treated before machining, cut to perfection.
"Gary, I need a full-profile
slide, front and rear cocking serrations,
cut for sights, .40 caliber S&W, and I
want it free of charge." CLICK, and a
dial tone. OK, naake a note, maybe I
should tell him who I am next time.
"Gary, my name is Danny Drummond,
and I'm with the Florida State Championship
1999. We want your slide to
build a gun to raffle off for the match."
That worked better. We had a custom
slide on the way, built to order. What
comes next? I guess we need a barrel.
The "ultimate" gun won't shoot well
without a barrel. After a call to Kevin at
K.K.M Technologies and a talk with
Will Shuemann, their new prototype
barrel was in the mail. It is accurate
even if you use "junk" bullets. I could
use one of these for myself.
OK, I have a confession to make; I
don't know much about building guns.
While on the phone with George at
Evolution Gun Works, he said, "Yes. I
will send you one of my oversize firing
pin stops, extra long ejector, extra hard
sear and massive slide stop, not to mention
a hammer and oversize or extra
long this and that." All the guts, pins
springs etc. I'm really proud of this, except
now I have to call the match director,
Wesley Herrick. "Wesley, I hit the
jackpot with Evolution Gun Works, except
everything he is sending us is massive,
oversize or extra long. Looks like
we are going to have to get out the files
and emery cloth to cut this stuff down
to size!" Wesley assures me it's OK and
that Jim Rose, our master pistolsmith, is
an expert and can handle all the details.
The next day I get up early and try
to find more components to our
"prize" gun. You cannot have a modern
up-to-date gun without AFTEC extractor.
While on the phone with Pat
Cochran, he said, "Sorry, but about 10
other people have talked us out of a free
extractor for their "ultimate" gun."
Now folks, I gotta tell you. I wasn't giving
up that easy. Someday, all guns will
have an AFTEC. I can't build the cutting
edge gun with the old spring steel
extractor. It's a long story, but with the
help of Wesley, we have our AFTEC extractor.
What race gun can race without
a top of the line mag well? A call to Kay
Clark-Miculek at Clark Custom Guns
had their beautiful shiny mag well on
the way. I have had the pleasure of
meeting Kay and Mr. Jim Clark at their
place in Princeton, La. They are just super
nice people. I understand that Mr.
Clark and our master pistolsmith, Jim
Rose, are from the same school of gunsrnithing.
Now we can't have the most up-todate,
cutting-edge technology without
Strayer-Voigt's new tri-glide trigger system.
This three-part system (trigger, titanium
sear spring and disconnector) is
designed to reduce wear, weight, and
friction by using three strategically
placed steel balls. Talk about cutting
edge. I'm proud to say that Sandy
Strayer wrote and offered to help with
this project in any way he can. Between
him and Suzanne and Tami at Strayer-
Voigt, they have been a lifesaver to me
in this quest as sponsor coordinator.
Finally, my good friend Jack Norris
at Practical Shooting Supplies came up
with the rest of the parts, ambidextrous
safety, beaver tail grip safeties, etc. We
cannot forget SPRING() with the new
recoil-reducing guide rod John sent.
Also, I just got a call from Alamo in
Ocala, Fla., with an offer to put a
chrome finish on our "prize" gun. The
final parts we need will be a set of the
world-renowned combat sights coming
from Bo-Mar, and Dave Dawson is
sending his famous Awesome Dawson
mag release and a Dawson-tuned magazine
from Dawson Precision.
Thanks to everybody who made
this possible and good luck to the raffle
winner at the Florida State Championship
1999.
As a final note, because of time constraints,
we had to put a blue finish on
the gun. We will give a gift certificate
for chroming with it if the winner
wants it. My "Infinity" was chromed by
Alamo, so if you want to see a beautiful
gun, just see our website
www.sepsa.com. The "counter" was
made with a picture of it.
38 FRONT SIGHT • July/August 2000