Sep/Oct - uspsa

WILSON COMBATTwenty years ago, combatpistol competition was justemerging as an exciting newshooting sport. No one knewwhat the future had in store.In fact, 1976 was the year BillWilson of Wilson Combat'mfirst heard of this excitingnew type of competition takingplace at the Midwest PracticalPistol League in Columbia,Mo.Bill loved shooting, so hegrabbed his Browning Hi Powerand drove 250 miles from hishome in Berryville, Ark., to hisfirst practical pistol match.You have to remember thatthis was when IPSC was in itsinfancy and USPSA had not yetbeen founded. In those days,your only other options for competitionwere bullseye and PPC.Needless to say, Bill Wilsoncame out of his first matchhooked on practical shooting.At his second match, Billshot a Colt Python, since thatmatch didn't require a reload.But it was the third match,when Bill used a stock "out ofthe box" Colt Governmentmodel, that he learned a valuablelesson that most experiencedshooters take for grantedtoday. "Most 1911 Autos are notreliable out of the box."The .45choked, sputtered, and basicallydied in its first match.This embarrassing experiencewas one that Bill did notwish to repeat, so he sent thepistol off to a big name pistolsmithto improve its performance.When the pistolcame back, Bill was still verydisappointed with its reliabilityand sold it shortly after. It wasat that point that he decided totry his hand at customizing hisown gun. After all, he had beentrained as a jeweler and watchThese are a few of the items in Wilson's new line of leather goods.maker, which gave him a feelfor fitting small precision parts.He discovered that he was ableto turn out a 1911 Auto thatwas highly reliable, accurate,Bill Wilson now spends much of histime developing and testing new productswhile his five full-time pistolsmithstake care of the customwork.and handled well. Bill's fellowshooters saw his work and thenext thing he knew, he wasmodifying 1911's for other practicalshooters. He continued hisshooting career while he andhis wife, Darla, opened Wilson'sGun Shop, now called WilsonCombat.This humble beginning ofWilson Combat has lead to along series of innovative customcomponents, and an unparalleledrecord of USPSA Championshipswon with Wilson gunsin the hands of such shootinglegends as Rob Leatham, BrianEnos, and Jerry Barnhart. Today,Wilson Combat is a multimilliondollar company withmore than 30 employees and anewly expanded 11,000 squarefoot facility. Bill Wilson nolonger does the custom pistolsmithinghimself; that is leftin the capable hands of his fivefull-time pistolsmiths with anaverage of 11 years experienceeach. Instead, he divides histime between his duties as thepresident of Wilson Combatand his work developing andtesting new products.The amazing thing aboutBill is that after 18 years andmore than 300 parts for the1911 Auto, he still has the samePage 10 September/October 1996