American Handgunner May/June 1977

Above, the PQS barrel and recoil spring. 'The .spring i$ keyed intoplace by a recess and groove at the breech end. Left, polygonalrifling does away with sharply cut lands and grooves,. maintaininga high standard of accuracy and greatly easing barrel maintenance.Spot welding of additional stampedparts to the stamped frame iseasily shown here. Note that thebutt-mounted magazine catch ispowered by the mainspring. Thecatch is one of the many noncriticalpieces made of plastic.box magazine in the butt, a tubular slide with recoil spring encirclingthe barrel, an enclosed hammer, and a somewhat distinctivesilhouette. It weighs 32'12 ounces (empty, 36'12 ounces fullyloaded), and measures 7'12 inches long (4'110-inch barrel), 5'14inches high, and 1'13 inches wide. Yet, it is more compact than itappears, andcarries and conceals quite well. From there on,though, it is by no means conventional in either design or construction.Construction first. The basic frame (receiver) is a precisionpressing or stamping of sheet steel. Final shape is achieved byseveral punching, stamping, and folding operations whereineven the slide guide grooves and ribs are precisely formed undervery great pressure. The hollow shell thus produced is then fittedwith several cast blocks and spacers welded into position toprovide rigidity and seats for other parts, even the cartridge feedramp is a casting welded between the walls of the shell. Otherareas of the shell-rear of grip frame in particular-are givenrigidity and final form by smaller stamped sections spot-weldedin place. Some machining is done after all these sections arepermanently affixed to the shell, and this is most obvious at thebarrel seat, where a forward-facing transverse undercut is machinedin both the shell and the spacer block forming the feedramp.Even after all that, the frame does not possess a functionaltrigger guard, front strap, or back strap. The first two items areformed by a one-piece molding of very tough, black plastic withfinely-matted finish. This part extends from the extreme front ofthe frame down to overlap the lower front edge of the magazinewell. At the rear, it is secured by lips that snap over edges of theframe shell (those lips further secured there by the overlappinggrip piece) and up front two, slotted-head screws hold it tightlyto the frame. The back strap and rear frame closure (above thegrip area) are formed by the one-piece, molded plastic gripwhich slides on from the rear, secured by two horizontal screwsturning into arched sections of the frame. The configuration ofthe two, plastic parts is such that when the gun is held normallyfor shooting, no metal except the trigger contacts the hand. Aconsiderable boon in cold weather.The slide is constructed in much the same way; a sheet-metalshell is formed by pressing and stamping. Again, the guide ribs(three short segments on each side) are stamped very accuratelyinward from the outside, leaving corresponding recesses exposedin the slide walls. Contrary to expectation, the recesses donot appear unattractive; in fact, they break up the otherwisevast, flat, slide sides.A muzzle bushing (providing also an annular-grooved, recoil-AMERICAN HANDGUNNER MAY/JUNE 1977