Posted: 7/31/2005 10:44:55 AM EDT
| I have a Colt combat commander 80 series,blue.I'm thinking of sending it out for some work.My first choice is wilson's.I would like to hear from the more expierenced out there scince this is my first 1911,and if any one sent thier's to wilson's or where ever.Thanks for all the help. |
| The guys at Yost-Bonitz are working on my Series 70 now. Your best place to look would be Louder Than Words |
| I would strongly suggest you send an inquiry to Don Williams. He's as good as anybody and better than most. |
From the standpoint of function and reliability, you get good service with Wilson's. However, places like The Action Works, YoBo, or Rogers Precision go the extra mile with perfectly blended hand work and flawless machining. For example, look at any Wilson gun other than their Master grade or LTD. They don't bother to blend the top tangs of the beavertail. Purely a cosmetic thing, it should be standard on guns that cost that much. Many of their guns have checkering that was obviously machine cut. Ntohing wrong there, but you can see on some of their guns where there are several vertical rows machined slightly high, and not brought down to the correct level by hand. Also, they simply put a bevel on the top row of their checkering, while the aformentioned gunsmiths go to the trouble of blending the entire radius above the checkering, so that it looks like the checkering "grew" out of the frontstrap. If you're considering a frontstrap treatment, for about the same price as checkering, you can get some pretty unique machined frontstraps, like golf ball or honeycomb machining, or snakeskin. The above mentioned guys do this a lot, and are the best. Also, there is a lot of pride in owning a gun built by any of those guys. I think everyone that is suggesting you go to one of these smiths is doing so because you get more value and expert craftsmanship, plus prestige, by having a gun built by one of these men, and the price is going to be on the same level. As a matter of fact, considering every one of the above mentioned smiths is in that top 1% of talented pistolsmiths, none charge the price that goes with their prestige. |
Ditto. Don has done 4 custom projects for me. His work is top drawer, his prices fair and he doesn't need to keep the gun for years. He will also work with you/is very easy to get along with. Chuck Rogers is also excellent. He and Don are 20 min. apart and do work for each other at times. |