Hump Day 24 Hours At Home...

Meanwhile, in transit...

• Briefly, I had a chance to shot one of the pre-production versions of U.S. Firearms' 1910 Commercial 1911 replica. This is a beautiful gun! Amazing finish, exactly duplicating what you might have gotten from Colt in 1910 (I've seen one of the few original 1910 Commercial Colts). I love the bright bluing on the safety, slide stop, etc. — period correct. I was so impressed with this gun that I decided to do a SHOOTING GALLERY episode on U.S. Firearms, which is committed to producing letter-perfect replicas of American historic guns manufactured entirely in the United States. This is a must-have for 1911 fanatics! Remember, y•ou heard it here first...

• A little singing cherub tells me that the military specs for the new Army handgun will probably be delayed a month or so. Soounds to me like the fun will begin in the late fall. The worldwide firearms industry is really gearing up for this one — I'm getting reports of some really interestng hardware being cranked up. I'm filming as much as can — not surprisingly, I'm under a bunch of non-disclose/information embargos...but you're going to be impressed!

• In the interest of fair and accurate reporting [LOL!], Monday we were shootiing a bunch of 1911s up in Fremont, NE, at Bill Laughridge's Cylinder & Slide Shop. Laughridge, in addition to being the 2005 Pistolsmith of the Year, once said in print that I should be banned by federal law from owning a Dremel tool. We had a plethora of current manufacuted 1911s, so we hauled 'em out to the Elkhorn Rifle Range to use up some Winchester ammo. Here's the surprise...the 1911 I shot best? An relatively inexpensive Charles Daly Empire model. Suprised the hell out of me. This is a very nice 1911...fit and finish are on par with any of the product out there. I asked Laughridge, who's probably second only to John Browning in number of 1911s dinked, if he'd had a chance to work on any of the Phillipine-made Charles Daly, and he said yes and that he didn't have a thing to complain about with the guns. LISTEN UP all you 1911 gunbloggers! The Charles Daly 1911s look like a major BEST BUY to me!

• This weekend, I'm headed for the big antique arms show in Kanasa City. My goal is to survive the two days of the show with my credit card balance intact! I sincerely hope I don;t see a reasonably priced .44 S&W Hand-Ejector...or a really nice S&W 1917 Army .45...or a bargain basement S&W .38/.44 Outdoorsman...or...well, you get the picture!