George P
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- Joined
- Jan 10, 2018
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Terry Tussey made both of those;
Wiley Clapp:
Tussey built the these two pistols over a considerable span of time. The little .45 is known as a Tussey Junior and shares the same origins as the other, Long Slide pistol. Both are made on Caspian slide and frame assemblies. In the case of the Junior, he used a special proprietary frame once made by Caspian for his use. Terry started this gun in the early 2000s, squeezing in a little work here and there between jobs for cops and other guys who really needed their gun finished. When the little bruiser was done, Terry indulged a whim of mine when I was working on a 1911 .22 conversion unit story............................
Tussey Junior
Restrained elegance in the grips of the Long Slide carried over to the grips for the Junior. Tony Rist used the other end of that hunk of walnut to make panels for that itty-bitty butt on the little gun. The two guns match in finish, grips and maker. Tussey developed the Junior concept several years ago. Noticing that Brownells still had Metalform magazines for the little Detonics pistol, he set out to modify Officer’s ACP guns from Colt to take them. The Detonics gun had a frame that was 0.38 of an inch shorter than the ACP, but still accepted 6 rounds of .45 ammo. He developed a way to shorten the butt and the mainspring housing on one of the little 3.5-inch Colts. This created an ultra short little pistol that he still builds on Colts, Springfields and Kimbers. My Junior came from a Caspian frame that is no longer in production, but was available then. The slide is also Caspian, with a similar menage of parts including a Bar-Sto barrel.
On this gun, which is shorter than a Colt Officer’s ACP by a half an inch in the slide and 0.38 of an inch in the butt, the concept was to go as light as possible. The frame is lightweight aluminum, but since it was intended to be fired a great deal, Tussey inletted a steel feed ramp into the unit. The all-steel slide houses a Bar-Sto barrel, but also works with a double spring arrangement of Tussey’s own design. To get the weight even lower, Tussey fitted an aluminum block into the slide top, just forward of the Novak sight. The gun weighs just 20 ounces, which contrasts rather sharply with the 43-ounce weight of its long slide stablemate. Both guns work to perfection. They are fine examples of the pistolsmith’s craft.
