BullfrogKen
Moderator Emeritus
I've been talking about these without posting any pictures for long enough. Shot 'em, had to clean 'em, so I decided to take some pictures. My crappy Pentax doesn't do them justice, but here's a taste.
Both are LW Commanders. The Colt was born a .45 ACP, then underwent a massive sex change operation after I bought it and became a 9x23. It flirts with 38 Super whenever I want to spent the time to reload it and does fine, and has a spare fitted 9mm barrel for practice. Jim Garthwaite did all the work on this one.
The Springfield is a .45 ACP, but the only thing "Springfield" about it is the frame. I built this one myself at Jim's place (with a LOT of help) in a "spend a week with me and build your own" class. It came as an unfinished frame, unfinished slide, all parts were new, and no parts fit. We spent the first day fitting slides to frames, and day 2 fitting barrels. It remains one of the favorite and most educational weeks of my life.
Both are essentially the same. Neither are safe queens. I carry both of them interchangeably, but the 9x23 sees most use since 9mm's are cheap to shoot. As you can tell from the wear on it, it gets shot a lot. And, they are carried in excess of 14 hours daily, except the days when I'm too much pain to carry the weight. A run-of-the-mill Colt Cobra gets the duty those days.
Let me upload all the pics before any replies. I took 8.
Both are LW Commanders. The Colt was born a .45 ACP, then underwent a massive sex change operation after I bought it and became a 9x23. It flirts with 38 Super whenever I want to spent the time to reload it and does fine, and has a spare fitted 9mm barrel for practice. Jim Garthwaite did all the work on this one.
The Springfield is a .45 ACP, but the only thing "Springfield" about it is the frame. I built this one myself at Jim's place (with a LOT of help) in a "spend a week with me and build your own" class. It came as an unfinished frame, unfinished slide, all parts were new, and no parts fit. We spent the first day fitting slides to frames, and day 2 fitting barrels. It remains one of the favorite and most educational weeks of my life.
Both are essentially the same. Neither are safe queens. I carry both of them interchangeably, but the 9x23 sees most use since 9mm's are cheap to shoot. As you can tell from the wear on it, it gets shot a lot. And, they are carried in excess of 14 hours daily, except the days when I'm too much pain to carry the weight. A run-of-the-mill Colt Cobra gets the duty those days.
Let me upload all the pics before any replies. I took 8.
