nwilliams
Member
A couple years ago I picked up a used Colt 1911 customized by Richard Heinie and all I knew about it was that it was marked as being one of his builds. Well a few weeks ago I got an email from Richard Heinie stating he recognized the gun and that it was one that he had built it for himself many years ago. It was a very early one marked "RH24" and he asked me what I would take for it. He made an offer to me of either a Nighthawk or another one of his custom builds. Of course I opted for one of his builds and told him what I was interested in. He emailed me back and told me that he was currently building a gun for himself using a Kimber Pro Carry II and said it would be done in a week or so. So we did an even trade, the Colt he wanted back for the Kimber he was building.
Well today i picked up the Kimber and I couldn't be more happy with it. Obviously it is a masterpiece of a 1911 if Heinie built it. What's even cooler is that he was building this gun for himself and not for a customer. From what I've heard Heinie stopped taking orders a few years back so to get a brand new gun built by him is pretty awesome!
On a nice final note I emailed him to ask if he was happy to have his Colt back and his response was, "I took it out the other day and shot it and forgot how much I enjoyed shooting it" and that too me was all I needed to hear to know that I made the right decision in doing this trade with him. I'm glad I could reunite Mr. Heinie with his old Colt and in return I got really nice gun and I have a great story to go with it, this is a gun I'll keep for the rest of my life, there's no doubt about that!
Here is a list of the work that was done to this gun:
*Heinie Ledge Straight Sights
*McCormick beavertail grip safety
*Scallop Front strap
*Flatten and scallop mainspring housing
*Cylinder & Slide hammer, safety and disconnector
*Nighthawk trigger
*Tool steel ejector
*Beveled mag well
*Throat and polish barrel
*Cut barrel flush with slide
*Deep recess crown
*Wilson BP thumb safety
*Wilson BP slide stop
*G10 Grips
*22# recoil spring installed
*Marked "R. Heinie" under serial number
*Marked "RH471" under thumb safety
Well today i picked up the Kimber and I couldn't be more happy with it. Obviously it is a masterpiece of a 1911 if Heinie built it. What's even cooler is that he was building this gun for himself and not for a customer. From what I've heard Heinie stopped taking orders a few years back so to get a brand new gun built by him is pretty awesome!
On a nice final note I emailed him to ask if he was happy to have his Colt back and his response was, "I took it out the other day and shot it and forgot how much I enjoyed shooting it" and that too me was all I needed to hear to know that I made the right decision in doing this trade with him. I'm glad I could reunite Mr. Heinie with his old Colt and in return I got really nice gun and I have a great story to go with it, this is a gun I'll keep for the rest of my life, there's no doubt about that!
Here is a list of the work that was done to this gun:
*Heinie Ledge Straight Sights
*McCormick beavertail grip safety
*Scallop Front strap
*Flatten and scallop mainspring housing
*Cylinder & Slide hammer, safety and disconnector
*Nighthawk trigger
*Tool steel ejector
*Beveled mag well
*Throat and polish barrel
*Cut barrel flush with slide
*Deep recess crown
*Wilson BP thumb safety
*Wilson BP slide stop
*G10 Grips
*22# recoil spring installed
*Marked "R. Heinie" under serial number
*Marked "RH471" under thumb safety
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