Been mulling over the idea of a full custom build for a while. Instead I decided to take my Leas Baer Premier 2 and have it made truly unique.


Ok. So as I thought would happen, I added some items and subtracted others. This is the final list. No really...Stop that laughing.

Harrison rear bomar cut fixed Hard Use sight with tritium lamps.
Novak or Trijicon etc front with trituim.
#908 master polish blue 2000 grit.
#202 flat and serrate top of slide. 40 lpi
#212 french borders

It's going to be good looking, practical, and is already dead nuts accurate.

And now the waiting begins.

John Harrison Design

This post has been edited by oak1971: May 29th 2009 12:31 AM

nice. how long is this going to take?

He has a backlog so I don't expect to see it for a couple months. Not sure. It should be there Monday, so I expect he wiil tell me next week how long to expect.

Now why do you wan to customize a custom gun

Should have got a Kimber and then customized it

But it would still be a Kimber. Whats the point?


I sent it out initially, because when I ordered the Baer I made the mistake of not getting night sights. And when you have and adjustable target rear sight in a Bomar low cut dovetail you can't swap for a fixed combat type.

The solution is to design a fixed combat sight that will fit and fill out a bo-mar cut. Harrison is one of a few who make one. So the original and primary consideration was the swap for front and rear night sights.

Baer uses a blind hole and pin for the front sight dovetail. The slide has to be placed in a vise and the 1/16th inch roll pin has to be drilled out. Now that you have both front and rear sights out there is a small amount of material that needs to me shaved off the rear cutout. Now the slide needs a re-finish. Might as well do the frame too. And as long as it's there why not some fancy metal work?

See? it all makes sense.

It arrived at Harrison today. We finalized all the mods and now all I need to do is wait.


Fit and install H-D rear sight to correctly machined Bo-Mar sight
cut

H-D Hard Use rear sight with bar style tritium lamp, for BoMar
BMCS sight cut

Remove existing front sight, fit & install sight blank to existing
dovetail, machine blank for profile & height. Serrate face to 50 lpi.

MGW Dovetail front sight blank

Install tritium lamp in dot configuration in front sight

Serrate top of round top slide 30 lpi

Machine french border at top of slide flats, -w- deluxe interrupted
cuts

Fit Ed Brown extend mag release.

Blend Mag Well to frame.

Refinish pistol in Master Blue (2000 grit)

Federal .45 ACP 230 grain JRN test fire ammo, box of 50

This post has been edited by oak1971: February 17th 2009 6:21 PM

can't wait to try it

Gotta get you off the couch first. By the time it's done you should be up and about.

Custom 1911's are always fun. It took 3 years to get mine done, half of that was me hemming and hawing about what I wanted to do to it, the other half was waiting on custom damascus steel grips (from Wicked Grips), and custom work from Marc Morganti (Gemini Customs). Nothing as nice as a custom Baer, but it's nice enough though. It started out life as a Dan Wesson PM1-S I payed $600 for (NIB) back when they were the best deal around.

This post has been edited by macshooter: February 18th 2009 3:43 AM

I must have missed that one. Sounds awesome. Are there pics?

None of these are great pics. But heres a few.

Before:



After: (This is the work buy Gemini, 25 LPI grip stippling, bead blast frame, install custom match bushing, install new trigger and custom fit/tune)






This one is purposely blown out on the contrast, because it was the only way I could get the pattern in the grips to really show well.



The guy who made the grips (Ed Strange of Wicked Grips) can also etch stuff like this on them. I couldn't think of anything cool enough to etch, but one day if I do, I might send them back to him.



This post has been edited by macshooter: February 17th 2009 8:22 PM

Perfection! I love it!

that is a beautiful pistol macshooter!

Thanks! Marc and Ed do great work. Top notch.


One caviat I will mention for anyone considering custom work, it's best to start with a milled frame as opposed to cast, sometimes during the metal removal that takes place you will uncover some cavities that were concealed in the casting before hand. There's a tiny little speck like this in the grip stippling, hardly noticable, but if it had been larger, it could have come out ugly, or required a lot of skilled (and expensive) work to fix it.

This post has been edited by macshooter: February 17th 2009 9:36 PM

Mr Harrison has started work on my pistol. I hope to have it back for our group shoot.


Invoice

Fit and install H-D rear sight to correctly machined Bo-Mar sight cut

H-D Hard Use rear sight with bar style tritium lamp, for BoMar BMCS sight cut

Remove existing front sight, fit & install sight blank to existing dovetail, machine blank for profile & height. Serrate face to 50 lpi.

MGW Dovetail front sight blank. Install tritium lamp in dot configuration in front sight.

Serrate top of round top slide 30 lpi

Machine french border at top of slide flats, -w- deluxe interrupted cuts

Checker bottom of trigger guard 30 lpi

Checker front of trigger guard 30 lpi

Fit S&A mag well and blend to factory beveled mag well opening.

Refinish pistol in Master Blue (2000 grit)

Fit extended mag catch and machine inner face so catch won't trap ejected magazine.

Ed Brown extended mag catch, blue.

Federal .45 ACP 230 grain JRN test fire ammo, box of 50

Shipping 1 FedEx 2 day service to & from refinisher

Shipping 3 Return shipping to owner via FedEx Priority Overnight insured for $3000.00

Total $1,251.88

This post has been edited by oak1971: April 13th 2009 5:06 AM

Sounds like you are making a nice 1911 even better Oak! I can't wait to see pictures!

Thanks. I hope to have it for the group shoot. He might send me a few "in progress" pics. I will post whatever pics I get and take more when it comes home. It may be another week or 2.

Okay Oak, a week has come and gone since your last post about this. Any new updates?

Talked with John on Sunday. Most of the metal work is done. He just had to finish the checkering on the trigger guard and send it to rebluing. I expect to hear more news in the next few days.

Here are some pics of it in progress. He has not bead blasted and polished it yet.

Top of slide serratons. I don't think he did the french borders yet.



New sights



Trigger guard checkering



Checkering trigger guard



Blending of the magwell