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Gents, here is all the secret info on this job. In the late 60s or early 70s haveing been doing a great deal of work for Law Enforcement on a local, state and Fed level my sights kept trying to see something new for this field. As I was a great admirer of the Brng Hi Pwr, I decided to build a mini for concealment and the fact that it would hold 10 and one 9mm was certainly exiting. Famous writer Mason Williams and friend kept egging me on with a promise to do a great feature on it.After I cut one inch from the slide, I squared the end and threaded it .687 32 tpi for the bushing I designed for it. The OD of the bushing was made to contour with the slide. I soldered a plug in the recoil s[ring hole in the slide with a hole to take the extended guide rod. This guide rod and the barrel were ccut to extend out of the bushing about 1/16 in. This unique screw in bushing was a first for this pistol. I turned a bead on the end of the bbl 1/4 in in from the end, which fit snugly in the bushing but easily moved like aaan S&W 52. All this was the easy part

The receiver mods took aaaaaaaalot more thinking. I wanted to cut 3/4 in from the butt thus allowing for the 10 rounds in mag. Problem was where to cut. I finally scribed two lines parallel to the rails. One line just above the crossbar at the bottom and then 3/4 in up. Leaving the bottom to move up because in ccontained the sear spring and hammer spring cavity. After cutting this out both surfaces were ground and the sides beveled to take the weld . I also made a brass filler to keep the pieces in line. The finger groove, optional, was a segment of a rind welded in place and finished. I have a good story about the finger groove and will tell it later. The one piece guide rod was a coupling of the original rod and an additional piece soldered on . This maintained the internal spring which held the slidelock down.

The hammer strut and spring had to be cut to suit as there was only 3/4 in on the strut for the spring. I fussed a while with the sear sspring to get the benifit of a little lighter trigger but also reliable ignition.The trigger was modified with a segment of a ring silvered on after millinf the trigger correctly. I kept the trigger slightly narrower than the trigger guard for safety. The ssight on ttthis on was an S&W J frame milled into the original dovetail and into the flat top serrated. Recoil spring were a real problem and it took me up to my friend Louis Seecamp who suggested a double spring which worked fine. I also played with a spring which had a loaded spring plunger inside. Many changes were made in these Minis over the years, sights my dropin hammer sears beavertails etc

Seems as if I had the right idea as it is being copied by some, but it makes me proud.

So there you have it and I have writers cramp.

Thanks for the info Mr. Behlert.

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Tony Barnes
Brownells, Inc

Thank you.

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CT Brian Custom
'Blending Art With Firepower'

Thank you, sir.

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Sic Semper Tyrannis

Mr. B., as you developed this, was there any issue with them requiring a too-low front sight due to the guns shooting low? Wondering if there was a need to compensate for the slightly increased down angle of the barrel brought about by shortening the slide...... or, maybe when you threaded the slide for the new bushing, you changed its position upward to compensate?

Just that I've run into this with Officers-length 1911's, where the barrel "points" lower due to the shorter slide. Novak's even makes a special version of their rear sight for these, it's extra high.

I may have seen one or two of your short Brownings at your display at Second Chance, not sure-- but there was a guy here in town that owned a hardware store who had one, which I did get to look over pretty well ('75 or '77 or so). It did not have an unusually low front sight, so I guess either this just wasn't a problem or you solved it elsewhere.

Ned, I never had the problem with sights. The way I always figured the heigths was to put a rule on the original sighte front and aft. If you follow this angle on the new sights they should be fine. In other words use the original ratio to install the set on the shortened slide. I think that explains it ok. On the mini I still have here the top of the rear blade is 7/32ns and the front is 3/16 to the top of the blade and it shoots fine.

You know,when I had to cut a revolver bbl, I followed the same rule. Put a rule edge on the old sights before cutting. At the point where the sight is to go after cutting and crowning and measure the heigth under the rule and that must be what you require.