If Armand Swenson were alive today, I’d have to imagine he’d be building guns like this one. I have enjoyed the opportunity to see a few of the “old school†makers’ guns in the recent past, and with the help of guys like Jason Burton, viewing detailed photos of these guns via the internet is another bonus. The one thing I’ve found from both handling such guns and looking at pictures, and this is by no means a shot at older builders, is the lack of well-executed details. These guys worked with what they had and both tools and base guns/aftermarket parts were in short supply. But, they still had class and “the look.†I bet Swenson would have a field day if he had the chance to go through a current Brownell’s catalog or order frames and slides from Caspian. He’d surely use Kart barrels on a regular basis and his checkering would be perfect with the newer files and fixtures available.
I got the idea for this gun about two years ago while looking at pictures of a Swenson on pistolsmith.com and was frustrated as could be when Jason Burton posted something about a retro gun from Ted in the works. I thought for certain that it would be a modern Swenson, but it turned out to be the “Modern Pachmayr Combat Special,†or something like that. I was relieved to say the least.
When I came to Dave and asked him about building this for me he gave me the strangest look and said nothing. I was going to build it on a Caspian frame and slide and use “scrap†parts to get it up and running. I’d even thought about having Dave weld up a Colt barrel and refit it just for authenticity’s sake. He laughed at that and said, “Use a Kart.†Then I saw it, the beat up test bed of an Ithaca slide. Dave had used an old Ithaca slide he’d had for ages as a test bed for his logos and engraving and it had about ten different logos on it, but none were very deep. Being a WWII era slide that had seen A LOT of use, I was full of pitting and deep machine marks as well. The front end cuts looked like they’d been done with a corncob, and the sides were far from flat and even. I asked if it was salvageable and he said, “It may be but I’m not salvaging it. Maybe that’d be a task for you.†So there was the challenge. I used a very crude method (guessing) of determining whether the rollmarks were deep enough to save after removing the etching and engraving. I surface ground both sides of the slide and was elated when all markings were gone except the rollmarks. I then used a single line file to try and get the cocking serrations smooth, even, and sharp. They had been cut with the same corncob and were a bit on the fugly side. When I was done, Dave saw that I’d stuck with it and said he build the gun for me and gave me a set of S&W sights to go with it. The rest of the work was his alone. A free slide and sights took a big chunk out of the bill, and some horse-trading got me the rest of the parts, including the frame.
Dave’s work on this gun was simply amazing. It is a totally smooth gun aside from his excellent checkering, and the installation of the forward mounted S&W sights is precise and rock solid. The gun is sprung for wadcutter ammo, but can be changed to shoot ball with a simple recoil spring swap. As are all of Dave’s guns, this is amazingly accurate, smooth, and reliable. The trigger is ridiculously crisp, and all parts are TIGHT. What else can I say? The details are in the pictures (I am no Steve Bailey).
Hope you enjoyed it!
~Jim Keeney
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