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I had a great conversation with Mr. John Harrison regarding a custom build and I found him to be a true gentleman of the highest order. As someone else so eloquently put, Chicks dig him too!!

We discussed among other things the difficulty of using multiple barrels in a single slide, specifically as regards to both fitting and altered point of impact. With the ejector being essentially the same on 9mm/.38 and 40/10, a multislide gun is definitely feasable. Personally, I would like to have a gun in 9X23 and 10mm, but additional barrels and slides could be fit in 357sig, 38super, 9mm, and 40.

How many of you would consider a single frame with 2 or three slides in your favorite caliber versus having several guns built all on different frames with all the labor that goes in to fronstrap/trigger/MSH blending/beavertails, etc.?

CDJH=chicks dig John Harrison

I have an STI built by Johnny Lim that came with two top ends, both in .40 "S&W. One is for Limited class competition and the other for IPSC Open or Standard. I have only switched tops a few times. I would really rather get another STI frame and fit the one of the top ends to it and have two guns.

I'm with bdavis385 on this one ... rather have a complete gun in each caliber. The efficiency of interchangability on a common platform just makes too much sense for me. As a long-time British friend of mine says about "us" people ... "retched American excess!"

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"When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation." ~Alexander Hamilton

For me it would be a set of 1 each 4", 5" and 6" and maybe one more 6" plus with a compensator all 10mm.

But it would be a luxury set not an economy move and so I'll never bother. As a practical matter I don't think there's enough difference between the different cartridges mentioned to matter.

Legalities might make a difference to beat a one gun law. Mel Tappan survivalist style gear having the ability to shoot whatever ammunition can be found post disaster seemed like a good idea to me at the time - I hear the H&K four caliber pistol - .22/.25/.32/.380 - was a popular spook gun to beat laws and satisfy unusual ammunition needs in one pistol but that will never apply to me.

I leave even my .22 Service Ace Conversion on a dedicated understudy with my favorite changes and the .45 auto top end in the box.

I can't believe there's no picture of this gun. I keep hearing that chicks dig John, I think this one does. Maybe John is building her a gun as we speak. If you don't recognize her, that's Jill Wagner aka the Mercury Mariner Girl. She's a gun owner, in an interview she said she has a Kimber Raptor, a Colt and a Ladysmith S&W.

What gun?

I used to think that getting one 1911 and fitting different slides, barrels and ejectors was the thing to do. There was one guy I read about a few years back that did one 1911 with four slides and had twenty-some calibers. When I got into the 1911 I was going to do a similar thing but as I got into it more and understood more about it's functioning I chose to go the "more guns" route. It just makes more sense to me. Now a switch barrel gun like a 9x23 Win with a 9mm barrel still makes a lot of sense.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you are going for a custom built, close to perfection gun as possible, there could be issues. Think about barrel fitting. If you have to modify the barrel bed for timing the barrel you cannot alter the frame's barrel bed to fit the barrel without affecting the other barrel so you will have to do all of your alterations to the parts that are interchanged. So while this may not be too much of an issue with two barrels, what about with four? Or if you fit another slide you have to deal with slide to frame fit and do it all on the "new" slide lest you alter the original slide/frame fit. Obviously it can be done and I would think could be done close to perfection as a single barrel/slide gun but it may involve a lot more fitting on the part of the smith to keep them both "perfect."

As stated above, in certain locales it may be worthwhile. In certain countries with limited number of guns allowed per person. There are cases are to make for it and against it. The bottom line is that it is your money so spend it how you like. I am certain that the multitude of talented smiths here can make it happen, but for me the decision was to own sixteen or so 1911s. Three down, thirtenn to go.

A guy I used to shoot IDPA and USPSA with had a SVI fitted with 2 slides in three different calibers (9mm, 38 Super and .45).

This was before Sandy came out with the whole interchangeable breech face thing.

I have an interchangeable breech face SV in .40, but I've never taken the breech face out. I have about 35 to 40 thousand rounds through the gun.

I won't buy an SV slide with an interchangeable breech face again, there's just a little something that spooks me about them.

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