I’m genuinely lucky in that much of what I do is building that
special something for each customer. Whether it’s a two-tone Government Model or a classic blued and ivory stocked pistol, it’s the thing that embodies each customer’s idea of perfection or scratches an itch in just the right way. This particular itch was for a 9mm CCO destined to be an everyday carry gun and the only way to scratch it was going be in a lightweight variation.
Since this customer already had a few of my guns (all built on Colts) we had to start with just the right base pistol... so a lightweight Officers ACP frame was the order of the day. While it sounds like a fairly simple need it’s not the easiest to find in the proper configuration. Many of the Colt Officers ACP frames have the “enhanced” high-cut and mag-well bevel. The high-cut is easy for me to deal with and blend out before checkering, but on many of these era frames the factory mag-well bevel causes the front strap to be rather thin at the bottom. Fixable on a steel frame, a potential nightmare on an aluminum frame.
Eventually the search for an unaltered non-enhanced lightweight Officers ACP frame was successful but the right slide was still needed. I wanted to retain the Series 80 parts if at all possible and both the customer and I wanted the completed gun to look like the frame and slide could have come together originally. We needed the slide to have a 9mm breechface along with roll-marks that would be era correct and the whole thing still needed to be serviceable for a custom build. After a good bit of searching I found another 9mm Colt base gun with the necessary slide... basically we took two guns and turned ‘em into one with the result pictured below.
The gun features a Kart barrel with EGW bushing, flattened and serrated slide top, gold line front sight, 30lpi checkering front and rear, EGW machined beavertail, Commander style hammer, rear slide serrations, best quality internals throughout, and much more. For the finish the frame was hard anodized with all the other parts finished in DLC. Even though I am an absolute die-hard 45ACP Government Model kind of guy, this gun has to be one of my most favorite carry gun builds. The pistol is light, has a decent payload of ammo, and
waaaay easy to shoot. I can’t wait to build another just like it.
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