[Old Race Guns]

On ‎5‎/‎17‎/‎2010 at 2:36 PM, Early IPSC'er said:

compensator gunsmiths:

Steve Nastoff, Michael Plaxco, Richard Watson, Frank Behlert, ? (sorry, don't remember), Eddie Brown.

Without a doubt, the finest smith in the group was Nastoff---it wasn't even close, second was Watson.

In the very early days (pre-76 Columbia conference) the three finest pistolsmiths acknowledged as first echelon were Armand Swenson, Jim Hoag, and the Pachmayr shop. Almost EVERY top shooter shot one of these and virtually every top tourney was won with one. In the late 70's and very early 80's a second and third tier of smiths started to materialize. The only ones left in the business today were third tier in those days (Wilson, Baer and Brown). The second tier were guys that built guns as functionally AND COSMETICALLY as good as the top three---they were Nastoff, Craig Wetstein (ex-Pahmayr guy), Richard Heinie and Don Fisher. Few people remember Fisher---Seyfried occassionally used a Fisher gun and Bill Wilson once said that if he didn't build his own guns, he'd use a Fisher gun. The third tier guys built great functional guns, but if you look at an early 80's Wilson/Baer/Brown gun it's finish work is no where near as good as the 2nd tier guys. The fourth tier were guys like Behlert, Jimmy Clark and Mike Plaxco--all of whom built great functional guns but were pretty rough if you looked closely at them.

 

Nice to see this post, though I am about seven years late, lol. So, beginning my membership here with bumping up ancient threads. Below is a Colt 1911 set from Jim Hoag, which you kindly mentioned as first echelon in this 2010 post. I worked for Jim from 1978 until 1985, and took the pic below on my last visit to his shop in early 2016. He has now closed the doors and is in retirement. But here is a matched set, a glimpse of the work he did during the days when Ron Lerch and Mickey Fowler were winning the first Bianchi Cup matches with Jim Hoag pistols.

 

[Anyone have pictures of Competition Hi Powers?]

Just stumbled on this site, and found this old thread. Sorry for bumping up an oldie, but I thought it worth sharing this image. I don't recall who may have specifically used our Hi Powers in competition, but we built a few suitable for that back in the day. This is the work of James W. Hoag, for whom I worked from 1978 to 1985. Our Colt 1911 6" longslides won the first few Bianchi Cup matches, with Ron Lerch and Mickey Fowler behind the pistols. But here is a Hi Power Set Jim built.