Two New Additions to the Family

[XD Niner]

I picked up two more members of my handgun collection on Wednesday and had a chance to shoot them yesterday. Both came from Bob Londrigan of Brazos Custom Gunworks. I bought both from Bob at last month's Area 6 match.

I had intended to buy the last 9mm Spartan that he (and it seemed like every other vendor in the U.S.) had in stock. When talking with him about doing a trigger job on it before he sent it to me, I foolishly asked him if he had any .38 Super Open guns for sale at the match. I was looking for a backup to my Brazos Custom Pro SX. As fate would have it, Bob was near completion of a new SX for himself and offered to sell me his current personal gun that he was shooting at the match at a very reasonable price. He offered to get it hard chromed, replace several "worn" parts like the magwell and a few other internals and threw in a tuned 140mm magazine. It came with a new gun warranty.

I took a long time to deliberate and after a lengthy 3 nanosecond delay told him it was a deal. I let him know that I would buy that instead of the Spartan. It was near the end of the day so we agreed to do the paperwork the next day when I would be shooting the match.

I slept on my decision that night and sanity returned. Why would I want another Open gun and leave that nice little 9mm Spartan on the table? It had been calling my name the day before. So I did what any other responsible USPSA competitor would do, drove to the South River Gun Club range, tracked down his lovely wife Ingi and told her I would take them both.

It took a few weeks to get both guns ready which is why I just received them. The SX shot perfectly as I knew it would based on past experience with Bob's work. It was already and "experienced" gun and he had gone over it in detail so it was 100% reliable. The thing is dead nuts accurate as you can see from the photo of the target below. Those shots were from 15 yards.

The final two photos below show my Brazos open gun family. Unfortunately, the 5-inch SC at the bottom will be going to a new home soon. My wife said it was either the gun or me.

I had slathered the Spartan with Slide Glide #1 the night before. That may have been a mistake because the gun was very tight out of the box. I had a devil of a time just getting the barrel bushing loose. In hindsight, I should just have used FP-10 for the first outing since I had three stovepipes in the first 10 rounds or so. I only had a couple of more as I put the first 50 rounds through it so I suspect this is a break in issue and nothing more.

The trigger felt great after Bob had done his magic and the holes from the first three shots from 7 yards were covered with a single paster. The sights were way off vertically but that was easily adjusted and it was hitting right at my point of aim a few minutes later. It is a ton of fun shooting a 9mm in a 1911 frame.

At the moment, I'm just going to use the Spartan for range plinking but may add a magwell soon. I've ordered some Tripp mags for it and will install a 9# spring as soon as I can. In the meantime, I'm just going to have some fun with it.

Edited May 28, 2010 by XD Niner

[RickyH]

Nice Now you can shoot SS