I like listening to opera music while working on my guns. My favorite opera composer is Giacomo Puccini, but today I chose a German opera Der Freischutz by Carl Maria von Weber. This opera has everything we love – guns, shooting, hunting, marksmanship competitions and even bullet casting!
My choice of the music was based on the origin of the piece on my bench today. It’s not even a complete gun, it’s just a top half of it. Designed by German engineer Peter Spielberger and marketed in the US by Hogue Grips, it’s a fixed barrel conversion for 1911 and 2011 pistols. It was produced for a very short period of time in early 2000s and is a perfect example of what I call “the German engineering” or “the dark Teutonic genie”.
I started with the partial disassembly of the unit for cleaning. The internals are nothing like standard 1911 parts, everything is different. That recoil spring is massive (did I mention that pulling the slide even on already cocked hammer requires a significant amount of force?). The special tools are provided, my kit came complete with the tools, manual and box.
The manual also contains instructions for complete disassembly of the unit, but I’m not ready for it yet, there are way too many small parts there. Maybe one day…
I haven’t shot it yet, but according to others, the recoil is minimal and feels differently, more like a revolver.
More information can be found here: http://dave2.freeshell.org/1911/hogue1/hogue1.htm
UPDATE 1: I fired a couple magazines this morning. Well, all they say about the recoil is true – it feels like shooting a .32 revolver – very light and very short impulse and follow through is very easy. The gun had no problems cycling even with my anemic 200gr LSWC over 3.7gr BE load.
A couple of downsides – first, pulling the slide even when the hammer is cocked is not for the weak, one has to eat a two or three cans of spinach first. Second, the front sight is fiber optic and is not removable, so I probably need to make an insert from a small drill rod or gauge pin and paint it black.
UPDATE 2: Turns out the design is from Austria, not Germany. Well, then, Mozart it is, Die Zauberflöte:
Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja –
stets lustig heißa hopsasa!
Ich Vogelfänger bin bekannt
bei Alt und Jung im ganzen Land
Very cool. I remember reading about the Avenger, but never saw one for sale. I hoped it would be successful. It seemed like it could be a very accurate gun.