Springfield Armory s
Multi-CCaliber
Chameleon
I
n an era rife with modularity, the
salient competition sidearm has
held itself as a purpose-built affair.
The Government model 1911 is
lots of things but modular isn’t one of
them.
You want a Government model in
9x19 set up as a Limited division steel
challenge slayer? No problem, “ching
$$ ching,” nothing a handful of hun-
dred-dollar bills can’t cure. What?
You’re a devotee of SS matches and
only the gamey .40S&W will do?
Again whip out the ol’ debit card and
get yourself one of them too. Oh, you
are also an avid 3-Gunner and Heavy
Metal is your calling? Order one more
in .45ACP to round out your full set of
three 5” 1911’s. While you’re at it, you
better get a second job, as even a trio of
46
BY PATRICK KELLEY, TY-114401
rack grade pistols will run you close to
$3,000 without the inevitable up-
grades.
Another approach would be fitting
three top ends to a single frame. In
days past this was accomplished by fit-
ting a slide with the correct breech face
for each family of cartridges, based on
case head diameter: one slide for 9mm
and its lineage, a second slide for the
.40 S&W / 10mm to include the .357
Sig and 9x25 Dillon, and lastly the
beloved 45ACP and its descendents.
(Semi-rimmed .38 Super is sufficiently
different from 9mm that Colt and STI
offer 9mm and .38 Super as separate
slides – editors.)
An expensive proposition in parts
alone, but one must consider that these
are not slap together affairs. A fair
amount of professional pistolsmith ef-
fort is required to hand-fit each slide
and barrel to the single frame. Along
with the caliber appropriate extractors
and ejectors. Not to mention the three
slides themselves, with duplicate
sights, cocking serrations, etc.
Enter Springfield Armory and most
notably the wizard at the helm of their
custom shop, David Williams. He and
his crew have conjured up a new sys-
tem for the multi-caliber 1911. Dave’s
tack employs a user-interchangeable
“cartridge positioner” to allow one
masterfully fit slide and frame to accept
any caliber suitable for the 1911.
Before we get into the “what-and-
how” of this multi-caliber system a
FRONT SIGHT • July/August 2008
 An interchangeable
“cartridge positioner”
replaces that “radius
edge” as the means of
accommodating multi-
ple case heads. Each
“cartridge positioner”
is held in place via a
drop of LockTite 680
and a light press-fit us-
ing the tool provided.
They are comfortably
removed with a little
Guts of the Issue. At left, the Springfield Custom Shop’s “cartridge positioner” being heat and the supplied
“jacked” out. At right, a new one being tapped into place with the supplied tool. Switch the “jacking screw” and
positioner, extractor, and barrel, and you’ve changed caliber! wrench. A recoil shoul-
der is incorporated into
couple of words about the SA custom Springfield’s Modus Operandi the unit to help it maintain integrity
shop are in order. In talking with Mr. Picture (or just look at the picture) over the life of the slide. The position-
Williams he was quick to point to his and understand that the distance from ers are marked 1, 2 and 3 for the case-
long time crew of pistolsmiths for their the firing pin hole to the extractor tun- head families 45ACP, 10mm and 9x19
part in creating an environment where nel is the same for all 1911 slides. What respectively.
quality goes hand in hand with creativ- varies with case head diameter is the
ity. Each custom shop pistol is crafted distance from the firing pin hole to the The slide itself is not special as this
by a team of specialists that are able to apex of the radius on the opposite side. process consists of a milling procedure
apply their individual talents and spe- This is the key that the collective performed on SA’s standard slides.
cialties to create something greater prodigy within the custom shop (which This makes the concept more available
than the effort of any one master. The include three members of the Ameri- and affordable. While this feature
pistol I received for this article is an ex- can Pistolsmith Guild) used to make a could be retrofitted to existing guns,
cellent testament to that philosophy. single slide into many. Dave told me that “this would be a

July/August 2008 • FRONT SIGHT 47

From Steel Challenge to Heavy
Metal, Springfield’s switch-barrel
1911 is a go-everywhere, do-
everything pistol.
Custom Shop feature for the time be-
ing.”
A single 9mm ejector is used for all
calibers, but extractors remain caliber
specific. Beyond that, it is only a mat-
ter of picking your desired cartridges
and appropriate magazines. The cus-
tom shop will do the rest.
48
The test gun I received will ulti-
mately remain in Dave Williams’s
hands as it is the ONLY one in exis-
tence outside of Springfield’s Geneseo,
Illinois facility at this time, and it is
Dave’s personal pistol. When he of-
fered up that tidbit of information I
was a little uncomfortable about beat-
ing up the only gun, let alone his gun!
“Not to worry,” were Dave’s words of
comfort “go ahead and shoot the heck
out of it let me know how it shoots!”
A Plan Comes Together.
I picked up the pistol two days be-
fore the Washington State Steel Chal-
lenge, where I had planned to put the
pistol through its paces dressed as a
9mm. Since I was match director and
the lead dog on the set-up crew I was
left with only one day to sight in and
get used to this pistol. I had no time for
pistol problems or break-in considera-
tions, heck I did not even snap a photo
of the gun until after it had been hol-
ster-worn from 100 draws. But thanks
to the quality hard chrome and the
supreme workmanship of the Spring-
field Custom Shop crew the pistol is no
worse for the wear. In over 500 rounds
of CCI Blazer 115’s, all I did was lower
the rear sight ¾ of a turn, oil and add
ammo. This gun’s a winner, even if I
(for lack of 1.1 seconds) am not.
Let’s Go .40.
I own a couple of single stacks in
10mm but this is my first experience
with one in .40 Smith and Wesson. In
anything other than “high-perfor-
mance” loads these two cartridges are
ballistic fraternal twins. Most factory
“plinking” loads run within a 100 fps
of each other, and for our uses we load
to power factor so it is all moot any-
way.
FRONT SIGHT • July/August 2008
 STI and SV .40 guns actually em-
ploy magazines designed for the 10mm
length, and shooters often “load long”
to get best results. The single stack
1911 has .40 S&W caliber-specific
magazines available, and two of Wilson
Combat’s finest accompanied the pis-
tol.
After taking a 5-minute detour to
swap the 9mm parts for .40 S&W, I de-
cided to see if THIS pistol needed the
40-specific magazines. It didn’t. I put
a good 650 rounds of CCI Blazer 180’s
through this set-up using five different
10mm Metalform magazines I had on
hand without a failure of any kind. Ac-
curacy, as one should expect from a
custom shop pistol, was excellent. This
.40 cal. 1911 was able to create multi-
ple 8-shot groups of less than 2” at 25
yards from a supported position. The
9mm iteration faired even better, with
many groups hovering at or near the 1”
mark. In both instances CCI Blazer
was the “match” fodder employed.
Just like the 9mm we have to let the
infamous Mr. Murphy take his shot
and test this pistol in competition, be-
cause if it is going to fail it will fail at a
match. This time the match is the Ore-
gon Single Stack.
Had I shot better I could have
walked away feeling better about my
match performance, but over the eight
stages I could not find fault with the
performance of this Springfield Ar-
mory creation. Standards, speed
shoots, field courses and many a re-
load, Murphy had his opportunity and
lost again. I am starting to think I don’t
deserve a gun this good!
Before I close this article I must
mention that this pistol not only runs
flawlessly but is nearly flawless in aes-
thetic execution. From the flat-topped
and serrated slide with “melted in”
Champion adjustable sight to the ex-
pertly fitted grip safety and perfect
2.25# trigger. No detail has been
overlooked.
I don’t know if the gentleman who
fitted this gun’s ambi thumb safeties is
a lefty, but I am, and not only do they
feel good, their operation from my side
is smooth and positive. This is an item
July/August 2008 • FRONT SIGHT
that a number of pistolsmiths fail to ad-
dress and one I notice immediately.
As I continue to “gray” I find my-
self enjoying things I scoffed at in the
recent past, one of these things is
checkering. Pick your flavor 20, 30, 40
or more lines per inch, routinely ap-
plied to create pyramids with lines in-
tersecting at 90 degrees. Dave and
crew have created what he refers to as
“diamond plate checkering.” A visu-
ally new and effective pattern that is
the result of cutting lines that intersect
at 60 degrees. This pattern is applied to
both the front strap and main spring The Guardian Angel®
housing and I like it. If I had to pick launches an extremelyy p
powerful
non-lethal inflammatory agent at
something I didn’t like it would be the 90 MPH.
MPH The solution instantly
grip panels. They certainly rank high incapacitates an assailant.
for style points but were a little too ag-
gressive. I had to change them out as
the shooting progressed to protect my
"sensitive” hands.
It would be foolish to expect a
hand-fitted multi-caliber single stack to
be an inexpensive proposition. They
are not, but to my thinking they are
reasonable. While it would take about Rimfire Target Conversion Kits™
$4,000 to duplicate Dave’s personal fit most brands of 1911 pistols.
Installation takes one minute without
shooter, a less feature-laden base tools. Adjustable sight is included.
model complete in 9, .40 and .45 can
be had for around $2,700. You could
easily pay that for a single caliber gun
with a few extra touches. Remember
these are full-house Custom Shop
pieces and are built to standards not
available outside of a skilled pistol-
smith’s shop.
Deadline and time constraints pre- The Kimber Custom Shop
p™
vent me from performing any mean- offers premium 1911 night sigh
sights
sights,
ingful testing of the .45ACP version of magazines,
azines, grips, performance
parts and refinishing in the
this pistol, but I would expect an equal high-tech KimPro II ® process.
measure of success to that of the 9 and
.40 editions. In my mind the ultimate
examination is within the crucible of mP ® Tac-Mag®
KimPro
Kim
The ultimate .45 ACP
The
competition. This is where this multi- magazine
maag for any brand of
caliber chameleon can change its color mil-spec
miil-s full size or compact
faster than we can change games. 1911.
1991 Three quick-change
bases.
baase Stainless steel with
There is much to be gained from Teflon-coated
Teefl follower.
this pistol as I believe there is more
truth than lore to the adage "beware For more information
infor
inf or on Kimber products,
the man who shoots but one gun; he ple
please send $2 to:
probably knows how to use it." This @^bWZg!9Zei#&*+
multi-caliber Chameleon from Spring-
DcZAVlidcHigZZi!Ndc`Zgh!CN&%,%*!
XVaa-%%--%"')&-dgk^h^i
field Armory could certainly be that lll#`^bWZgVbZg^XV#Xdb
gun!
Guardian Angel products not to be sold to minors or where prohibited by law.
© 2008 Kimber Mfg., Inc. All rights reserved.
49