Thursday, January 20, 2011

What's New for 2011?

This year Pistol Dynamics II celebrates a full decade of doing business in Florida together with the 100th anniversary of the 1911. It also marks over 35 years of Paul’s personal involvement with the 1911 and variants. We’re extremely thankful to all our customers, friends and supporters who have helped us over the years to develop into the unique custom handgun manufacturer we are today. We’ve done a significant amount of product development over the years and proven concepts that have culminated in us being a leader in 1911 innovation. We’ve kept abreast of the market and the desires and expectations that go with it. We’re fortunate and proud to have earned the respect of many individuals in the armed forces and LE communities who have chosen to use our guns. Some of these people have gone out of their way to provide us with valuable input, T&E and many other things that have brought our pistols to the level they are today. Visionary collectors have allowed us to build ‘dream’ guns that under normal circumstances would be out of the realm of for a small gun business such as ours. All of the aforementioned have paved the way to our future in the business and the calculated decisions we’ve made regarding our philosophy moving forward. We need to react to changing markets and customer expectations and do what is needed to sustain through these challenging economic and political times. Our strategy for the future requires us to make targeted adjustments to our product line and the way we do business. Our revamped website for 2011 will be up-loaded shortly to outline our revised policies and offerings and our blog will be the source for up to the minute info on all matters pertaining to Pistol Dynamics on a continual basis. We thank you all for your continued support and look forward to introducing you to our next level of custom and performance based 1911’s (as well as some other things you may not have expected from us).


The Good News

New for 2011:

This year we are introducing our first controlled featured performance handgun intended specifically to the active operator, specialized LE officer and practical shooter. Code-named ‘Super Scout’, (in deference to S-Dave who has been front and center with developing the gun and providing extended test data). The gun is based on our proven custom Scout chassis but configured specifically for the varying arenas worldwide. The pistol deviates from our normal external extractor design in favor of the traditional internal part to ensure ease of service by military personal who are not equipped with the tools, parts or training to maintain 1911’s with external extractors in remote areas. Other than this, the feature set of the pistol reflects our normal quality of build and design. The uniqueness of the package is driven by a myriad of available pre-fitted and tested service packs depending on individual requirements to the extent that the user can practically service and repair the unit in the field should it become necessary and have everything at hand to do so. The gun, magazines, service packs and all required tools and instruction material is package in an indestructible ‘go-case’. More details will follow shortly but suffice to say that lead times for those who really need a fighting or practical handgun will soon be dramatically cut. The performance of the ‘Super Scout’, part integrity and finish longevity has proven impressive. Keep a look out for details here and on our web page coming soon.

Pistol Dynamics Anniversary Gun:

Yes, we are offering a very short run of hand made 100th Anniversary 1911’s. Details on our Retro-Mod Super 38’s and 45ACP’s with special serial numbers will be released shortly. The pilot gun is due for unveiling at the end of January. The project is not a re-hash of an existing model, the pistols and all major components are to be custom made by Paul exclusively.

Signature Guns:

Paul is committed to continue hand building heirloom and one-off pistols by hand in the traditional method. He is one of, if not the only, first generation custom 1911 builder remaining in business to be actively constructing custom handguns on a personal basis. As he notes “all the others smartened up long ago”. However, many of the unique designs and features you see on our pistols today came from concept guns and we will continue to build these in limited quantities for discerning customers.

Combat Specials.

Signature Combat Special will remain a staple at Pistol Dynamics with the Combat Special Classic II and the Combat Special Evolution being offered on PD chassis only. We have added a 4” ISS compact Combat Special Evo in 45 ACP built on an Officers equivalent frame. Combat Special Classics built on select Colt 1911’s will be considered on an individual basis driven by the condition of the customer supplied Colt pistol. We will only consider building ‘Classics’ on Colts that are previously unaltered and dimensionally sound. CSC are not available on any other brand of 1911.

The ‘Other’ News

As mentioned earlier we’ve learned some things that have lead to necessary decision-making.

Because of our increasing commitment to branded scratch built pistols we are forced to limit our influx of custom work on customer supplied pistols specifically as it pertains to production based handguns. The cost in man hours to build a custom or performance pistol utilizing a production based chassis to the level of our Pistol Dynamics scratch builds has driven the price of these units to an unacceptable level both in cost and man hours in our opinion (except with regards to Combat Special Classics and certain heirloom projects). With this in mind we are going to take a hiatus from modifying existing 1911’s except with respect to the exceptions listed above. Part of this decision is driven by new offerings previously mentioned, an increase in the demand for our pistols in general and the fact that circumstances have pushed us over our schedules on certain gun builds. However, production based pistols that are currently in-house will be completed as promised.

Springfield based Pistols:

Springfield Armory based X-O and XE models have unfortunately been discontinued. The Springfield GI is our favored production chassis on which to build a performance handgun but the demand has fallen off in favor of our branded handguns. The up side is that this provides us an opportunity to get back on schedule with trailing projects.

Pistol Dynamics X-O

The Pistol Dynamics X-O pistol is now limited to a full size receiver with a 4.5” barrel only. No other slide or frame sizes will be available. The X-O bull barrel compact has been reconfigured and been replaced by the SSC which is now part of the Super Scout line.

Compensated Pistols:

The Revolution comp is sold out for both the Carry Comp and Open IPSC for 2011. Depending on build status and our ability to stay on schedule, the reservation list will open again in 2012. Reservations that were on the list as of December 31 2010 are still active and we will contact customers when chassis are available for final specifications and completion.

General Repairs:

General repairs on 1911’s will no longer be offered. Only repairs on PD pistols and those handguns having been built or modified by PD will be serviced. The exception to this is authentic Pachmayr Combat Specials and Pachmayr Signature Models which we will continue to restore and or rebuild on a case by case basis.

Serial Numbers:

Custom Serial numbers will only be available on Signature grade pistols.

In closing, while Pistol Dynamics has flourished as a business, we have also been affected by the economy as it pertains to vendor and purchased services. We have suffered some vendor attrition that has resulted in us having to search out and validate new suppliers. We have also suffered some extended hold-ups in the skilled machining department that has put our CNC operations at half speed over the last few months. As a result we have fallen back on our scheduling and some of our delivery expectations are going to be unavoidably extended. With the addition of some skilled machinists together with the changes we have instituted this year we expect our very compact operation to get back on track with regards to our project completion goals in the next few months. We thank all of our customers for their understanding and patience in this regard and look forward to being more streamlined and efficient in the near future.