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 The
FBI 1911 Contract
By Syd and friends
Much marketing mileage has been made on the FBI
SWAT and HRT teams’ decision to use M1911 pistols. The road has been
bumpy and some reputations have been damaged and made on the way. Les
Baer was the first to get an FBI contract, but there were problems. Matt
Gish made the grade but didn’t have the production capability.
Ultimately, Springfield Armory’s production capability won the day. This
is how it went down.
The Les Baer SRP was designed for the FBI's Hostage
Rescue Team (HRT) to replace their Wayne Novak-customized Browning
Hi-Powers. Les and his team of pistolsmiths started with a Para-Ordnance
P14-45 frame (.45 ACP/14rds) and added a variety of custom parts and
touches, including Wayne Novak's LoMount sights and Walter Birdsong's
Black-T finish. Unfortunately, Matt Gish, the pistolsmith who did most
of the work on the trial SRP pistols left Baer to start his own shop,
Gunsmithing Inc.. Baer tried to cut some corners on the delivered
contract pistols, including the use of a different finish than the
Birdsong Black-T. Once delivery began, there were lots of problems,
mostly magazine related. In the end, pistolsmith Steve Nastoff was
called in to correct the delivered pistols' deficiencies. Only 75 SRP
pistols were delivered out of the 250 ordered before the contract was
canceled.
Following this experience, the FBI rewrote the
specifications to stipulate a single stack magazine, which opened up the
field to a whole lot of gunsmiths. In the end, Springfield Armory got
the contract because they could meet the demand and warranty. But they
also had problems. Again, Steve Nastoff was bought in – he was there
during the trials – and Springfield Armory switched from Wilson Combat
to Metalform magazines. The FBI has now increased its order to 200 pistols
a year.
The Springfield Bureau Model was designed for the
FBI's SWAT agents to replace their SIG P226 pistols. David Williams’
team of pistolsmiths started with Springfield's match-grade 1911 frame
and slide, and added a variety of custom parts and touches, including
Wayne Novak's LoMount sights and Walter Birdsong's Black-T finish. Only
Springfield Custom and Professional Gunsmithing Inc. (Matt Gish)
succeeded in passing the FBI's harsh testing requirements, beating out
Colt, Wilson Combat, and several other notables. The FBI specifications
had stipulated that the pistol had to fire the Remington Golden Saber
round accurately and this load proved to be a problem for several of the
contestants.
Springfield received the contract in 1998 because
they were in a better position than Gish to supply the requested 500
pistols per year for up to 10 years. The FBI guns are warrantied to
50,000 rounds, both for the FBI and the civilian model. Professional
Gunsmithing Inc. "...would have been chosen..." if it would have had the
production capacity to supply the pistols on time and warranty them for
the 50,000 rounds.
Unfortunately, Springfield found that it is easier
to hand build a few pistols to the FBI's specs than to actually
mass-produce them to fill the contract. Once again, pistolsmith Steve
Nastoff was called in to correct the delivered pistols' deficiencies.
However, it appears that the FBI has not yet given up on the Springfield
contract as they did with the Baer SRP contract.
Sources:
D. E. Watters
http://www.planetrainbowsix.com/armm/nato3/nato3_manual/secondaries.htm
Thanks to Jake Martens of Indianapolis, IN who
contributed significantly to this article.
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