[keith e herrington]

In 1986 or 87 I was introduced to Charlie Wilson, the senior gunsmith at the Quantico's Precision Weapons Section (PWS). Below are pictures of the gun Charlie built for a close friend of mine. The rounded or "Bobcat" butt was added a few years later, prior to Gulf I. At that time the MEUSOC 1911 specifications had not been solidified, but did follow a specific pattern. Minus the Bobcat butt, this gun reflects exactly what PWS was building for issuance to the fleet.

 

[keith e herrington]

This particular gun went from the gentleman for which it was built to another friend who carried it in Kosovo, Somalia and Gulf I. At the time he was one of if not the leading Counter Terrorism analyst for Defense Intelligence. Charlie Wilson built the gun using many of the same techniques that he built match winning 1911s. Hard fit BarSto stainless match barrel, bushing and link, in a National Match slide, carefully fit to a 1943 vintage Government frame. Apparently, PWS had been offered a slug of these frames by the Army and wasted no time in taking them up on the offer.

 

[keith e herrington]

The front sight is silver soldered on, not just staked. The finish is run of the mill parkerizing that has seen a whole heck of a lot of wear. The gun was well maintained but since most of its operational life was in the Sandbox, run dry for the most part. When I disassembled it for pictures, I found the fit to still be remarkably tight and free of slop.

 

[keith e herrington]

You'll notice the magazine well is not chamferred. I specifically asked Charlie as to why and his reply was that if the operator did his part properly, chamferring was not necessary. In Charlie's opinion, it also helped keep crud out of the action. Charlie did the Bobcat butt just prior to my buddy going to Gulf I. He'd found that the full size butt was just a little harder to conceal and since he operated for the most part using concealed carry, this was a prime consideration. I've done a bit of research on the MEUSOC guns and can't find any definitive information about guns of this early vintage. The Wikipedia article below was a good start, but when you read it you'll notice that 1986-87 is well before any contracts for this gun was ever let by the US Marines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEU(SOC)_pistol

Another article, https://www.ar15.com/forums/handgun...-Combat-Pistol-Updates-to-OP/49-86667/?page=1 was also of great help, but as you can imagine most of the discussion is about guns that were built and issued long after 1986-87. Based on these articles, it seems as if the earliest date for these guns was 1985, so this gun would seem to represent one of the very earliest versions available.