[Rosco Benson]

Back in 1980, I had Bud Price build a Government Model for me. Bud was a real artist in steel and the pistol was great, but it had a couple stylistic things that came to bug me. First, Bud mounted his low-mount Bomars really LOW. The top of the sights body was even with the top of the slide. This resulted in a shorter front sight than I grew to prefer. The other apsect of the pistol that I came to dislike was the beavertail. The pistol was fitted with one of the DOWN-swept beavertails of circa 1980. Years later, upon feeling a proper up-swept beavertail, this became an annoyance.

Bear in mind that these "nit-picks" of a great pistol came about over years of use. I had Don Schaaf replace the beavertail with an Ed Brown unit around 1990 or so. Don welded up the frame and did his typically excellent job of fitting the beavertail.

I finally decided to do something about the sights. I picked up a like-new Series 70 slide and sent the whole outfit to Brian Bilby. The plan was to have Brian fit the slide with Heinie SlantPro's and a match barrel and mate it to my frame. Brian died before he could get to the work and, through the great efforts of Brian's friend, Greg Kennedy, my frame, slide, and parts were returned to me.

Having heard many good things about Evolution Gun Works (EGW), I asked them to take on the project. They did and I got the finished pistol back last week. To say I am delighted is an understatement.

EGW had fitted the slide to the frame, fitted one of their match barrels and bushings, lowered and flaired the ejection port, and installed the Heinie SlantPro rear and cross-dovetail front sights.(I specified the Heinie SlantPro model that fits a "Novak" slide cut). EGW also took care of various polishing, chamber reaming, and other reliability-enhancing task. To top it off, EGW did a tasteful and subtle carry bevel on the slide, which matched well with the pre-existing light dehorn of the frame.

It shoots great and runs well. The EGW team took great care to get things right. Mike, from EGW, called me upon receipt of the gun and made sure that we were in accord on the work specified in my letter of instructions. EGW's George Smith called when the pistol was completed, to make sure that everything was as expected.

I think our pal Brian Bilby would have been pleased with how the project turned out under the care of EGW. I know I am.

Rosco

 

[Terry Thompson]

Rosco,

Sounds like a nice setup. How about some pictures?

 

[eerw]

Roscoe,

I am glad you are pleased. George and his crew have built one gun in my collection and I found them to be very professional, friendly and timely. They now have two more of my guns in their shop. Like all great pistol/gunsmiths they have a backlog, I think George last told me they have over 100 full house competition and carry guns to build. George seems to know his stuff about 9x23 too as I have had several conversations with him (via email) and I feel comfortable with his views on the cartridge.
Now how about some photos :smile:

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: eerw on 2001-04-19 13:07 ]</font>

 

[EGW]

Hi Rosco
Thank you for your kid words!
Brian is missed to be sure.
and thank you for the work.
Brians friend did a lot of work helping
clean things up, I am sure he apreciates
it.

geo ><>

 

[G. Kennedy]

I would just like to say that Brian himself had EGW do various machining work for him (Sight cuts, machine checkering, etc)and was, to my knowledge, NEVER dissatisfied with their work and always talked about their excellent turnaround time and prices that were reasonable.

I know other shooters in my small circle of match friends that have done business with EGW and they say the same that Brian did...

When I handled shipping the guns back to people after Brian's untimely demise I had to contact EGW on a couple occasions since Brian at the time had parts there to be worked on. George and his crew were very helpful with me on this and I would like to now publicly say THANK YOU to them. They made what I had to wade through that much easier.......

Even though this is a thread about EGW I would also like to say THANK YOU to Gary and everyone at Caspian for their help also at that time.....

It is people like this that make my interest in firearms and shooting worthwhile. In the future I will call Caspian for a frame and slide if I'm looking to build a gun and send it to EGW for machining work if that's necessary. Both of these companies do QUALITY work and give great service for a good price. It also helps to know they care about the people in the industry and the shooters.

Thanks again, Gregory Kennedy

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: G. Kennedy on 2001-04-29 20:50 ]</font>

 

[Guest]

George Smith and crew at EGW enjoy a very positive and well received reputation here in PA and the east Coast and if you know anything about the PA area you should now that is a tough thing to accomplish as it seems a new “super” smith pops up every day. I believe EGW has been here for 10 years now with a solid local reputaion.
George has done some work for me that demonstrated some very high quality machine work and he is currently working on several guns for me and I anxiously await their completion, I look forward to posting some very good pics here on the board with my EGW and Garrity combinations.
I should also let the HK fans know that George is an aficionado as well (we share an affinity for the PSG1) and I have found him to be very helpful and knowledgeable often answering my never ending series of gunsmith questions by email late into the night.
EGW does some great Glock mods including a really sweet Bomar low mount into the Glock slide.

Here is the link to the EGW sight http://www.egw-guns.com/.