The United States is blessed with a number of good pistolsmiths. Many take justifiable pride if they achieve recognition as Master Pistolsmiths. When a pistolsmith builds his endeavor into a multi-million-dollar-a-year business employing almost 50 full-time employees and sparks the creation of a cottage industry based on the venerable 1911 pistol, then titles like "titan" or "icon" are worthy of consideration. Bill Wilson of Wilson Combat has entered this rarified atmosphere of special achievement. Before we get into one of his current projects, let's take a quick look at Bill's background.

Wilson Combat's polymer-frame 1911 looks and feels right. The slightly larger grip frame is still manageable by most shooters, except those with very small hands or short fingers.

Bill's a pretty young guy considering that he began working on handguns more than 30 years ago. I can say that because I still think of myself as being a pretty young guy (everything is relative), and I'm older than Bill. He actually began in 1974 doing custom work on revolvers, but in 1977 he started customizing 1911s for competition and, as the saying goes, never looked back. His early work on 1911s led to the incredible IPSC race guns seen in the '80s. He started manufacturing and marketing his own pistol parts in 1981, an activity that remains successful today.

Late in the '80s he again began customizing revolvers for hunting and self-defense use. As a handgun hunter, I was impressed with both the looks of his hunting handguns and the practical thinking that went into them. In 1996 he began making complete 1911s along with custom leather gear, and in 1999 and 2000, respectively, he expanded his attention to include scatterguns and the AR family of rifles. When his focus shifted from competition to self-defense and law enforcement in 1996, he became an instrumental force in forming IDPA.

Headquarters of the Wilson Combat empire today comprises four main buildings that enclose about 15,000 square feet and 46 employees. More than half of these folks are trained pistosmiths with experience ranging from one to 19 years at the company. With more than 30 years of experience in producing some of the world's highest-quality 1911s, Bill is fully qualified to lead his team through example. Even in his chosen leisure-time activities, Bill is a bit awe-inspiring.

The Wilson CQB (left) has a reduced-size grip and frame, while the Professional (right) has a full-size grip and shortened barrel. Accompanied by a good flashlight and knife, both are fully qualified for street duty.

Besides organizing and formalizing practical handgun competition, he is himself a world-class competitor. The guns he builds for these events are not the result of tenuous theory resulting from heavy doses of late-night caffeine but rather the practical results of what has been exhaustively tested on the field of competition. If your interests are oriented more toward hunting than competition, "No worries, mate." Bill has extensive hunting experience on numerous continents using handguns and rifles modified by the talented hands of Wilson Combat's trained 'smithies. But let's get to the subject of today's treatise.

One of the hot products in today's handgun industry seems to be polymer-frame handguns. A number of companies are, or have been, engaged in the manufacturing of such handguns, including variations based on the 1911 platform. These polymer 1911s have wide-body frames utilizing double-stack magazines to maximize the number of rounds the gun can carry.