Author Topic: After a long absence... a Unicorn!  (Read 2517 times)

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Offline Scarlett Pistol

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After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« on: December 09, 2019, 05:55:34 PM »
It’s a been a long while since I’ve been on. Long story short... life happened. But I’m back and I snagged another pretty unique compact to get started... a short rail compact!!! Anyone know anything about these? I’m going to make some calls and send some emails to try and learn more.



Ugh... a new development since I left is that I have to be VIP on Tapatalk to post hi res pics. I’ll figure that out by the time this thing arrives.



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Offline ejb1975

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2019, 06:16:04 PM »
I have seen one other of these and was talked about on one of the Facebook pages.  From what I remember, these were made by a European company/gunsmith out of an actual short rail.  It would have been an extensive project for sure, I’d love to see the inside of that thing.  Looks to me like it doesn’t have a bushing anymore, and the grip looks like a cut down full size vs. the properly proportioned compact grips.  The mags would have had to be modified as well.   That’s not much help, I’ll see if I can find the thread I’m referring too.


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Offline Scarlett Pistol

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2019, 06:20:08 PM »
I have seen one other of these and was talked about on one of the Facebook pages.  From what I remember, these were made by a European company/gunsmith out of an actual short rail.  It would have been an extensive project for sure, I’d love to see the inside of that thing.  Looks to me like it doesn’t have a bushing anymore, and the grip looks like a cut down full size vs. the properly proportioned compact grips.  The mags would have had to be modified as well.   That’s not much help, I’ll see if I can find the thread I’m referring too.


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Thank you, that would really be helpful!
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Offline Earl Keese

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2019, 09:01:53 PM »
Welcome back stranger! Looks like an interesting piece of history one way or another! Can't wait to see some good pics!

Offline Scarlett Pistol

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2019, 11:24:58 PM »
Thanks Earl! Can’t wait to get pics and document it.
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Offline Amurr

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2019, 08:49:39 AM »
Sexy!

Offline Mercs

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2019, 10:22:36 AM »
[emoji1786]


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Offline Scarlett Pistol

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2019, 11:37:00 AM »
Google foo is failing me so far. I can’t find anything about these on the internets...
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Offline Psyop96

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2019, 03:28:33 PM »
I have seen one other of these and was talked about on one of the Facebook pages.  From what I remember, these were made by a European company/gunsmith out of an actual short rail.  It would have been an extensive project for sure, I’d love to see the inside of that thing.  Looks to me like it doesn’t have a bushing anymore, and the grip looks like a cut down full size vs. the properly proportioned compact grips.  The mags would have had to be modified as well.   That’s not much help, I’ll see if I can find the thread I’m referring too.


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I remember seeing it too and I think it might be the same pistol. I don’t recall reading about the modification from a full frame by an outside smith/company. If it was, then they must have added some material to the frame grip in the front as the flaring starts right below the screw in the grip. Compare that to the regular short rail in this photo (courtesy of forum member, Blackwatch) where the mag well flare is much further down. With the SN, hopefully, CZUB can verify/provide some history. Very nice pick-up.



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Offline Scarlett Pistol

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2019, 06:56:51 PM »
I have seen one other of these and was talked about on one of the Facebook pages.  From what I remember, these were made by a European company/gunsmith out of an actual short rail.  It would have been an extensive project for sure, I’d love to see the inside of that thing.  Looks to me like it doesn’t have a bushing anymore, and the grip looks like a cut down full size vs. the properly proportioned compact grips.  The mags would have had to be modified as well.   That’s not much help, I’ll see if I can find the thread I’m referring too.


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I remember seeing it too and I think it might be the same pistol. I don’t recall reading about the modification from a full frame by an outside smith/company. If it was, then they must have added some material to the frame grip in the front as the flaring starts right below the screw in the grip. Compare that to the regular short rail in this photo (courtesy of forum member, Blackwatch) where the mag well flare is much further down. With the SN, hopefully, CZUB can verify/provide some history. Very nice pick-up.



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Thanks Psyop96! I’ll reach out to them and see what they can dig up.
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Offline ejb1975

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2019, 08:26:44 PM »
I agree that there would have to be some serious custom work to achieve, it seems more likely than a factory version since they were not known to have been made.  The hard chrome ads to the mystique imo, would make sense if you added metal anywhere to do that as opposed to trying blu again but who knows.  Would love to see some detailed pics so would could maybe figure it out, I’d be happy to take dimensions of one my short rails by the scallops to compare if that would help in some way


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Offline Scarlett Pistol

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2019, 08:32:05 PM »
I sent a message to CZ UB this evening. Hopefully they have at least some information.


I agree that there would have to be some serious custom work to achieve, it seems more likely than a factory version since they were not known to have been made.  The hard chrome ads to the mystique imo, would make sense if you added metal anywhere to do that as opposed to trying blu again but who knows.  Would love to see some detailed pics so would could maybe figure it out, I’d be happy to take dimensions of one my short rails by the scallops to compare if that would help in some way


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I will take a whole bunch of high quality pictures. I’m really interested to inspect the nose of the slide to see if there is evidence of modification after production. That may be really helpful! Once it’s here and I get pictures we can see what measurements would be helpful to compare. Might be helpful to compare parts of the grip are of the frame too.
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Offline Earl Keese

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #12 on: December 10, 2019, 10:01:56 PM »
To me it looks like they removed a section from the middle of the frame right below the grip screw and welded the cut down bottom section in its place. Will be interesting to see inside the magwell.

Offline Scarlett Pistol

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #13 on: December 11, 2019, 11:18:54 AM »
Easy route is a no go... CZ UB messaged me back and said they don't have history that far back. The person responding had something to do with the marketing department, so maybe I ended up in the wrong spot.

I reached out to the seller and asked if they could ask the previous owner if I can contact them for more history. Maybe I'll get lucky.

To me it looks like they removed a section from the middle of the frame right below the grip screw and welded the cut down bottom section in its place. Will be interesting to see inside the magwell.

Yeah, I am really excited to get it in person and really investigate! It should be here on Thursday.
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Offline Scarlett Pistol

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Re: After a long absence... a Unicorn!
« Reply #14 on: December 11, 2019, 04:00:44 PM »
The company I purchased this from said they believe this one was purchased from one of their dealers in Germany. It could have come from an estate, a collector, some individual, or a dealer and they don't know where it came from prior to their acquisition through Germany. This is the only lead I have so far...

Good news: If they really got it from Germany this may be the only one of it' kind in the states!

Bad news: This is still a pretty hard trail to track down.


I am hoping there is some sort of marking inside the pistol that could be the identity of the smith who made this (if it is clearly modified after being a full size). If no such marks exist inside of it then it might be a factory made compact.
"In God I trust. All others must supply data."