From “The Churn”, a novella in The Expanse literary universe:
Burton got up, raising a finger. Timmy sat deep in his chair, like a trained dog receiving a command. Sylvia-whoever was singing in the bathroom, the splash of water against porcelain covering the sound of Burton opening the gun safe - pulling out the pistol and its magazine. When he stepped back into the main room, Timmy hadn’t so much as crossed his legs. Burton held the gun out.
“You know what this is?” he asked.
“It’s a ten millimeter semi-auto,” Timmy said. He put his hand out half-way to it and then looked up at Burton, his eyes asking permission. Burton nodded and smiled. Timmy took the gun.
“You know guns?”
Timmy shrugged. “They’re around.” Burton tossed the magazine onto the boys lap.
“You know how those things all go together?” Timmy weighed the pistol in one hand, the magazine in the other. He slid them together, checked the chamber, flicked the safety on and off. It wasn’t the practiced action of a professional, but ‘talented amateur’ was good enough for his purposes. Timmy looked up, his smile blank and empty.
“New job?” he asked.
“New job,” Burton said.
Hello everyone! I’m a bit new here so let me take a minute to introduce myself and the purpose of this thread: I like building guns. It’s kind of what I do. Modifying, personalizing, changing parts to suit my needs and desires. This hobby of mine has had some rather unique and interesting results previously:
This thread will become the home of my next build, which is based on a Tanfoglio Defiant Limited Master chambered in 10mm:
In the thread I’ll be chronicling the work that gets done to the pistol, range trips, problems, thoughts, and just generally how it develops over time.
This gun will serve two purposes. The primary purpose is as a spiritual successor to my P320-based Project Nemesis. Which is to say, I intend to turn this gun into the highest-performing, most broadly capable, do-anything-I-can-think-of workhorse pistol. This gun WILL BE a practical use, home- and self-defense firearm. It will predominantly take up residence on my night stand and I’ll be using it for just about anything and everything I can think of. The gun will not be built to any particular specification, competition division, or pre-conceived notion of what a defensive pistol can and can’t be. When I originally built my P320, I was building the gun I’d envisioned for decades as the pinnacle of handgun performance and generalized capability. This gun follows the same general spirit, it’s just version 2.
Secondly, and from where the gun, the project, and the thread get their title from - this is the gun I envision when reading about the character of Amos Burton, from the literary version of The Expanse universe, a series of science fiction novels and shorter novellas by James S.A. Corey (also a very successful Amazon Prime series).
Throughout the thread I’ll be posting short snippets from the various novels, similar to the one I left at the beginning of this thread. When all said and done (if that ever actually happens) not only will the gun be incredibly practical and useable as a modern firearm, it will embody my current perspective on where I see the design philosophy of pistols moving in the future - hopefully, this gun will be fit for the meaty hands of a quasi-immortal grease monkey in the 23rd century. Oh, and there will be some small spoilers here and there if you haven’t already read the novels. You’ve been warned. For those of you unsure, yes: that makes this a gun inspired by science fiction and fully intended for extremely practical, real-world use in present day. That’s kind of how I roll.
As of now, I’ve had the gun home for about 24 hours and I’ve got some initial impressions. First and foremost, holy chunky boy. I knew a fullsize steel-frame gun would be quite a bit heavier than the pistols I’ve become accustomed to over the last few years, but I love the weight and balance of this thing - especially with the Surefire hanging off the rail.
The trigger is - I cannot understate this - phenomenal. The stock trigger comes with adjustable pre- and over-travel screws, and my gunsmith got them tightened up before I took the gun home from my local FFL. There is minimal travel both before and after the break, and the trigger snaps at what I’d estimate is roughly 3.5lbs.
Mechanically, the safety is excellent. It snicks on and off with authority and no wiggle between positions. The gun comes stock with asymmetrical extended safeties, with a much larger shelf on the left side of the gun intended as a thumb rest for your strong hand.
It’s extremely ergonomic, well positioned, well shaped, and comfortable - for a right-handed shooter. Me being a southpaw, it’s a useless lump of metal on the wrong side of the gun, with a pointy corner that digs into the first knuckle on my trigger finger something fierce.
I can’t imagine this won’t bite me this weekend when I take the gun to the range the first time. I’ve already ordered a set of symmetrical thumb safeties that don’t include the extended shelf, which come on the Defiant Stock Limited DA/SA model of this gun.
The slide-in-frame CZ-style construction obviously means there isn’t as much real estate for manipulating the slide as one might be used to, but the area that is provided is well utilized. The four little serrations on the rear sides of the slide don’t look like they’d do all that much, but look closer:
As Amos would say, god bleep are those some sharply serrated little bastards. They stick to your hand like sand paper and make manipulating the slide extremely easy.
I’ll be taking the gun to the range for the first time this weekend. I received a small selection of various common FMJ/JHP loads to run initial break-in and reliability testing with.
We’ll see how it runs and what it likes and, more importantly, anything it dislikes. I’ll probably wind up buying the Sig 180gr FMJ/JHP combination and stacking it deep, as my understanding is it strikes a good balance between common availability, price, and true potential of the 10mm cartridge.
I’ve also placed an order for a Henning conefit guide rod and Wolff 20lb recoil spring. Both items are intended to help prevent larger-caliber Tanfos from beating themselves to death prematurely, and I’m very interested in making sure this gun stays in good condition well into the future. You might say I’m building it to be the “Last Gun Standing”.
I’ve also got some Henning extended base pads with Grams Engineering spring and follower kits coming for the stock magazines, because MOAR.
There will be plenty more to come for this gun in the future, so if you’re interested in following along please subscribe to this thread. Feel free to post any questions, comments, objections, criticisms, etc and I’ll do my best to reply!
