| |
we accept :
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Front Sight March/April 199
Titleist P500 Article
|
|
Less than a year after
introducing their steel widebody frame, Entréprise Arms is now producing complete guns.
In a relatively short time Entréprise has captured a siz able portion of the practical
pistol market. Shooters have found their frames to be of excellent quality, economical,
and a good foundation on which to build a steel Limited or Open gun.
Entréprise has introduced four new styles of pistols, all built on
their wide-body frame. The Elite se ries is their basic model, but it in cludes a
beavertail safety, match sear and hammer, and extended thumb safety. It is available in
Government-, Commander-, and Officer-size models. Next up is the Tactical Series for
those who carry a gun for a living. The Tactical guns are completely dehorned and come
with narrow ambidextrous safeties and either Novak or Entréprise ghost ring sights. The
Titleist series was developed with the competitive shooter in mind and features adjust
able sights, hand fitting and match barrels. They are available in 5-inch only in either
.45 or .40 S&W. Lastly, the Tournament Series are guns used for competition, and are
built to customer specs by the Custom Shop.
I recently received a sample of Entreprise's P500 Titleist in .45 ACP.
The pistol arrived in a lockable hard plastic case with one 10-round magazine. An LPA
adjustable rear sight is low-mounted in the slide, cocking serrations are cut fore and aft
on the slide, and the front sight is dovetailed in place. Ed-Brown- style safeties
beavertail grip and extended thumb are fitted to the gun. A match-grade stainless steel
barrel and bushing, along with a full-length guide rod, are standard with this model.
Entréprise outfits its guns with steel magazine releases and light
weight adjustable triggers. In short, they've tried to include just about everything a
practical shooter would want on this model. Well... maybe there are a few exceptions. If
the pistol were mine to keep, I'd fit the gun with ambidextrous safeties and an S&A
mag well/mainspring housing. I'd also have the wide front strap checkered or stippled.
The flats of the slide are polished bright, contrasting with the matte
finish of the frame. Overall, the fit is excellent, and slide-to-frame fit is extremely
tight. I spoke with Entréprise's Lawrence Abbott:, who heads the Custom Shop and oversees
production at Entréprise, regarding the new P500.
"Our slides are machined from a solid billet and we have very
tight tolerances. We machine the frame's rails and then hand lap the two parts
together," Abbott said.
I can't get a wobble out of my gun, yet the slide moves back and forth
without any binding. The bushings are also lapped into the slides, then fit to the
barrels. The stainless steel barrels are button rifled, then honed. Lugs and hoods are fit
by hand.
After examining the P500 I decided to disassemble it for closer
examination. That's when I ran into my first problem. Because of the tight bushing fit, I
had to use a wrench for takedown. Unfortunately, the full-length guide rod was too long
which made it impossible to turn the bushing with the wrench. This necessitated popping
the slide stop to remove the slide from the frame. I reported the problem to Abbott, and
he said that current production guns are now being shipped with shorter guide rods which
will allow normal takedown
Reassembling the gun, I found that the slide-stop plunger protruded too
far into the frame cutout to reinstall the slide stop. Because of this, I had to remove
the thumb safety, push the plunger out of the way, then reinsert the slide stop and,
finally, the thumb safety. In fairness, it must be said that this gun came from the very
first production run, and it is inevitable that some problems would arise. I returned the
gun to Abbott, who acknowledged the problem and fixed it immediately.
These problems seemed trivial once I fired the pistol. Eight different
factory loads from Winchester, Remington, and Superior (see side- bar) produced a
five-shot, 25-yard aggregate that measured just 1.58 inch. My smallest group ran just 0.92
inch with Remington's 185 grain JHP. Groups were fired from the prone position using a
Millett BenchMaster for a rest. This level of accuracy from a production gun is truly
amazing. The sights provided a sharp clear sight picture and the crisp trigger also helped
in producing these small groups. The P500 is as reliable as it is accurate. I ran about
500 rounds of factory ammo and handloads and have yet to experience a stoppage or failure.
Entréprise uses wire EDM for their hammers and sears. The sears are
polished and also include the secondary angle. Abbott tells me that they aim for a trigger
pull weight of between 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 pounds. My trigger broke cleanly at three pounds
with virtually no take-up.
"That's because of our new Anti-Lash trigger bow," Abbott
explained. "Gunsmiths used to solder a plate on the back of the trigger bow to
eliminate take-up. I made my own fixture to expand the back of the bow." It's one of
those things that makes you wonder why no one had thought of it sooner. These triggers are
available as aftermarket parts and will also fit the Para-Ordnance guns. |
|
Back to
Reviews
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
