Handguns
creating a custom fighting pistol on a new high-firepower frame 

The Nowlin slides come complete with front cocking serrations. This pistol came with a two-piece full-length recoil spring guide.	The sights are fixed, high-visibility and non-snagging. Tritium night inserts were installed in them

This pistol mates a Nowlin top half and other parts with the high-capacity frame kit from Entreprise Arms, and the result is a very appealing gun

 Time passed, and some months later the handsome pistol shown in the accompanying illustrations returned. It was immediately obvious that Nowlin had gone above and beyond the call of duty in creating an outstanding carry gun.
   This pistol wore a Nowlin slide together with Nowlin fixed sights with tritium night inserts. The top half of this pistol bears a 'strong resemblance to the Chip McCormick pistol reviewed in our January issue and to the Kimber pistol that was the cover gun for the February issue. Since these slides all come from a common vendor (recently acquired by Kimber), this is not surprising. The sights, slide stops and beavertail grip safeties on all three of these pistols are very similar and are suggestive of a common vendor. (Not that there's anything wrong with this. They're excellent parts, regardless of which label they happen to wear!)
   Other Nowlin parts include the aforementioned beavertail grip safety (I prefer this design to those that use a raised lug at the bottom) and slide stop. The latter is "melted" at the front to prevent holster gouging and has a checkered lever and a standard (non extended) configuration. (I have no use for extended slide stops.) The pistol also came with a Nowlin ambi-safety that has very well-contoured levers.
    Other parts included a Nowlin EDM match-quality extended-burr hammer with a matching Nowlin sear and disconnector. A complete Nowlin spring set was used, including a chrome silicon recoil spring, 19.5-pound hammer spring, sear and firing pin spring.  The barrel was one of Nowlin's Electro Cathode Machine (ECM) rifled match-grade barrels made from 416 stainless steel together with a matching bushing. I already had some experience with Nowlin match-grade barrels since one was used in the Springfield Armory Custom Shop pistol that was the cover gun of the May 1996 issue, and I can give ample testimony to their excellence.
    The pistol came with a Nowlin two-piece full-length guide rod. I am not a great fan of full-length guide rods in 1911 pistols, but I prefer the two-piece variety if one must be used. The firing pin was a Nowlin, as was the over sized firing pin stop. The mainspring housing was also from Nowlin. It was made of black plastic and was finely knurled.

The 30-lines-per-inch checkering performed by Nowlin on the Widebody frame was an excellent touch. This gun felt extraordinarily comfortable in the author's hand.	A Nowlin beavertail grip safety, extended-burr hammer and checkered flat mainspring housing were other features of this custom pistol.

 The sights are very similar to those on the previously mentioned  McCormick and Kimber pistols. They provide a non-snagging profile and offer an excellent sight picture.
    Other custom features provided by Nowlin included fitting the slide and frame to .001-inch clearance, adjusting the trigger pull to 3 3/4 pounds and hand-checkering the frontstrap to 30 lines per inch. The checkering helped to give this pistol an excellent, solid feel in my hand. I really liked the way it felt. As with any large, high-capacity frame, the Entreprise Widebody might be a questionable choice for someone with really small hands, however.
    Finishing touches included the name "Nowlin" in script on the right side of the slide, a knight and shield motif behind the left rear serrations and an American Pistolsmith Guild seal behind the right serrations. The slide flats were polished bright, while the rest of the pistol had a satin matte finish.
    In all, I was very impressed with the Nowlin/Entreprise pistol. There was one thing about this gun I did not like at all: I have quite a large assortment of finely boned holsters for the Government Model from top-end makers like Greg Kramer and Mitch Rosen. To my intense chagrin, I found I could not use this pistol in any of them, thanks to that stupid squared triggerguard. Since few if any top competitors or instructors favor the old "finger forward' support-hand grip, I don't think that the word "stupid" is too strong.

Nowlin Manufacturing put together this handsome custom-carry pistol on an Entreprise  "Widebody" frame	A well Designed ambidextrous safety was one of the elements on this pistol.  The Nowlin name appears prominently on the slide, along with an American Pistolsmiths Guild seal.	Stripping procedures are identical to those for any similar 1911-style pistol.  There is no firing pin locking plunger in ht Nowlin slide,  but the frame kit is adaptable to both types

To date, I have had only one extended shooting session with this pistol during a visit to the Insight Shooting Range (17020 Alburtis Ave., Artesia, CA; 310-860-4365). With this pistol, I used five varieties of 230-grain FMJ "hardball": CCI-Blazer, Federal, PMC, Speer Lawman and Winchester.
    Also used were eight varieties of standard-pressure hollowpoints: Black Hills 185-grain JHPs, Black Hills 230- grain JHPs, Federal 230-grain Hydra Shoks, PMC 185-grain JHPs, PMC 230-grain Starfires, Speer 230-grain Gold Dots, Winchester 185-grain Silvertips and Winchester 230-grain SXTs. Three bullet weights of the Cor-Bon +P hollowpoints were tried 165, 185 and 200. I also tried the Black Hills 200-grain lead semi-wadcutters.
    As with most pistols, this one had its preferences. Accuracy was quite good with loads it liked, but groups were lackluster with some other loads. All accuracy work was done at 25 yards. Best accuracy was turned in by the Black Hills 230-grain JHPs, with a 1 5/8-inch group. In a tie for second place were the Winchester 185-grain Silvertips and the Black Hills 185-grain JHPs, both with 1 7/8 inches. The Cor-Bon 200-grain JHPs and the Speer 230-grain Gold Dots also tied for the next spot with 2 1/8 inches. This pistol tended to shoot quite low and some what to the left with most loads. With a number of loads, the "4&1" phenomenon not uncommon in auto pistols occurred. Four shots would be clustered into an inch or so, while the fifth opened the group size up to around three inches. Feeding problems occurred with the PMC Starfires and the Speer Gold Dots.
    Rapid-fire and combat drills were hampered by the fact that the sights were not well regulated (for me, at least). Otherwise it was a delight to shoot. The pistol had excellent handling qualities, and the trigger was first rate. Ten rounds rapid-fire one-handed at 10 yards yielded a score of 100-8X on the B27 center. (Two shots were just below the bottom of the X-ring.) Double-taps from the Weaver at eight yards resulted in most shots clustered at the lower left edge of the X-ring. Unsighted Fairbairn-Applegate one- hand shooting at five yards produced nicely centered holes in the X-ring. Most shooting was done with the CCI- Blazer ball ammo, and the pistol functioned perfectly with it. Shooting the pistol left-handed with the PMC 185- grain JHPs gave me a tight group right at the bottom of the X-ring at seven yards. One failure to feed occurred during this drill.
    Once I get a lower front sight installed to get a good zero on this pistol, it should rapidly become one of my favorites. It has been my experience that the double-column 1911 .45 autos are somewhat more sensitive about what loads they will cycle with than their single-stack counterparts, and so it may be unrealistic to expect a better standard of reliability than what the pistol already demonstrated.
    In all, this Nowlin/Entreprise pistol was a lovely custom gun. Once the sighting problem has been fixed and I have assured myself of reliability, it should be a gun I would use with confidence for any appropriate defensive mission.

Best accuracy was turned in by the Black Hills 230-grain JHPs with a 1 5/8-inch group	Shooting one-handed rapid fire with this pistol at 10 yards, Libourel shot this score of 100-8x on the B27 center.   The pistol tended to shoot quite low.	Using the one-handed Fairbairn-Applegate style of shooting and not looking at the sights Libourel punched out hits well-centered group at the five yards with the Nowlin/Entreprise pistol.