Can someone give the history of the development of the beavertail feature? When did it show up, who invented it, was it military or civilian? There's a debate on another gun forum about whether a beavertail is even necessary or is it just one of today's must have features and is mainly cosmetic.
Link to discussion within a discussion.
http://forum.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=62552
I know beavertail grip safeties were getting popular for USPSA shooting in the late 1980's. I am not sure which gunsmith or gun designer started the beavertail, but it would be interesting to find out. I believe they were first used to reduce "hammer bite" caused by the heavy recoil of the .45acp.
The theory of using the modern beavertail grip safety is to design one that allows the shooting hand to grip higher up on the frame and closer to the line of the bore. Any grip on a gun frame that is held lower than the bore line, will allow more upward movement since the recoil generated tends to turn the gun upward around the grip. If the grip is higher and more in-line with the bore, the recoil pushes more reaward, the gun will not rotate in the hand as much, and this helps to reduces muzzle flip and allow faster follow up shots.
Anyone that has ever fired a magnum single action revolver knows how hard it is to keep a good grip when the gun is gripped at a lower position, which is much lower to the bore line than most semi auto pistols. The muzzle often flips up in the air, and the grip may slip higher toward the hammer due to the recoil.
Not all beavertail grips are alike, and some aftermarket beavertail grips allow a higher hand position than others. I believe the STI beavertail grip allows one of the highest positions to hold the gun. Some gunsmiths will undercut the trigger guard to further raise the grip on the gun closer to the bore line.
Rich, I'm not sure but, IIRC either Safariland or Pachmyer came out with the first commercial Beavertail Grip-safeties.
Jim Hoag had one out early on, as did Safari Arms. The first really high- sweep beavertail was the Ed Brown (to the best of my recollection).
My first was a Brown. I remember the Brown gave you the highest grip at the time. Still love it.
My vote would be Charlie Kelsey:
http://www.americanrifleman.org/arti...-model-1911-2/
Bruce Gray may have been one of the first if not the first to fabricate the high grip beaver tail that we know today.
I happen to be fortunate to own a mid '70's or so Jim Hoag longslide and even though his beavertail may not be upswept as much as the Ed Brown, it puts your hand every bit as high as any beavertail on any gun that I have ever held, including my Ed Brown Executive Target. I see Jim every couple of weeks or so and have opportunity to talk to him about some of the parts that he designed. He also designed a very nifty extended slide stop that I am fortunate enough to have on his gun also. Jim is really the last of a dying breed that I hate to see ride off into the sunset.
I was fortunate to have Austin Behlert share some of his knowledge with me before he died. One of the things he sent me was an old photo of a Govt. Model grip safety that he welded a flat piece of steel to the bottom of - what he called a "spade safety." I don't know if he was the first to make them but it is probably one of the early examples of a beavertail.
Thanks to all for the excellent information. It was being developed by too many different people to be a cosmetic add on it seems.
Jim Hoag,Charlie Kelsey, Jim Boland, Frank Pachmyer, Austin Behlert, and others, were all working on it in the same era. Its very hard in the 1911 world to say who came up with something first without pictures or documents.
That has changed in recent years to say the least. I wish there was some form of archives for some of this trivia...
From what I've read (yes, just book knowledge), 2 primary reasons besides the higher grip: snake bite from hammer due to higher grip and the wider profile spreads the force of the recoil over a bigger part of your hand. If you shoot 100 rounds year maybe not much of a difference, but a few thousand maybe a big difference.
Mid to late 70's, I found a great deal on a second Series 70 that needed a lot of work. It was not a factory gun but something a gunshop piled together and sold me for $130. Pretty expensive for a blackjack.
I remember the gun rags were selling the beavertail, extended thumb safties and slide stops so I mail ordered them and gave the pistol to a gunsmith who worked for our department as a Reserve and had a Custom Shop for a day job. I was interested in relieving the hand bite and speeding up my reloads.
I got the gun from him in working order and I carried that puppy for several years as a duty gun. Still sits in my safe. I thought I got it from Wilson in his early days but these other comments have me second guessing that. I honestly dont remember other than it was in the 70's.
...Kings Gun Works had the beavertails pretty early on, too.
Lord knows which gunsmith actually designed the first hand-made beavertail, but according to an old King's catalog, they claim they introduced their grip safety in 1977 (odd that they didn't call it a "beavertail").
The first one that I remember being advertised for commercial sale in nation- wide gun mags was the M-S Safari Arms beavertail. I got my first one in 1982.
I don't think I ever saw a Safari Arms beavertail that had a really good (by today's standards) fit in the radius. I have no clue what the radius was, but I'd probably deny ownership of any of mine that turned up today.
Quote:
...Kings Gun Works had the beavertails pretty early on, too.
One of King's gunsmith at the time was Jim Hoag.
...I still have the really poor photocopy "template" of the radius that apparently we were to trace on to the frame of our victim (I mean pistol).
I have never been a pistolsmith but in the very early '90s I attempted an impersonation of one and I butchered the hell out of my electroless nickeled Series 70 Colt by Steve Nastoff using a nice carbide cutter on my single-speed Dremel.
After I hogged-out the thumb safety shaft hole I actually managed to make the damn wiggly thing work!
I have to admit I still really like the looks of that grip safety and if there were an updated version with a proper, known radius assigned to it's installation, I'd probably try to get one professionally installed.
The Safari Arms safety has some bastard compound radius that is different from Wilsons. With a lot of grinding and shaping you can make them look similar to the Clark grip safety, which is what I've done on some of the MEUSOC replicas. I also recut them to a .250 radius, which makes fitting them much easier.
Pachmayr had their metal beavertail grip safety by 1978, as did Hoag. While not a beavertail, there are pictures in the 1933 edition of "Modern Gunsmithing" by Clyde Baker that show a grip safety modified to wrap behind a spur hammer.
I got a frame out of a junk box - a milling cutter broken in the attempt to cut it for a ramped barrel left an ugly gouge - with a Safari Arms beavertail. The arm had been cut off to neuter it for a shooter whose grip did not reliably depress it. So FLG cleaned up the gouge and installed a King's which does not look too bad.
FLG once had a gun in for work that had a "spade safety" like Dave B illustrates except it was at a strong DOWN angle. You really had to wedge your hand into the gun. But once you had it, you had it solidly. No doubt meant for bullseye shooting.
There were several people who were making 'beavertails' for 1911 in the beginning. Boland has making his take on it (called the diving board I think), Paul Liebenburg was making a very upswept style while he was working for Pachmayr, Safari Arms was also making one but I believe Kings came out with the first true production unit. Brown was probably the first one to actually get it right.
I think Leibenburg pre dates brown on the High ride, hammer hidden in the hammer deal.
I believe in 1987 the picture appeared for the centimeter gun (personal favorite) So he probably had it 2 years before if no south Africa.
If not mistaken... I might be... Frank Pachmayr was one fo the first ones to offer an extended beavertail with his Famous Combat Special. I read an article about a year ago in G&A about it.
The first I remember seeing commercially available as a part was the Safari Arms. And yes, I had one installed on one of my guns! Around the same time, I also saw the Jim Hoag version, and had one of those installed by Austin Behlert's shop (when it was still in NJ) on LW Commander he did for me.
I believe the Pachmayr Combat Specials were made when either Paul Liebenburg (sp.?) and/or Bruce Gray was working there.
Still wish the Hoag was available...