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Pistolsmith Travis Strahan / Ringgold, GA - anybody know of his work?

SchmittZoid

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Former American Pistolsmith Guild charter member and former Ringgold, GA resident Travis Strahan - notable for his unique bullseye target pistol creations.

I have looked far and wide for more information, but have come up fairly empty. I figured one of the esteemed ODT members from the North Georgia mountains must have known him and have additional insights to his builds. Maybe one of y'all is related to him . . . . .

Anybody?

Inquiring minds . . . . . .
 
Travis just recently passed fron this earth.. great old school gunsmith that specialized in bullseye pistols. His claim to fame were the acculock 1911s which had a unique lockup.. they were very very accurate. The later ones were all tested by Hershel Anderson who still holds the all time best official score for a bullseye match at 2680 out of a possible 2700. He shot that with a strahan gun. Thats 270 shots at 50 and 25 yards with one hand using a 22 and 45...Hershel ia still with us living in Tenn.

Look up the accu-lock 1911 and you will see.examples.. highly prized weapons
 
Do you have a pistol by Mr. Strahan?

Yes sir. I recently acquired one . . . .

Looking to get as much information on it and on him as I can. This is my very first fully custom 1911, and I am intrigued by it's design.

Can you help me fill in the blanks?

Z

1944 Strahan - 01.JPG


1944 Strahan - 02.JPG


1944 Strahan - 05.JPG
 
Travis just recently passed fron this earth.. great old school gunsmith that specialized in bullseye pistols. His claim to fame were the acculock 1911s which had a unique lockup.. they were very very accurate. The later ones were all tested by Hershel Anderson who still holds the all time best official score for a bullseye match at 2680 out of a possible 2700. He shot that with a strahan gun. Thats 270 shots at 50 and 25 yards with one hand using a 22 and 45...Hershel ia still with us living in Tenn.

Look up the accu-lock 1911 and you will see.examples.. highly prized weapons


I tried doing a few Google searches but am coming up fairly empty.

I would appreciate any additional information you could share.
 
Nice pistol. Haven't seen a 1911 modified like that before.


Here are a few more photos.


1944 Strahan - 08.JPG


1944 Strahan - 03.JPG





I finally got the barrel taken out of the slide. Travis sure knew how to do "hard fit" parts. Getting the barrel out of this one was a chore.


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100_4051.JPG


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Most folks assume that block on the end of the gun is a compensator. It is not. It is a welded on barrel extension geared to provide absolute lockup, shot to shot. Is all that necessary? Probably not, but it seems pretty hard to argue with the results. See this quote from JGlenn from post #4 above.

His claim to fame were the acculock 1911s which had a unique lockup.. they were very very accurate. The later ones were all tested by Hershel Anderson who still holds the all time best official score for a bullseye match at 2680 out of a possible 2700. He shot that with a Strahan gun. Thats 270 shots at 50 and 25 yards with one hand using a 22 and 45...Hershel ia still with us living in Tenn.

Look up the accu-lock 1911 and you will see.examples.. highly prized weapons

This gun is a Travis Strahan Accu-Lock built over a 1944 Remington Rand M1911A1 frame. I'm just trying to get more information on how many may have been produced, over what time period, etc. From the internals on this gun, it looks like it had been very rarely shot. Definitely not one that saw a lot of competition.

Z
 
As you noted, Travis could fit a gun up as tight as anyone...The most unique thing about his Acculock system was the front lock-up which replaced the Barrel Bushing...

I first heard about Travis around 40 years ago from an old Army Bullseye shooter, who had several Strahan-tuned guns--He was one of just a few people who could do a proper "Action Job" on a Colt revolver, and I have seen two or three Colt PPC guns he built that were fully the equal of any gun to come out of any shop anywhere...In addition, for a time Travis produced his own PPC Rib & Sight system, which he called the "Mascot".

Member Shrek926 learned some pistolsmithing tricks from Travis, he might be worth checking with...HTH
 
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