From: viking@iastate.edu (Dan Sorenson)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Haskell .45ACP semi-auto for $125 NIB!
Date: 12 Nov 92 14:57:02 GMT
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA


	A friend and I were browsing through the gun show last
weekend.  I was planning on purchasing a fairly cheap semi-auto
handgun, and perhaps an SKS since they're sure to be banned soon.

	While looking at this dealer's table, I noticed two of
the ugliest pistols I'd seen in a long while.  Take a standard
Colt 1911 and make it as chunky and blocky as a Glock.  They
had a black enamel paint for finish, plastic grips, flip-up thumb
safety only that is practically flush with the grip.  The
trigger was very far back and a chunk of solid plastic, so it
was certainly single-action.

	"What *IS* that thing?" I asked.  Upon being shown it, I
found it to be a model of cheap manufacturing.  You want fit and
finish?  You won't find it here.  The whole thing is stamped steel,
with machining only where needed.

	So I checked it out. The magazine fit into the well very
nicely, and was perfectly lined up with the feed ramp.  The ramp
was polished to a mirror finish.  The slide was crudely done
outside, looking like it had been cast and then just cleaned up
with a grinder before painting.  No external hammer, recoil
operated, single action.  Trigger pull was crisp but not clean,
if you take my meaning.  The safety really needed to be extended,
but for a SA auto I don't worry much about a safety anyway as I
don't intend to jack a round in the chamber unless I'm ready to
use the thing immediately.

	It did fit my hand nicely, and the built-in beavertail
made certain the slide wouldn't slice up my hand.  The grips weren't
great, but the safety was at the right place and the cast-in fixed
sights were pretty easy to use.

	Price?  $125 NIB.  My buddy and I decided it would be a fun
gun to take plinking, and perfect for keeping next to the bed.  So
we decided to purchase one each.  "Would you like that in 9mm or .45?"
"Forty Five!" we both exclaimed.  The lowest price on a .45 I saw
was $400 for a rather worn Colt 1911 with fixed sights in need of
some bluing, and I like .45 over 9mm so we elected to go for it.

	Anyway, to make a long story short we pumped 200 rounds
each through these guns that afternoon and had no feed problems
even with one batch of 25 hollow-points.  All the rest were semi-
jacketed.  It was consistent in its shot placement, but shot about
8" low at 25'.  One gun has a defective (to my mind) bolt lock
so I'm sending it in for service.  It has a 1-year warrantee,
and there are casting lines indicating a dovetail is in the works
so adding adjustable sights shouldn't be hard.  I plan on asking
if a dovetailed slide is an option, but any smith should be able
to add one for a fair amount.

	What amazes me is the simplicity of the gun.  It has only
28 parts, including pins, springs, and levers.  One pin
allows field-stripping for cleaning, and it's obvious that only
those things that needed close tolerances were machined to fit.
The magazine, for example, is a piece of sheet steel that has been
cut, folded, and then spot-welded together.  It works fine.  The
slide fits around the barrel for a guide and slides along a track
in the frame.  The extractor is a simple lever-and-spring affair
that is incredibly easy on brass, by the way.

	Anyway, if you're looking for a cheap, reliable, fun
pistol to play with these might be worth your consideration.  The
company is Haskall Mfg, of Lima, Ohio.  No, it's not a Glock, or
even a Taurus or Star.  Fit and finish took a dive to give you a
low cost.  However, where it counts the things have been built
quite well.  For this price, I'm willing to wear it while camping,
riding, or whatever.  As a defense gun in the home, who cares if
the police sieze it as evidence?  It would make a great stocking
stuffer, I suppose, for that special someone who borrows your
guns at the range every time you go out.

< Dan Sorenson, DoD #1066 z1dan@exnet.iastate.edu viking@iastate.edu >
<  ISU only censors what I read, not what I say.  Don't blame them.  >
<  "This isn't an answer, it's a pagan dance around a midnight fire  >
<   written in intellectual runes." -- Rich Young                    >