RickB

I had a chance to look over a Combat Commander that was modified by Seecamp. Not only did it have the DA conversion, but some other unusual touches, as well. The slide/barrel and grip frame were cut down to approximately Officer's length. The recoil spring/guide was of the Seecamp-designed "dual telescoping" type that is so common on ultra-short 1911s today. The rear sight looked something like a S&W revolver sight, but might be an original design. Forward of that was a loaded-chamber indicator, that looked rather like a short, external extractor set into the top of the slide. The coolest mod was a one-piece backstrap. I couldn't tell if it was welded-up, or a custom piece, but the grip safety and mainspring housing were combined into a singe piece that matched the contour of the frame. Very nice.
I'm trying to imagine what it would cost to reproduce that gun today. All of the cutting, welding, grinding, polishing, etc. The finish was a nice, polished blue, and everything was very well done.

Desert Dog

I have seen a few of these conversions over the years, and while I was never quite moved enough to buy one, I have been fascinated by Seecamp's ingenuity. IIRC, Col. Cooper dismissed the Seecamp DA 1911 concept as a, "beautiful solution to a problem that never existed". The photos below are to give members a better idea of what the DA conversion looks like, but this is NOT actually an orignal Seecamp built gun.




Photos of work done by South African gunsmith Jacques Arzul.

Here is a little history blurb copied from the P&R Guns Sales web site.

L W. Seecamp Co., Inc., which was founded as a family business by Louis W. Seecammp in 1973, began as a gunsmitbing operation specializing in a double action conversion of the venerable old 1911 semi-auto pistol (Colt 45ACP) designed by John Moses Browning. The DA 45s produced by this conversion process, which was the patented brainchild of Louis Seecamp (#3722358), resulted in the first commercially available double action 45s anywhere in the world. Approximately 2000 conversions were done from the early 70s to the early 80s.

Shortly before abandoning gunsmithing for manufacture, Seecamp Co. offered as part of its 1911 gunsmithing package a slide shortening which used the telescoping double spring recoil system that has become the predominant spring system used by most short-slide short-recoil autoloaders. This spring system was patented by Louis' son Larry (Lueder) in 1980 (#4201113), and has since been licensed by Colt (Defender), by Kahr (MK9}, by Cylinder and Slide (Adventurer), and by LaserMax (laser units for the mini-Glocks). This dual spring recoil system is also the subject of patent litigation with Glock (Models 26, 27, 29, 30) and with Para-Ordnance (P-1O). That the telescoping dual spring system now so popular in pistols was first used in pistols by Seecamp Co. in the late 1970s indicates how long-standing our interest in miniaturization has been and how far ahead of the times we were in our technology.


DD

Austin Behlert

I remember doing a few one piece backstraps and this could have been one of them. I remember talking to Rogers about it . He tried it but had trouble getting out of the mold so we gave it up.