Tribrid Gun

[Hunter Customs]

I know there may not be many racegun junkies out here but I thought there may be a few that will enjoy the pictures of this gun.
First a little back ground info of how this gun came about. The summer of 2003 the gentleman that owns this gun and I were discussing raceguns at the American Handgunner World Shootoffs. I was telling him the trend seem to be moving to lighter, shorter faster handling raceguns. I also said that I thought the ultimate setup might be a Hybrid or Tribrib barrel gun with a low mount Doctor sight. In the fall of 2003 this gentleman commisioned me to build him a Tribrid racegun with a Doctor sight. The work order was signed and the base gun was delivered to the shop. Here it is mid summer of 2005 and here's the end result.

http://www.huntercustoms.com/images/mgun1red.jpg

Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com

[DT Guy]

Ewwww....more pics, Bob!

That's interesting....


Larry

[Hunter Customs]

Here's another view of the gun with a little info about the gun itself.
Before I go on I want to thank Chris Peters of Metaloy Industries, Inc for a very well done job on the hardchroming. Anyone wanting to get in touch with Chris can do so at www.originalmetaloy.com great work with speedy turn around.

With the exception of the hardchroming all work on this gun was done in house.
It was decided that the gun would be built using a Para P-16 as the base. The slide and barrel are the six inch variety. The barrel is a Schuemann AET Tribrid and let me add I've heard some pretty outstanding things about the AET barrels and the accuracy they possess. After test firing this gun I have no doubts about them being true, this baby will shoot holes in holes.
The Doctor sight is machined down into the slide so the dot is closer in line with the bore. This is like shooting an iorn sighted gun except you are using a dot.
This gun stays so flat and handles so fast it's unbeliveable, it even made me look good while shooting it. I loved shooting this gun so much I hated to give back.
Another big plus is it does not have the weight of a external comp which in turn gives the gun a nice balance. Also it does not have the added labor cost of blending the external comp with the slide.
Well I've said enough, I better quit talking about it or I'll have to build me one.

http://www.huntercustoms.com/images/mgun2red.jpg

Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com

[DT Guy]

Does the 6" with the comp holes in it handle anything like a standard 5"?


Larry

[Hunter Customs]

Larry,
I'm not sure what you are refering to by standard. Muzzle flip on this gun is almost nonexistant, recoil impulse is a slight push in the hand. This gun points and handles so fast it's hard to describe. I've built a lot of raceguns through the years I believe this may be my favorite.
Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com

[DT Guy]

Bob,

Should have used 'balance', I think, instead of 'handle'-I'm thinking that the 6", with the lightening from the comp holes, should balance like a 5", but with a longer sight radius.

Either way, that's a SWEET looking race gun!


Larry

[Handy]

If the point of the project was to make a gun that has less weight out front due to it's compactness, isn't a 6" slide gun going to be have more moment than a 5" gun with an inch and a half of lightweight comp on the front?

[Dave Sample]

I can't help but notice that the comps are still blowing smoke up in front of the Sight just like always. I designed a compensated 38 Super 14 years ago that doesn't do that. It never caught on though, and I am glad to see that not much has changed with comp guns. SOS:DD

Very nice looking gun. I like the long slide concept.

[Hunter Customs]

Larry,
You are exactly right about the balance of this gun. Several things contribute to this, the way the barrel is designed, the fact that the slide is lighter because of the milling front and rear, the sight itself being at the rear and not mounted on the dust cover. The pointability of this gun over an external comp gun is much quicker, even guns with external comps made from light material such as titanium.
For comps to do what they should do they still need to be about 2 inches in length unless the gun is using a hybrid comp barrel, then one may get by with a 1.5 inch comp. This gun is still lighter and faster.
There's one setup I've been considering that may be more responsive than this one. It would be using the same barrel and sight in a 5 inch slide instead of the 6.
Thanks for the kind words about the gun.
Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com

[Handy]

I saw a hybrid/external comp gun this weekend. The external comp was indeed very short and light. The owner reported very good performance with the combination.

[mike4045]

I considered a setup simlar to this, but in 5'. I went with the std 5" and comp setup. I decided at the last minute to go with a Cmore instead. I have been pretty happy with it. I wish I would have one to try and see if I could get used to it first. I do really like the look of the gun, just seems much smoother. I really was looking for something that acted and felt like my limited gun.

[Hunter Customs]

mike4045,
I've built and shot a lot of raceguns through the years. My own personal racegun at the time is an external comp gun with a C-More sight; the overall length of my gun is the same as the Tribrid gun but my gun still does not handle as fast.
Another plus to the Doctor sighted Tribrid is the dot is closer in-line with the bore. More than once at a match I've watch C-More mounted raceguns being shot at close in targets (the kind where you can only make an A zone head shot because the rest of the target is covered with a no shoot) and the shooter shoots low hitting the no shoot target. This is because of the height of the dot above the bore. This is not the case with the low mount Doctor, it's like shooting an iron sighted gun as far as height goes. It also makes the gun a much more natural as for pointing the gun.
I don't know about you but more than once I've switched to weak hand using my racegun and have to hunt up the dot in the C-More. Switch to weak hand with this baby and the dot was staring me right in the eye.
There's a lot of other pluses to this gun I've just touched on a few of them.
Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com

[Handy]

Hunter,

My own personal racegun at the time is an external comp gun with a C-More sight; the overall length of my gun is the same as the Tribrid gun but my gun still does not handle as fast. Why? The difference in sights?

[Hunter Customs]

I want to thank everyone for the flood of e-mails I received and the kind words about this gun and my work.
There was a large amount of questions about the barrel and the cut in the slide for the exhaust bridge. I'll address both of these topics here.

The barrel is a Schuemann AET barrel; if not the best barrel on the market it certainly is one of the best. The barrel has a fluted chamber and throat, gain twist rifling plus the three ports and built in compensator. There's no doubt that Mr. Schuemann knows how to build barrels. These barrels are not a drop in unit, these barrels are a gunsmith fit barrel and I do mine on the mill. The AET barrel can be had in several different styles including the standard style 1911 barrel. As a matter of fact I put an AET bushing style barrel in a Commander length gun the other day and like the Tribrid barrel it literally shot holes in holes.

As for the slide cut for the exhaust bridge I prefer to do my own. This allows me to keep the tolerances around the bridge very close. I do not have time to go into full detail on how to measure and mill the cut, however there's good directions that come with the barrel on how to make the cut.

Thanks again for all the e-mails and kind words.
Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com

[Handy]

And for those who asked questions, I'll continue to ignore them, rather than explain the benefits of my design.