Another Detonics MK VI question.

[Playboypenguin]

I just bought a 9mm Detonics MK VI pistol the other day. I noticed on the frame that the gun says "DETONICS .45" even though the gun is a 9mm. Is this common. Did they just use the same frames and change the barrels, mags, and slide roll marks?

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r89/PlayboyPenguin/DetonicsFrame2.jpg

[mrclean77]

I think that would bother me at least as much as the asymmetry issue
:o

[NJG33]

I'm waiting for PBP to ask if its safe to have all the 6s embossed on the side of his gun :p

[Playboypenguin]

I found the answer on the 1911 forum. The actual name of the company was "Detonics .45 Assoc." so they stamped all their frames with "DETONICS .45" since that was the company name. :)

[Shadi Khalil]

PBP,

Have you had a chance to take it out yet? The detonics have always been a thing of mine, I've always wanted one. I had the chance to get one cheap but just couldnt do it at the time. Congrats. That one is real nice..and rare too.

[Que]

Playboy, have you been able to get a handle on how rare your 9mm CombatMaster is? I know that they had a pocket Nine, but this is the first 9mm CombatMaster that I have heard of. I'll go back to this site (a good read) http://www.biggerhammer.net/detonics/detonics_history_patyates.html and see if they even mention a 9mm.

[RickB]

Detonics made virtually every model, Mks. I-VI, in 9mm, .38 Super, and .45, and some in .451 Detonics Magnum as well. There may not have been many examples of some of them, but a local Detonics collector died a few years ago and his collection was displayed at a gun show, and it included three or four examples, one in each caliber, of just about every Detonics model. Pics of most of the collection were posted in various places. IIRC, the guy's name was Gideon, so some googling might turn up the pics.
Edit: OK, it wasn't Col. Gideon's collection, which was extensive, but here are the pics I was thinking of:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DetonicsCollectors/photos/album/1898173033/pic/list
OK, another edit. I work in downtown Seattle, and my office right across the street from the Seattle Tower, where Detonics was headquartered. Even when the guns were stamped "Seattle", they were manufactured in Bellevue, and then when the offices moved to the plant, they started stamping the guns "Bellevue", too. In the article linked above, Pat Yates talks about buying guns at Central Loan or Central Pawn (I think that's what he calls it), but the sign said Central Gun Exchange, and it was one of the last gun stores in downtown Seattle. It was "forced out" by a city government that didn't like the "negative" impact of downtown gun stores, but I thought it was interesting that at the same time Central was closing its doors, the porn store next door was being completely renovated, probably in line with making a more "positive" impact downtown. When Central was having their fire sale, I would go down once a week to see what was left, and how low the prices had gone. There was an amoo box marked "1911 parts" behind the counter, and digging through it, found a Detonics extractor, which was an interesting, cylindrical design. They apparently had some heat-treat problems with them, so I've kept mine in the parts box, to serve as the last tangible link of Seattle to the Detonics story.