The new high-capacity 1911-style H.C. 40 pistol from Les Baer Custom (LBC) was bound to happen. With the company already offering more than three dozen different versions of the single-stack 1911 and seven caliber options, it was the logical direction to take. But there are a few twists with this new model.

Whereas the frames of all LBC single-stack guns are precision-machined on CNC equipment at the firm's new facility in LeClaire, Iowa, the frame of the high-capacity gun is purchased from the Vermont firm of Caspian Arms. The frame is actually cast by the lost-wax process at Ruger's Pine Tree division and then shipped to Caspian, where it undergoes over 30 machining operations before it is ready to be forwarded on to LBC for use in building a gun.

For the benefit of those who are not familiar with Caspian Arms, I will mention that the company has long been manufacturing close- tolerance components for 1911-style pistols, and it introduced its high-capacity frame in 1991. Two years later, top-ranked IPSC competitors Matt McLaren and Kay Clark used custom guns in .38 Super built on the new frame to win the men's and women's divisions of the national championships and the World Shoot.

Fast-forwarding to September 2008, U.S. Army team member Travis Tomasie won the USPSA Limited championship match with a .40-caliber gun built on the Caspian frame. I mention all of this to make this point: When deciding on a frame for his new high-capacity 1911 pistol, Baer did a great job of choosing one with a proven track record. A frame capable of withstanding the punishment dished out by competitors who think nothing of shooting 50,000 rounds and more per year is sure to last the average shooter several lifetimes.

Many years ago, Caspian offered an aluminum version, and it was quite a bit lighter than the steel frame of a single-stack gun, but now it is available only in steel. This puts the empty weight of the H.C. 40 at 42.5 ounces, which is about the same as for a single-stack 1911 loaded with eight cartridges.

Baer Quality Through & Through
As I write this, the high-cap pistol is available only in .40 S&W. That cartridge is commonly loaded to considerably higher chamber pressures than the .45 ACP for which the 1911 pistol was originally designed, so the barrel on the new high-capacity pistol from LBC has a fully supported chamber.

You may ask, "What is a fully supported chamber?" In the original 1911 design, the feedramp is machined into the frame, and this along with a bevel at the mouth of the chamber leaves a section of a chambered cartridge from its head to just beyond the extractor groove of its case unsupported by the barrel. When a cartridge blows due to a weak case or from excessive chamber pressure, the rupture usually takes place at that point. When later designing his Hi-Power pistol, John Browning solved that problem by making the feedramp integral with the breech end of the barrel, resulting in near total support of a chambered cartridge.

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