Cabot Apocalypse

Certainly Not Cheap

It also costs money: The Jones debuted at an eye-watering $5,000 over a decade ago. A more affordable model would come five years later with the S-Series. It hovered in the high $3,000 range occupied by many premium 1911s. Matte instead of polished and with front strap checkering cut on the diagonal — less punishing to hands and clothes alike — the smooth grips were grooved in a distinctive arc pattern. Like the Trinity Stripes, they are more than they appear, which is a bit of a theme for Cabot. The spiraling curves follow the “Fibonacci sequence,” a mathematical ratio appearing in nature with surprising frequency.

The S-Series also brought new technology. Shortening autopistols is a dicey business, and while Commander-sized pistols — which have a 4 ¼” barrel instead of 5″ — function well with a shortened slide stroke, Cabot felt they could do better. The S103 came with a 4 ¼” barrel but retained the full slide travel of a 5″ gun, an option now available on all Cabot pistols. The system works, and it hits: My S103 put five rounds in a single hole at 7 yards. Not five holes touching to make a bigger one — no, a single half-inch hole.

The tour de force putting Cabot on most people’s radar, of course, was the Big Bang set — a pair of 1911s made from a meteorite. They’re not exactly common: Outside of the meteorite dagger found in King Tut’s tomb, there aren’t a whole lot of weapons out there made of space rocks.
Getting a big enough chunk of a meteorite is a challenge. Since they ain’t from around here, scarcity makes even small chunks quite expensive but it’s only the first problem. One does not simply open the McMaster-Carr catalog and flip to the meteor cutting tool section. Different materials require specific cutters, cutting speeds, feed rates, etc., characteristics well known for the various steel and aluminum alloys, but not so much for meteors. You have to figure that out by practicing on those extremely expensive fragments. Once you can mill, turn and broach the various parts (which often need to be hardened to different degrees), comes heat treating them correctly, lest you wind up creating the world’s most expensive pipe bomb.

Apparently they got it right: The guns have been shot. Like many of Cabot’s sets in the OAK series (One Of A Kind), the set includes a left hand 1911, a rare feat made possible by their modeling technology.

Nor is that the only difficult material they’ve challenged themselves with. There were earlier 1911s made by others with Damascus slides, but they were made of powdered Damasteel that gives the appearance of forged steel without the actual forging. It’s pretty, but I’ve stood in the undulating orange glow of a forge and watched a man with a hammer pound hot bars of steel until the two shall become one, and it’s not the same.