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- Aug 15, 2005
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Born in 1911 Bob Chow was the first Asian American gunsmith of any renown. He was American born in California and became proficient in target shooting. In 1948 he was on the US Olympic Team competing in London in the rapid fire event. In the 1950's thru the 80's he was the go to guy for west coast bullseye shooters. This project came in as just an upper. The Colt Commander slide was fit with a S&W K frame rear sight nested nicely in the slide. The front sight is custom made and silver soldered in place. Bob refit the Colt barrel using a lock up tab on the inside of the slide similar to what Swenson did. I don't know who did it first. Maybe Chow. He fit his own bushing to the barrel. For my part I built a lower from a Colt Commander frame. Checked 30 LPI by Pete Single after I fit a Stan Chen Gen 2 mag well. The internals are all bar stock from E2. I made a custom grip safety using our blank. The grips are ebony cut to fit the shortened frame. The original slide was blue so I just reblued it. The lower is hard chrome for a nice two tone finished carry gun. I would have liked to have met Bob I'm sure I could have learned a lot from him.