The Ultimate PPC Auto
Long the province of bull barrled
revolvers, the PPC game is now dominated by tack-driving autos like this
custom SVI 9mm by Don Golembieski.
by Charles Petty
Photos by Ichiro Nagata
American Handgunner, Sept/Oct 2001
Highly specialized custom pistols for IPSC, IDPA, Bianchi Cup land
speed shooting are common place, and during American Handgunners' 25-year-history
we have featured many of them. But we have never before featured a pistol
designed solely for Police Pistol Course. Plenty of revolvers, sure, but
no self- loaders.
I often used to shoot the PPC as a reserve officer with the Charlotte, N.C., Police Department. But I would have been unceremoniously drummed off the range for showing up with an automatic. Bull barreled revolvers were de rigeur.
However, today's law officers wholesale switched to automatics after discarding their wheelguns to the gun-bin of history. So nary an eyebrow would raise if I showed up at the PPC with a semi- auto- though I suspect this stunning con- version of an SVI by talented gunsmith Don Golembieski of Kodiak Precision might attract a covetous glance or two.
First, an Aristocrat sight rib steadies the machine. PPC requires precise accuracy at ranges from 7 to 50 yards, so Golembieski developed sights with pre- set adjustment positions. Zero the pistol at 50 yards, lock that setting in, and then repeat the procedure at the other distances. The sight returns to each zero with a single click, which though incredibly in PPC matches, offers little advantage anywhere else.
This rib draws the eye to the brightly polished stainless steel slide. Though the basic gun is an SVI Infinity long slide, Golembieski modified it quite radically. Instead of the customary grasping grooves, lines etched at 30 lpi checker much of the arm's planes. At the front of the slide the checkered area is bordered by two relief cuts positioned slightly more than 0.3" wide. Towards the rear extends a single cut and additional checkering, both of which blend with the grooving positioned at the back of the slide.
Though the visual effect is striking enough to leave you wondering, "How'd he do that," above all else it's quite a feat of machining. Golembieski etched these patterns on a milling machine one line at a time. At 30 lpi, each line is a tad more than .033" apart. Hand-checkering utilizes grooves already positioned on the file. But Golembieski, with a milling machine, made a cut, advanced .033", and did it again. He then turned the work 90 degrees and milled each of those tedious cuts all over again. It would be impossible to etch checkering like this with a hand file because the area you'd want to checker is surrounded by stuff you just don't want to cut. So he milled the relief cuts by machine to make the arm more visually pleasing and to pro- vide the shooter another grasping surface.
The Infinity slide has an interchange- able breech face portion that allows the pistol to be set up for a number of different cartridges. This particular gun, which belongs to a top PPC shooter who is a Golembieski customer, is setup to shoot both 9mm Luger and .45 ACP. The owner also wants a .38 Super barrel fitted when (if) I send it back.
Since the primary purpose of this gun is PPC competition, I elected to test only the 9mm setup- though the .45 parts were carefully inspected and no flaws were noted.
| Accuracy Test Results | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Load | Velocity | Group 1 |
Group 2 |
Group 3 |
Avg. |
| Black Hills 115gr JHP +P | 1412 fps | 1.06" | 1.32" | 1.21" | 1.20" |
| Federal Gold Medal 124gr JSWC | 1209 fps | 1.58" | 1.95" | 1.20" | 1.58" |
| Pro Load 124 gr JHP +P | 1247 fps | 1.52" | 1.21" | 1.37" | 1.37" |
| Remington Match 147 gr FMJ | 998 fps | 1.87" | 1.53" | 1.19" | 1.53" |
| Speer Gold Dot 124 gr JHP | 1128 fps | 1.37" | 1.57" | 1.13" | 1.36" |
| Winchester 147 gr JHP | 1025 fps | 1.10" | 1.16" | 0.91" | 1.05" |
| Average | 1.35" | ||||
| Groups are 10 shots at 25 yards from
a Ransom Rest. Welocity is the instrumental average of 30 shots at 10' as measured with a PACT Professional Chronograph. |
|||||
Exceptional Fitting
The slide fits to the frame exceptionally tight. I removed the barrel to just feel the function of the slide and frame, and it was poetry in action. The full range of motion is glass-smooth, and with the slide in the battery position there is absolutely no horizontal or vertical play. I'm not sure it can be done any better.Golembieski orders oversized slides and frames from SVI. When he receives them, the slide won't even fit on the frame. So the Arizona pistolsmith uses a milling machine and surface grinder to do much of the fitting work.
Long Slide Frame
The PPC custom pistol is equipped with a long slide. Interestingly, the SVI frame is made specifically for this purpose, so that the slide rails are exactly an inch longer than a standard frame. Usually long slides snap to a standard frame, but that extra inch creates a positive effect on accuracy when it is as well fitted as this one is.The barrels are 6" Bar-Stos of the ramped configuration. They are bull barrels, so no bushing is used. These have a taper from 0.7" at the muzzle down to 0.6" just forward of the locking lugs. Because the fit of the barrel to the slide is excellent, it contributes significantly to the gun's accuracy.
The next accuracy concern is the fit of the headspace extension on the barrel to the recess in the slide. Ideally, no daylight should be visible either at the end or sides with the exception of a little on the corners. But the barrel must freely glide up and down, without resistance. Though this may sound impossible, it really isn't- not when fashioned by a patient craftsman. And Golembieski is a patient craftsman, for this one is done right.
By comparison with the slide, a mechanical tour of the frame is pretty
routine. The long rails are the only really unique feature. It is finished
in hard chrome, nicely checkered and sports a beavertail, ambi-safety
and extended mag release. There is a Smith & Alexander mag well on arched
mainspring housing and Ahrends grips. Good gear all around.
Accuracy Testing
As luck would have it, the gun arrived just as I was heading out door on my way to the shooting range. Other than a cursory inspection, it received almost none of my attention before I shot it. Sent to me from photographer Ichiro Nagata, who meticulously cleans every last drop of oil from the guns he photographs, the Golembieski gun was in serious need of lubrication, which I discovered when it failed to eject the first round I fired. That's when I noticed it was bone-dry. A few drops of lube eliminated the problem and there was nary a hiccup after lubrication. I sent 100 rounds of assorted ammo downrange that day, and my first impression of the gun was that it shot very well.I'm very much aware of the recoil modification effect that results from putting a rib on a slide- my bullseye guns wear them. But this was the first time I ever shot a 9mrn with a heavy rib installed, and one of my initial concerns was functioning. Would the added weight and the modest recoil of the 9mm Luger cartridge combine to cause jams? That concern was groundless; the Golembieski 9rnm was a joy to shoot. Plinking and some shots at a 70 yard gong suggested that accuracy was solid. By the end of the day this proved to be an understatement.
Experience taught me that 9mrn pistols are not exactly barnburners when it comes to the accuracy department. That impression resulted largely from service pistols I've shot, but there were a few "built guns" that didn't perform too well either.
But when the Kodiak Precision gun nestled down in the Ransom Rest, within a few shots I realized that this was no ordinary pistol. I fired three 10-shot groups with six different factory loads. The average for all 180 rounds was 1.36". That's stunning accuracy for a 9mm. Heck, it's good for a .45!
As you can see from the accuracy chart, the pistol shot every load pretty well. There was not one load that was notably better or worse than any other, and this teaches a valuable lesson about preconceived notions- the largest group came from the match ammo, the smallest with a standard load.
Had time permitted, I would have enjoyed experimenting with different loads from 50 yards as well. But dead- lines wait for no man, and Golembieski's patient customer wanted his gun back. Don't blame him a bit, either.
| For more information contact Don Golembieski, Kodiak Precision, 6557 E. Riverdale, Dept. AH, Mesa, AZ 85215; phone: (480) 832-8107. | 
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