I'm Christopher Provost, the guy who designed and built those guns of which there were only 40 Qty. I could go into a lengthy story about the SPTU and how fubared they are, but I won't because I retired from the Thin Blue Line. But EVERYTHING you saw at a Pat Mac was NOT what was delivered to SPTU in June of 2008. To make a HUGE story short, instead of coming to me, they "thought" they could play Kitchen Table Gunsmith and do their own modifications to firearms they were "allowed" to purchase from the State of CT roughly in 2013 (?). The serial number SPTU 001 (upgraded to Mark V standards) is STILL in the hands of the now retired team leader and to paraphrase my friend "that PISTOL was the ONLY thing that WORKED every time I NEEDED it!" And he STILL has it! That was the Mark I Series. We were under contract to produce 5 pistols a year and UPGRADE ALL of the pistols as they had done some crazy things NEVER seen before on a 1911. EXAMPLE: One Trooper left his pistol, SPTU 033, on top of his cruiser and drove down I-95 at speed where it was thrown from the vehicle and was subsequently run over by several tractor trailers until a driver SAW it was a pistol, braved traffic, called the State and turned it in. It NEEDED work, but the State didn't want to pay. To bring this to a conclusion, I will NEVER do work with the STATE AGAIN. They broke every ASPECT of the contract. We delivered EARLY and ON BUDGET only to be investigated because someone on the inside was WORKING FOR GLOCK! When Glock didn't get the contract, Glock was NOT HAPPY. So, stories were told and the team leader and I were investigated at a cost MORE than what it was to PRODUCE THE FIREARMS, MAGAZINES AND ALL ACCESSORIES NEEDED.
I trained them for 5 days on the range where they PROMPTLY won the CT SWAT CHALLENGE.......and then I was struck down with a medical issue. I SOLD my remaining frames to my brother from a Danish Mother Alex Zimmermann of Guncrafter Industries. He built "his" version of the Big DOG pistol and called it the AMERICAN after me since he was Danish. Quite frankly my physicians didn't know if I'd live, so why NOT sell the frames to him......and then the Barbara Streisand started where folks thought it was a GI design.
I designed the ORIGINAL 8 round magazine which Derek Dibble of MetalForm produced. Mr. Dibble Sold the company and I wasn't going to purchase the inferior product THE NEW OWNERS wanted to produce with my logo on it so they SOLD them to Ed Brown who named them the 8 Pack. I went to CheckMate and we worked together to design the Ultimate Fighting Magazine. Unfortunately, I was still ill as Tommy the owner of Checkmate worked to produce the tooling. Tommy passed prematurely after a meeting during summertime and my health took another turn for the worse. I pretty much fell off the globe in 2008 and have finally resurfaced 14 years later. I'm NOT DEAD YET! In the meantime we're up to the Mark V series of DOG guns where EVERYTHING is my design, right down to the sights! In fact if you look at American Handgunner Magazine from this past winter, you'll see where Guncrafter Industries uses some MY PRODUCTS in his new series of pistols. As I said, Alex and I are family. We just live in different parts of the country.
I hope that sheds a sliver of light upon the situation. As anyone who knows me will have told you. You could have reached out at anytime and even from a hospital bed, I would have taken the time to speak with you.
Originally Posted by LittleLebowski
