[weshowe]

Gents,

Subject line says it all. I'm looking for any data on the ASP and Devel conversions that were done by Parris Theodore and Charley Kelsey. All I have are a couple of pictures and a line drawing of the "Guttersnipe Rib" rear sight. Anything would be of help.
There is an unfired ASP available, but I can buy a lot of other goodies for the $4K asking price!
With my new lathe and mill you get an idea were I'm headed...

Wes

 

[erich]

I sold one when I managed a gun store back in the late '80s. Got to shoot it (sold it to a friend), and I have to say that the Guttersnipe sight wasn't too useful. Sort of like using the Cirillo "silhouette sight picture" method. Devel was one of two companies to do the ASP conversion, BTW, but I can't remember the details on that.

I was somewhat surprised at the apparent lack of inherent accuracy in the ASP that I shot. It wasn't just the sights - the cut-down gun (at least that particular one) just wasn't very accurate.

Dean Grennell's book of autoloading pistols has photos and some info on the ASP. Let me know if you can't find a copy and I can photocopy and mail you the pages.

I believe NAA is using the Guttersnipe system on some of their baby pistols nowadays.

To be honest, while I think the ASPs were real neat in terms of being a point of historical development, I think that they've been completely superceded by better designs that were designed to be compact carry guns from the ground up (while relying on the lessons learned from the ASP conversions). Frankly, the S&W 469 was a better gun, and the 6906 better still. So's the Glock 19 with a tritium Big Dot Express sight.

Anyway, you said "anything would be of help," but from the info you already have in your thread, there's probably a better than fair chance that you know most of this already. Let me know if you need me to find and photocopy Grennell's ASP info.

cheers, erich

 

[weshowe]

Erich,

Thanks for the reply. Have never heard of how well the ASP conversions shot. Probably looked at as a "belly gun" concept. You gotta give it a high "cool factor", though.
Like you, the follow-ons from S&W were undoubtedly superior. My second wife loved her 469...
Wes

 

[pff]

I've seen exactly one of them for sale in all my years of gunshowing. Was near new, in the box, about $1200 in the mid-1980's as I recall.

There was a writeup on them in a long ago Gun Digest, which is how I recognized it. One of the folks here might have a copy.


Hope this helps.

Regards,

Pat

 

[randomman]

http://www.novaksights.com/wayne's_personal_collection.htm

Wayne Novak is a big Devel fan from what I gather. In fact, to my knowledge he is the only smith out there doing custom work on Smith autoloaders.

-Rob