Cabot Guns S100: the Entry Level Luxury pistol

May 9, 2019 - 1:01pm

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Pistols

Italiano

The Cabot Gun S100 pistol is the “entry level” model in the Company catalogue: one of the best 1911 pistol derivatives ever made, from a top 1911 manufacturer, now available in 9mm caliber also

When it comes to Cabot Guns – the well-known, Pennsylvania-based manufacturer of “beyond custom” 1911-type pistols – it is somewhat hard to think that something like an “entry level” pistol could exist in their catalogues.

The “beyond Custom” Cabot Guns 1911 pistols are far from the stereotype of a safe queen that accompanies most of such creations: legendary sport shooter Brian “Gunny” Zins won the 2012 and 2013 NRA National Pistol Championships in Camp Perry (OH) with a Cabot Guns pistol, and Jon Shue did the same in 2017 and 2018.

And yet, the Cabot Gun Company itself describes the S100 semi-automatic pistol as an “entry level luxury” item. Now available in Europe as well, courtesy of Erredi Trading S.r.l. of Italy along with many other Cabot Guns pistols, the S100 is indeed the least expensive of all the handguns offered by the Pennsylvania-based Company. That, of course, considering the average price of the Cabot Guns pistols. Which are, in all honesty, just par for the course: what we have here is an extraordinary gun under all points of view.

The Cabot Guns S100 is built around a 416 stainless steel slide and frame; Cabot Guns itself manufactures the solid billet from which the slides and frames are manufactured out of.

Other metal components such as the one-piece full-length guide rods, the manual and grip safeties, the hold-open levers and magazine release catches, and barrel bushings are likewise machined by state-of-the-art, 9-axis CNC machines. All steel components undergo a proprietary hardening procedure.

Most of the remaining job is largely hand-made. The frame of the Cabot Guns S100 pistol features a rhombus cut, 24 LPI checkered front strap and a likewise rhombus checkered billet-made mainspring housing, as well as Cabot Guns’ own Tristar aluminum trigger, a polished feed ramp and a beveled magazine well for faster reload and improved reliability.

Among the features of the slide are the unique Cabot Trinity Stripes pattern of rear slide serrations, and a set of black low-mount fixed sights dovetailed to the slide.

Most interesting is the reverse dovetail front sight, fitted from the front of the pistol: the bushing completely covers the mount point, leaving no unsightly dovetail along the side of the slide.

Serrations run along the entirety of the top of the slide, from the rear sights to the chamber and on to meld seamlessly with the front sight, eliminating the potential for slide glare, and naturally leading the shooter’s eye to target.

The Cabot Guns S100 semi-automatic pistol is hand-fit with a 5-inch, stainless steel, Match grade Crown cut flush fit barrel. A barrel bushing wrench is issued with each pistol to facilitate field-stripping.

The Cabot Guns S100 pistol is hand-assembled and finished; all components offer some the tighter tolerances in the industry, along with several elegant and yet functional finishing touches such as a chamfered slide pin stop hole, a hand-polished guide rod end, a lowered and flared ejection port, and Cabot’s own, Panzerstahl Perfect Fit ejector.

The S100 is available with a matte stainless or a black Diamond-Like-Carbon, vapor deposition finish, and with the user’s choice of black G10, ironwood or walnut checkered, burled or Fibonacci-scalloped grip panels, all featuring the Cabot Guns medallion.

The gun will feed reliably on any single-stack 1911-type 8-rounds magazine currently available on the market; two magazines of Cabot Guns manufacture are issued with each pistol, additional magazines are available from factory at an additional cost. The Cabot Guns S100 pistol is available in .45 ACP and 9mm; the sample portrayed in the pictures on this article is a 9mm model.

Once again, this is not your run-of-the-mill 1911 pistol. It’s just normal that it’s not “for everybody”, both technically and economically speaking. This is a special creation, conceived for those shooters and gun enthusiasts who have a very clear idea of what they want, and have the means to get it. Consider it as an investment, that will face time maintaining its value.