One of the great benefits of my job is I get to see a lot of custom guns. Once in awhile I see a gun — especially one with a high price tag — and wonder how the guy had enough balls to charge that much for such ordinary work. Far less often I see a gun that just makes me stop and study. The two guns you see here stopped me in my tracks.

I’ve told this story before, but during my training at the USAF Marksmanship School I waged a war of wills with my teacher, Bob Day. I built guns that functioned well and shot better than the 3" accuracy standard for 10 shot groups at 50 yds. But when Day inspected them it wasn’t unusual for there to be a page of deficiencies for me to fix. I was young and pigheaded but knew my guns were good. They just weren’t up to Day’s standards.

Gradually I learned I was fighting a battle I could never win. The list of gigs grew shorter and finally one day I turned in a pistol I knew would pass. I watched from across the room as Day dissected that poor gun. He wore his magnifying lenses and used them often. He must have weighed the trigger 10 times. Finally he put it back together, strolled over to my bench and laid it down. “That’ll do,” was all he said.

I could have throttled him; and it was one of the proudest moments of my life. The issue never was about accuracy or reliability; it was about craftsmanship. If I didn’t know better I’d swear Paul Liebenburg went to the same school.Actually his was much harder.

It’s really nice for me to be able to work with more than one gun from a shop and the two you see here are quite different. The full-size pistol is a new version of the Pachmayr Combat Special which was one of Paul’s favorites when he worked there, and is also a tribute to the legendary Frank Pachmayr. He calls it the Evolution since it’s made with modern parts and manufacturing methods. The other is the Executive Option — “XO” for short, with a 41⁄8" barrel.

The Combat Special is the flagship of the line and in keeping with the Pachmayr signature philosophy of signing the top-of-the-line pistols, it bears Paul’s on the right side of the slide. The Pistol Dynamics logo is on the left.

I’ve already told you about the fit so let’s look at features. The front sight has a gold bead (there are other options) which Paul and I both like, but it’s interchangeable and fits into a fore/aft dovetail secured by the “tombstone” bushing that covers the dovetail. A special bushing wrench is supplied. The top of the slide is nicely grooved, and the rear sight is very similar to the Novak but angles forward a bit to match the radius of the slide. The back is checkered 40 LPI to match the back of the slide. Even the visible end of the ejector is checkered. The mainspring housing, front strap and forward surface of the triggerguard have 30 LPI checkering, all hand cut by the way. And perfect.

The beavertail grip safety is Paul’s design and is made in-house from bar stock. There is a two-piece guide rod that is handsomely fluted. Grips are Madagascar Ebony that provide a stark contrast to the hard chrome finish which, by the way, is done by the same company in California that finished Pachmayr guns.

Shooting this gun has been one of those joyous experiences that come along once in awhile when I’ve been a good boy. The only problem was that deadline pressure didn’t let me shoot it as much as I’d like. Function has been flawless and I already knew from studying it that accuracy was going to be good, and actually it’s better than that. The trigger is 31⁄2 pounds of I wish they were all like this.

And we don’t mean hugs and kisses. It’s a Commander-sized pistol, also built with a Caspian frame and slide. The most notable feature is the nicely fluted bull barrel and what Paul calls an “Active Recoil Plug.” Since there is no bushing, this setup requires some form of reversed recoil spring plug. What they’ve done here is to install a spring-loaded ball detent in the plug that exerts upward pressure on the barrel to stabilize it. I’ll grant that, but honestly am not a fan of the bull-barrel option —regardless of who makes it — and think a common Commander bushing will do just fine.

The XO doesn’t have the checkering of the Combat Special, but does have simple, functional grooving on the front strap. The rear slide serrations are vertical and stop just before they reach the bottom of the slide. This gives an optical illusion making you think the slide is relieved a bit at the bottom. It isn’t but I really like the look. The front inch and a half of the slide is about forty thousandths thinner, which gives a look similar to the slide of the Hi-Power and also provides a gripping surface at the front.

Since there is no protruding recoil spring guide you can also do the typical press check but I found the relieved area served just as well for that purpose. Sights are the same as on the Combat Special except since there’s no bushing, the front sight is not readily interchangeable and is held in place by a tiny roll pin. As expected the XO was flawless in function and fun to shoot. The trigger is a crisp 4 pounds and feels like it’s less.

Pistol Dynamics is a true custom shop so while there are packages such as you see here, the customer still has options. Base prices start at $2,400 for the XO and $3,600 for the Combat Special, and most delivery times are under a year. Paul warned that some jobs can take longer. They are also working toward a “Tactical” line built on Springfield Armory guns that will be available on a 60-90 day order at a considerably lower cost.

As we were wrapping up our phone conversation I was pleased to notice that Paul had not once told me how wonderful he was. Nor did he insult my intelligence by telling me how writers just “don’t understand” as one guy did to me once. Instead he simply said, “We want to give our customer a gun that isn’t going to be available anywhere else.” And I think he’s right.