[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Timmy the Tanfoglio: Building Amos Burton’s 10mm Semi-auto from The Expanse (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 10/20/2022 10:11:32 PM EDT
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From “The Churn”, a novella in The Expanse literary universe: Burton got up, raising a finger. Timmy sat deep in his chair, like a trained dog receiving a command. Sylvia-whoever was singing in the bathroom, the splash of water against porcelain covering the sound of Burton opening the gun safe - pulling out the pistol and its magazine. When he stepped back into the main room, Timmy hadn’t so much as crossed his legs. Burton held the gun out. “You know what this is?” he asked. “It’s a ten millimeter semi-auto,” Timmy said. He put his hand out half-way to it and then looked up at Burton, his eyes asking permission. Burton nodded and smiled. Timmy took the gun. “You know guns?” Timmy shrugged. “They’re around.” Burton tossed the magazine onto the boys lap. “You know how those things all go together?” Timmy weighed the pistol in one hand, the magazine in the other. He slid them together, checked the chamber, flicked the safety on and off. It wasn’t the practiced action of a professional, but ‘talented amateur’ was good enough for his purposes. Timmy looked up, his smile blank and empty. “New job?” he asked. “New job,” Burton said. ***Quick note, I know this started in GD but considering this is likely to be an ongoing project with lots of trial and error, occasional dead time, and no specific end I figured I’d move it to a subforum where it’s less likely to be archived if it goes dormant for a couple weeks. That said, as long as the moderators don’t have a problem with it you have my permission to treat this thread as if it were in GD*** Some of you may be familiar with my previous project threads: https://www.ar15.com/forums/handguns/Introducing-Project-Nemesis-The-P320-Roland-Special/14-182311/ https://www.ar15.com/forums/handguns/An-Abomination-The-Schofield-has-been-desecrated/33-203192/ https://www.ar15.com/forums/handguns/Just-For-Fun-Project-The-Apache-Pug-Pugsly-Von-Knuckleduster-lives-/33-198595/ https://www.ar15.com/forums/handguns/Rudukai13-s-desecrated-wheelgun-projects-consolidated-thread/33-205558/ This thread will become the home of my next build, which is based on a Tanfoglio Defiant Limited Master chambered in 10mm:  This gun will serve two purposes. The primary purpose is as a spiritual successor to my P320-based Project Nemesis. Which is to say, I intend to turn this gun into the highest-performing, most broadly capable, do-anything-I-can-think-of workhorse pistol. This gun WILL BE a practical use, home- and self-defense firearm. It will predominantly take up residence on my night stand and I’ll be using it for just about anything and everything I can think of. The gun will not be built to any particular specification, competition division, or pre-conceived notion of what a defensive pistol can and can’t be. When I originally built my P320, I was building the gun I’d envisioned for decades as the pinnacle of handgun performance and generalized capability. This gun follows the same general spirit, it’s just version 2. Secondly, and from where the gun, the project, and the thread get their title from - this is the gun I envision when reading about the character of Amos Burton, from the literary version of The Expanse universe, a series of science fiction novels and shorter novellas by James S.A. Corey (also a very successful Amazon Prime series).  Throughout the thread I’ll be posting short snippets from the various novels, similar to the one I left at the beginning of this thread. When all said and done (if that ever actually happens) not only will the gun be incredibly practical and useable as a modern firearm, it will embody my current perspective on where I see the design philosophy of pistols moving in the future - hopefully, this gun will be fit for the meaty hands of a quasi-immortal grease monkey in the 23rd century. Oh, and there will be some small spoilers here and there if you haven’t already read the novels. You’ve been warned. For those of you unsure, yes: that makes this a gun inspired by science fiction and fully intended for extremely practical, real-world use in present day. That’s kind of how I roll. As of now, I’ve had the gun home for about 24 hours and I’ve got some initial impressions. First and foremost, holy chunky boy. I knew a fullsize steel-frame gun would be quite a bit heavier than the pistols I’ve become accustomed to over the last few years, but I love the weight and balance of this thing - especially with the Surefire hanging off the rail. The trigger is - I cannot understate this - phenomenal. The stock trigger comes with adjustable pre- and over-travel screws, and my gunsmith got them tightened up before I took the gun home from my local FFL. There is minimal travel both before and after the break, and the trigger snaps at what I’d estimate is roughly 3.5lbs. Mechanically, the safety is excellent. It snicks on and off with authority and no wiggle between positions. The gun comes stock with asymmetrical extended safeties, with a much larger shelf on the left side of the gun intended as a thumb rest for your strong hand.  It’s extremely ergonomic, well positioned, well shaped, and comfortable - for a right-handed shooter. Me being a southpaw, it’s a useless lump of metal on the wrong side of the gun, with a pointy corner that digs into the first knuckle on my trigger finger something fierce.  I can’t imagine this won’t bite me this weekend when I take the gun to the range the first time. I’ll soon be ordering a set of symmetrical thumb safeties that don’t include the extended shelf, which come on the Defiant Stock Limited DA/SA model of this gun. The slide-in-frame CZ-style construction obviously means there isn’t as much real estate for manipulating the slide as one might be used to, but the area that is provided is well utilized. The four little serrations on the rear sides of the slide don’t look like they’d do all that much, but look closer:  As Amos would say, MOTHERFUCKER are those some sharply serrated little bastards. They stick to your hand like sand paper and make manipulating the slide extremely easy. I’ll be taking the gun to the range for the first time this weekend. I received a small selection of various common FMJ/JHP loads to run initial break-in and reliability testing with.  We’ll see how it runs and what it likes and, more importantly, anything it dislikes. I’ll probably wind up buying the Sig 180gr FMJ/JHP combination and stacking it deep, as my understanding is it strikes a good balance between common availability, price, and true potential of the 10mm cartridge. Probably tomorrow I’ll be placing an order for a Henning conefit guide rod and Wolff 20lb recoil spring. Both items are intended to help prevent larger-caliber Tanfos from beating themselves to death prematurely, and I’m very interested in making sure this gun stays in good condition well into the future. You might say I’m building it to be the “Last Gun Standing”. There will be plenty more to come for this gun in the future, so if you’re interested in following along please subscribe to this thread. Feel free to post any questions, comments, objections, criticisms, etc and I’ll do my best to reply |
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Assuming GD rules are in effect here... Mother fucking IN on 1 and waiting for more. Fuck this thing is weird/badass/awesome. I had no idea what to expect from your teasers in your other threads. Not saying I doubted you. Your other builds were quite entertaining and inspiring. Sometimes you lefties are alright 
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Quoted: I've thought about something similar, and if utmost reliability is maintained it looks great to me.. a nightstand pistol doesn't need to be concealable When it’s finished I still intend to have an AIWB holster made for this beast, just like I did for my P320
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 Well, the base pads and magazine internals were delivered on time to go to the range today, but it’s looking like the guide rod and recoil spring won’t show up in time for the lane reservation. So I’ll just have a before and after comparison between the stock recoil spring and the Wolff 20lb item. Those base pads were some of the easiest magazine extensions I’ve ever installed, I really like the Henning retention system. Taking all the ammo with me, I expect I’ll be able to get through at least a couple hundred rounds in the hour and that’ll be a good first trip. Assuming nothing goes unexpectedly wrong, I’ll probably bulk order some Sig FMJ and JHP loads later today. More updates in a bit when I’m home from the range! |
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Quoted: When it’s finished I still intend to have an AIWB holster made for this beast, just like I did for my P320 Attached File |
 It’s good news all around! The Tanfo chugged through his first 250 rounds without a single malfunction or hiccup today. It’s very interesting, the recoil profile reminds me a lot of the 6” Ruger GP100 I used to own firing various 357Mag loads - obviously quite a bit of power coming out of the muzzle, but with a lot of weight to help soak up most of the flip before it gets to my hand.  The gun didn’t have any issue loading and feeding between FMJ and JHP bullets, including when I did my initial range trip “candy cane” loading of every different kind of ammo I had randomly loaded into the magazines. The Sig 180gr loads are a bit more powerful than the other FMJ, but I like that they duplicate the 180gr JHP loads in recoil profile - so identically I couldn’t tell the difference between the two when the rounds were randomly alternated back and forth in the same magazine. Since the gun didn’t have any issues with either of them, I’m going to designate Sig’s 180gr FMJ/JHP pairing as the combination to purchase in bulk for this gun. The extended safety on the left side of the gun did dig into my trigger finger knuckle some, but not nearly as badly as I’d expected:  No matter anyway, it’ll be getting replaced with the symmetrical ambi safety soon. When I got home from the range, the Henning Conefit guide rod and Wolff 20lb recoil spring were waiting. Got those switched into the gun during my once-over and wipe-down after the first range trip.  It’ll be interesting to see how the heavier recoil spring changes the recoil profile of the 180gr loads, and it’ll be good knowing the Henning guide rod is helping to extend the life of the frame well into the future.  More to come! |
 Took the time to get a decent picture of the pistol tonight. New ambi safety should be here by Tuesday. The pistol WILL be getting a threaded barrel and short compensator, which is currently being worked on by Patriot Defense. They make a threaded barrel & comp setup for the Limited Master but only in 9mm currently. As soon as the 10mm version becomes available, it’ll be going on Timmy |
Alright, ordered up some more Sig 180gr FMJ/JHP, and went ahead and ordered some Patriot Defense aluminum grips with a little more aggressive texture. Not their most aggressive pattern, but should still help make the gun a little stickier: So we’ve got symmetrical ambi safety in transit, ammo and grips ordered. All should be here by this weekend, when I’ll probably take the gun back to my gunsmith to swap the safety, zero the gun at 25yds with the Sig JHP ammo, and I’ll probably have the ‘smith trim the slide lock lever off of the retaining pin. Unless and until someone comes up with an ambi slide stop lever for the gun, I don’t have any use for the single-sided slide stop, so might as well get it off there |
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Quoted: Are you planning on painting it? If so, what color scheme? Probably not. I like the black and stainless dual-tone look, so for now just planning to stick with that. The image above with red grips is just a stock pic from Patriot Defense, I ordered those grips in black. Part of this project is also a bit of good-natured rivalry with ElmersFuddworks on IG. He’s the one that goaded me into getting the gun in 10mm. He’s also the owner of the only Atlas Gunworks Nemesis 2011 chambered in 10mm, and that gun is another bit of inspiration for the Tanfo:  When I eventually get the 10mm threaded barrel and shorty comp for the gun, those will both be in stainless as well. This gun has a very long life and a lot of rounds ahead of it though, so at some point in the future I may decide to freshen it up with a different aesthetic. We’ll just wait and see! |
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Honestly once I get the grips and safety on it’ll be pretty much done with swapping parts for now, until the Patriot 10mm comp/barrel becomes available. I may decide to get a larger magwell at some point, either Patriot Defense or the Tanfoglio Xtreme variant. I’ll just have to see - the stock magwell does a good job of bracketing my hands with the beavertail and trigger guard. This’ll be a long ongoing project though, this gun has tens of thousands of rounds in its future and multiple refreshes/iterations. When I say this is my new go-to do everything pistol, I mean it  Assuming nothing goes horribly wrong, this gun will just get the shit shot out of it and be rebuilt many times over
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 Well the ambi safety is a bit late getting here, issue seems to be with FedEx though not Patriot Defense. Not that important though, it won’t be going on the gun until at least this weekend anyway when I can get it all to my gunsmith. Currently on ready standby |
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Quoted: It's currently on consignment at my local FFL after I transferred the 508T and X300U to this gun. Think of this as Project Nemesis Pt.2 |
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Quoted: I own both a moded out m18 and a cz tso i have set up for open steal challenge. And no doubt the cz (and tz) platform is a funner gun to shoot. But why flip it if u dont mind me asking? You seem to have the dough to hang on to it. Just bored with it or change your mind about it? Quoted: Quoted: It's currently on consignment at my local FFL after I transferred the 508T and X300U to this gun. Think of this as Project Nemesis Pt.2 It’s been replaced as my go-to do-anything gun by the Tanfo, not to mention the RDS and WML were swapped over to the new hotness. At this point it’d just be sitting in my safe, and that’s money that could be going towards parts, additional magazines, or ammo for Timmy. I’m not much the sentimental type. The P320 is still a good platform, and I got what I wanted out of building several versions of it. Time for something new |
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Quoted: It's been replaced by as my go-to do-anything gun by the Tanfo, not to mention the RDS and WML were swapped over to the new hotness. At this point it'd just be sitting in my safe, and that's money that could be going towards parts, additional magazines, or ammo for Timmy. I'm not much the sentimental type. The P320 is still a good platform, and I got what I wanted out of building several versions of it. Time for something new |
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Quoted: Roger, makes sense. I guess i am just of the type to hold on to my old stuff. Never know when a new idea is gonna make them relevant again. Quoted: Quoted: It's been replaced by as my go-to do-anything gun by the Tanfo, not to mention the RDS and WML were swapped over to the new hotness. At this point it'd just be sitting in my safe, and that's money that could be going towards parts, additional magazines, or ammo for Timmy. I'm not much the sentimental type. The P320 is still a good platform, and I got what I wanted out of building several versions of it. Time for something new If it does I’ll buy another one 
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 We’ve got grips and we’ve got ammo. Hard to believe this is the more mild grip texture Patriot offers, these things are sticky as hell. Very comfortable though! Still not entirely certain where the symmetrical ambi safety is. Until I have it in hand there isn’t much point in taking it back to the gunsmith. Hoping I get it sometime this weekend and can get it all dropped off before Monday |
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Quoted: Very nice pistol, was it only in the books? I don't recall that pistol being in the Amazon adaptation. Excellent question! No, this is not intended to be a clone of any of the guns featured in the show. The goal of this project is to build a gun inspired by various passages from the novels, something that feels like it’d be at home in the 23rd century - while also being a very high-performance, practical use handgun in modern day |
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So I’ve opened a question with USPS as to the status of the ambi safety, hopefully they can get figured out where it is relatively soon. Once I have that the gun will go back to my ‘smith, and then it’s pretty much done but for the shooting until the comp and threaded barrel. Plenty more pics, videos, range reports, etc coming! |
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Apparently the alternative safeties got stuck in a bit of USPS limbo, but they confirmed they have it and it’ll be delivered by this Friday. Which means this gun is probably going back to my gunsmith this weekend. Also been trading messages with Patriot Defense on potential 10mm compensator setups - standby for that! |
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Quoted: Excellent question! No, this is not intended to be a clone of any of the guns featured in the show. The goal of this project is to build a gun inspired by various passages from the novels, something that feels like it’d be at home in the 23rd century - while also being a very high-performance, practical use handgun in modern day Quoted: Quoted: Very nice pistol, was it only in the books? I don't recall that pistol being in the Amazon adaptation. Excellent question! No, this is not intended to be a clone of any of the guns featured in the show. The goal of this project is to build a gun inspired by various passages from the novels, something that feels like it’d be at home in the 23rd century - while also being a very high-performance, practical use handgun in modern day Cool, enjoy! |
 New safety got delivered today. Should make the gun much more comfortable with my wrong-handedness while still maintaining all the functionality. So the gun will go back to my gunsmith on Saturday to get the safeties swapped, trim the slide lock lever off the barrel retention pin, and zero with Sig’s 180gr JHP rounds at 25yds |
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So glad you chose a Tanfoglio for your next project! That gun i feel has been overshadowed by CZ due to their issues w importers and not hoping on the Optic cut craze quickly enough. Looking forward to seeing how it shoots w the 20lb spring. Oh, and why no brass palm swells? |
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Quoted: So glad you chose a Tanfoglio for your next project! That gun i feel has been overshadowed by CZ due to their issues w importers and not hoping on the Optic cut craze quickly enough. Looking forward to seeing how it shoots w the 20lb spring. Oh, and why no brass palm swells? I have smallish-medium hands, so the gun fills my grip well enough with the thin panels. Plus I prefer the stainless and black dual-tone aesthetic. And the gun’s heavy enough without going to brass for the grips and magwell, the X300U hanging off the frame more than makes up for the weight difference. That said, throwing a bunch of brass parts on the gun may very well be in the cards for one of the future rebuilds. We’ll see! |
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From “Caliban’s War”, The Expanse Book Two: Amos had a canvass sack filled with formed plastic boxes of different sizes, each of which seemed to have a firearm of some kind inside. He had unrolled a square of red felt, and disassembled a huge pistol on it. The delicate metal parts looked like sculpture. Amos dipped a cotton swab into a bright blue cleaning solution and rubbed it gently on a silver mechanism attached to a black metal tube, polishing metal plates that were already bright as a mirror. Prax found his hands moving towards the disassembled pieces, willing them to come together. To be already cleaned and repolished, and remade. Amos pretended not to notice, in a way that meant he was very much aware. He dipped the swab into the cleaning fluid again, and started on a metal rod with a spring wrapped around it. “I really need to get there,” Prax said. He didn’t say, “Every minute here is a minute that they could be hurting Mei. That she could be dying, or getting shipped off-world.” “Getting ready’s the shitty part,” Amos said, as if agreeing to something. “You wanna get right out into it, right the fuck now. Get it over with.” “Well, yes,” Prax said. “I get that,” Amos said. “It’s no fun but you’ve got to get through it. Going in without your gear ready, you might as well not go. Plus which, the girl’s been gone for how long, now?” “Since the fighting. Since the mirror came down.” “Chances of another hour making much difference are pretty small, right?” “But-“ “Yeah,” Amos said with a sigh. “I know. This is the tough part. Not as bad as waiting for us to get back though. That’s gonna suck even worse.” As if in punctuation Amos slid the gun together, the metal clacking. Gun is with the ‘smith, probably for about a week. Waiting is the tough part |
[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Timmy the Tanfoglio: Building Amos Burton’s 10mm Semi-auto from The Expanse (Page 1 of 2)
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