While there I saw an interesting black powder rifle designed in 1841 and used by the Union navy during the Civil War, the Jenks breechloading carbine.

The rifle is loaded with a paper cartridge by sliding the bolt back and placing it in the barrel.

The primer is then placed over the nipple on the right side of the carbine (different than most rifles of the day).

This seems like a good idea as it would be faster than the Reb muzzleloaders, I wonder why it wasn’t widely used?

STI TruBor GrandMaster

I had arranged the tour in advance with Jay Dunlap, Sales Account Supervisor at STI, who ran their booth at the Double Tap. He gave us the tour.

Which amazed us. Not that Jay gave the tour himself, but how precise STI’s guns are. The amount of precision that goes into STI’s awesome guns is mind-boggling. They’re Uber-precise. I can’t come up with enough adjectives to describe how precise all the metal parts are.

Let’s start with the slide. All STI’s slides start as steel bar-stock. After the bar-stock is cut to the proper length, two holes are machined into the front of the slide (for the barrel and guide rod), as well as the guide rails. They are ground-down little by little by a HUGE grinding wheel until they reach the correct thickness.

Pretty big grinding wheel, yes? The pipe is to spew a lubricant to keep everything running smoothly.

The slides after being machined and ground down, about to be heat-treated.

After the slides are machined and ground down, they are heat-treated. STI is unique in that they heat-treat their components before they’re finished. when I asked why they would do that, Jay told me that they are heat-treated beforehand because all the precision put into the gun would be for naught if something were to warp in heat-treating.

After heat-treating (once they cool, obviously), the slides are machined further, machining just about everything else in various steps using both CNC and Wire EDM. Wire EDM (electronic discharge machining) uses brass wire to produce a spark, which is what actually does all the cutting. Wire EDM is the most precise method of machining one can use. CNC and plasma cutting doesn’t even come close to the precision one can achieve with wire EDM. The downside is that it is very slow, but perfection takes time.

A CNC machine at work.

A CNC machine toolhead. These blades and bits are change out automatically based on what is required by the computer design. Blink, and you’ll miss the swap. This is actually a small toolhead, with only 24 heads.

A wire EDM machine. the bin is filled with a rinse which the parts are placed in, near where the wire is brought down. This machine is making hammers, which can be seen on the screen.

On the other side of the building, STI’s single stack frames are made. Let me take a minute to explain the whole single stack/double stack thing. A “single stack” gun is one that takes a magazine that has bullets stacked one on top of the other, such as a 1911. A “double stack” gun takes a magazine that has bullets staggered atop each other, making the magazine wider, but holding more bullets. Sigs, and bricks, blocks, Glocks. are examples of double stack pistols. STI makes 1911 pistols as well as their own line of “2011″ double stack pistols, which retain the same form factor of a 1911, while using a wider, plastic, grip.

7 round 1911 magazine, compared to a 15 round Glock magazine.

Anyway, STI’s 1911 frames use basically the same slide as a 2011, but the frame is all steel. Most of the work is done by CNC machines, but all the frames must be deburred, all sharp edges rounded, and inspected by human eyes. all the deburring and rounding is done using hand files and Dremel tools.

1911 frames being loaded into a CNC machine.

Frames preparing to be deburred. Note that they are serialized. That is because they are legally considered firearms at this point. Also note the sharp edges.

Sharp edges being rounded with a dremel tool.

What is the one accessory without which one cannot shoot? That’s right, the magazine. STI’s magazines are made from two thin pieces of sheet stainless steel. These two pieces are stamped together and welded along the front and back. The weld marks are sanded down and the magazine tube is heat treated. The follower, spring, and baseplate are then added (again, AFTER it cools. Apparently a few people learned that the hard way).

Welds being sanded off.

Must… Resist… Urge… to steal…

Now, you can’t throw a bullet down range without that spirally tube thingy.  STI’s process of fitting their bull barrels to their guns is kind of a trade secret, so I won’t give anything away. Suffice it to say, they fit ‘em a bit differently.

Now, I said earlier that STI’s 2011 grip was made of plastic. That’s not entirely true. STI actually has a patent on their “modular grip frame”. The actual grip is made of injection molded plastic, but the upper part of the frame (where it meets the slide) is all steel. This upper part of the frame is made using CNC machines (boy, STI owns a lot of these things).

From right to left: Raw bar-stock, roughly machined bar-stock, more machining has been done, an actual frame with a bit of machining left to do (note that this piece is serialized, as it could be put on a plastic grip, assembled in a firearm and used as a single shot pistol), and a completed frame.

From here, all the components are sent to the fitting shop, where everything is fitted and assembled. Every single part of an STI pistol is fitted to that particular pistol. In theory, every STI part will fit in every gun of the same model. However, in order to enhance performance, no STI gun is alike. even small parts of little importance, such as the barrel link, are fitted. Is <insert part here>that important? Not really. Does it somehow affect the function of the gun? Slightly. It’s fitted. This is what differentiates STI from every other gunmaker. Most gun companies make sure a part fits. STI makes sure it fits perfectly. If it doesn’t, it’s fitted.

A station in the fitting shop, with all the tools necessary to ensure perfection.

A barrel link being fit with a small hand file. Imperfection here is measured in hundredths of an inch.

A completed STI TruBor, minus the C-more red dot sight and magwell. As close as you can come to perfection without breaking the law. Unless you live in California.

Next, we went through the Quality Assurance department, where problem guns are sent in by customers. These guys don’t deal with a lot of happy people, but (hopefully) when they’re done, a customer is happy once again. We didn’t spend a lot of time in here, but we did drop off a problem STI 2011 of mine. The magazines were hanging up, which we thought was the result of a cracked grip frame. It turns out the grip frame wasn’t cracked, but the magazine release tang was worn out. This error causes the magazine release to hang onto the magazine much tighter, making it a lot harder to release. The STI guys couldn’t fix it, so they gave me a new frame on the spot.

This pretty much wraps up my tour of the STI factory. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the injection molding process they use to make their grips. They were pretty busy, though, preparing for a visit from Ted Nugent the next day. Jay told us earlier that if we could fit it into our travel schedule, we could have come a day later to meet Ted. But, alas we couldn’t. Oh, well, in the words of Don Adams:

But, of course, Jay had to open the safe:

Every model of STI’s guns is in this safe, except the STI Sporting Rifle. Every one of these guns except the Texican (revolver, left side of the door, 2nd from bottom), the Spartan (I don’t know which, one of the many single stack 1911′s. Msrp for the Spartan is $698.00) and the GP6/GP6-c/GP5 (polymer double action/single action guns, on the rack at the bottom of the safe) are made at the STI plant in Georgetown, Texas.

Well, I had a blast at the STI factory, learned a lot, and got some free apparel! Thanks to STI, and especially to Jay Dunlap!

Jay and Me.

Yesterday Dad and I went on a tour of the Berry’s Manufacturing factory. Berry’s, a business local to us in St. George, Utah, makes some of the finest bullets for competition and hunting. But Berry’s offers much more than just bullets, as Dad and I found out…

Pulling into the driveway of the Berry’s, my first thought was ” wow, that looks like an awful small building”. Entering the reception area, a small space that loses a lot of room to a taxidermied elk head, there is a display case showcasing all of Berry’s products. After meeting with the manager, Ross Hart, with whom I had arranged the tour in advance, we went onto the Berry’s production floor. To our surprise, the first thing we saw were plastic Injection Molding machines, which were busy making the bowls for the Berry’s Vibratory Case Cleanser. Ross explained to us that Berry’s makes all the components for their products except the electric motors for the case cleaner, and that the Injection Molding machines were not only for making one part. The molding machines also make the flex tips for some of their rifle bullets, which are also sold to other bullet companies such as Barnes Bullets. Berry’s does all of the plastics for Cabela’s brand products as well as doing custom Injection Molding for local businesses.

Berry’s 400 Vibratory Case Cleaner: After

The Berry’s yard: the closer building is where the administrative work is done, as well as the plastics. the far building is where the bullets are made, as well as the shipping department is. The new building is not shown.

After showing us the first building, Ross took us through the yard where Berry’s receives all their deliveries to get to another building where the bullets are made. He asked us not to take any pictures as their bullet-making process is a bit of a trade secret.

The bullets start out as 55lb. bars of lead ingots. The bars are then put into a cast-iron hopper on a machine. The hopper is heated to over 600 degrees Fahrenheit, melting the lead. The machine measures and pours the lead into cylindrical cups of the desired caliber, where the lead hardens into a cylindrical “slug”. The slugs are poured into the hopper of another machine, oriented right-side up, and a sizing die is brought down on them, cutting and “striking” them to the desired length and shape(round nose, wadcutter, etc.). Most of these bullets go on to the plating process, but a few are packaged and sold as Hard Cast bullets, mostly used for Cowboy Action Shooting as Plated bullets are not legal for SASS competition.

As we moved to the next building, Ross turned us over to the man in charge of the Electroplating process, a retired Marine Corps sniper and Desert Storm veteran named PJ. PJ showed us the magic that puts the copper on the bullets, allowing them to fly at higher speeds without flattening.

After the bullets are meticulously cleaned and inspected, they are put into 55 gallon barrels and poured into a vat containing a cyanide and water rinse. Also inside the vat is a device to keep the bullets tumbling. The rinse is charged with electricity, and a copper ingot is inserted. The bullets are left to tumble overnight.

As the bullets tumble, the cyanide breaks down the copper ingot, while the electricity causes the copper to attach to the bullet, which has been roughened ito give the copper a surface to stick to. The end result is a lead bullet that has been plated with copper, not a copper bullet with a lead core like most “jacketed” bullets made by companys such as Sierra.

Completed Berry’s Plated .40cal Flat Point

After showing us the plating vats, PJ took us to the shipping department, where Berry’s products are boxed and shipped. In addition to housing the shipping department, this building also houses more of the sizing die striking machines. Most of Berry’s plated bullets are offered as “double struck”, meaning they have been “struck” by the sizing die twice, creating a more precise and therefore more accurate bullet.

When we were done looking at the shipping department, PJ brought us into Berry’s new building. Berry’s plans to move its entire shipping department into the new building, and the company’s owner, Gilbert Berry, plans to add a machine shop complete with CNC machines and one very, very large drill press. The new building will also have a break room and a “clean” room, where Berry’s makes medical supplies and prosthetic limbs.

Berry’s is a family owned and operated business. The company’s owner, Gilbert Berry, took over the company from his father when he turned 18. It was he who designed the machines to “strike” the bullets, and he who built every one of them. Many of Berry’s employees are hunters and shooters, but quite a few of them aren’t. Many of Berry’s employees are people who know a lot about machines, or know quite a bit about chemistry.

In summary, Berry’s is a company like no other, a company that could make anything if they needed it, a company that does not rely on any one source to keep producing, and a company that makes one darn good bullet.