About Chip McCormick Custom, LLC™

About Chip McCormick

It has been twenty-five years since Chip began manufacturing 1911 products and it just keeps growing more exciting every year. He knew early in his professional shooting career that major advancements in parts design and quality were needed in order to meet the requirements of knowledgeable 1911 pistol owners. Read below to learn more about CMC!

Shortly after winning his first World Speed Shooting Championship title in 1986, Chip entered the enormously competitive area of manufacturing performance products for 1911 type pistols. It is debatable as to which form of competition is tougher, pistol matches or firearms industry.

In 1986 he began manufacturing the Shooting Star™ line of extra-capacity magazines for 1911-type pistols. The Shooting Star magazines are just as revolutionary now as they were in 1986. The follower design the magazines incorporate is still the only one that allows for a reliable flush-fitting extra-capacity magazine with a long service life. This is because the follower itself is a leaf spring, which adds to the tension of the coil spring. Without the added tension of the patented Shooting Star™ follower, the coil spring alone just would not yield the reliability and service needed for a flush-fitting magazine. This is why the Shooting Star™ follower design is the one you see the big 1911 pistol manufacturers using.

1986

Chip won the second World Speed Shooting Championship title in 1988. However, while trying to compete against the likes of Rob Leatham and Jerry Barnhart in the shooting sports, as well as in the multi-million dollar firearms and parts manufacturers, it became obvious that a choice would have to be made. There just wasn't enough time in a day to be the best at both. So, in 1990, Chip retired from professional shooting to focus on designing and manufacturing extraordinary 1911 products.

1988 was the year Chip McCormick Corp. revolutionized trigger parts for the 1911. Previously, the only way a shooter could obtain a "match grade" trigger job was to send his pistol away to a custom gunsmith to handwork the components. This usually meant a very long waiting period that left the shooter without the pistol for month at a time. Since about only four or five of the very best gunsmiths could make a dependable match-grade trigger job, most shooters soon discovered that their long-awaited, and expensive, trigger jobs were no longer dependable. Chip McCormick Corp. was the first to develop the technology necessary for obtaining a perfect trigger pull with a long lasting service life. Many companies have tried to copy our technology, but none have been able to match our technological know-how for producing a consistently crisp, reliable trigger pull.

1988

Chip sought out and employed the services of a top American aerospace and defense industry manufacturer/supplier for the purpose of advancing mag technology well beyond the capabilities of existing firearms industry manufacturers/suppliers.

Among the many areas of improvement desired, CMC was the very first company to incorporate laser seem welding of it's 1911 magazine tubes. This advancement eliminated the need to belt sand and/or surface grind ugly welds which also thinned the metal and promoted cracking of the material, especially in the area of the feed lips.

Next was to reduce the total tolerances and tolerance stacks among the magazine components and between the pistol(s) the magazines are to be used in. This enabled optimization of the design and geometry, and substantially increased reliability, service life and function.

1990

During 1991 Chip McCormick Corp. introduced a high-tech 1911 frame for IPSC-style competition that allowed the use of high-capacity magazines. This frame is still dominant in IPSC-style sports that require high-capacity in order to be competitive. However, elite law enforcement and military units, such as the FBI's HRT squad and the Armys Delta Forces, have determined that, in the real world of self-defense and combat, high-performance pistols based on the original 1911 design are most effective as serious combat weapons. With America's ban on high-capacity magazines, CMC discontinued the high-capacity concept in order to focus 100% on maximizing the performance of the tried-and-true 1911-style pistol.

1991

In 1994 CMC was contacted by agents of Kimber™ about purchasing our 1911 trigger group components for use in Kimber's™ proposed new line of pistols. And for Chip McCormick, personally, to endorse the new line.

Upon on Chip's suggestion, rather than make and offer another line of pistols similar to existing lines, to take a whole new approach to a new line of production type pistols by designing and producing a line of pistols with much closer tolerances, increased accuracy and reliability, and fully featured and outfitted with all the details and accessories commonly associated with full house custom pistols.

Chip's suggestion was agreed to and CMC was contracted to do all the design work for every part except pins, screws and springs.

CMC's design work was completed and immediately implemented into production. Chip endorsed the new line of Kimber™ 1911 pistols, and soon thereafter, the resulting line of 1911 became known as the finest production 1911 pistols ever produced!

1994

1995

In 1997 Chip McCormick Custom introduced the first complete line of 1911 components designed to be matched and integrated together into "custom grade" pistols without the extensive fitting, filing, blending, etc., which were previously required. The same technologies we have developed for the multi-million-dollar firearms manufacturers are available to the individual. Our competitors have tried to copy our products and follow the trends we set forth. The oldest, largest, and best-known firearms manufacturers have been using Chip McCormick Custom as a source for the development of technologies and products to advance the performance of their standard production pistols.

In the past twenty four years, it's been said numerous times, that Chip McCormick Custom is continuously setting new standards. You can bet we will be working hard to keep it that way!

1997