Pennsylvania based Cabot Gun has designed and fabricated a pair of 1911 pistols made out of a 35kg (77 lb) chunk of the Gibeon meteorite. Called the “Big Bang Pistol Set,” they will be chambered in 45 ACP and come in a special display case. Cabot, known as the “Rolls Royce of 1911’s,” has stated they wanted to make the world’s most expensive pistols.
A little background here. The Gibeon meteorite refers to fragments leftover from a meteor that broke up in the atmosphere and spread itself all over a big patch of ground on the south side in what is now the Republic of Namibia.
Evidently, the Gibeon meteorite, which is composed of mostly iron and nickel, has astonishing aesthetic qualities when properly worked. When treated to with acid, what is called a Widmanstätten pattern can be brought out. It’s quite beautiful and using it in the production of a gun has never been done, which is why Rob Biachin, founder and president of Cabot Guns, wants to make it happen.
Cabot scanned and generated a 3D mesh of the meteorite chunk using it as a boundary to contain the 3D models of the pistols parts to be manufactured from it. Once the parts were mapped out within the chunk, they were cut out of the chunk. They describe it as similar to the process of cutting a diamond. Wow. Don’t mess up guys. You definitely don’t want to step away from the CNC meteorite cutting machine cutting those parts.
They have, of course, pulled it off. Cabot boasts a pretty absurd level of precision, with the claim that with their “Clone Technology”, they consistently achieve a clearance between frame and slide of 0.001” with a deviation of 2 / 10,000 of an inch. You don’t get precision like that without knowing exactly what you are doing. Details on which components were manufactured from the meteorite are sparse. The frame is carbon steel, which leaves the left and right grips and, primarily, an aesthetic purpose for the stone that fell from the sky. Could they make every part–slide release, mag release, magazine, etc. out of meteorite?
Cabot says that they plan to show they pistols off publicly in May, at the NRA annual meeting and Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. After that, they say that the pistols will likely be auctioned off between 500K and 1 million dollars and their website already lists it as SOLD. Most expensive, new, pistol for sure.
