Friday Night Gun Pr0n: Boresight Solutions

Boresight Solutiosn is a Glock and M&P plastic surgeon. See, ten years ago a shooter with a vision for improving the form and function of the Glock semiautomatic pistol started down a path that led him become a trendsetters in the custom world of striker fired pistols. Boresight Solutions has been one of the major GO TO shops for custom Glock work for a long time. The man behind that company, Ben Simonson, is now launching out into new directions.

Glock by Boresight Solutions

“I had just gotten out of the Air Force and was attending different tactical pistol classes,” Ben tells us. “Being a fan of traditional pistols like the Colt 1911 and Browning Hi Power, I noticed the other guys were running Glocks.”

Custom Glock by Boresight

“When I was shooting in class or competition, I would leave a trail of empty mags behind me as I ran through a course. These guys were reloading less and their guns seemed to be more reliable. The Glock had everything needed in a combat pistol: they were simple, reliable and had a much higher magazine capacity than a 1911. I ended up buying one and I hated the ergonomics. It sat too high in my hand at presentation and I had to unnaturally cant it downward to hit the target. It slipped around in my hand like a wet bar of soap. Worst of all, after running with one in a class my hand was beat up and bloody from it; I had to wear a bandage the second day.”

For all its virtues, some things needed to change. According to Ben, “This pistol had all the features of a fighting tool and it was incredibly easy to work on with parts that were easy to obtain. You can fix or replace anything on it by means of a punch. It’s dead nuts simple and not a finicky gun that had to rely on carefully fitted parts. Everything just dropped in.”

Ben did some searching online and found a handful of outfits performing grip reductions and frame profiling for Glock pistols. However, as a Fine Arts Major pursuing a post graduate degree he found the work somewhat lacking.

“It was on the fringes of the industry and the work was effective but somewhat crude. I simply found none of it aesthetically pleasing. Nothing complemented the lines of the pistol, it was all just very pedestrian with no artistry.”

He looked at his own Glock and figured that the plastic on the frame looked thick enough that he could remove some material so he started grinding away at it. He removed the factory checkering and undercut the trigger guard. He re-profiled the rear tang of the frame. However it still needed something, so he used a heated punch to add his own stippling and give some much-needed texture to the frame.

“I came up with a geometric pattern that was not only functional, but aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I visualized where the pattern and grain would go. Most people do not realize it, but the polymer in the frame has a grain like wood. You just need to bring it out.”

With his newly configured pistol, he ran through a course and everything was perfect. A fellow student commented on it and asked to try it. He offered Ben more money than he had in the pistol, so he sold it, bought another and completely customized his second Glock — only to sell it as well, under similar circumstances.

“I started working on Glocks for friends and friends of friends and within 6 months strangers who wanted me to work on their guns contacted me. I knew I had to get an FFL to be able to legally send them and receive them to work on. I was incorporating aesthetics that no one else was doing and people wanted that. I got in touch with a local gun shop and worked under their FFL to work part time as a smith. I started my own LLC and launched the website but it took off beyond control. The volume was overwhelming the gun shop so I had to open my own place.”

He quit his full time job and left his graduate program, opening his business in a warehouse in Miami’s “Little Haiti”, famous for 100 degree summers and no air conditioning. He was soon becoming a full service custom shop, working on AR-15s, AK-47s and other firearms. Eventually the workload demanded that he dial back to just custom Glock and Smith & Wesson M&P work. Without taking on new work he had time to catch up on back orders and saw light at the end of the tunnel.

Now, if you look around at the rest of the Glock customization industry, one can see how these custom designs point back to such Boresight Solutions’ innovations as the glove bevel on the trigger guard to the katana bevels on the slides.

Ben is launching a new retail shop with a new partner and has a few interesting projects in the works with companies like SilencerCo. We'll have to wait a few months and see what springs forth from his fertile mind on that front.

S&W M&Ps

Follow Boresight Solutions on Instagram (@boresightsolutions) or on Facebook here.

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