The Ultimate Speed-Steel Racegun
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If you review the major shooting tournaments of the 1970's you will likely
find such legendary names as Chip McCormick, Nick Pruitt and Mickey Fowler
prominently displayed at the top of of the match results. If you take a closer
look at the Top 16 shoot-offs that followed these world-class championships,
chances are you will also see the name D.R. Middlebrooks alongside the names of
the top shooting superstars of the era.
You see, D.R. Middlebrooks has been shooting at top-level world-class
tournaments since the 1970's. He began shooting NRA Bullseye matches in 1976. He
graduated into IPSC shooting a few years later and took part in his first IPSC
Nationals in 1981. He finished in the Top Ten of that event as well as the 1982
championship.
But it was at the all-steel, stand-and-spray shoot-off events that he found
his true calling. He craved the sweet-dinging sound lead makes when it strikes
the steel target. Standing in a shooting box slamming steel targets as fast as
humanly possible with shots fired from a gun in his hand is the ultimate speed
trip for D.R. Middlebrooks.
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D.R. stopped shooting in 1983 but returned for the 1989 Virginia State IPSC
Championship. Although he placed well and won the championship in the stock gun
category things were different from the old days. Most of the stages he shot in
that 1989 were running gun stages, something the heavy-set D.R. did not find to
his liking. He shot sparingly over the next few years.
Several years later at the Area 8 United States Practical Shooting
Association (USPSA) Championships he shot only 70% of the winning score but
finished strong to win the post-match Top 16 shootoffs, beating speed demons
like Team Briley's Jojo Vidanes and Para Ordnance's Todd Jarrett who are half
his age.
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"It proved my theory that the IPSC matches were putting too much
emphasis on movement instead of shooting skills," D.R. declared. He began
to yearn once again for the action and passion that steel shooting offered. So
when he heard about Paul Miller's American Handgunner World Shootoff
Championship held annually in Montrose, Colorado, "I came back in 1992 and
shot it".
The match was four days of man-on-man steel shooting. All the targets were
reactive steel plates that fell when hit. The shooter who knocked down the
targets faster than the other shooter, won the heat. The winner of three of five
runs won the bout and advanced to the next round. D.R. didn't even break into
the Top 16 during his first stab back at steel shooting. Top shooter Jerry
Barnhart won that championship in 1992. He recalls, "I ran out of ammo but
I had a blast!"
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D.R. discoverd steel-hosing heaven with his Colorado-based tournament. He
placed consistently in the Top 10 of every World Shootoff Championship since his
"ammo problems" at the 1992 championships. Today D.R. Middlebrooks is
once again ablaze with the passion for the sport he loves the most.
"Steel shooting is the ultimate test of speed, power and accuracy.
Paul Miller's idea of eighteen courses of fire is like eighteen holes of golf.
You spend a relaxing afternoon outdoors enjoying the scenery and having a great
time with a gun in hand." But the gun had to be reliable or the shooting
wasn't going to be fun at all.
He recalls, "In the mid-1970's a 1911-style handgun that shot a 3-inch
group at 50 yards in a NRA Bullseye competition was considered state-of-the-art.
The technology available in those days required those guns to be so tight that
they always jammed." Such malfunctions were not a big deal in NRA Bullseye
shooting because the rules of that game usually rewarded the gun jams with
automatic re-shoots. But that wasnt the case with the more unforgiving formats
of both IPSC-style and steel shooting. "I needed help and found out that
most of the gunsmiths in my area were just machinists. I was a machine designer
myself so I started experimenting and designing my own stuff. I built my first
gun in 1976 and have been doing it professionally since 1980."
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A renowned firearms designer and consultant who has provided research and
developement work for many of the U.S. Army's firearm contractors, D.R. put his
professional expertise to work and designed the ultimate stell gun - the
Middlebrooks' 2011 Dominator S-S (acronym for Speed Steel) Pistol.
"The ideal steel gun must be quick and flat!" he explains. The
lighter gun draws quicker from the holster, a necessity in steel bouts where
world chamionships are won and lost in mere fractions of a second. The
lightweight gun also starts and stops quickly when swinging from target to
target. “Heavier guns have a tendancy to overswing beyond the target."
And D.R. is quick to point out that at the 1995 World Shootoff Championships,
the top two shooters, six-time World Champion Jethro Dionisio and IPSC World
Champion Matt McLearn, used Caspian high capacity aluminum frames, which he
says, "proves my theory that light is flat!"
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D.R. constructed his steel gun on an all steel STI modular frame because it
is five ounces lighter than a standard 1911. It is also stronger and holds more
amunition while maintaining the same virtual grip dimensions of a single-stack
1911. And since there is no aluminum in his gun he feels, "The all-steel
approach for light loads will make this blaster last forever. The modular frame
is the ultimate chassis for a Hot Rod speed pistol."
The entire gun weighs only 32 ounces. Lightening cuts were tastefully
sculptured into both the frame and the slide of this prize steel gun to reduce
weight. He made sure such cuts did not produce stress cracks so common with many
of todays "chopped and channeled" speed pistols. The slide was
flattened to clear the way for a C-More Serendipity SL red dot sight with a huge
16-minute dot, a natural choice because it is bright, reliable, fast, and
lightweight. The Limcat anti-glare shield which was added to the C-More sight
makes for a perfect sight picture even on bright sunny days.
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Pin-point accuracy is critical for steel shooting because as D.R. explains,
"Some of the targets at the Montrose are only 3-inch round plates while the
target plate is only 12 inches at 23 yards." The 2011 Dominator S-S Pistol
can shoot tight 1.25-inch groups at 50 yards, something D.R. credits to the
installation of Acc-U-Rails.
"A loose slide-to-frame fit on an iron-sighted semi-automatic is not
critical as long as the gun has a good lock-up. Red-dot sights, however, are
actually mounted to the frame of the semi-automatic, not to it's slide, and are
therefore sighted-in relative to the frame of the gun. When the slide becomes
loose, the gun will loose its accuracy. I've seen railed guns with over 25,000
rounds of 38-super major loads fired through them and the guns are still tight"
The Master himself, Acc-U-Rail inventor Bob Krieger, installed the rails on this
gun.
The steel gun is chambered in 38-super which he says "is ideal for
surgical shooting at warp-drive speed." The gun must shoot ammunition with
enough power to knock the plates over. For steel shooting he suggests a power
factor of 130, which can be a 125-grain bullet traveling at 1040 feet per
second. In this gun, ammunition in that configuration can achieve a 0.75-inch
cloverleaf group at 25 yards.
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Over the years D.R. Middlebrooks has managed to place ninth in the IPSC
Nationals and fourth at the Second Chance Bowling Pin Championships. "But
I've never had more fun than shooting Speed Steel matches." Most recently
he placed a very impressive fifth over-all at the World Shootoff Championships,
the most highly competitive steel championship in the world today.
"Jethro Dionisio is the fastest and most consistent steel
shooter today and Matt McLearn is the most naturally fast shooter on the
circuit. I shot against Jethro Dionisio in the 1995 championship five times and
I beat him twice. I was also 3-2 versus Matt McLearn at last years
championship. I'm 42 and these guys are only half my age and they have won many
championships. But I can hold my own."
As a Master Pistolsmith and Grandmaster speed shooter, he understands the
importance of firearm accuracy and reliability. As a firearms designer and
consultant, he knows how to achieve it. His forte has always been reliability
work on 1911 guns, a field where he has earned very high marks, and much of his
firearms work has been for police use as well as real-world, street-legal carry
guns. But D.R. works on raceguns because he loves to push the envelope. Its
pretty obvious from his work on the 2011 Dominator S-S Speed Pistol that the
challenge of hot-rodding raceguns has become his passion.
Speed-Steel Shooting has been making a strong rebound in recent years both
as a recreational shooting event as well as a world-class championship. Many
major speed-steel shooting events are cropping up all over the country because
their easy-to-follow format makes them the ideal sport to promote as a
mainstream spectator sporting event. And they're extremely fun to shoot.
This revived interest in the purest of all shooting sports will only serve
to add fuel to the fire in the heart of D.R. Middlebrooks. He'll be tinkering
with state-of-the-art hot-rod steel guns for many more years to come.
- GG
| THE
2011 DOMINATOR S-S | | Built by: | D.R.
Middlebrooks
Middlebrooks Custom Shop
7366 Colonial
Trail East
Surry, Virginia 23883
(804) 357-0881 | | Parts List | | Frame & Slide | STI
International "2011" | | Firing
Pin | STI International "Titanium" | | Barrel | Nowlin
Custom Mfg. "Super .38 Auto" | | Springs | Nowlin Custom Mfg. "Silica
Carbide" | | Red-Dot Sight | C-More "Serendipity SL" | | Thumb Safety | Middlebrooks
Custom "Wide Ride" | | Compensator |
Middlebrooks Custom "Jet Comp" | | Slide Stop | Middlebrooks Custom
"Extended" | | Buffer Kit | Middlebrooks Custom "Soft-Stroke" | | Guide Rod | Middlebrooks Custom "Acrylic" |
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J. Solito
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