You know it's a cool gun when the range officers gather around

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I finally had the chance to take my little Whitney Wolverine to the range. It is an absolute dream to shoot. Modern gun manufacturers could learn a lot by studying this thing. It wasn't cheap to manufacture but it is awesome to run.

The little guy was sprung too stiffly to cycle with the Winchester subsonic stuff and didn't have enough spring to run the Aguila hyper velocity rounds.
It ran well with the Remington Target, Remington bulk, Federal bulk, and Winchester Super X 37 and 40 grain. The Federal stuff had a few rounds that didn't fire the first time through. A few CCI Stingers were tried but it had a couple feed issues. I think they are a little hot for the gun.

As far as shooting goes, the gun had no problems keeping each of the loads at an inch or less at 15 yards. I'm sure it can do better in more capable hands. Today was not a good day for me. I've been going through an incredible amount of personal stress and my blood pressure has been really high. In fact, I was having such a hard time flinching and shaking that I went through more than 40 rounds of 10mm trying to dial in the sights on the Contender. After serious concentration I was able to stack rounds at 15 yards but it took hard work.
I'll run the guns again after some of the stress subsides.

I'm a regular at that range and have been for several years. The range officers know me because of my big boomers and the Encore/Contender collection. Today, I showed one of them the Whitney and he ran a mag through it. We discussed how it was built and I broke it down for him. After that, he ran down another range officer so he could play with it too. We ended up chatting about the gun for quite some time after the other shooters left. The first RO took notes on his phone so he could research the guns a bit more.

It really is a rare item. That's almost shameful because of how beautifully it handles and how artfully it's made. After running it today, I feel that any shooter that appreciates the design and mechanics of firearms needs to run a Whitney at least once. Mine was in the hands of 7 different shooters today.
To me, sharing a unique gun with others is the fun part of shooting.
 
I didn't take any pics at the range. My targets are usually a mess by the end of the session because I use every part of it. Each number, intersection of lines, or other distinguishable point becomes a bullseye.

Pics of the Whitney Wolverine and 10mm Contender are attached. The 10 is a sweetie when I'm on my game. It's a Shilen hand lapped blank that was sent to Match Grade Machine for conversion into a Contender barrel. I had a 40 S&W made from the rest of the blank and sold it to recover some of my cost.
 

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That Wolverine kind of reminds me of a certain HK handgun. For the life of me, I can't recall the model name. All I know is that it's kind of space gun looking.
 
I find the Whitney Wolverine to be an utterly ugly, Buck Rogers gun. (But, then, I was always fond of the original Rem XP-100... to each their own.)

If you desire a Whitney Wolverine without scouring the Web for an original, Olympic Arms (Olympia, WA) has remanufactured this line:

http://www.olyarms.com/shop/pistols/pistols-whitney.html

I was at the factory (about an hour's drive from my place) a few months ago to get a 1911 Oly frame and MSH parked for my .22 project (yeah, that's a 1992 J.A. Ciener conversion kit on top)

1911Project020_zps7e0aab0c.jpg


and noticed many of those Whitney repro pistols in the front counter on display. I would bet they have more stashed in the back of the store.

You can also download the 2014 catalog (.pdf) from this link:

http://www.olyarms.com/

If you want one, email them:

Attn:

Tom Spithaler
Sales Dir.
Olympic Arms, Inc.

Whitney is on the .pdf page 25. I don't know how many, if any, parts are interchangeable with the original.

The hitch, as I understand it, is that one has to order from a "preferred" list of Oly Arms dealers as the factory won't sell you one unless you walk into their storefront. They will sell parts via UPS.

There is also a website: Olympic Arms Owners Association

http://www.oa2.org/Forum/

which has a section devoted to the Wolverine.

As a side note, Spithaler is "rattler" in all of the forum discussions.

He is also a "take no prisoners" commentator insofar a 2A is concerned:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh-zOtr4-S8

Hope I haven't gotten TOO off-topic.

Jim
 
The Whitney has a low barrel height and the gun points beautifully. I enjoy shooting it more than my MK III Target. The gun is the same size as my Kimber but only a fraction of the weight.

For those looking at the Olympic injection molded plastic Wolverine knock-off be aware that is shares ZERO parts and has a spotty track record. In short, it's crap.
 
I know nothing of the new production, but on the original guns, it is a good idea for anyone disassembling the gun to make careful notes. They come apart easily, but you tend to end up with a pile of parts and wondering what to do next.

Jim
 
Years ago I got to shoot one of the originals and thought is was cool, to use the verbage of the day. Looked like it came right off the set of a scifi movie.
 
Put a Bersa Thunder next to it and you can see where Bersa got their idea from.

The bottom of the frame at the handle is different but you can see the similarities.
 
The Olympic Arms repros often have problems because their magazines are entirely plastic, vs. the metal originals.

I have both (original & repro) and the repro won't run well with anything but an original mag. OA denies there is any issue with their guns/mags.
 
When I stumbled across one early on in my collecting, I bought it immediately. Haven't regretted it. It's a really neat gun, very accurate. And it's now worth 2x what I paid for it. But I'll probably never sell it.
 
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