In case you missed it previously, Cabot Guns is building a left-hand oriented 1911 pistol called the South Paw.  The South Paw was introduced at the 2012 SHOT Show.
Cabot claims the South Paw is the only left-handed 1911 pistol on the market, and I believe they are right.  Left-handed firearms are often produced in limited numbers in the rifle community, but are even less common in handguns.  Typically, gun companies will offer ambidextrous or reversible features (safeties, mag releases), but not a straight lefty.
The Charter Arms Southpaw, a left-handed .38 Special revolver, is another example of a left-handed handgun.  Left-handed rifles are not common, but they seem to outnumber left-handed pistols at a factor of ten (or more) to one.  You just don’t see too many handguns set up for people who are wired a little different.
According to Cabot Guns, the South Paw is a precision handgun machined to “extreme tolerances.”  The price? $5250.  It is not cheap, but it is also something you are not likely to find elsewhere.  With a small supply, prices go up.  If you then take that constrained supply and build in very high quality and tight tolerances, you can expect that the price will jump up substantially.
2013 Update
Cabot Guns is still listing the South Paw on the company’s website.  The MSRP has increased to $5,750, but there is a lot more information listed for the gun.  I encourage everyone to follow the link above to the site and read all of the custom features that are standard on these pistols.  I would definitely go with the California olive wood grips on my pistol if I was buying one.  Your tastes and preferences, of course, may vary.
2 replies on “Cabot Guns South Paw”
I’m not a southpaw, but this looks like a really nice 1911 .45 pistol. However, for $5,250 big ones I could buy a couple of Les Baer and/or Kimber 1911’s, and have enough change left over to buy a new Springfield XD-S and ammo for all the pistols!
Yikes! I would have expected to see something inlaid with gold for that price.
I’m glad that Cabot is looking after the left-handed shooters, but just how many are going to be able to drop that much jack for a specific left-handed pistol?
With the exception of the slide stop, I fail to see what a straight left had gun offers over the reversible features that most guns have these days. Ejection certainly doesn’t matter. So why a couple grand premium?