Nehemia Sirkis - Guardians

bearcatter · December-21-21 23:12

Just ran across something I didn't know about Guardians. The .32 was designed by an Israeli firearms engineer named Nehemia Sirkis. He also designed the Israeli DAN sniper rifle, the Detonics Pocket Nine and .380, some unspecified Kimber work, and other guns. He held nine patents on firearm mechanisms.You can Google several mentions of Mr. Sirkis. In the News section of the NAA site, he is mentioned a couple of times in the articles. He died in 2018 at the age of 86.
Excerpt from article in the Free Library website, quoting NAA's Ken Friel :

"North American Arms hired Nehemia Sirkis at Sirkis Firearms R&D to help the company develop the new pocket pistol it envisioned. "We gave him a list of improvements we wanted and asked him to focus on durability as well as reliable functioning with a variety of different loads." The result was the Guardian, an improved, redesigned version of the Seecamp pistol".

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+mouse+gun+that+roared.+(Firing+Line+Report).-a092526350

You can add the facts I already knew that at first, Ruger's Pine Tree Castings cast the frames and slides. Kahr machined the frames and slides. Taurus made the MIM trigger, hammer, slide release, and mag release. Somewhere later along the line the MIM parts were made in-house. Supposedly now the entire gun is in-house. But I wonder.
My second Guardian, two years ago, had an issue that the top of the slide had been machined one pass too many and didn't mate to the breech properly. I ended up with a new gun which took several weeks to get. NAA blamed the mistake on a vendor. Vendors are not in-house. So maybe the slide was / still is a contracted production. In any case, the gun is a 99.9% match to my first Guardian, and works fine.

LepriconX · December-22-21 03:12

What MIM stands for?

bearcatter · December-22-21 07:12

MIM is metal injection molding. Parts are made by injecting hot metal into a mold. You get a 99% finished part, just have to remove a seam line on some parts, some parts you can leave it. It started being used in the late 80s, IIRC. At first there was some controversy over MIM being good quality, but it seems to have been proven. Most guns have some MIM parts now.

LepriconX · December-22-21 09:12

Thx!

bearcatter · December-22-21 11:12

I wish I could have found more on Sirkis. From the bits and pieces I found, he was highly respected in the gun makers' world. NAA apparently thought highly of him. I looked up the Detonics pistols (1986); you can see more resemblance to the 1997 Guardian 32 than to the 1981 Seecamp. Grip shape and angle (grips were aluminum), grip screw placement, slide profile, mag release. Fixed barrel; even has the unpinned extractor. It was nearly half again bigger, though.
Best I can find, NAA did the modifications to make the Guardian 32 a 380, Sirkis wasn't part of that.

Rick_Jorgenson · December-23-21 09:12

Thank you for posting this bearcatter!

Knowing some history and where the great minds come together is good to know.

Having some back up info can help determine future purchases if looking for particular firearms.

I have a Seecamp .32acp and a Guardian .32acp. Very similar to each other, the Seecamp is smaller.

From other research I've read... "be cautious about the Seecamp cambered in .380" it seems to be a bit much for that small of firearm.

Possibly why NAA went with a larger frame for the .380 and .32naa round?

Photos for proof that I have the guns mentioned

and for Uncle_Lee to ease down some of that gourmet coffee I'm sure he's drinking!

Uncle_Lee · December-23-21 09:12

Thanks for the pictures.
Beautiful holsters.
Yes they help with the special coffee.
It was so wonderful watching her as she made the coffee in her "Easy Bake" coffee maker.

bearcatter · December-23-21 10:12

Quote from: Rick_Jorgenson on December-23-21 09:12
Thank you for posting this bearcatter!
Knowing some history and where the great minds come together is good to know.
I have a Seecamp .32acp and a Guardian .32acp. Very similar to each other, the Seecamp is smaller.
From other research I've read... "be cautious about the Seecamp cambered in .380" it seems to be a bit much for that small of firearm.

The Detonics Pocket Nine was the first compact 9mm, but didn't sell well because of the recoil, even though it weighed about 30 oz loaded. Only made two years. There was a .380 version on the same frame, but only a few hundred of them made in just 1986.

The Guardian 380 is a little bigger and six ounces more than the 32, but from what I read it still kicks plenty hard. Some people say one mag's worth is all they can take. One reason I have 32s !

autofull · February-03-22 15:02

i met mr. sirkis at a engineering conference 35yrs ago. we ended up talking firearms design for the next 6hrs. really nice guy. alot of his blowback centerfire pistols were made for fast fabrication in 3rd world countries. how they ended up being made here , i do not know. the cat 9 was his also, quick and dirty he told me. under 20bucks to make and then toss it away. border raids he said. kevin in pa.

pietro · February-04-22 09:02

Quote from: bearcatter on December-23-21 10:12

The Detonics Pocket Nine was the first compact 9mm, but didn't sell well because of the recoil, even though it weighed about 30 oz loaded.

Only made two years. There was a .380 version on the same frame, but only a few hundred of them made in just 1986.

FWIW, I believe the first compact 9mm Parabellum was Theodore Paris' ASP (early 1970's), based on the S&W M-39 - which soon led first to copy cats, then to handgun manufacturers jumping on the wagon.

.

bearcatter · February-04-22 09:02

I looked it up, and it was apparently custom order. You furnished your own Model 39 for him to modify. He made at best a few hundred, and another licensed company later made about 3000. I had a 39 years ago, and it was bulky compared to today's nines.
The ASP was a half inch shorter, 5 ounces lighter, better sights and melted edges. Big improvements at the time.

https://www.guns.com/news/2013/05/28/the-asp-9-the-coolest-gun-you-never-heard-of

RogueTS1 · February-04-22 15:02

Super cool pistol. Long before my time but cool none the less. It looks a lot like a single stack version of my duty pistol back in the day. The S&W Model 669 in 9mm.

bearcatter · February-04-22 16:02

I think the CS9 was the smallest version S&W came up with.

https://www.genitron.com/Handgun/Smith-Wesson/Pistol/CS9-(Chiefs-Special)/9-mm/Variant-1

autofull · February-28-22 07:02

yup, paris theodore was one of the first custom maker of mini 9,s. there was a company in california that cut down spanish star pistols in the 70,s also.