Monday, April 16, 2007 Rama: Boboy and Danao’s thunder things By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
LAST week’s piece on the nineteen-eleven earned an email from Mr. Ramon “Boboy” Durano IV (boboy_rd @yahoo.com), former city administrator, vice mayor and councilor of Danao City, who wrote:
“I totally agree with your statements in your column today, April 9, 2007, that the nineteen-eleven creation of John Moses Browning is the most copied and the most used semi-automatic pistol in the history of firearms.
“I also must admit that when I started shooting my first M1911A1 (the military designation for the pistol – KNR) Remington G.I. piece in the ’70s, most of the present day shooters were either still learning how to walk and talk.
“There were no accessories available locally at that time, so we buy whatever stuff we need in the US and experiment with their installation here.
“The only local gunsmith at that time was the legendary Simeon Cortes with his two sons, Romy and Mulo.
“My father gave me a brand new Mark IV Series 70 (from Colt) in 1982 in 45ACP and then my fondness of the M1911A1 came into full gear.
“I became a member of CPRA in 1983 and expanded my shooting world. I came across a lot of guns, and realized that the nineteen-eleven was indeed the most copied semi-auto pistol in the market.
“G.I. models were from Colt, Remington, Union Switch & Signal, Ithaca, Singer Sewing Machine (very rare – KNR). Commercial models were AMT, Star and Llama, just to mention a few.
“Today, the gunsmiths from my hometown of Danao do a superb job in both gun smithing or total gun making, with skills drawn from experience and love.
“All these we owe to a humble man – who had no idea just how much his creation will be loved and admired by people and how his nineteen-eleven would become the best semi-auto pistol ever made – John Moses Browning.”
I emailed him back and asked him about the treasure trove of firearms and firearm-history that he calls his hometown. His reply deserves to see print.
“Based on my little research, the gun industry in Danao started around 1905-1906 and one of the most popular gun maker at that time was a certain Mario Durano. I don’t know how he is related to us.
“I have a piece that was supposedly made by him in 1912. It is a revolver chambered for cal. 32, made out of bronze and patterned after the revolvers used either by the Spaniards or the early batch of American soldiers sent out to fight Aguinaldo. Gun making was then considered as a backyard industry, of course, and outlawed by the government.
“When World War II came, the Danao gunsmiths went underground, joined the guerrilla movement or were inducted into the USAFFE under the command of Gen. Douglas McArthur. Their task was to re-chamber the Japanese Arisaka rifles to fit the US cal.30 round or kept the original Japanese rifle in good serviceable shape for the use of our forces.
“After the war, there was a lull because of the proliferation of US surplus goods, among them firearms.
“The industry went on, still underground. Until the ’60s, somebody coined the word ‘paltik’ to the guns. The brand made it popular and, being synonymous to Danao, people now began to realize that there was something, a special skill, that is embedded in the Danao gunsmiths.
“Aside from being cheap, it was a ‘throw-away-after-use’ item, primitive in looks but reliable and easy to obtain. They even made “ball pen” guns, chambered for cal.22 LR (Long Rifle).
“Thus came the era of the Danao-made revolvers, with chambering set either for the twenty-two and the twenty-two magnum, cal. 32 and cal. 38.
“The semi-automatic pistol version was still either on the drawing board or in the testing stage and this took a long time for them to perfect.”
