The Jericho 941 is a pistol with some pop culture prestige. In the early 2000s, the Jericho was featured in Cowboy Bebop, a popular Adult Swim space western TV show. The main character of the show, Spike Spiegel, uses the blued Jericho 941R chambered in 9mm
, as his signature weapon to hunt criminals. With its custom grips, the Jericho is a gun that certainly turns heads. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Shawn M. purchased our Jericho 941F to pay homage to the custom Jericho Spike used. You can find the exact model Shawn M. purchased here
, as well as all Jericho 941F handguns here.


The Jericho as it arrived.

The Jericho Arrives

Shawn M. purchased a Classic Firearms' stainless steel Jericho 94F knowing it didn't perfectly match the Jericho Spike from Cowboy Bebop carried. The Cowboy Bebop Jericho boasted a blued finish. Because of the difference in finish, Shawn began, in his own words, creating the "antithesis" of the Cowboy Bebop gun with his stainless steel version. The first thing Shawn did was disassemble the frame and slide. Then, to achieve the desired smoothness of the frame and slide, Shawn spent three days working the frame and slide with 200, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpapers. He finished the frame and slide with 3000 grit wet sanding and a bit of elbow grease and Mother's Mag polish.

Beautifully Polished 941F

A Color Out of Space

Now that he had a decent polish on his Jericho, he set out to find grips that could match Spike's Jericho. As it turns out, Lok Grips offer the Bebop grips as a custom option in over a dozen different color combinations. Shawn chose a two-tone light grey/black grip. And while he would have preferred the inlays to be one color, and the outer sections the other, that configuration wasn't an option. If you're attempting to create Spike's Jericho yourself, you could always choose a solid color grip and then paint over the necessary sections by hand. Shawn eventually ended up painting the 3-dot sights, as well as the takedown dots, in the lightest lavender enamel he could find nearest to plain white.

Jericho 941F with custom grips.

Lessons Learned

Shawn learned three main things during the course of his Cowboy Bebop Jericho project:

  • The safety lever has a tiny spring and detent. Due to its small size, it's very easy to lose. Should the sprint and detent separate, be very careful re-installing.
  • The trigger spring can be a pain to get back in place in the correct orientation, but patience and a steady hand will get you where you need to be.
  • The mainspring pin, which has the partition for the lanyard, will have to be replaced if you want to use aftermarket grips. Because of its thickness and length, a bolt catch roll pin is a perfect replacement mainspring pin as it allows the grips fit as intended. Thankfully, most of you will already own this replacement pin if you assemble your own AR-15s.

Conclusion

The legacy of Cowboy Bebop lives on through modern renditions of the space-western such as The Mandalorian. But it also lives on through the beauty and practicality of the Jericho 941F. A weapon for the space cowboy in all of us, Classic Firearms has several renditions of the Jericho 941F, which you can find here.
If you want an in-depth look at the history of the Jericho 941, you can read our article here
. See you later space cowboy...  

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