The Tandemkross Kraken!

March 02, 2022

The Tandemkross Kraken!

I am a huge fan of Tandemkross and I have been for many many years. I started buying their products a long time ago when I first purchased my first Ruger 22/45 lite. I purchased pretty much every product they sold for the 22/45 and built a pretty awesome race gun. It was one of Ruger's blue models and my wife hated it; She called it my "Ray gun." I owned that pistol for many years and only decided to sell it once I was at a point in my life where I could afford to buy a gun I had been dreaming about for a long time, the Volquartsen black mamba. So I sold the Ruger and ordered the Black Mamba. A while before I made that decision Tandemkross had developed and released their aluminum Kraken frame for the 22/45. While the frame was beyond awesome, it's still required a donor pistol in order to be utilized. Knowing I would inevitably be replacing all of the parts on the Ruger with parts from Volquartsen and Tandemkross, I always held off on buying the Kraken. Of course it was after I had already ordered the Black Mamba that Tandemkross announced they now offered a complete kit (Build your own Kraken B.Y.O.K) which would supply all of the required parts, which meant a donor pistol would no longer be required. I was so stoked, and I knew I had to build one.

I had a very good friend (Mike) who also ordered the Kraken with the BYOK kit, and because I was focusing on several other builds he started putting his pistol together before I did. Mike called me several times with major frustration because there was no video on how to build a Kraken frame while utilizing the BYOK kit. Tandemkross had an older video which showed how to remove parts from a Ruger and swap them into a Kraken frame, and Volquartsen had videos on how to install their various parts, but there was still a lot of unanswered questions, and parts which had no information. Mike called Tandemkross and Volquartsen multiple time and was finally able to get his Kraken frame assembled.

After hearing the hard time Mike had while assembling his Kraken I resolved to make a video which others could use to assemble their frames without running into issues or needing to call Tandemkross repeatedly.

And that is exactly what I did!

You can find the Tandemkross how-to video at the following link;

YouTube/Tandemkross How-To

While I do not intend on outline in writing how to assemble a Kraken frame, (watch the video), I felt I would be remiss if I didn't discuss the project here.

The BYOK kit comes like this (minus the Volquartsen slide and bolt) in individually packaged parts. Each part is clearly labeled and easy to identify.

And the parts which are small come in this awesome little container which is actually water tight and has spring-loaded doors which snap shut when not in use.

Tandemkross also made these three super awesome identification sheets which clearly show where all the parts are located. I think Tandemkross should include these three sheets with the BYOK but they only provide them on their site. I will provide a link to the identification sheets below;

Tandemkross ID sheet

For my Kraken build, I chose to go with a Volquartsen LLV upper and bolt and I couldn't be happier with that decision. I love both and I think they are a match made in heaven when paired to the Kraken frame.

After attaching the bolt and slide to the assembled frame, I was finally able to get a look at the completed "black widow" and it just looks awesome!!

I had a Vortex Razor red dot and installed it to the upper and installed Tandemkross' hooked magazine base plates and the results were fantastic. I really love when you build a gun, complete it, and after shooting it, you would change a single thing about it; and that is what happened with this build. I wouldn't change a single thing about the "Black Widow"; It is a build I will pass down to my kids. I plan to eventually do a complete review of the Black Widow but until then I will say, if you are even remotely considering building your own Kraken, DO IT!

You can find the B.Y.O.K. parts chart at the following link:

https://www.tandemkross.com/assets/im...

You can find the Volquartsen LLV upper at the link to Brownells below;

https://alnk.to/esRuH9h

You can find the Volquartsen Bolt at the link to Brownells below;

https://alnk.to/cHHUT43

You can find the punches and other tools at the link to Brownells below;

https://alnk.to/28MkMR2

You can find me at instagram at the link below;

https://www.instagram.com/faithkillsf...

You can find me on Facebook at the link below;

https://www.facebook.com/Faithkillsfear/