Posted on 08/06/2017 6:43:31 PM PDT by Strac6
In 1971, at a small USAR unit in upstate NY, I was assigned a Colt 1911 pistol. It was in the shape you would expect it to have been in after a few wars, etc. There were many obvious non-original parts, worn blueing, etc.
The interesting item was that it a real Colt, not another manufacturer, and the serial number was 000086. I don't remember how many digits were in front of the 86, but as I remember, they were all zeros. It was definitely not a 1911A1. The armorer said it was most probably the eighty sixth Colt Automatic Pistol Model 1911 made by Colt.
Anyone have any idea what it would have been worth if any of my dreams about getting it "off the books" ever come to fruition?
More than that...once you can prove it’s real. There are known fake Singers and US&S .45s (some of them in circulation for quite some time) out there.
Always the first sign someone's losing the argument.
I stand by my statement. I’ve seen some real crap .45s over the last thirty years at laughable prices.
And one only needs to read the tone in your post to see I was justified.
Could be.... This was several years ago, and I haven’t looked lately.
Well then, you have to live with it. You must be excessively sensitive if you took offense to my comment to you.
Finally, someone speaks with knowledge and understanding of the subject at hand...
The Colt 1911 is a wonderful old treasure and even when they're a century plus in years, they are handsome, well-made, and deadly. A friend of mine has a faded but correct 1911 of 1918 vintage and I'm working on him to sell it to me.
Meanwhile, Frank Luke's .45 has been missing for decades and I hope that I'm the one that finds it again! It was found in France at the spot where he shot down his last observation balloon, then crashed his SPAD and then engaged the Germans with that pistol and then it disappeared.
Now that's a pistol with history.
I do quite well, thank you very little. The world will ever see your true self...me, I’ll dismiss you as soon as I hit “send”.
That said, let me tell you a couple of stories....
I have seen more than a few surplus GI .45s, mostly M1911A1s—thankfully nothing really notable like US&S or (God forbid) Singers—that had been buffed with a wheel on a bench grinder and chrome plated. The straight lines of the frame and slide (even some of the small parts) had been distorted, and the lettering had been blurred. In some cases, even the “UNITED STATES PROPERTY” had been removed.
Also, my old jeweler had an M1911 under the counter as his “store gun”. I looked closely at it the last time I visited him...it was a 1918 Black Army with the “UNITED STATES PROPERTY” ground off and covered overall with black house paint.
By the time a restorer like Turnbull got done with one of those, you’d have more into it than a pristine one would be worth. You seriously gonna tell people that screwed-over pieces like those are worth a premium?
I don’t lowball people...but I’m not about to unduly build their hopes up either.
Pills Help....
Wash it down with Jack Daniels!
I have run into that attitude over and over in the gun hobby and it's annoying. As I know you know, reasonably honest 1911s - like honest Lugers and honest Colt SAAs - command a premium and they are going up while we watch.
On the other side of the coin, I have seen many, many collectors cheat people who walk in with their late husband's "bring-back" .45 by telling them that something's "wrong" with pistol but they're willing to give them a little money for it anyway. Then they gloat to their buddies on how much their new acquisition is worth compared to how little they paid. Seen that over and over.
More often than not, there are real treasures out there and I am proud to say that I never cheated anyone. If their pistol's a good one, I have always paid a fair price, even to the point of showing them the current Blue Book values.
Hell of a waste of good Jack!
:)
True - or just consult several separate collectors at a gun show. The honest ones will explain their valuation and show you the Blue Book value.
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