Thread: 1911's
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Old 07-13-2018, 07:43 AM
stansdds stansdds is offline
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The 1911 you have does not appear to have gone through an arsenal rebuild. The serial number indicates it was made in 1918 and from the photos you posted, this, other than the magazine, may be an all-correct M1911 from 1918! The only way to be certain would be to strip it down and have someone with intimate knowledge of military 1911's inspect it.

If it were mine, I'd definitely have it checked out. Would I shoot it? Well, there are some who say it is fine for very limited shooting, but if the slide gets cracked, the value drops significantly. I would not shoot it, but I would keep it well oiled and stored in a dry environment.

As for the 38 Super 1911-A1, the rear sight is not original and the front sight has either been painted or someone with really good skills has put in a red insert. These old 38 Super's suffered from accuracy problems, mostly stemming from headspace issues. The original 38 Super design headspaced the cartridge on it's tiny rim. That rim was to be held by a tiny recess milled into the barrel hood. Most of the time, the rim slipped past the cut in the barrel hood and the extractor headspaced the cartridge. Colt changed the barrel design to headspace the cartridge on its case mouth with the introduction of the Series 80 pistols.

Given the condition of this old 38 Super, even with incorrect sights, it still has a pretty good collector value.
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