Two of my most beautiful guns, eventually turned ugly. While i am a true believer that there can be form AND function, these two didn't turn out that way.

These came about in my search for a gun to carry at my wedding. Had to be pretty, it would be standing next to my wife, after all.

I was searching around one day and came upon a Cimarron 1851 cartridge conversion that sported a nickel finish. Holy cow, talk about a hog leg and a beautiful one at that!

Beautiful gun. Problem was the arbor loosened up after shooting about 30 rounds through it. I went through a long battle getting it repaired by cimarron's gunsmith, being told its perfectly normal by other gunsmiths (and charged $50 to tell me that), and being told it would cost more than it was worth to repair by OTHER gunsmiths. The factory approved gunsmith ended up doing a 5 minute repair on it rather than what he said he would do, and it arrived back to me with a big ding in the stocks. Left a real sour taste in my mouth.

Somewhere along the line I realized I wouldn't be able to fit a western rig under my suit without it looking weird, and decided not to carry this gun. After the final repairs I sold it off. I miss looking at it, and it was fun to shoot, but, obviously it didn't hold up.




My next attempt was what I considered to be the next best thing. I realized Cimarron offered pre WWI style 1911's, made by Rock Island/Armscorp, who had a decent reputation for an inexpensive 1911. Again, absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Problem was when i took delivery I didn't notice the nickle plating had a flake or two missing. I realized this would only get worse with shooting it, So after a pretty painless process, Armscorp sent me a refund since they didn't have any replacements available, and i ordered a new gun, same thing. It arrived and was WORSE than the first one. I actually built a franken gun out of the two and got a damn near perfect specimen that I was happy with. I sent back the other one. I took it out shooting and it functioned great. I got it home to clean it and it was missing almost all the nickle from around the barrel bushing. DAMMIT! Armscorp, again, sent me a refund with no questions asked. I absolutely will buy another one of their products in the future based purely upon my experience with their customer service department, but it WILL NOT be nickel plated.






Anyway, thats the sad tale of the most beautiful guns I ever owned.

Unfortunately yours are not isolated incidents. Many gun owners have been elated with a firearm purchase, only to have disappointment later for one reason or another. Happened to me more than once.

It's all good, I ended up with a fantastic gun for my wedding on the 3rd try, I realized i have a love of nickel plating and stainless will never compare in terms of beauty, and I also learned that RIA/Armscorp has amazing customer service and that i will certainly own one of their guns in the future.

It all worked out okay!

Oooooh; I see you have a bad case of "Jewelry Complex". That's ok. You will eventually figure out that guns are 'tools' not jewelry and you will be off collecting actual 'shooter's. ............. good luck! ............

BTW; an aside, IMHO Armscore builds a very decent series of handguns. They just don't know how to nickel plate as well as Colt did. They will eventually learn how. ...................

I only have 1 gun that is jewelry, which is the one I ended up with after these two. It still gets shot and it still gets carried on a semi regular basis, same as the two above would have. Nothing wrong with looking good at the same time.

Wasnt gonna carry a glock at my wedding, lol.

Next time I get married maybe that's the charm - carry a gun openly, let my 4th bride know I mean to keep her!!!

I can't own anything too pretty, because I have a no - virgins policy in my two safes. Everything gets pampered but everything gets shot!

Beautiful pieces to the original poster.

That's why I never buy nickel. Stainless you can polish out any scratches etc. Blued guns can be touched up, but once nickel starts chipping or flaking it's all over. Personally, I think nothing is prettier than a quality high polish bluing job, but that's just my preference.

The guns failed you, did you get married with a Mossberg 500 or what?

I've never seen a polished stainless job that compares to quality nickel though. Just doesnt look the same.

Lol, nah!

I ended up with a Color Case Hardened Desert Eagle 1911c. I tossed on some giraffe bone grips in order to get it as close to my dream gun as possible, which would be a Turnbull 1911, or even a Volkmann.