Let's see all the 1911's!

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Leadlobber

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Dan Wesson Vigil
 

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mtngunr

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My daily driver since getting it 8-10yrs ago, I've owned quite a few in 50yrs of buying and would have been quite happy had this one been around the other 40...

it is bone stock past a short trigger, late issue Vietnam era fibre grips and "GI" mags, a very to-spec gun of utter reliability using OEM supplier Checkmate GI-contour mags of perfect controlled round feed with hardball....

where I have failed miserably in every mag dump attempt to induce a jam no matter clean/dirty/orientation/loosest possible hold without shooting self, just never even the slightest hesitation in all this time and all the determined
tries of at least twice every year and each time me now nearly disappointed to have to say the gun won, again...

with to-spec clearances, no match gun but easily holds all shots in 6" at 50yds with ball (Winchester white box), the attached target two magazines at 25yds prior to final zero (target was actually clocked right, so it was close to the hold at 6)....it just works...and works...and works.



 
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Frank Pope

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Well, give us the story and we'll help you decide :)

Joe
Had an uncle who tended to be a little on the windy side. He was Navy during WWII, and said they came across a life raft on a patrol. Turned out to be a B-17 crew who had ditched in the middle of no where. Unfortunately, they found them too late and one of the crew members was wearing this 1911.
 

red442joe

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Had an uncle who tended to be a little on the windy side. He was Navy during WWII, and said they came across a life raft on a patrol. Turned out to be a B-17 crew who had ditched in the middle of no where. Unfortunately, they found them too late and one of the crew members was wearing this 1911.
Believing it depends on if he was the kinda guy to collect arms from a body...unless that was common.
The story of the plane would be interesting, too.

Joe
 

mtngunr

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Believing it depends on if he was the kinda guy to collect arms from a body...unless that was common.
The story of the plane would be interesting, too.

Joe
Aircrew generally had .38 revolvers, but trades and purchases happened all the time. Weapons from dead were routinely collected, and rebuilt as required, including those surplus parts guns in the closet.
 

mtngunr

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Very interesting!
Thank you.

Joe
The military had weapon recovery battalions who salvaged anything and everything, including steam hosing out remnants of tank crews, rebuilding shattered rifles, etc, as resources were maxed out and there were shortages of everything. So, somebody scarfing a gun from a dead aircrew who no longer needed, rather than following regs on recovered weapons, would not have been unusual, although many would have dodged it as jinxed or haunted. But battlefield stories are always filled with tales of soldiers picking up fallen comrad weapons to replace own damaged weapon.
 

mtngunr

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Somebody's, or more likely several somebody's old Remington Rand bought for $25 and turned into a bullseye gun with stippled front of grip and some manner of blueing, brazed tall front sight, and later butcher job to dovetail of incorrect angles and depth for a likely replacement of target rear sight, trashing the slide.

The WWII and WWI slides were prone to cracking anyhow, so small loss for a shooter. I gave $150 for the gun, and dredged out an old NOS GI hard slide, of much improved modern steel/heat treat from the 1960s and left over from my building 1911s days, after stripping the frame blueing with vinegar.

The RR frame rails had been peened down for the original slide fitting, a GI slide would not even start, and so am spending several relaxing days smoking the rails, tapping on the slide, looking for high spot rubbing, and taking them down.

Once fit, the frame is off to be parkerized, the only other part which was blued past the slide was the GI safety for some reason, which will head out with the frame, all other parts are GI parkerized including a barrel showing almost no cycling. Not gonna mess with setting up again to parkerize for essentially only one frame.

When done, past the stippling, it will be a 1960s GI gun but with much tighter slide fit (if I want to leave it that way), and a lot of military match guns were put back into the system, and this won't be the only USGI 1911A1 out there with stippling. Figure I'll have maybe $350 in it when done.

PS- as for trashing the slide, there are import target sights available with oversized tenons which could have been fit, I believe the sights come from China (not on MY GI gun), plus would have been left with a really tall front of only target range utility on a slide which might likely crack with my hardball shooting. Will end up giving the gun away to some kid in the future, to save it from showing up anytime soon on some dealer listing of "RARE! VIETNAM ISSUE 1911!!!"...save me from those jerks.



 
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