1918 Dated Colt 1911 Pawn shop find

[ouvarminthunter]

I thought you all might enjoy these photos.

 

1918 dated Colt. It has a trigger shoe that I will get off at some point. Only thing I am worried about is maybe this is a replacement barrel?

 

Also I was reading up on the "Black Army" finish. I am not sure what to look for on that.

 

These grips are also not WWI, but I've seen them on WWII 1911s... Maybe an arsenal update for WWII?

 

I'm guessing a WWI pistol that was reworked for WWII and maybe after.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

[doyler]

Honest old 45

 

The grey parkerizing is a refinnish at some later date in its life.

 

I dont see an Arsenal rework stamp on it near the trigger where normally seen on the re-works.

 

Congratulations on your purchase.They can be addicting

[doyler]

THe slide lock also looks like a type for the Remington Rand/Ithaca models.

[Blacksmith]

Howdy - As Ron rightfully says, it’s wearing a commercial phosphate refinish, which would not have been applied during military service. Arsenal rebuild stamp aside, the finish is the wrong color. Yours looks to be a zinc-based finish, which results in a lighter gray. It has the correct long wide-spur hammer, flat mainspring housing, and short tang grip safety. Barrel, as you correctly surmise, is wrong. In this SN# range, it should have a non-seriph / non-interlaced vertical “H P” barrel (for “Hosmer Provisional”). Thankfully, whenever the trigger shoe was added, they didn’t make any other “bullseye” alterations. Bullseye shooting was a sweeping fad in the 70s / 80s, which resulted in the mutilation of a lot of beautiful GI 1911s - some irreversibly, through slide milling to add target sights, etc (ugh). Even with the trigger shoe removed, I suspect that is a short trigger, which would be incorrect for your gun. Yours should have a long blued trigger on it. As it pertains to the stocks (grip panels), while they are WWII-era fiber grips, they are Colts. Specifically, they are Coltwood (design name, not material), which are plastic, with wide reinforcing rings at the fastener holes (compared to Keyes Fibre examples, used on Remington Rands and Ithacas). They should have crossed reinforcing ribs on the back, with a mold number in the center.

 

I always love seeing these old war horses. Thanks for sharing.

[ouvarminthunter]

I dont see an Arsenal rework stamp on it near the trigger where normally seen on the re-works.

 

You are correct, I did not see any arsenal stamps. Did they ever make it through without getting stamped?

 

I wanted to post more photos but there was a limit. So here are links to all of them. There are some marks on the internals.

 

 

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[warroom1]

the trigger shoe can be removed with hex wrench or allan i thinks its a tyler trigger shoe .

[thorin6]

A couple of quick comments to add to the others; given it's current condition, I believe it is best to enjoy it as is. There is always a temptation to try to return to the original configuration with some parts swaps, etc. Given the (most likely non-military) refinishing, the post-WW1 barrel, the WW2 or later grips, trigger and slide stop it's not a good candidate for restoration (unless money is no problem). One other thing, given the short trigger and the trigger shoe, the sear and hammer may have been stoned and the spring(s) altered to reduce the pull and make for a smoother trigger. Before you fire it you might have a qualified gunsmith look it over, and make sure the springs are good to go, including the magazine spring.

Also, as for the "Black Army" that refers to a finish that had corners cut like metal polishing, etc. The result was a darker than normal finish that flaked off under wartime use.

Finally, nice find and a good place to start with 1911s.

[ouvarminthunter]

A couple of quick comments to add to the others; given it's current condition, I believe it is best to enjoy it as is. There is always a temptation to try to return to the original configuration with some parts swaps, etc. Given the (most likely non-military) refinishing, the post-WW1 barrel, the WW2 or later grips, trigger and slide stop it's not a good candidate for restoration (unless money is no problem). One other thing, given the short trigger and the trigger shoe, the sear and hammer may have been stoned and the spring(s) altered to reduce the pull and make for a smoother trigger. Before you fire it you might have a qualified gunsmith look it over, and make sure the springs are good to go, including the magazine spring.

Also, as for the "Black Army" that refers to a finish that had corners cut like metal polishing, etc. The result was a darker than normal finish that flaked off under wartime use.

Finally, nice find and a good place to start with 1911s.

 

Yes, Most likely I will leave this one as it is - besides maybe removing the trigger shoe. The fact it could have served in WWI, WWII, and beyond is enough cool factor for me. It may have been made in 1918, but it has seen a ton since then, which is what I really love about these things.

 

Is there any worry about running modern ammo in them?

[thorin6]

When I actually shot mine, I found that 230 FMJ Ball ammunition worked best. The JHP ammo, besides being a little hot, often does not feed well. Also, the metallurgy on the WW1 M1911s wasn't as good as the WW2 M1911A1, so I would recommend staying with the standard military-type ammo. And I would suggest to stay away from hand-loaded ammo unless you are really confident it mimics the military ammo. Just my opinion.

[Blacksmith]

I would do some research before shooting it. Knowledgeable collectors of USGI 1911s - WWI or WWII - largely recommend not shooting them, period. I’ll leave the detail of slide cracking, frame peening, and so forth to your review, but will say it’s not worth the risk IMO. In your case, with the civilian refinish, it’s not super valuable. However, it’s a cool piece of history, which they’re not making more of.