Some Times Lady Luck Smiles

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I have bought Spoons before that looked good on an auction site only to cringe when you get them. For instance a few years back I bought a S&W Mdl 27 8 3/8 inch Barrel (4 screw) for $550 delivered which was a good price. I get it open the Crane and see someone had inscribed there SS# on the underside of the frame top. Now I know why I got it so cheap, and it is still worth what I paid...Then I looked down the barrel and cringed, the barrel was bulged. At the end of the day I ate a shyte sandwich on that one..

However today it turned out to be much different. As discussed before I picked up a Colt 1911 Commercial made in 1919. It was something I had on my watch list and when the lot came up in the auction and saw it was at $1200, I thought man I am not going to let it go that cheap, fully thinking the bidding would go MUCH higher. Well much to my surprise $1250 got it (plus buyers premium & shipping). It was a pure impulse buy and once I won the bid I began to think what is wrong with this Spoon for it to be so cheap? That is simply because I have been bitten before on these impulse buys.

Well the thing arrived today, it does have a few minor scratches, a little spot of disclouration of the blue on the slide and the barrel had some rust which has been cleaned up pretty well by myself. Other than that it is virtually in new condition with NO real wear on the blue and is completely original The grips are as crisp as the day it was made. Overall the gun would rate in the 97% range. Very clean and crisp for something that is 91 years old. It even has the original 2 tone magazine (apx $100 by itself).

This gun because it had some rust in the barrel DID NOT come out of a collection, as any collector would have cleaned out the rust especially before selling. So this is an indication that it came out of someones drawer somewhere? It could be classified as an attic find. To find these old 1911's in this condition is getting to be very tough. There is no high end 1911 collector that would not have this in his collection even if it were a minor piece. So today lady luck smiled on me..there is built in equity in this spoon.

Ohh and it even came with its own Plastic Hardcase..as an extra.

[on2wheels52]

Why were there more than twice as many made in 1919 as any other year (1911's)?
btw, I don't think I'll take $1250 for my '23.
Jim

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Roughly 15,000 Commercials were made in 1919. 25,000 in 1917.

Colt 1911's with SN's under 4500 are very desirable and command an extra premium. As the high gloss bluing was changed after that SN.

Pre WW1 militaries with low SN's also command a bunch of money.

There were roughly 100,000 commercials made up to the end of 1917. Apx 40,000 of those were foreign sales, mostly to the belligerents fighting in WW1. So early commercials are a bit hard to find.

One could surmise that in 1919 there was a pent up demand for commercial firearms due to production being centered on the war effort. Also in the post WW1 era a number of military 1911's were probably being sold through the DCM to civilians, which kept Colt production pretty low.

Colt 1911 military production up to the end of 1918 was 580,000.

Of interesting note is that Colt 1911 A1 military production from 1924 to 1941 was apx 21,000 then in 1941 with the coming of WW2 there were 33,000 made. Up to SN apx 729,000 they were Brush Blued and after that they were Parkerized. Brushed blued 1911 A1's of the inter war years are tough to find and command a bunch of money. Most of those inter wars were used up in the early fighting.

[id10t]

But how does she shoot?

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Originally Posted by id10t

But how does she shoot?

We shall find out..it needs a coupla clips through her to clean the barrel..