Photo of baker-fox's M1911
Baker-fox sent me several photos of his Colt M1911, & one is shown below.
Baker-fox, there's good news & there's bad news.
First, the good news. Your M1911 was made in June 1918, & is one of the rare "black Army" guns made for only a short time. In good original condition, these are highly prized collectibles. Colt was attempting to lower the cost of finishing their guns, & developed a rough finish which, when blued, looked almost black. Unfortunately, this was not a very durable finish.
Now, the bad news. Someone ground & polished your gun, then commercially reblued it & replaced some of the parts, including the barrel. It was ground so heavily that the UNITED STATES PROPERTY marking was completely removed from the frame. (No, it's not on the left side of the frame, either.) My guess is that it was arsenal rebuilt & parkerized between wars, &, after he stole it, the previous owner tried to restore it to it's original appearance.
It would now be considered a "shooter".
Neal
Baker-fox, there's good news & there's bad news.
First, the good news. Your M1911 was made in June 1918, & is one of the rare "black Army" guns made for only a short time. In good original condition, these are highly prized collectibles. Colt was attempting to lower the cost of finishing their guns, & developed a rough finish which, when blued, looked almost black. Unfortunately, this was not a very durable finish.
Now, the bad news. Someone ground & polished your gun, then commercially reblued it & replaced some of the parts, including the barrel. It was ground so heavily that the UNITED STATES PROPERTY marking was completely removed from the frame. (No, it's not on the left side of the frame, either.) My guess is that it was arsenal rebuilt & parkerized between wars, &, after he stole it, the previous owner tried to restore it to it's original appearance.
It would now be considered a "shooter".
Neal
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If it was ground so much as you indicated why did the serial numbers and the military proof mark not get gone and are so vivid? Thanks. 0 -
the edges are rounded and are visibly smoothed. its a dead blow to a collector gun.
former air operations officer SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 2. former navy skeet team, former navy rifle/pistol team member. co-owner skeetmaster tubes inc.. owner/operator professional shooting instruction. NRA certified instructor.0 -
Most likely the USP was on the left side of the frame. The only other marking on that "flat" was the inspectors mark, which wasn't that close. If you take the gun apart & lay a steel straight edge on both sides, you will be able to see the irregular surface.
Neal0 -
Thanks to everyone. baker-fox 0 -
My "Black Army" (WWII parkerized) for reference of the US Property mark. 0
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