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My brother's father in law showed me a .45 which I feel is a BA. Serial number is 437121 (1918). Great looking piece but I cannot find "Property of US Government" stamped on it. Would that make a difference as far as a military BA or a civilian BA, if there was such an animal. Thanks...
There was no Black Army model. The finish was referred to as the black finish due to less polishing and hurry up blue job during WWI. The finish took on a black look when oil was applied, and this morphed into "Black Army". Colt never used the hurry up finish on it's commercial models.
If the United States Property is missing, it has been removed, and possibly the pistol has been reblued to cover this up.
Thank you! As this is a new field for me could I truthfully say that all early 1911s were destined for the Army (marked as such) and not for civilian use? Thus, the one I saw probably went thru a civilian rearsenal after it left Army control somehow.
I looked at it again and it does not have the diamonds on the grips nor the lanyard ring. Oh. Well!
Colt had a contract to supply pistols to the U.S. military, and these were Model 1911 pistols. Concurrently, Colt made a civilian version called the Government Model, and it was so marked, and in it's own serial number range with a C prefix.. All the Model 1911 pistols were made for the military.Quote:
Originally Posted by A. F Medic
With the United States Property being removed, it is virtually certain the pistol was stolen from the military at some time. Removing the USP was the most common method to try and hide the pistols original owner, even though the serial number and Model of 1911 U.S. Army are also dead giveaways.
It is not my pistol but I will say "Gulp" for the present owner!
With our present government getting ready to spend trillions on healthcare, it has no interest in the old military pistol. Enough of the 1911 and 1911A1 pistols were given away, sold, or stolen that there is no way of sorting out which is which.
I thought the Black Army models were issued to the Buffalo soldiers.
And the Navy models to Popeye the Sailor Man?Quote:
Originally Posted by ltcboy
HAHAHAHAHAHA! LOL I spit my drink out!:rofl::rofl:Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Peppers
There are also a number of 1911 and 1911A1 pistols that were legally acquired, but had the U.S. Property and military model markings removed and were refinished by owners who wanted the pistol to look more like a commercial model (like many WW2 military Harleys and Indians are made to look like civilian models by dum basses who think this somehow makes them more desirable, valuable, and/or better looking) or to avoid the risk of the pistol being mistaken for one that was never officially released for sale by the government. Some are even chrome or nickel plated to make 'em look real purty.
Sometimes you also run into pistols that the military refinished and assembled out of 1911 slides on 1911A1 frames or 1911A1 slides on 1911 frames, with various era mixed parts. I've seen a few of these where you have to look the gun over and do a quick mental inventory of the different parts and their numbers and markings "WW1 Colt frame, WW2 Remington Rand slide, earlier 1911A1 checkered parts, etc" to figure out exactly what you are looking at.
And there are those "put together" guns of various ancestry and quality that have military slides on various military and commercial frames, or vice versa. I see a lot of military slides on Argentine Sistema frames and commercial frames like Essex. Some of these are actually pretty nice and well done guns, others are real cobble jobs.