Bought a 1911 USMC today

After five years of looking for a USMC 1911, I finally found one I could afford. lol It's serial 36,875. Which if my math is correct, it's the 774th one the Marine Corps bought in 1913 in the second shipment. So it's an early one. It's all original with the exception of the rear sight. The rear sight has been swapped from the early round style to the later colt military flat style, but you can tell it was changed, as there are mars on the sight where it was pushed in. I would guess it's an Armory swap, since the round sights were outdated and I think I remember seeing something that a lot of the early sights were changed over around the WWI timeframe. But other than that it has the last patent date of 1911 on the slide, the correct early H P barrel, the round peg front sight, a early punch and sawcut mag without the indent, and the short hammer. The finish has turned to a nice worn patina. but there is no pitting, and all lettering is nice and clear.

All in all it's very tight, has a great trigger, and has a better bore than any other military gun I own. I think I've said before at this forum, I love the real early worn stuff as this has the been there done that look. I only wish I would know who carried it and where it's been.

Two questions, does anyone that has the SRS database, get a hit on the serial number? The second question is, should I try to find an early round sight to swap out to make this pistol 100% correct. Or should I just leave the later flat style on it?

All in all it's a nice pistol and I'm very happy with it. I've been looking for over 5 years for an original USMC issue pistol and this is the only one I have ever seen below 5k. I paid 2k for it, which I don't think is bad. Since they are so hard to find.

What do you guys think?

Good for you Steve, It definately has that "Been there Done That" look to it. I think you did alright on the price too. Keep your eyes peeled for a correct early rear sight.

One more question, it really wasn't oiled much over the years and some of the patina I can almost rub off with oil and a rag. Should I take some fine 0000 steel wool, with gun oil and try to clean it up some? I know it would clean up a lot more if I did that, but will I hurt more than I will help it? Thanks guys!

Steve

I'm not an expert, but I won't go anywhere near it with steel wool or any other kind of polishing compound. An oil & rag treatment would be as far as I would go with it. IMHO.

I get the 475th pistol in the second shipment.
You might be better off to leave well enough alone on the rear sight. The first problem would be in finding one in matching condition, and then finding a pusher that would install the sight.
4/0 steel wool and oil will do a good job of removing surface rust, but don't rub too hard as there is no blue to protect the metal. You will start to get a shiney surface if you rub too much.

I would guess Johnny that yours is nicer than mine! :) I'm 29 years old, so unfortunetly most of the good stuff is already sitting in someone's collection. So us young guys have to fight over the scraps, and when a nice peice does come up, we have to re-mortgage our house to buy it because there are so few left. lol

Has anyone even seen any figures out there of how many USMC 1911's there are left? I've only seen four or five since I've been looking for them. And I think there were only about 5,000 confirmed that were sent to the marines in WWI. And I doubt many survived. It really would be interesting to know how many there are left total out there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cplstevennorton

I would guess Johnny that yours is nicer than mine! :) I'm 29 years old, so unfortunetly most of the good stuff is already sitting in someone's collection. So us young guys have to fight over the scraps, and when a nice peice does come up, we have to re-mortgage our house to buy it because there are so few left. lol

---

Where did I make any comparison? I only said I thought yours was the 475th in the 2nd contract, and gave some advice on the sight and cleaning the pistol.

Man I'm having a blonde moment tonight, I though you meant you had the 475th one made for the Marines. Which I bet if you had a USMC 1911 it would be 95% or better as you have really nice stuff.

I was figuring my number on the first shipment was 300, and then the second shipment started at 36,401. So my math figured up that out of 5000 1911's or so purchase by the Marines, I had number 774.

But yeah you are right, it probably would be number 475 out of the second shipment. I'm a moron sorry. lol

As you can see, there is very little to push against on the early type sight. I know the local gunsmith has several types of sight pushers depending on the the pistol and sight.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../2ymix4y-1.jpg

How much does the early round rear sights go for? I don't think I have ever seen one sell.

I'll talk with my local gunsmith, he's about the best 1911 gunsmith I know. I'll see what he says. If it's even plausible. It would be nice to have it 100% correct.

I'm going to give it a detailed field strip, cleaning, and lube tonight. It's still very dirty. I don't think anyone cleaned it since it left the service. Then I'm going to soak it in rig grease. I wiped it down last night and it's soaking up all the oil and rig grease I give it. It's about two shades darker this morning. It's just too bad no one ever really took good care of it.

I just wish it could talk and tell me where it's been.

Edit: Stupid question!!! That blondness must be rubbing off!

Here's a little better pics with a white backdrop. The pistol looks better in person than it does in my pics. But with my photobox, all the flaws come out with the bright light.

I don't think it's been polished. The lettering is too crips, and all the holes aren't rounded. When you actually look at the pistol, the front portion of the pistol has no finish left, and then the rear around the grips and protected areas has probably about 20% finish left. And under the grips the finish is perfect. I really think it's just been in and out of a holster about a million times! lol As far as the small parts they really aren't in a place that gets a lot of wear going in and out of a holster.

I guess it could be possible that the small parts have been switched but I don't think they have been. I did a detailed field strip this morning. You could tell the pistol hasn't been apart in a lot of years. The rear main spring housing was so rusted in there that I had to soak it in gun oil for about an hour to get it to break free. It was a bear. I bet it took me two hours to get the frame disasembled as it had a lot of surface rust inside. Thank God most of it came off and I greased the heck out of it inside so it wouldn't rust again. But man it had been a long time since it was cleaned properly. Which is a real shame.

From the story I got about it. The guy I bought it from said it had been found in a an old guys drawer that had died. The family sold it at his estate sale, not even knowing it was a USMC pistol. He said he really never did anything with it, and never really cared for the early 1911's so he sold it to me. From the condition of the pistol I would say the story is very plausible.

The pics on the white back ground seem a little clearer to me. I think you got a good deal, judging the prices I've seen down there for 1911's. I think the prices are a little cheaper up here, but not near the quality or selection you have to choose from. I think there were just under 7000 actually sold to the Canadian military & the rest have found there way over here as bring backs or surplus. I would think a USMC pistol would be very hard to find, if not impossible, over here.