USMC Mixmaster

Hi I’m Jim, New Guy here. Would like to pass on an interesting tale. First the story; a friend of mine was laid off and was selling things to pay the rent and fix his truck. Isn’t into guns and offered to sell me his Dad’s WW2 45. Dad was in the USMC, was small arms instructor and Bronze Star winner on Peleliu (I have all his documentation) and brought the gun home. Now the gun (per Clawson); Frame 1915 vintage Springfield (83,416), Slide about the same vintage Colt, Barrel 1943 Springfield, firing pin WW2 vintage, and most other parts appear to be either early Springfield or WW2 replacements. Left hand grip full checkered Colt, Right hand is Springfield. I wonder how this WW1 mix-master ended up with the 1st Marine Division during WW2?

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Originally Posted by f15guy71

Hi I’m Jim, New Guy here. I wonder how this WW1 mix-master ended up with the 1st Marine Division during WW2?

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The same way they received all their weapons. They made requests for them through the supply system and they were issued. The fact that the parts are a mismatch is not uncommon. Parts were constantly swapped by personnel who couldn't be bothered to keep track of matching up parts. The odds are most armory personnel didn't know which frame was a Colt, a Remington-Rand or whatever.

Hi Jim, welcome to the forum. It's also possible the gun was an arsenal rebuild. Does it have any marks such as AA, RIA, SA stamped on either side of the receiver to indicate this? So tell us the rest of the story, did you end up buying the pistol?

PS: From your avatar, it looks like you are a PSU fan or alum?

Len

Len, Thanks for your interest. No rebuilds, no refinish. Both the slide and frame show the same aouunt of wear- about 65% of finish. I'm guessing it was rebuilt after WW1, but since both the slide and frame seem to be in the US Army range, I'm puzzeled how the gun ended with the USMC, unless the Army sent weapons to the Marines some time prior to 1944. I have pic, but can't figure how to attach them.
I did buy the gun, but told my friend he could recover it if he wanted to.
Yes I'm a Nittany Lion.

Jim,
Congratulations on your new pistol. It's great that you are willing to help out your friend now that he needs the money, and willing to make it avaiable to him after he gets back on his feet. (It's gotta be tough on him to have to give it up with the history it has with his dad.)

There are a lot of ways the pistol found it's way to his dad...he could have been issued it, and parts got swapped during cleaning, or maybe he traded someone for it along the way. It's almost impossible to tell at this late date. One thing I'm curious about, you mention the finish looks original and matching on both slide and frame. Is the gun blued or parkerized? If it's blued and original finish, the slide would be an oven blue, where the frame would be rust blued. If it's parkerized, then it was refinished at some point. Pics would be great to see if you can get them to post.

Len (PSU:BSME class of '84)

Len, The little finish remaining on both the Slide and Frame is not parkerizing, but bluing similiar to my m1911 Springfield and Colt. I agree we'll probably never really figure out the audit trail of this weapon. I'll just continue to treat it with the respect due an interesting piece of history.
Warm regards- Jim BS AeroEng