Well, for whatever the reason, I got caught by the 1911 bug 2 years ago. When I was at a gun show, a nice looking 1911 described by the seller as "rare" Black Army, caught my eye. After a little research on my iPad, I had to have it, but I couldn't pin point exactly why.
Naive for sure, but I lucked out on this one. I stumbled upon Scott's M1911info.com along with lots of his and your posts on another forum and got hooked.
When I sent it to Scott along with a dog A1 (I bought from the same guy) for inspection, I was pleasantly surprised to hear back that the mystical Black Army, was not only all original, but it was also one of the nicer ones that he inspected.
Two years later I know what the seller
unintentionally meant by "rare" Black Army. The rarity comes from it's originality in such great condition compared to almost others I've seen since.
So whatever that Black Army magic was, it worked on me......
Here are a couple pics of my with credit to Scott Gahimer @ M1911info.com.
Per Colt Archive letter:
S/N - 555979
Sold To: US Governement
Shipped to: Ordnance Officer, Big Bend District, Marfa TX
Shipped: Jan 9, 1919
Mfg'd: Dec 4, 1918
Guns in Shipment: 100
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...06/31821-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...06/31831-1.jpg