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 I would guess it's an Armory swap, since the round sights were outdated and I think I remember seeing something that a lot of the early sights were changed over around the WWI timeframe.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?
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