Need help with colt value

[1858remington]

A buddy of mine inherited to colts.:eek:

the first is a 1911 45acp from the year 1918. It came with 2 two-tone magazines, and has the 2 diamond pattern on the grips. Over all the gun is in excellent condition. it has very minor pitting, little specks here and there. All of its blueing is intact, and all edges are crisp and not worn.

The second is a DA45 45acp revolver. This gun is in cherry condition. Lock up is tight and finish is almost factory new. Its marked "us army model 1917" on the bottom of the grip.

Any help would greatly be appriciated. My blue book of gun values is way out of date.

Man was he lucky or what?:banghead:

[JohnBT]

I'm no 1911 expert, but I've read a lot of threads over the years. The answer to your question is:

Pictures.

It's going to take a lot of detailed pictures to determine condition, markings and the originality of all the parts.

And the serial number would help. XX out the last two digits if you like.

John

[Trebor]

Tell your buddy not to do ANYTHING to that gun!

Don't try to remove the rust. Don't try to "clean it up" with anything stronger then gun oil on a rag.

That is potentially a very valuable pistol. The two tone mags by themselves are collectable. Anything he does to it has the very real potential of lowering the value.

To get a value I'd really look into getting it profesionally appraised. It's likely valuable enough to be worth the effort.

If nothing else, good detailed pics would help give an estimate. He'd need pics of both sides of the gun and then good detail shots of all the markings. Even though though many experts would still want to see the actual pistol before they'd hazard a statement as to the value. There are some things that are more difficult to tell from a photo then in person.

Btw, yeah, he's a lucky SOB, except for the fact that someone in his family had to die to inherit those.

The revolver could be either a Colt or S&W Model 1917. Both of those were designed to use .45 ACP when production of 1911's fell short during WWI. Look at the gun and see if it's marked Colt or S&W.

Those are also collectable, but not likely to be as valuable as that 1911. An unmolested, never been updated at the arsenal, 1911 is a very collectable gun. Most of them went into rebuild before or after WWII, so original examples are scarce and bring a premium.

[1858remington]

Heres the pictures of his new found treasure.

this is the 1911.

[1858remington]

The camera flash makes them look spotted with rust.

[Trebor]

The pictures aren't really good enough quality to really tell the value, in my opinion. The guns look in decent shape from these pics but a high end collector would want to have a better look before he'd make an offer.

It would be difficult to get good enough pics to get a value without doing a studio shot. The best way would be to get them appraised. The 1911 has the potential to be very valuable, so itwould be worth the effort to track down someone familiar with the variations on this gun to get the appraisal done.

[Trebor]

Oh, try reposting your first post with the addition of the pics to the "Harley's Firearms Research" forum here. Title it, "Need value of 1918 Colt 1911" and you'll get more responses. Someone else might be able to help you more then I can. I'm at the limit of my knowledge.

You can also try the 1911 collectors board over at www.jouster.com