butchery! will this 1911 survive? *now with pics!*

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Sounds like it all depends on if you want a project or not.

The trigger guard would be pretty tough to restore at this point but even that's not impossible if you can find a good welder.

To me $300 seems like a heap of money for something unknown and fairly butchered like this. But then up here we can still get new Norinco 1911's that are decently faithful to the original and shoot pretty good right out of the box and aren't all modified and stippled. These can show up at our door for under $400 after taxes and shipping so those are OUR project 1911's.
 
Function check it and buy it if it passes. I obviously can't tell just from pictures, but some of the "butchered" guns came from competitive shooters on a budget. The fact that this was done a while ago and is just now turning up in a pawn shop (likely by a second owner) might lend credence to the theory. Those parts are pushing twenty years old.

Besides, even if it isn't a great shooter, it'll be a conversation starter. And you can restore it slowly.
 
Hi feets,


Clealry...this was somebody's Baby...


Get it...enjoy it...'follow your bliss', and don't change a thing on it but for adding Oil and Grease...


It's 'perfect' in it's own way...and it is itself...'perfectly'...
 
This thing has been eating at me all night. It's weird.
I was playing with $1000+ guns throughout the day and this hack job is the one that stands out.

I guess it's just my nature. I've got a thing for old iron and creativity. My lathe is a Pratt and Whitney from the 50s. The vertical mill in my garage is a Gorton from 1952.
My hot rod is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. It's a 65 Plymouth with a twin turbocharged fuel injected 440. It's packing parts from every kind of auto manufacturer: American, Japanese, european, and even AMG stuff. It's feature in Popular Hot rodding started off with the line "Think of it as the Joan Rivers of hot rods."

I'm going back to look at it this afternoon. If it's tight I have a feeling it'll go home with me.
If it doesn't run I can play with it.
 
It looks nice in low-res cell phone pics.
It has a certain mechanical charm but this beast is not ready for a beauty contest.
 
That's someone's emulation of the type of guns built for early PPC to IPSC practical shooting when the 1911 was allowed to be used. Some of the big well known names came from that period - Bill Wilson, Frank Pachmyer, Armand Swenson, Ken Hackathorn, and others began the IPSC sport in the mid 1970's with guns made to shoot two handed. Those look like the sights that King's used to have, and might still sell.

It might have originally been built by Pachmyer or Swenson - I think they both did trigger guards something like that. Someone else here ought to know a lot more about all of that time than I do.

Nothing wrong with stippling. Most European competition guns use it and a lot of US shooters prefer it to checkering.
 
I went to the shop at lunch today. The guy that told me "about $300" was elsewhere in the store. The other guy called his dad (owns the store and is out of town) and the old man twisted off. He said no less than $500.

I wished them luck and walked away.
 
They are going to send it to a local smith (I know really well) to have the slide blued and the grip safety fixed. Someone gave them the idea it'd be worth $700 or more afterwards.

I didn't see the dope under the counter. I guess they smoked it all.
 
Aw hell, just buy yourself a new Rock Island Armory Tactical model from Sarco for $400, and you'll be happy as a clam!
 
It looks like every single part of that gun has been bubbad. If I had it, I would rebuild every single part and test it before I would trust it. Which leads me to suggest, if you want to build a gun, why not get the Brownell's 1911 catalog and start with new parts whose origins you are sure of?
 
I was hitting the used gun stores to get an idea of used Kimber/Colt/Springfield prices.
I stumbled upong this rig and it bit me. I can't say exactly why or how but it stuck in my head.

I didn't want to build a gun but if this thing was cheap enough I'd buy it as a novelty.
 
I have to laugh at some of these posts.
At one time surplus firearms were dime a dozen.
They were used for a number of home projects and custom guns. Once upon a time if you wanted a personalized 1911 to fit your dreams, you had to make it your self. as there were very few custom 1911 makers. If you don't like the previous owners work, don't buy it, Don't rant and rave over something you do not know the history of. Some one knew what they wanted and made it. My hats off to who ever it was. It may have been carried in law enforcement or just a personal firearm but it was built to fit their need, not yours. :evil:
 
I have to laugh at some of these posts.
At one time surplus firearms were dime a dozen.
They were used for a number of home projects and custom guns. Once upon a time if you wanted a personalized 1911 to fit your dreams, you had to make it your self. as there were very few custom 1911 makers. If you don't like the previous owners work, don't buy it, Don't rant and rave over something you do not know the history of. Some one knew what they wanted and made it. My hats off to who ever it was. It may have been carried in law enforcement or just a personal firearm but it was built to fit their need, not yours.
Click to expand...

I agree, and I know that there is an active and serious collector interest in the early work of gunsmiths who later became well known and in demand. ALL of them cut their teeth on the surplus 1911a1 that was available for little money all over the place.

Jim Clark started that way, Bob Chow, and most every other name smith turned out their early work still bearing the military markings of the wartime guns they used as the basis for some of the finest and most accurate 1911's available at the time.

That gun may well be worth $700. or much more if a little of it's history can be firmed up, it's provenance established.
 
It's a demon calling my name. I can hear it still.
Click to expand...
Yeah, and it's saying "help!"

Do you like to tinker? Restoring that to something approaching issued condition (or, at least, tasteful condition) might be a fun project. However, unless you are getting it for dirt cheap, I would not be looking at it with an eye to make money or save money.

That trigger guard is awful.

Mike
 
I was looking at it as something that would go BANG and make holes in stuff.
 
I was looking at it as something that would go BANG and make holes in stuff.
Click to expand...

At $500 it will still do that. If you want it offer $400 and settle for $450. What's a $150 these days anyway, a couple tanks of gas?
 
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