Dug relic 1911 restoration (Pics and Video)

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extractor is coming loose.....

I suspect she was in the ground starting sometime in the late 50's based on the cartridge that was in the pipe.
 


Extractor is out!!!!!!

BAM! kick it up a notch with a blast from your spiceweasle
 
Congrats on getting extractor out!
I simply cant believe what a progress you have made with her! Wow, just wow!
 


Firing pin is OUT!!!!!

Top end should be functional now :D

Just need to rustle up a few parts to replace the ones I mangled getting her apart....

Mainspring housing and slide stop detents are still an issue... but a less critical issue than the FP was.
 
Big congratulations, and big thanks for taking us along on a most interesting journey! I think that what you did had never been done before, and never before documented, even if it has been done. You need to put your edited videos and such on a Discovery episode or program, or maybe one of the gun related TV channels.
 
Nice work.
Can you measure the firing pin hole in the slide's breech face?

From what I've read, a .094 to .097 or a #41 numeric reamer should fit.
Wonder how much larger yours might have grown.
 
I think that it is interesting that the current concensus on what and how it ended up are that it might have been in a fire, cooked off the shot while cocked and locked, and that is how the casing remained in the chamber. That might explain WHY it got buried: the owner discarded the gun after the fire, not trusting it to be usable. To me, all of that is plausible. I can think of no other reason a fired cased would be in a discarded gun, still cocked and locked. If this IS true, the temper/heat treatment MIGHT be an issue to consider before attempting to shoot the gun after restoration. I do not know just how seriously a fire damages any gun.
 
Congrats! Great progress.
BTW is it Merwin Hulbert 44 already taking a bath? :)
 
When I got the gun (which was subsequently sold to AJAX22), the safety was on. I measured the length of a rod stuck in the barrel to determine if it had a round in the chamber, and apparently the rod went into the fired case, and I knew it was not loaded with a live round. It is possible someone fired the gun, and somehow the fired case remained in the gun (or one was put there?), and then the safety applied, and the gun discarded in the mud, but all of that doesn't make sense. I guess we'll never know. Except for the case/primer, the cookoff/fire explanation puts most, if not all, of the clues together. Any other theories out there?
 
It was fired with a gloved hand holding the slide to prevent extraction of the casing at the scene then cocked and locked out of habit (or as a reminder not to rack the slide open) and later became buried evidence. I suspect Col. Mustard in the Library with...? Couldn't say what ballistics of that era might have concluded if pistol & casing had been recovered but why ditch and purposely entomb a firearm, even if consumed by fire with no apparent damage and without first removing any take-off parts. As folks were also far more thrifty about shooting back when, it's possible that the pistol was buried more recently than is assumed. Just another theory.

The breechface can be drilled out and a sleeve inserted if the firing pin hole diameter has increased.
 
The odds are very unlikely, however it is actually possible, that if the gun was dropped just right, that the firing pin would strike from inertia, thus firing the chambered round while the thumb-safety locked the slide in place keeping the shell from ejecting.
If that happened, maybe it caused a world of trouble, regret, or even simple lack of trust in the gun for whoever owned it at the time, thus it was tossed/gotten rid of (though I think trouble would explain why the shell was still in there, as they would have cleared the weapon if they didn't have more pressing matters?). This doesn't explain the condition of the magazine like the 'fire theory', but maybe as the mag is thinner steel than the gun itself, the elements merely took their toll...

This is all very theoretical. I am not saying this is what happened, just that it is possible.

edit: Also, Hey Sharps, when you first acquired the gun, was there any evidence of grip panels, or any information about them?
 
Grips were gone, no remnants of wood, and it was just like when AJAX22 started. I think the grips screws were still in the escutchions.
 
The magazine base plate is missing also. If there were more rounds in the magazine and the gun was in a fire, would one (or more) of these rounds cooking off blow down through the base plate, or would other damage be evident?

Still doesn't explain the primer dent though.

We need someone to volunteer to throw their loaded .45 in a fire to see what happens. :evil:
 
We need someone to volunteer to throw their loaded .45 in a fire to see what happens
Click to expand...

I have to admit that I subscribe to the fire theory, and would like to compare the results to a 1911 that has been in a fire. Aren't there some type of tests to determine how hard the steel is?
 
I still cling to the idea it was dropped hard that the magazine floorplate separated from the magazine body and the firing pin struck the chambered round under inertia. It was said it was found in a field so being exposed to the elements for a few decades would rot the grips off. If a gun of mine was destroyed in a fire, I wouldn't randomly dump it in a field.
 
^^ Oh yeah, I mentioned pages ago that I have indeed seen a 1911 dropped in an indoor range onto a concrete floor. It was a S&W so the firing pin safety prevented it from firing, however the base-plate, ammo, spring, and follower went scattering far in all different directions, and the mag body stayed in the gun. The mag spring ended up as far as it could possibly go, from one end-lane it stopped at the opposite-end wall some 50-60+ feet away.

I wish Ajax's gun could talk :)
 
OK, so now we need someone to volunteer to repeatedly drop their loaded .45 on a concrete floor before they throw it in a fire. :D
 
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