Canadian 1911s?

[lister]

Great, thanks for the info Grant. I'll pass it along to the relatives. Since reblueing obviously lowers the value significantly, I'll have to see if he wants to bother selling it. I think the idea was to sell the 'museum piece' and buy multiple 'shooters'

 

[GrantR]

Depends on what they were expecting to get for it - would likely still fetch $1000 or more!

 

[lister]

Well, he was thinking it was original, so probably around 3000$. Considering a new Colt or Springfield is about the same as a refinished Commercial (about 1000) I don't know if he'll still want to sell.

 

[Garand]

With the barrel not being original, I think Grant named a fair price.

 

[Garand]

What is the Canadian Government contract serial number range anyways?

Colt Commercial Model 1911 Pistol, Date of Manufacture 1914, Canadian Contract
The 5,000 pistol procurement was s/n ranges:
Sep 11, 1914 1,000 C3000-8400
Sep 24, 1914 300 C5400-C8700
Sep 29, 1914 300 C8000-C9500
Sep 30, 1914 100 C8500- C9700
Oct 1, 1914 180 C8500-C9700
Oct 2, 1914 120 C5700-C9700
Shipped to Gov't of Canada, dept. of Militia & Defense, c/o J. Wesley, Waddington, NY
3,000 more were shipped to HW Brown, Quebec, Canada for a total of 5,000.
Oct 31, 1914 1,000 C7900-11400
Nov 7, 1914 1,000 C9800-C12700
Nov 14, 1914 1,000 C11100-C13500

 

[John Sukey]

And they had a hard time convincing the gubmint that spare magazines were needed. People still thinking "revolver" instead of automatic..

 

[can14]

It was interesting to here that Canada bought Colt 1911a1 in 1943. In the 70's I bought two colts in Victoria...one was a 1929 Colt 1911 38 super with RCAF members name engraved on the slide and a 1943 Colt 1911a1 .45. The 45 is in like new condition and I was told that it was CDN issue. The RCAF guy carried both guns.

 

[Lee Enfield]

Colt Commercial Model 1911 Pistol, Date of Manufacture 1914, Canadian Contract
The 5,000 pistol procurement was s/n ranges:
Sep 11, 1914 1,000 C3000-8400
Sep 24, 1914 300 C5400-C8700
Sep 29, 1914 300 C8000-C9500
Sep 30, 1914 100 C8500- C9700
Oct 1, 1914 180 C8500-C9700
Oct 2, 1914 120 C5700-C9700
Shipped to Gov't of Canada, dept. of Militia & Defense, c/o J. Wesley, Waddington, NY
3,000 more were shipped to HW Brown, Quebec, Canada for a total of 5,000.
Oct 31, 1914 1,000 C7900-11400
Nov 7, 1914 1,000 C9800-C12700
Nov 14, 1914 1,000 C11100-C13500

I find Colt's serial numbers to be facinating.

The 800ish Boer War New Services shipped to Halifax and Ottawa in 1900-1902 run from a low of serial# @28 thru @8000 with no apparent ryhme or reason.

 

[Garand]

It was interesting to here that Canada bought Colt 1911a1 in 1943. In the 70's I bought two colts in Victoria...one was a 1929 Colt 1911 38 super with RCAF members name engraved on the slide and a 1943 Colt 1911a1 .45. The 45 is in like new condition and I was told that it was CDN issue. The RCAF guy carried both guns.

I bought a 1943 Colt 1911A1, complete with Canadian Broad Arrow at an auction last October. Pistol is in very good shape, to bad you can't find more broad arrow marked Colts in Canada.