Rare Inglis Pistol?

canuck

canuck

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Snooping on the GunsAmerica site and found this
http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976735358.htm

I would agree that the slotted #2 is un-commen, but whats your take on this quote from the description?
THIS MODEL IS LISTED IN C.W.LAW'S BOOK AS HYBRID AND OUR EXTENSIVE RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT THERE WAS INDEED AN ERROR AT THE INGLIS PLANT ONE DAY WHEN THE ASSEMBLY CREW MISTAKENLY FITTED AND NUMBERED THE WRONG FRAMES TO THE SLIDES.WE UNDERSTAND THAT 67 MODELS WERE FINISHED THIS WAY, A VERY RARE VARIANT INDEED
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Sounds to me like hogwash - certainly wouldn't pay US$3000 for this pistol!

My understanding is that the slotted #2 pistols came about when the first Chinese Contract was cancelled, and slotted frames which had been intended for use in #1 pistols were simply used up (quite intentionally) in the continued production of the #2 pistol.
 
Several No2s were converted to slotted frame (aftermarket) in SW On in the 70s-80s. Also Colt 45 mainspring housings. Had to put all those stocks on something.
 
GrantR said:
Sounds to me like hogwash - certainly wouldn't pay US$3000 for this pistol!

My understanding is that the slotted #2 pistols came about when the first Chinese Contract was cancelled, and slotted frames which had been intended for use in #1 pistols were simply used up (quite intentionally) in the continued production of the #2 pistol.
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Pretty late serial for that isn't it?
 
I have one. I think the factory just used up the the slotted frames they had on hand. I think the story about a factory mixup is just that a story,but if it make mine worth more the i will have to agree. ha ha.
 
*cough-cough* Bullsh!t.... *cough-cough*

Wanna find a rare Inglis? Find one with an Aluminum frame or one of the 5 gold plated presentation Inglis Hi-Powers...

Good luck with that ;)
 
Canuck, do not recall name of person doing the work. About 25 years ago a friend had an Inglis No2 which I had a look at. Next time I saw it was fitted with the stock and the explanation was that a person in the London area had the mill to do the cut.
 
tiriaq said:
I saw one that had been milled in London in the 60s.
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why would you WANT to mill a No.2??? If I wanted to mount the stock, I would just get a No.1 Inglis. The tang sight is better suited to use of the stock anyhow!
 
Do the slides interchange? What would stop someone from digging up a Mk2 slide, engraving the serial, and mating it up to another frame?
 
Claven2 said:
why would you WANT to mill a No.2??? If I wanted to mount the stock, I would just get a No.1 Inglis. The tang sight is better suited to use of the stock anyhow!
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I think, back when this was being done, that #1s were not very common - but there were tons of stocks around.

tiriaq and green - you guys have got me wondering now if my Inglis is a "bubba" as it is a 5T with a slotted backstrap - most other hybrids I've seen have been earlier serial numbers - like the one on the GunsAmerica site



100_4241.jpg
 
The guy who had the pistol wanted to be able to use it with a stock, so he had it milled. There must have been someone in London with the tooling. The stocks used to be everywhere, dirt cheap, $10 or so, because there were no pistols to fit them to. Canuck - if possible, compare your pistol to one of the Chinese contract ones, and see if the machine work is identical.
 
definitely a slightly different profile at the top of the slot on your No.2, but that doesn;t mean alot - could have just been done on a different milling machine with a different tool bit. Several machines were run in parallel during manufacture of the Inglis frames.

I'm leaning towards a 1960's job though as the two on the right are cut with a small diameter flanged end mill using two passes, while yours is a larger diameter flanged end-mill cut with one pass.

Clive Law has a cool photo in Inglis Diamond of the torch that cut out the frame blanks. Pretty cool - cut dozens of frames in one pass.
 
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The one I saw these 40 years ago had a small perforation where the endmill had broken through. I thought for a moment that it was the same pistol.
Claven2 - With multiple machines doing the same operation, wouldn't it be likely that the same tooling and cutting pattern be used in all the machines? The centre and right pistols had the slots cut using the same type of milling operation, while the left was done with a different setup. Of course if the slot was cut at a different time, then a different setup could be expected.
Inglis pioneered flame profiling. They used it for Bren receiver blanks. Faster and cheaper than forging, although the metallurgical benefits of forging are lost. Cdn. FN receiver blanks were flame cut as well. Nowadays instead of a mechanical pantograph, a CNC guided plasma cutter or flame would be used.
Canuck - are there any signs of file marks in the slot? If this was done by a 'smith, there may have been a cutter ground to do the slot to final dimensions without fitting, but it would be more likely that the slot would have needed a bit of adjustment. But if a machinist were going to do more than one, then making a proper cutter would be standard practice.
 
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