what is a nice 1911?
- Thread starter titleist
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NAA, beautiful pistol. I'm salivating all over my keyboard. The last one I saw went for 1900.00 on consignment!!!!! The store told me come back in a few months and maybe the owner may reduce the price but when I went back it was sold. Personally, I thought it was 'overpriced' but then again.........
titleist said:
If it's an original Series '70 and in the overall condition as the one in the above pic, expect to pay at least $1,000. But I think $1,900 is way too much as in the above post. But the bottom line is it's worth as much as you are willing to pay for it at the time...
HI I presently own a Para SSP, and STI Trojan in 9MM and four Norincos. Two have been heavily customized, and two a1's, one in .45acp and the other in 9MM.
The Para and sTI are great guns but over your budget. If it were me and I was thinking about buying a base Springfield like their GI model I would step back and take a deep breath. For the same gun you can spend $325 and get yourself a Norinco which in my opinion is a much better gun overal than either Colt or Springfields retro guns and for substantially less money.
The Norincos are made like the original 1911's. Yes they are rough on the inside but mine have been thoroughly reliable, function with every bullet design I have thrown into them and are as accurate as any gun I have shot - note I am a fair shooter but no bullseye and certainly not much out past 20 yards but that is me not the gun.
Spend $100 on a trigger job which I suspect your Springfields could use as well and you will have a great shooter on your hands.
Stay Safe
The Para and sTI are great guns but over your budget. If it were me and I was thinking about buying a base Springfield like their GI model I would step back and take a deep breath. For the same gun you can spend $325 and get yourself a Norinco which in my opinion is a much better gun overal than either Colt or Springfields retro guns and for substantially less money.
The Norincos are made like the original 1911's. Yes they are rough on the inside but mine have been thoroughly reliable, function with every bullet design I have thrown into them and are as accurate as any gun I have shot - note I am a fair shooter but no bullseye and certainly not much out past 20 yards but that is me not the gun.
Spend $100 on a trigger job which I suspect your Springfields could use as well and you will have a great shooter on your hands.
Stay Safe
Hitzy said:
I'm solidly with Hitzy on this one
I consider these two my top choices right now, and I see about 60 1911's a year through here Others are OK, but these two are head and shoulders above their competition in their particular price ranges. Nothing in the $900 price range is even close to the Para, and you have to pay hundreds more to get equivalent value to the STI Trojan. Now, in the under $500 bracket, NOTHING is close to the Norinco, in fact you have to go well over $600...
Gunnar
www.armco-guns.com
Well, seeing how you are a gunsmith, I have no doubt that you LOVE Paras and Norincos. After all, there's never a shortage of things that needed to be fixed on those guns7x61 said:I'm solidly with Hitzy on this one
Others are OK, but these two are head and shoulders above their competition in their particular price ranges. Nothing in the $900 price range is even close to the Para, and you have to pay hundreds more to get equivalent value to the STI Trojan. Now, in the under $500 bracket, NOTHING is close to the Norinco, in fact you have to go well over $600...
Gunnar
www.armco-guns.com
NAA said:If it's an original Series '70 and in the overall condition as the one in the above pic, expect to pay at least $1,000. But I think $1,900 is way too much as in the above post. But the bottom line is it's worth as much as you are willing to pay for it at the time...
That's about the way I see it too. Any more than a $1000, for me anyways, it'd have to be almost pristine because it is nearing the price point that a lot of new 1911 'clones' sell for. I was stunned that the Gold Cup National Match fetched $1900 even though it was in excellent condition.
My 2 cents. As canuck44 said save your money and buy a norinco. I am the perfect example. I bought a springfield 3 years ago and after 4 boxes of ammo and the best i could do was 4-5" at 25 yards with handloads. I bought a manual on how to 'smith the .45 and did the trigger myself. I am mechanically in mind and if i did something wrong (as long as it is safe, book goes thru that) then that is a learning expense. I tightened the slide, installed a barrel bushing and match trigger and had a gunsmith install a good front sight and I put on a decent adj. rear sight. With the exact same handloads that group has shrunk to 1.5" at 25 yards or basically 1 ragged hole for 2 clips worth of ammo.
My son wanted a commander version for his 16th birthday. So I decided on a Norinco. The trigger was about the same as the springfield out of the box and after 5 boxes of ammo the best handloads were averaging 4-5" at 25 yards, same as my pistol did. We did the work on his and that little commander will do the exact same as my springfield now.
Neither pistol has ever had a failure to feed or eject. The springfield broke a slide stop and the norinco did also, other than that no other problems. I have put thru 3500 in the springfield and my son has 1400 round count on his so far.
So I would buy the norinco, virtually the same kind of quality as my springfield and have a gunsmith do all the work that I did (if your not inclined) and you will end up with a great 1911 for the same cost as a springfield and you will do hell to a lonnie sized target instead of doing hell to a 6" pie plate.
Or you could buy the norinco and keep it stock and buy a commander version and keep it stock and have 2 1911's for the price of one springfield more or less.
Or buy the norinco and buy a progressive loader for about $100 more than the difference.
My son wanted a commander version for his 16th birthday. So I decided on a Norinco. The trigger was about the same as the springfield out of the box and after 5 boxes of ammo the best handloads were averaging 4-5" at 25 yards, same as my pistol did. We did the work on his and that little commander will do the exact same as my springfield now.
Neither pistol has ever had a failure to feed or eject. The springfield broke a slide stop and the norinco did also, other than that no other problems. I have put thru 3500 in the springfield and my son has 1400 round count on his so far.
So I would buy the norinco, virtually the same kind of quality as my springfield and have a gunsmith do all the work that I did (if your not inclined) and you will end up with a great 1911 for the same cost as a springfield and you will do hell to a lonnie sized target instead of doing hell to a 6" pie plate.
Or you could buy the norinco and keep it stock and buy a commander version and keep it stock and have 2 1911's for the price of one springfield more or less.
Or buy the norinco and buy a progressive loader for about $100 more than the difference.
hunter64 said:
And pray tell how do you tighten a slide as it is a one piece milled steel reciever? By replaceing the barrel bushing with one that fits corectly(will reduce the slide to frame loseness some)!
But that looseness is what makes a 1911A what it is(reliable)!
I have an Auto-ordiance thompson 10 mil,a Colt Goverment Series 80,and a Remington Rand(1945)and the Remington is the tightest fit of all three!!
I don't shoot the Remington much as it isn't prestine(but close to it)and the Government model has much blue holster and thumb wear on it(it's a real shooter and has been hot VERY much!!
I keep the 10 mil as my truck gun under the seat in a cloth gun bag(fully loaded and ready to roll)!
Oklahoma is one of those CCW states,so I keep some really hot rounds in extra mags just in case one of our cell's gets active before I can get home to my 6551!!!
I've had friends that have bought springfields and the tube springs were MIM or such just like your slide stops must have been and broke off!!!
But there is nothing wrong with a norinco 1911A1,or even a SA!!!
But these even Colts are 36 -38 oz pistols,you wear them high on your hip they are still heavy,so if you had to wear one everyday you would choose a sig-P220 or a glock!!!
I would still rather carry something heavy like the 1911A1,with an 8 +1 in something I can hit with!!!
Bob
I think what I dont like about Colt is:
1. their price--which is a rip off
2. the fact that they really dont want to sell their firearms to non LE or non Military buyers and I have heard their customer service is crap.
As well on numerous US boards I have heard many die hard Colt fans say the quality on the new .45s is crap compared to the old stuff.
1. their price--which is a rip off
2. the fact that they really dont want to sell their firearms to non LE or non Military buyers and I have heard their customer service is crap.
As well on numerous US boards I have heard many die hard Colt fans say the quality on the new .45s is crap compared to the old stuff.
Dragoon said:If money is no object, how about this NAA 1911? Only $19,500.00 USD!
http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976666900.htm
Yeah, the "NAA" [North American Arms Co. Ltd, Quebec, CANADA], is the Holy Grail of 1911's............. Funny, though. That "seller" from Huntington Beach, California is notorious for finding more "rare" 1911's [especially USGI "Singer" mfg 1911A-1's] than anyone in the USA... so many in fact that a lot of discerning USGI 1911 collectors will not buy from him...
Get an x-ray & metalurgical report before you buy...
NAA.
GrantR said:This is a "nice 1911" ... it's gonna be 92 years old next year ..... personal sidearm of Canadian Army officers in both World Wars ...
(No, you can't have it!
That is a keeper. I would love an old Colt like that but my next 1911 is going to be a Para. I just have to decide on which model.
GrantR said:This is a "nice 1911" ... it's gonna be 92 years old next year ..... personal sidearm of Canadian Army officers in both World Wars ...
(No, you can't have it!
That is a real beaut!! Very nice!
I'm thinking I should get a WW1/2 era 1911 next. Such a classic.
NAA said:Nice 1911 indeed! Sure is in nice shape for a veteran of two
World Wars. Must not have seen much 'action'...
No ... not much action at all! (Matter of fact, this pistol has been fired so little it is literally
not even "broken in" yet!)
It is one of 5000 commercial-production Colt 1911's purchased by Canada in 1914. Like a lot
of them, it doesn't have any Canadian acceptance or ownership markings, since many of
them were actually held for resale to officers, who were required at that time to supply their
personal sidearms and all other kit at their own expense.
The first such "private owner" was Major William Arthur Mitchell, who served in France with the
Canadian Army Service Corps (i.e. supply transport) so he would not have been "in the
front lines". The original leather holster which came to me with this pistol is marked (under
the flap and on the back):
MAJ W. A. MITCHELL
O/C No. 5 COY - (Officer Commanding No. 5 Company)
2nd DIV TRAIN - (2nd Divisional Train)
C.E.F. - (Canadian Expeditionary Force)
I have downloaded Maj. Mitchell's attestation papers (available online at the Library and Archives
Canada website for most of the members of the C.E.F.) though I have not yet gotten around
to ordering a copy of his entire WWI service record, which can be obtained from the Archives.
However, the WWI WAr Diaries of all units of the C.E.F. are also viewable in their entirety on
the same website -http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/020152_e.html.
Here is the page from the War Diary of the 2nd Div. Train for the first part of July 1916 - Note
that the entry for July 4 records Maj Mitchell's assumption of command of No. 5 Company.
The entry for July 10 is also quite interesting - it shows that these folks were not always
serving safely behind the lines. In fact transport of munitions and supplies up to the trenches
was particularly hazardous - while the front line troops were safely (though admittedly not very
comfortably) ensconced in trenches most of the time, these folks were on the roads and trails
leading from the rear, very much exposed to shelling and such.
Note the reference to muffling the wagon wheels and horses' hooves - one other little tidbit
I have learned is that the word "Train" referred specifically to units employing horse-drawn
transport (i.e. literally "wagon trains"). If such a supply unit was equipped primarily with
the new-fangled motorized transport (i.e. trucks) they would would have been called a
"Divisional Park" ....
Anyway, the pistol then spent the next quarter century safely stored away in a trunk, or some
such, until sold in 1942 by Major Mitchell to a freshly commissioned Lieutenant, then
just graduated from University, from whom I acquired it just a couple of years ago. (Officers
were no longer required to supply their own sidearms, but retained the option of doing so.
He told me that he specifically did not want to get stuck with one of the .38/.380
revolvers which were standard issue in WWII, as they already had a reputation for
being underpowered and lacking in "stopping power" .) However, though posted to England
for a while, he was transferred back to Canada before D-Day, and never saw action.
(His education was as a chemical engineer, and he wouldn't - or couldn't - talk about his
specific duties ...)
At any rate, following WWII the pistol then resided safely among his personal possessions
- with little or no use - for the next 55 years or so, until I got it from him. (I am not
revealing the most recent previous owner's name, since he is still alive....)
As to Major Mitchell, however:
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