New to 1911’s. Never owned, never shot, always wanted one. With my father’s 50th birthday coming up, I now have an excuse. I want to get my father a 1911 for his 50th.
I want to give him an original colt m1911, but don’t want to pay the price tag for it, as well as the tuning and work necessary to make it a bit more modern.
What I want to do is give him a 1911 that looks like it’s from the year 1911. Only differences would be that the mechanics would be tuned, springs improved, and cerakote the color rather than parkerize or blue. Government size, single stack .45 acp naturally.
I have absolutely no idea where to start on this, or where to find parts that look original. Your infinite wisdom would be most appreciated.
Do a search using the words “COLT” and “1918” (not a “1911A1”). Then look for the latest ones made a few years ago. I just looked on “Gunbroker.com” and there was one for $2500 for sale.
From a functional standpoint a type colt is very likely to need nothing to run just fine a series 70 reproduction or even 1991series gun should do fine. I attended Larry vickers 1911 operator class with a box stock colt 1911 World War One reproduction tiny sights and all and it ran perfectly. Most of the modern upgrades in hammers beaver tails and such depart from the classic look the internal guts really have not changed in 100+ years
Checked out both the reproduction and 1918. Definitely like both, although I lean more towards the 1918 because of the markings.
I also saw “part guns” while looking at the 1918’s. Would it reasonable to buy one of these for far less money, then repair/replace the necessary pieces?
The cylinder slide is nice, real nice. But that looks like it would be a huge investment up front.
From your description in Post#1, I recommend budgeting $3000 and you may have enough for some ammo to include with your father’s gift. Otherwise, I recommend not going the 1911 route for what you want.
You can also compromise on your wants and get a 1911A1-style currently offered, perhaps with the modern touches of beavertails, sights, ejection ports, finishes, safeties, markings, and anything else which goes with a specific 1911-platform gun.
Let us know what you decide to do. Buying a parts gun and contracting someone to do the work takes time (sometimes over a year), money (sometimes thousands), and knowing what you want. Right now, it doesn’t seem as if you have time, money, or knowledge (of what you want, given the time & money constraints).
I’d be willing to budget 3000, it just seems tough all at once. If that is the only real option then, I may do what I do best. Build from the ground up. I have 3 years before his birthday, so I have plenty of time to get this done. Already knew I would need time for some of the work. I’ll take a look around for original parts to use, and see if I can’t incorporate those into a build. This should give me the opportunity to invest 3000 over time without breaking my immediate budget.
If you do the work yourself you could stay within your budget but if you have the work done then probably not. Good professional 1911 'smiths are expensive and usually have long (and I mean real long) lead times for new projects. I would look for one of the run of Colt 1911 repros and go that route. It will look great and not break the bank.
I handled one of those about a year ago. Nice, but that’s a LOT of money for a gun that probably won’t be shot. As it is I have a 1913 Colt in the 10,2XX range that is pretty straight but shooter grade that I actually prefer. I have to hold off some with the “invisible” knife blade front sight and round notch rear, and the trigger weighs in at about 9 pounds–but it’s a blast to shoot.
One of these days I’m going to type up an affidavit that says it was taken off Pike Bishop’s body after the big shootout.
Very nice, especially the bright fire bluing on the small parts. But the US Property stamp looks way too big when compared to Serial Number 39 (assembled 12/28/1911) as shown in Clawson’s big book.
