Shooting USA: The 1911 Collector

[Music] thank you for once again choosing shooting usa on youtube if you're interested in current full-length shooting usa episodes follow the link in the description to our vimeo channel for a couple bucks a month you have access to more than 60 full-length episodes with new episodes debuting the day after they run on the network also remember we'll never ask you to call or text to win a prize so if you see comments like that just disregard and again if you aren't yet subscribed it really does help the channel leave a comment and a like if you enjoy the content now to the content somewhere in indiana behind a 1300 pound door rests a stash of 1911's that would make any museum proud mostly over here in the shelves are military 1911 some government models there's a little bit of everything okay this pistol is a m15 just a general officer pistol built from about 1970 there were about a thousand of them collector trader and all around 1911 experts scott geyheimer is not sure exactly how many he has but it's somewhere close to 700 each one has a story and scott knows them all this is colt model 1911 serial number 403 this gun was shipped february 15 1912 in the fourth shipment that's number 403 out of roughly 2.7 million 1911's made for the u.s military you can tell these very early ones by their slick shiny finish and their color the majority of the first 2400 military 1911 pistols had what colt called an oil finish and the small parts are a brilliant nighter blue that is commonly referred to as fire blue they are beautiful guns so it doesn't matter if it's on a 1911 or a different model pistol or revolver this style of finish is just the most beautiful finish that code ever produced scott's oldest 1911 is number 335 another fire blue from the first run of military orders but it is not nearly the oldest he's seen i have probably examined six or eight of the first ten uh seen them you know actually in hand most of scott's guns are priceless relics but some can still be shot like this 1942 colt that was originally sold to the u.s navy it may be 80 years old but it will still throw some lead another of scott's one-of-a-kind guns is not even a cult but it's part of 1911 history colt and savage were the last two competitors trying for the big army contract back in the spring of 1911. it came down to a shootout and savage lost the colt managed in that final competitive test to fire 6 000 rounds without a malfunction and savage had multiple malfunctions savage built four pistols for the final trial and this is the only one that's left in original condition it's worth at least fifty thousand but the colts are worth even more there's not a lot of people wanting the gun that came in second place this is about a 1930 production cult government model a commercial pistol at serial number c15845 so it could have been manufactured as early as 29 but most likely 1930. not all of scott's 1911's are military the brinkerhoff conversion was offered for civilian cults done by a gunsmith in los angeles around 1935. brinkerhoff replaced the grip of the frame and redesigned the hammer safety and magazine well to make a shorter and curved grip like the revolvers most match shooters used at the time the trigger could be as light as two pounds a lighter trigger pull uh there was a speed lock and then a buffer or shock absorber uh the way he redid the guide to make it recoil less but even though the improvements were advertised at a bargain price of 7.50 brinkerhoff didn't make very many only three are known to survive today and this is a civilian pistol even though it says government model on the frame colt used the name on their commercial 1911s so buyers would know they had the same gun as the military the model name still used today it's hard to believe that you know that this is what they started with and this is what they ended with scott has spent over 40 years studying and trading in guns that most of us have never heard of there is always another interesting firearm to look for and no matter what he might run across he's never going to find them all you know i i thought five years ago that by the time i was 70 i wanted to have my collection thinned down the problem with being so ocd about this is everyone that i don't own is another one that interests me so for scott the 40-year obsession continues buying and trading to find and acquire the ones that still interest him like the ones coming next the once known as lunchbox guns shooting usa is brought to you by smith and wesson and the m p9 shield plus with 13 plus one capacity in the same thin lightweight design that has made the shield the number one choice for concealed carry there are so many different variations of the war era 1911's that it's hard to keep track of exactly what is what and some guns are known not by the markings they have but the markings they don't collectors call them lunchbox guns pistols that made their way out of the factory maybe in somebody's lunchbox before they got a serial number and proof markings a lunch box typically is a pistol that was taken illicitly out of the factory during production like this one a colt 1911 from about 1918 which never had a serial number because someone around the colt production line walked off with it before the number was ever applied so the reason that we know that this is a lunchbox pistol taken out of the factory is that it has no final inspection on this side it has no ordnance inspection and there is no serial number on this side so this pistol was stolen mid-production and based on the parts that are in this gun i don't think it was stolen as a completed pistol it was stolen in parts this is where the ordnance final inspection would be which would have been an eagle's head with an s marking for the actual inspector a missing serial number is the most common sign of a lunchbox gun proof marks and inspection stamps are just some of the markings that could be missing from a lunchbox 1911. exactly which ones depends on when the manufacturer added those stamps on the production line and when the pistol left the factory rumor was that they didn't slip them out in their lunchboxes when they went out on a smoke break they would slip out with a pistol and throw it over the fence and then go back at night and pick it up that way ithaca built this lunchbox in 1943. once again no serial number an important sign but not the only sign that this pistol is a lunchbox because at least one proven lunch box does have a serial number it was made right at the end of world war ii and someone slipped it out of the colt factory after the number was stamped on but before most of the proof and inspection marks after we had won the war with japan somebody decided that those boys aren't going to need this pistol so they just decided to latch onto it colt says they have no record of ever building or shipping a 1911 with that serial number but here it is an orphan and a mystery it just walked out the door with somebody scott says all the 1911 lunch boxes he's seen so far were made by colt or ithaca and none so far from the other companies which produced 1911's the majority of guns that i see that are without a serial number have been refinished they've had the numbers scrubbed off of it someone stole that pistol and removed the serial number but a very few guns with no numbers are legit like this pre-production sample one of three that colt made up during the first world war to help another contractor remington umc get started making them for the army and there's no number on this civilian presentation model it's a 1941 singer a gift to the chairman of sperry corporation and while it has been fired it never saw battle it's one of maybe 10 civilian singers which were deliberately made without a serial number this early 1911 has plenty of stamps but not the one that matters it comes from a batch of 22 1911s that remington umc shipped during the first world war without serial numbers or final inspection marks not stolen not a sample just a mistake i kind of doubt that they got paid for the more detailed a gun's history may be the more complicated the search for the proof in working out where a 1911 came from and what stories it can tell it's not only interesting it can also make a gun more valuable coming up the stories the guns can tell even when the documents are wrong [Music] shooting usa is brought to you by lesbiar customs 1911's hand fitted to perfection because you'll accept nothing less and by armageddon gear the leader in long-range shooting accessories sometimes you can look at an old gun and wonder where's it been what battles was it carried in what stories could it tell well finding the records that will tell these stories is certainly a part of scott geyhammer's passion for collecting even when the official documents turn out to be wrong [Music] this is the remington rand 1911 with a combat story to tell it flew at the side of lieutenant jg robert wilson off the aircraft carrier uss cabot as he and his skilled squadron mates carried the battle across the pacific to the japanese the cabot's pilots became aces and named themselves the medax squadron credited with 165 enemy kills but luck ran out for lieutenant wilson in july of 1944. his plane was shot up over iwo jima he made it back near the cabot and bailed out with the remington rand still holstered when he was pulled out of the water a report in the national archives says lieutenant wilson's pistol was lost in battle but we know it is here today with the same serial number listed in that report and it stayed with him to the end of the war finding any gun's history can be both a challenge and a reward even when the proof is not clear and it's more difficult you know it's a lot easier to find a great gun than it is to find a great gun that's fully documented but scott has documents for this experimental cult that's one of a kind this pistol is cult government model c201069 in 1939 colt tried to speed up manufacturing by machining the frame in two pieces then brazing the parts together before polishing leaving just a thin seam to show where the two halves joined if you look closely the seam is right across here colts records show that only one was ever made government inspectors put 2 000 rounds through it and colt did some of the testing of their own before they gave it to the inspectors this is the original factory test target and clearly you can see that the pistol would shoot the one of a kind brazed 1911 is not for sale but scott says if it were it would certainly bring more than 100 000 at auction letters like these documents and other history of specific guns are often harder to find than the guns themselves a lot of the searching is done through personal contacts sometimes at military shows like this one outside nashville a contact that scott made here led him to a rare singer 1911 that we showed you a few weeks ago one of just 500 made by the singer sewing machine company in 1941 it was issued to an army air corps transport pilot during world war ii and photos and documents from his family helped establish its value at well over a quarter of a million dollars another singer in scott's collection came from the family of an army pilot who left more than just a pistol i've got quite a bit of his life i've got his flight jackets i've got his skull cap i've got his uniforms i've got his pistol rig all identified to him lieutenant william clippinger flew transport planes between england and north africa early in world war ii until a german bomber shot him down his injuries kept him out of combat so he went to work as a test pilot for curtis wright flying dive bombers and other types of aircraft his descendants kept all this documentation and more his goggles his old log book even his pilot's license and with all that background including his initials carved into the grip clipping your singer is worth close to four hundred thousand dollars and all of those relics and documents definitely help push the price that high you're talking about somebody's life you're talking about their sacrifice your you know it's their life story scott doesn't shoot his 1911's very often these days you'll more likely find him in his study surrounded by 1911 information and looking for more historic guns it's research that never really ends we don't own any of it i mean all we do is possess it for a while we're just good stewards and you know the thing that i absolutely love when i find great condition pistols i have the deepest respect for the people who cared for those guns and kept them in that kind of condition even when i sell from my personal collection i'm i'm pretty picky i try to pick my buyers i want to sell it to someone who's going to preserve it for the next generation the way we've done the people before or sometime this is a healthy hobby this is something that keeps me thinking every day it keeps me hunting every day i've got a lot of great pistols in my collection but the one that excites me the most is the one that i'm chasing well you've made it to the end of another shooting usa video on youtube and for that we thank you it does help the channel if you subscribe like and comment and that will help us keep the content coming

Channel: Shooting USA

Views: 281,150

Keywords: Shooting USA, guns, Jim Scoutten, firearms news, shooting sports television, guns tv, 2a, Outdoor Channel, Smith & Wesson, Hornady, Colt, John Scoutten, USPSA, IDPA, Three-Gun, Precision Rifle, History's Guns, Pro Tips

Id: eU-H469ewu0

Length: 18min 38sec (1118 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 01 2022