The Genius of John Moses Browning

at the end of the turn of the century the u.s army and many other armies throughout the world were still going into battle with firearms like this double action revolvers maybe in some cases still single action revolvers but then there was this man named john moses browning one of the most prolific inventors in gunsmiths of all history fortunately he was on our side early on he invented and came up with more designs than i care to talk about at this time but one of his most coveted designs to this day and one of the most iconic american military firearms in the handgun genre is the colt model 1911 and its variances here before us today fortunately we have a few examples we're going to talk about collecting them more so on what you can see in values today what you may want to pay what you wish you could pay and what the future may bring on this wonderfully designed and classic american firearm i'm going to start out with this one right here the first thing we're going to do before we do anything is we're going to drop the mag out of this bad boy we're going to keep that finger out of the way we're going to rack that to make sure there's nothing in there let that down i'm gonna drop the hammer back down and reinsert the magazine note in the case of this 1911 which i'm going to tell you about because this is a pure 1918 manufactured world war one beauty and 95 plus condition with the original two-tone magazine with the lanyard rig so if you're into collecting colts this is where it starts world war one this gun as they say was manufactured in 1918 it is completely original right down to the finish the walnut double diamond checkered stocks and you can see the serial number right there and here's that all-important part right here right along the on the slide can you see that adam model of 1911 u.s army and here's the other interesting aspect you'll see on these issues and scare people at one time they say where did you get that you're not allowed to have that and you notice here on the bottom of the frame right here on the dust cover property of united states is that what it says property of the united states so total military 1911 the original the original the bluing the magazine stocks everything and our segments as you know for the most part aren't always about history they're about value today in today's firearms market a 1911 with this much finish left on it original condition has a great board the action works everything is correct these guns now value in the three thousand to five thousand dollar range and there are some variances on it this is a cult and in world war one there was only colt manufacturing springfield armory manufactured and very rarely umc which is remington umc i think i have that right remington umc but most of them in 1911 on for the first world war manufactured by colt and this one is a beauty if you have one value yours if it's in this condition in the same range they are worth thousands of dollars a day and one of the most collected semi-automatic handguns of all time now here's something else that just turned up recently and here's your next variance i'm going to tell you how certain things and certain changes on these firearms affect their value so we started with a superb example of an original 1911. but after 1923 the military asked for some changes on these firearms both from colt and the other other companies that would manufacture them for world war ii of which there were plenty of in order to get booted up for the war this is a 1911 a1 and the changes in this of course before we do anything with it we're going to pop that mag out which is not the correct mag on this one we're going to clear that make sure there's nothing in there drop that hammer back down and we're going to put this non-correct magazine back into this firearm this is a cult model of 1911 us army but this is a 1911 a1 does it say 1911 a1 on that one no it doesn't right here there we are on the frame sorry about that so what we found out about this firearm this is a recent acquisition and this is how it's going to change things most of these firearms were parkerized they didn't have a blue finish like this one does now this could still be correct very few had a blued finish when it came time for world war ii and if you don't know what parkerizing is parkerizing is a very flat almost a dark gray finish where all military firearms went to particularly 1911 a1s for the second world war however there were some that still retain somewhat of a blue or a do light type of finish which are kind of rare this one we're still trying to figure out but as we examine this gun for purchase we realized that though the stocks on this which are correct color and plastic and maybe keys we don't think are original to this firearm we also noticed right off the bat that the rear sight looked to been changed out as well as the front sight it's a little higher than it would have been normally for mil-spec so that may have been changed out the differences between the 1911 to world war one and 1911 a1 world war ii are subtle but clearly visible starting with an arch mainspring housing and you'll notice on the original which i'm going to set down by this that it had a flat mainspring housing and you notice that the grip safety was quite as long and didn't stick out quite as far as it does on this one that was to prevent hammer bite when that slide comes back and runs that hammer back he can either get slide bite or the hammer would pinch so one of the corrections they made was to enlarge and extend this grip safety out a little bit make it easier to disconnect to fire the firearm arch mainspring housing and another interesting nuance and you'll see here is they cut back on the frame and shortened the trigger reach and as i put these together i think you can see that clearly longer trigger no cutaway and here it's cut away on the frame and that was so smaller hands could reach the trigger now what's happening today 1911 a1s they have increased in value like you wouldn't believe some excellent examples of this firearm can sell for as much as three thousand dollars and more depending on the condition once again and any other special traits to it and keep in mind not only did colt made them but they were made by remington rand the office machine company are made by ithaca they were made by union switch and signal and they were also made by singer sewing machine company you should also know should you find one in your collection or you've inherited and it says singer sewing machine manufactured on the side of it i guess i have an obligation to let you know that you have a firearm that may be valued in excess of fifty thousand dollars they only made five hundred this one being a cult as we took this apart and looked at it the other thing we saw about it was we didn't see that the slide was numbered to the frame the serial number is here on the frame we want to see those digits also when you when you pull the firing pin block out it should be numbered on the slide as well in the case of this one it wasn't so what we have here is sort of a 1911 a1 that's been kind of tweaked a little bit and not as authentic as we like to see them parkerized in great condition but still has a value now the difference that it makes in a firearm like this it's still a 1911 still 1911 a1 it's still a world war ii firearm and it does have good finish and fit but we would value this gun today probably at a thousand to fifteen hundred dollar range now if you find as they say pure and mint parkerized little beauty you can double that in some cases but we've been seeing a lot of them sell in the uh 1500 to 2500 range recently and those are online uh guns that uh people really sell we see plenty of that's another thing but i also like to remind people when i talk to folks about the values of things particularly in today's world of the world wide web and the internet anytime you see some of these firearms on that are four thousand dollars and they stay on there forever you know what they're not worth four thousand dollars you want to look at the firearms that actually sell when they're sold at auction either on the internet or live when the gavel goes down that's what they're worth so all colts 1911's 1911 a1s are highly collectible but condition and authenticity and complete is what it's all about finally in closing and i'll show you some another like nice accessory this is one i turned up some time back and this has got all kinds of stuff going on we'll let adam take a look at it first as you look at it this gun i believe was uh built up at one time for competition this is a 1911 world war one vintage i think also 1918 or 1919 but you'll notice that this has an arch mainspring housing which wasn't indicative of the early model 1911 you'll notice there is no cut out here there's no reduction in the frame to make it reach so it still has the original 1911 configuration here also in the grip safety but what we noticed as soon as this gun came about it also has replaced stocks it has hog rubber grips on it but before i pick this up adam i'm going to just clear that make sure everything is safe as we do that the other thing that i saw on this one right off the bat wasn't this is another comparison that we can do here this being we're going to use the original 1911 to do this is you'll notice that the sly slide release which is this item right here has been custom made for this firearm it's super long and you'll see the original here on the 1911 is only this size the slide release what releases the slide when you're loading unloading or going into battery so someone had made this one up at one time which extends all the way back to here which i thought was kind of cool and i really like this a lot i've shot this gun a few times it's extremely accurate and one of the reasons also for being able to hit what you're aiming at doesn't have military sights on it has what's called the vintage millet sites and you'll see there's an upside down cross on that front sight and this almost winged configuration here on the rear sight now where does this fall in collectible category of colt model 1911's well it's certainly not a pure gun but it certainly has a good look to it it's very functional it has a few changes and having an arch mainspring housing added to it and i took this gun out and fired it a few times naturally it's in 45 acp which i should have mentioned on all of these i think everybody is pretty much aware of the cartridge they fire but i took this out and threw a couple targets up and boy this thing was right on the money at one time they jeweled or attempted to joule which is a little machining decoration on the uh chamber there so some i don't i don't really have the complete past of this firearm but i've had this one stash while because i like this i seldom shoot it but uh i like what they did the changes they made in it to make it into maybe a competition gone maybe for the 1960s or something like that before ipsec grew to where it's become today so value-wise once again it's all about values in 1911 this kind of been tricked out and messed around with like this is still a 1911 it's still a cult but the value would probably be in the eight to twelve hundred dollar range it may be more appealing to other folks but i think in realistic terms i think it's an eight to twelve hundred dollar model 1911 with a few tweaks when you are out collecting these or if you do have one i think one of the nicest things to find i have one hanging right back here this is a nice touch to try and find if you should go to a gun show or get around somewhere here's an original flap holster us mark flap holster and belt untied leg strap hasn't even been untied on it here's the buckle sorry about that we're real proud of that right there this is a nice accessory in its own right if you're collecting 1911's or maybe you just want to have one 1911 try and find yourself one of the original holsters that really makes it nice and in closing i will close with something a little bit more modern just to give you an idea what things have evolved to but you'll still see there's still 1911's here's a firearm made by a good bunch of boys down in texas by a company called sti and so here's a modern version of a model 1911 single stack we call them single stack because they have a single stack magazine and this one was made for competition in this organization right here united states practical shooting association uspsa wonderful organization lots and lots of fun great competition wonderful shooters but you can still see it's still a 1911 few extra nuances and you'll notice that the slide serrations on this are far different than what they are in the original models which were just these straight up and down lines so from this to this in a hundred and five years but still the same firearm still one of the most sought after and most loved semi-auto pistols of all time the colt model 1911 thanks for watching

Channel: Wilson's Antiques & Curiosities

Views: 63,715

Keywords: Wilson Curry, Wilson's World, John Moses Browning, gunsmiths, firearms, handguns, classic firearms, classic handguns, colt, model 1911, 1911, colt 1911, antiques, collecting, USPSA, vintage handguns, vintage firearms, Browning, STIGuns

Id: AGyfEL7HXa0

Length: 14min 28sec (868 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 13 2016