Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Army 1911's to go to CMP for sale to civilian market

Its not a secret ,Century and Lionheat Industries bid on them, Century won the bid

To ALL,

IF the 1911 pistols are in as bad shape as the ones that we had in our PMO arms room in 2006, I want NONE of them. - Every one that we sent in for DS/GS maintenance was SCRAPPED.
(As NO M9/M11 were available at that time to our organization, I ended up issuing Korean War-era .38SPL Colt's & S&W revolvers to most of our LE & security personnel.)

At the 2005 IG inspection, I got a "lot of grief" from the team leader (a very senior QM LTC) as to WHY our people were carrying revolvers. - After showing him the 1911 pistols that we still had, he said, "What a bunch of worn-out JUNK. WHY haven't you turned them all in for GS maintaintence?"
(I showed him the "command policy letter", that stated that we could send in ONE 1911 pistol per month for repair/replacement & he said, "I'll get that fixed." - About 3 weeks later the policy was rescinded & all of our JUNK was sent in to GS support maintenance & ALL of them were SCRAPPED, "as of no further use to the government".)

Fwiw, I'm NOT holding my breath to see the CMP pistols, based on what I saw for much of my Army career.
](Fwiw, SOME 1911 pistols wer erebuilt 4-5 times & were finally worn-out in service.)

yours, satx

at the start of WWII they didn't have enough guns to go around, so a variety of things were bought and some issued.
there was a scarcity of 1911's, so the colt commando got birthed. basically a six shot revolver. I can't remember off top of my head
but think either alabama, georgia, got a bunch of them, but as the 1911's started coming in, they were sat on a shelf, until a few years
ago when they were donated to a place where they could be sold. Imagine, an unfired weapon from WWII.
the ones in the boxes were in the zero's to purchase, but i think the unboxed ones were about 750bucks from memory.
pretty sweet little 38special.
http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/colt-commando-38-special-c11487/

i guess i should add iver johnson made one too, a top break in 38s&w. pretty cool too.

Many states that had received Commandos for their National Guard units passed them on to Civil Defense, prison staff, police, and military schools in the late 1940s-1950s. As an intriguing side note, early in World War II the U.S. Army withdrew the M1911A pistols from the Alabama National Guard to distribute them to regular U.S. Army soldiers. The Alabama National Guard immediately placed an order for Colt Commandos to replace the M1911A pistols, perhaps 200 in all. Before the Commandos were delivered, Army Ordnance reissued .45 semiautomatics to the state National Guard.

When the Colt Commandos arrived, they were placed in storage and never issued. They remained in storage for 68 years, from 1943 to March 2011. This batch of new Colt Commandos, still boxed in Cosmoline, was placed on sale as surplus by the Alabama National Guard.

The Colt Commando was produced during wartime for the sake of both manufacturing expediency and cost reduction in a booming rearmament economy. The revolver fulfilled its role in arming a broad swath of military and nonmilitary personnel. Today, the appearance of a Colt Commando generates curiosity among those interested in both the lesser known weapons of World War II and the nuanced history of revolver firearms production.

The first 1911 I had was a 1911 from DCM at, IIRC, $20.00. And the Colt Commandos surplussed out used to be about $25- $30 from commercial vendors. That was 'back when' -- 55 -60 years ago.

The Mi Garands were maybe $79 around then and the M1 carbines were about $17.

Money was a lot tighter then, and obviously worth more.

RoninPhx,

When I was last stationed at Ft McClellan, AL in 1991, a local gun shop had over 100 BRAND NEW Colt's Commandos & some S&W WWII-issue Victory model .38SPL revolvers for sale at 100.oo each OTD.
(Wishing that I had been smart enough to buy more than one of the Colts.)

The store also had several dozen used but in VG condition "commercial" Model 10 S&W revolvers, which were issued to defense plant guards during the Korean War period, for 65.oo each.

The manager of the store stated that the Commando & Victory revolvers had been "surplused off" by the AL State prison system.

yours, satx

RoninPhx,

Btw, speaking of the shortage of firearms at the beginning of WWII: After Pearl Harbor, the federal government "cleaned out" hardware stores & other retail gun stores, all over the USA, of essentially everything & paid the retail prices for just about every in-stock firearm. Even single-barrel shotguns were bought. - One of those stores was THOMAS' HARDWARE in my home county in NETX.

In March of 1942 my uncle came home from the USN on 30 days leave, wanted to go squirrel hunting, asked at Thomas' Hardware what guns that they might have for sale & was told that the ONLY firearm that remained in the store was a "good used Winchester Model 42 Skeet-gun", with solid rib at 20.oo cash.
(My uncle bought it & I then, about 1965, bought it from my uncle. I still have the little pump-gun. The serial number indicates that the .410 pump was made in 1935.)

yours, satx

at an auction i ran across a double barrel savage/stevens with the little birdies and doggies on the sides of the reciever. It also was stamped on the reciever U.S. and had the flaming bomb on it. The auctioneer i think had it wrong, he said was used be beach patrols. In reality i think it was used to train air gunners for the bombers by shooting skeet out of the back of the truck. Still interesting in any case tho.
those little commando's are pretty cool guns.

I ran across a carbine a few years ago, turned in to a gun store, had the original papers from the dcm, 2'3rds full spam can, and copies of the cashiers check to pay for it. Wasn't much more at the time than what you quoted. I want to say around 1965 or so.
I know of a club where there are some garands sitting in a safe, not much talked about. They were sent to the club many years ago for marksmanship programs. Probably dropped off the records by now. The club won't talk much about it.

I once had an Ithaca 12ga SxS with the same markings.

I was discussing this yesterday with a few members of the gun club and they thought it would start at 600 or so. I am buying new if it is 1k.

Needs to hurry up with the safe hearing act too!!! NOW. I'd take that ANY day over another 1911,though just like an M1A and an AR and a Glock, you can never have to many 1911s....

If I ever get that far, time to borrow lug cutter or buy it from an older friend, and 5-6 frames and build GOOD 1911s from the ground up!