Colt 1911A1 Marina Argentina

[gopguy]

Here is another interesting pistol I found at the OGCA. A circa 1924 production Colt 1911A1 in .45acp made for the Argentine Navy. She is marked like a commercial Colt except for the "Marina Argentina" on the slide, M-11 57 on the frame. On page 142 of Clawson's book on Commercial Colt's he writes of a batch of 78 ordered by Argentina for their Navy in 1924 and this one falls sixty some odd higher than the starting serial number and has the correct M-11 stamp on the right side of the frame. The barrel is numbered to the gun too. No import stamps. An interesting historic gun.

[Malysh]

Excellent rare gun and presentation!
Thank you.

[gopguy]

Glad you enjoyed seeing it. I love the gun show where I found this. It is like going to a museum where everything is for sale. The problem is having deep enough pockets...

[oldcanuck]

Sorry to inform you.... but you have an Argentine mix-master. Your slide is WWI era production, mated with a WWII era frame.

[gopguy]

The more I dig into this I too suspect the slide was accidentally swapped by a Argentine Navy armorer with a first contract Colt ordered circa 1915, as the last patent date is Feb 14,1911. However there are no numbers on the slide, not even under the firing pin stop... However for what I have in the gun I am happy with her.

[oldcanuck]

The slide is probably 1914 since the last Patent date on the rollmark is 1911. By 1915 slides had the 1913 Patent date.