[Cat_Herder]

Mornin' All, a friend asked me to post up a request for a specific 1911A1 manufactured in 1941. The serial number is 743349. He recognizes that the pistol could have disappeared in any number of ways and said he had a better chance of winning the lottery twice in one week than having the pistol turn up. However, I agreed to put this thread up to see if anyone here might know where this pistol wound up and if they'd be willing to sell it. I can say it wasn't his in WWII; he's a Vietnam era vet.

I want to offer my thanks in advance should anyone have any information on this gun. Mods, if this is not the correct place for this type of thread, please accept my apology and move it to the proper place.

Cat

 

[MattLF9]

Keep an eye on the CMP pistols, maybe one of those will be it?
Clinton fed a lot of them into the chipper in the 90's too.

 

[saintclair]

You will need amazing luck to find that 1911a1. If you do, buy a lottery ticket!!

 

[SHOOTER13]

Good Luck with the search Cat !!

.

 

[Hootch56]

CMP can tell you if it has been in their civilian sales program.

 

[Cat_Herder]

Thank you all for replying. I think a lot of Mike and wanted to help him if possible. I appreciate the suggestions about the CMP program. I'll let him know.

 

[Rick Bowles]

Was Mike's pistol sold, stolen, turned in or lost?

 

[hoya74]

CMP can tell you if it has been in their civilian sales program.

CMP is currently closed until May 4th, however, here is the contact information for the CMP Serial Number Clerk who may be of assistance with the current CMP 1911 sales:

Sandy Farlow
256.835.8455 ext 138
[email protected]

Last November, I asked Sandy if CMP had records on the DCM 1911s and she responded: "CMP has no older records for the 1911's in the DCM files."

Good luck with your search and I hope you get lucky as I did in August 2016 when CMP sold me the M1 Garand I was issued in high school (September 1966)!

 

[eagleeye]

743349 wow I have 752239. / close but no cigar 8890 digits apart
on a good note there is a sticky x 3 at the cmp forum under the titles, shipment info , order thread, picture thread
lots of guys / gals send in their number and pictures of cmp guns they were picked to get. you or Mike might want to spend some down time now that we all have that ! and scroll through all the available information out there.
hope that helps
EE

 

[sublimert70]

I’m sorry that I don’t have helpful information but I needed to comment on your avatar. As someone employed by our house cat, I truly enjoyed seeing your avatar!

 

[Pathfinder106]

Cat -
I have a couple from that period but nothing close.
Ed

 

[Cat_Herder]

Was Mike's pistol sold, stolen, turned in or lost?

I had not asked that question until I saw your post, Rick. Mike said he came into possession of the slide with this serial number and had two things in mind when he asked me to post. The first was to find the frame with the matching number and the second was to see if he and the owner could work out a deal where one of them wound up with a nice old "warhorse." I would have titled this thread differently had I known that.

I do appreciate all the comments and suggestions. I have been a member here for a while but not an active one. I do stop by to read or research a Colt question but felt I had little to add. You guys make me feel less insecure about just joining in. Thank you for that...

 

[user0703]

Best of luck on the search. Hope it works out.

 

[Berkeley492]

I had not asked that question until I saw your post, Rick. Mike said he came into possession of the slide with this serial number and had two things in mind when he asked me to post. The first was to find the frame with the matching number and the second was to see if he and the owner could work out a deal where one of them wound up with a nice old "warhorse." I would have titled this thread differently had I known that.

I do appreciate all the comments and suggestions. I have been a member here for a while but not an active one. I do stop by to read or research a Colt question but felt I had little to add. You guys make me feel less insecure about just joining in. Thank you for that...

He might check the slide on a similar mfgr'd 1911A1 to see if his slide was in some way defective -- it may have been discarded during a rebuild. If that is the case he might want to just trash it if there is an issue with proper operation on a live firearm.

Good luck with his detective work -- Randy.

 

[dogface6]

That information won't be forthcoming from any remaining Depot - mostly because they didn't record it and by this time, those records are long, long gone - along with the Depots - plus, they wouldn't help a civilian.

Double-plus, the .45 left the system...

There's every chance that came from a weapon stripped out for parts with the frame destroyed by law enforcement.

Back when I was building .45s, I had two thirds of an Army footlocker filled with GI slides alone - they were beyond cheap, as were all other GI parts bought through the DRMO.

Later on, those GI parts dried up as IPSC became a 'thing' and everybody and his pet weasel decided they'd build something.

 

[sgtsemo]

Dog, wonder how many Singers and Rem-UMCs passed through your footlocker?

 

[dogface6]

No Singers, a few Remington-UMC's.

Back then, they were merely GI slides - no one collected them, but an awful lot of guys shot them.

The 'rarity' factor didn't come to be until Clawson's 'Big Book' was published, and that coincided with 'Saving Private Ryan', and interest was piqued - prior to that, a pair of C-notes would buy any .45 at any show, and quite often, for less than that, but afterwards, everybody and his brother wanted what Dad and Grand-Dad carried during the 'Big One', and dealers fed that demand quickly.

Prior to Clawson, there were so many cheap .45s available that DB hadn't even started faking them...

 

[Pathfinder106]

I was telling a friend about Cat Herder's posting when he said "That happened to my brother too a couple years ago." He explained that his truck & pistol lock-box were broken into while in Sarasota, FL. A loaded beautiful 1991 Browning Hi-Power 9mm Pistol was taken. He pulled out the empty Browning Plastic Case that was given to him with the label still attached describing the gun. The serial #245NZ66885 is clearly shown. I don't think they ever filed a police report which I don't understand. My comment to him pretty much followed those of the Colt guys - good luck! He gave me the case & 3 new HP magazines. When I opened the case at home I found the owner's manual and the original HP plastic thumb-rest grips. He never mentioned this. By the way his brother passed away just last week. Now I'd like to find that gun. ed

 

[JohnnyP]

Jim Clark started building his long slide pistols from surplus slides bought at Delight, Arkansas (Glenn Campbell home town). A surplus dealer there bought virtually all the scrapped small arms parts out of Red River Army Depot, later Red River Arsenal. The dealer literally had 55 gallon drums of small parts he had bought at scrap iron prices. Most looked like they had sat outside for a time.

 

[batman4706]

As a retired LEO I can tell you to always report a lost or stolen gun if you have the serial number. That is the one item a LEO will always run for stolen. The number stays active until it is recovered. We once recovered a Diana grade Belgium Browning shotgun that had been stolen 40 years ago. We located his sun and returned it to him.