Rare 1911?

[Darrell]

A guy at Gunbroker has a "rare" 1939 stainless 1911, supposedly. Current bid is $200K, or you can buy it now for $350K. Looks like somebody put hi viz front and target rear sights on it. I ran across this over at arfdotcom.

http://gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.a ... =109947150

ETA: LOL Evidently it's also been ported, and is wearing Pachmayr grips. And if you look at the letter from Colt, it says the pistol is blued, while in the pic it's stainless.

[Rod]

Look at the edges, you can see where they were rounded when being prepared for the refinish. The porting, sights, and other assorted parts makes this a 200 dollar gun. That letter is basically birdcage material since the gun is so wesoged.

EDIT: Looked at some of the other guns; he's in love with his guns. I can't believe that anyone bid on the pistol, undoubtedly it was another id or a friend of his trying to push it. I don't know how this guy has 153 positive feedbacks.

[SoupOrMan]

Whoever did that to such a pistol should be horsewhipped. With the entire horse, no less.

[DwightG]

I'm unfamiliar with the "file test" to determine stainlessishness. Anyone know how that works?

From the color, it looks like it might be hard chromed like the "Armaloy" finish that showed up in the 70s. Doing that sort of thing to a GI gun back then wasn't quite as sacriligeous back then since GI guns weren't that uncommon. Parkerized ones at least ran in the $100-$200 range for nice ones.

[Rod]

I'm unfamiliar with the "file test" to determine stainlessishness. Anyone know how that works?

I've never heard of the test, what you'll get on any gun is the gun metal. A gun doesn't have a stainless finish all the way through. Same thing you get if you file the finish on a blued gun. As I said up above, when you remove the finish (whichever it is), unless you're REALLY careful, you'll round off the edges.

[DwightG]

From the guy's write up it sounded to me like he just scuffed on an obscure part of the frame with a file and somehow concluded it was stainless. I've never had that sort of test tell much more than very approximate hardness.

[308Mike]

He's outta' his mind! There's NO WAY he's gonna' get $200,000 for that thing, especially after being ported. The collector's value has been absolutely RUINED - IF it's truly a rare gun!

EDIT:

I wonder what Xavier would have to say about it?

[Rod]

He's outta' his mind! There's NO WAY he's gonna' get $200,000 for that thing, especially after being ported. The collector's value has been absolutely RUINED - IF it's truly a rare gun!

EDIT:

I wonder what Xavier would have to say about it?

I'm pissed that a fine old gun like that was screwed up so badly. 350 k for any gun unless it's got a LOT of history behind it, is a little too much.

Chris, has there ever BEEN a gun made of stainless steel all the way through? The ad also says there's no reserve but then it says, reserve not met. What an idiot.

[Aegis]

I wonder what Xavier would have to say about it?

"Say?"

I'm convinced he would hunt this man down and kill him where he stood.

[Combat Controller]

It is a blue gun that is coated. Heck, even his description says that colt says it does not exist. Then he shows a letter proving it.