Tag Archives: 1911

If Dead Pool had a Colt New Agent, it likely would look something like this

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Colt New Agent 1911 in a battleworn Deadpool theme

The guys down at Whiskey Tango Firearms in Sarasota, Florida are apparently big fans of the Merc with the Mouth.

A manufacturing FFL, WTF came up with this Colt New Agent 1911 in a battle-worn Deadpool theme complete with “Smile, Wait for Flash” barrel engraving by Accubeam in Sarasota, cartoon script “Deadpool’s gun” logo grips, chimichanga mag and just enough wear to make it look like it’s been to Francis and back.

Internals.Note the attention to detail and the very Paris Theodore style guttersnipe sight rail

Internals.Note the attention to detail and the very Paris Theodore style guttersnipe sight rail

Sure, ‘Pool used Deagle .50s for the most part, but in the beginning of the film pre-Cancer he uses a Colt 1911-based Para-Ordnance P14.45 in the pizza delivery scene and of course a plot point is a sweet Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket with pearl grips that he uses at the end of the film, so the use of the New Agent by WTF is on point if not entirely accurate.

Since writing about it at Guns.com, I have received dozens of emails asking how to get one. The good news is WTF is taking pre-orders for a batch of these right now.

‘Mister Show Business’ loses his 1911 to the scrappers postmortem

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Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck spoke at City Hall last Wednesday next to a table of guns including what appeared to be a Thompson semi-auto carbine, a few AK-pattern rifles, and some AR-15 lower receivers. The guns were part of a 791-weapon haul from the City’s annual Gun Buyback event held last Saturday that saw $200 gift cards from Ralph’s traded for the guns.

Sure, they are unwanted guns that could have eventually found their way into the hands of criminal elements who are prohibited from buying guns from lawful dealers over the counter, but there most likely weren’t any honest crooks themselves in line last weekend to turn their gatts in.

Most of the guns weren’t worth much, as evidenced from the fact that Papa Garcetti could only cough up a few pitiful examples to show off, but there was one really nice piece that probably could have been saved.

It was a milsurp M1911A1 that, at least until his death, was registered to Sammy Davis Jr.

Gun.registered.to_.Sammy_.Davis_.Jr_.among_.791.firearms.collected.in_.LAPD_..1-1

The entertainer died May 16, 1990 at age 64 in Beverly Hills after a battle with throat cancer. Besides being a talented performer and founding member of the Rat Pack, SDJ was an accomplished trick shooter.

Occasionally wearing his custom 1873 Colt SAAs on stage with his highly-tooled one-of-a-kind Western rig, SDJ would captivate fans with an exhibition of his quick-draw abilities.

He also reportedly loved to target shoot and was a guest star on a number of popular Western TV shows of the 50s and 60s such as “The Rifleman,” “Zane Grey Theatre,” and “Wild, Wild West” where he got to use hardware on screen.

sammy davis junior cross draw shoulder rig

As for his M1911, I spoke with the public affairs people with the LAPD and the Mayor’s office, championing the possibility (which would cost the city nothing) of exhibiting SDJ’s .45 at the LAPD Museum. They could even have scrapped the barrel or internals in an effort to render it harmless and included an anti-gun treatise on how it was bought “off the streets” in an effort to save lives.

Nope, they advised. As the gun was not stolen or used in a pending crime as far as they knew of, it would be scrapped.

And they were:

gun buyback confiscation lapd turn in registration lapd photo (1)

More info and sad pictures in my column at Guns.com

Twilight Zone Colt

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Colt Government Model Serial # C8792 Captain John Cameron Hume-Storer

Here we see a Colt Government Model Serial # C8792 and it shows all the classic signs of the initial M1911s including the double-diamond grips, the lanyard loops on the frame and magazine, early patent numbers and C-prefix serial that traces back to a 1914 commercial run of these guns.

Colt Government Model Serial # C8792 3

The gun is currently in the NRA Museum in Fairfax, VA, but has a rather spotty history from 1917-2007.

Colt Government Model Serial # C8792 2

Note the marking, “1st Reserve Park Division” CANADA, Storer’s original unit before he transferred to the flying corps. The 1st Canadian Division embarked for France during February 1915 and was soon holding the line near Ypres.

After over a year of sitting in the trenches as a member of the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps, young Lt. Hume-Storer had endured enough and put in for re-assignment to the Royal Flying Corps. In December of 1916, pilot officer candidate Hume-Storer passed his flight training in Britain and soloed.

On February 17, 1917, Captain John Cameron Hume-Storer R.F.C.(C.A.S.C.), took off on a routine morning patrol from Ramsgate to Dover on the English Channel, a short 15-mile journey. He was never heard from again. No trace of wreckage from his plane was ever found and no ground reports indicated that the young pilot had experienced any adverse weather.

Did he overshoot Dover and wind up ditching in the English Channel? Did he make it all the way to the Western Front and wind up behind the lines somewhere, forgotten in some shell hole?

Did he fly into limbo?

All we know for certain is that John Cameron Hume-Storer’s battered pistol was to turn up in an American gunshop in 2007. Did he pass it into the care of a friend for safekeeping during his routine flight? Or perhaps only this pistol was destined to return from whatever place his plane traveled to on that fateful day in 1917?

Colt Government Model Serial # C8792
As for the good Captain himself, he is memorialized at Hollybrook Cemetery, Southampton and is recorded on page 260 of the First World War Book of Remembrance

Now that’s what I call a bail-out gun

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If John Ham’s grandfather was a fighter pilot in WWII…

Lieutenant Colonel David C Schilling, 56th Fighter 94th Bomb Group with a private modification to his Colt 1911

“Lieutenant Colonel David C Schilling, 56th Fighter, 94th Bomb Group with a private modification to his Colt 1911”
Hattip Grease Gun Burgers.

Although I can’t find out much about Schilling’s gun, it looks much like the famous Lebman 1911 Machine Pistol handmade by Texas gunsmith  Hyman Saul Lebman. That San Antonio custom smith and leather artist made a few dozen of these in the 1930s including a number he sold to men in nice suits who later turned out to be Baby Face Nelson and John Herbert Dillinger. Back in 2012 I did a piece on the Lebmans over at Guns.com should you want to read more in-depth.

With that being said, if you know more about Schilling, or his pistol, drop it below.

All sides of the Mexican Drug War agree, the 1911 is the gun for thee

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Found these three images in the past few weeks while pursuing through images of Mexico’s ongoing drug war, which is pitting hyper-violent narco cartels against overworked (and often corrupt) police and military forces, while independent vigilante groups find themselves– at times– arrayed against both in an effort to keep their towns and villages intact.

One common thread among all sides, is that the Colt 1911 and its variants (which include the Obregon and Trejo, both of which were 1911-ish guns made in Old Mexico for generations) seem to be the go-to hardballer in the conflict.

 

"A vigilante member of the community police spits on the ground during a shootout after taking over the village of Paracuaro in Michoacan state, January 4, 2014. Some 100 gunmen of the community police from different towns, riding in a convoy of trucks, entered Paracuaro and disarmed the police to gain control over the town in an effort to rid the area of the Knights Templar cartel (Caballeros Templarios), according to local media. Michoacan has been rocked by repeated explosions of civil unrest in 2013 and vigilante groups have sprung up in the region which complain that state and federal police are not protecting them from the gangs." AP Photo. Note the well-used 1911 and the perfect trigger discipline. This gun has been around the block. (click to bigup)

“A vigilante member of the community police spits on the ground during a shootout after taking over the village of Paracuaro in Michoacan state, January 4, 2014. Some 100 gunmen of the community police from different towns, riding in a convoy of trucks, entered Paracuaro and disarmed the police to gain control over the town in an effort to rid the area of the Knights Templar cartel (Caballeros Templarios), according to local media. Michoacan has been rocked by repeated explosions of civil unrest in 2013 and vigilante groups have sprung up in the region which complain that state and federal police are not protecting them from the gangs.” AP Photo. Note the well-used 1911 and the perfect trigger discipline (with the hammer down). This gun has been around the block. (click to bigup)

 

Mexican federal police with a "cocked and locked" 1911-style pistol in the best Fobus holster $20 will buy.

Mexican federal police with a “cocked and locked” GI 1911-style pistol in the best Fobus holster $20 will buy.

 

Mexican Army's Narco War Museum: A captured 1911 colt with Versace grips (Photo by Ross McDonnell)

Mexican Army’s Narco War Museum: A captured 1911 Colt with Versace grips (Photo by Ross McDonnell)

 

Bonus: A pair of 1911 Narco pistols captured by the Federales, complete with Republic flag grips, El Jefe slide scrolls, and brass suppressors. You are welcome.

Bonus: A matching pair of 1911 Narco pistols captured by the Federales, complete with Republic flag grips, “El Jef”e slide scrolls, and brass suppressors. You are welcome.

 

 

Les Baer Monolith, one big slab of 1911

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When you first look upon it, you immediately recognize it but then ask yourself, “Wait, what?” Then the Baer Custom logo tells you what you need to know and you understand that you have seen the monolith and it has looked into your soul.

Baer was started in 1991 and the company is a rock star in the world of upper level off-the-shelf 1911 designs. Founded by Les Baer, Sr, regularly called “one of America’s most preeminent 1911 Pistolsmiths”, the company moved from Illinois to its current home in LeClaire, Iowa and has been shaking up the world of .45ACP longslides ever since. Over the years they have become the choice for both firearms professionals and discriminating collectors.

In September 1994, the FBI announced that Les Baer Custom, Inc., was selected to fulfill the HRT contract for a true fighting 1911 to be
used by the nations designated domestic anti-terror team.

After wowing the crowd with their supped up 1911s, in 1999 Baer came out with something with a bit more slab to it.

Les Baer Monolith
Read the rest in my column at University of Guns.com

Why do we love the 1911?

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Name a single mechanical contraption that has been around, essentially in its original format, for over a hundred years yet is today even more popular than ever. Further, it’s never been out of production and likely never will in the near future. If you are a gun person, the answer is easy: John Browning’s Colt Model 1911 semi-automatic pistol.

well used old 1911

John Moses Browning was the rock star of 1900s firearm design. Almost everything that left his drawing board became an instant hit. If it wasn’t for the designs he made for FN, Colt, Remington and Winchester, the entire look of firearms today would be very different. Of his 128 inventions, the Model 1911 is often touted as his most enduring.

It was born from Browning’s earlier work on his Model 1900 and 1903 series pistols for Colt and shows an internal similarity to those guns. However, they were chambered for much smaller cartridges. Colt wanted a .45ACP caliber semi-automatic pistol to compete for the US Army’s pistol trials in the early 1900s. The gun was a single-action only semi-automatic pistol fed from a 7-shot detachable box magazine that could be released with a push-button (most comparable designs of the day had a heel-release that needed both hands to operate), and had a sufficiently long sight radius to make it accurate even with simple fixed sights. It was heavy, at 39-ounces, and large, at 8.25-inches long, but it was rugged and worked well when needed.
Read the rest in my column at University of Guns

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