Sharp as a Marble - An admission

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An admission

Guns. Lots of Guns.

Up for sale is a Colt 1911 made in 1916. All original and in excellant condition.
This is a piece of American history and only going up in value every year.

And I feel nothing. Now, I'm not 1911 savvy enough to know if that's the real deal or not, but when it comes to collectibles or rare firearms, I couldn't give two shakes of your ass. I feel bad when I'm on #Gunblogger_Conspiracy IRC and people are discussing a great historical find at the gun show or listen to Tam extol the virtues of some rolling cam connector pin design from a 30,000 BC club designed by John Moses Browning's great great great great great great great great great great (… 2 hours later …) great grandfather, Ung Oggo Grumphdung.

They're guns to me. Things that go boom.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I have my irrational desires for things I cannot afford nor do I need, but I just don't get into the history or the minutia of the inner workings like some of the other gun bloggers. And, to ensure I'm being clear here, I have nothing but respect for those who do and who can look at the picture above and tell me more about the pistol than Wikipedia could ever hope to do.

Two words that will never be used to honestly describe me is 'detail oriented' and to know those kinds of things requires an attention to detail I do not possess. Maybe I'm missing out on a lot, but for me, I'll just stick with generally trying to obtain things for utilitarian purposes.

Except the 50 BMG. I neeeeeeeeed that.

posted @ 2/14/2010 6:54:19 PM

Incoming Links

SayUncle » Function on 2/15/2010 8:42:10 AM

Comments

Gregory Morris says:

on 2/14/2010 8:26:40 PM

This is because you are a philistine. :)

I've never bothered spending money on a gun that I can't shoot... mostly because it seems to me that an un-shootable gun is less valuable than a shootable gun. I am a collector, but I collect guns because of their coolness factor more than their history. For instance, I own a modern .50 caliber muzzleloader that I'll never take hunting. I just bought it because I didn't have a muzzleloader.

I guess I'd probably be into historical guns more if I were rich... but I am still mostly attracted the "neat" factor. Regardless, I still maintain the rule that I must have ammo for every gun that I own.

My guns fall into 3 categories. Useful (i.e. - my carry gun), Neat (eg. - my AR-7) and Sentimental (eg. - my grandfather's cheap old shotgun.) My Useful and Neat guns have no sentimental value and often end up as gunshow trade fodder.

My sentimental guns get rescued before the wedding album if the house is burning down. The rest of them are just tools or toys.

Your post reminds me though... one of the employees down at Wain Roberts Firearms down in St. Pete carries an old original M1911. One of the reasons I want that gun you posted is because it has history AND it is STILL a damn fine gun.

Grey says:

on 2/14/2010 8:42:54 PM

I see things like this and think that I should rescue it from someone who wants to put it in their safe and horde it for its "collect-a-bility"...

The thing wants to spit fire as it was intended to by its creator. Its machine spirit screams for purpose. Who am I to deny its purpose? What man can have joy in his heart while doing so? If you love it, set it free.

Cemetery's Gun Blob says:

on 2/14/2010 11:02:22 PM

I'm the opposite.

Modern firearms, m'eh.

Linoge says:

on 2/14/2010 11:13:58 PM

Eh, I appreciate the historicality of it, just as I appreciate the historicality of older cars, and older machines, and just about everything older that was once crafted by someone who might have been pioneering the field at the time.

I am still going to shoot the bejesus out of it, though.

Roberta X says:

on 2/14/2010 11:50:37 PM

Love it, shoot it; if you don't wanna go all googly over the innards and history, don't. Me, I kinda do, but I'm geeky that way.

ZerCool says:

on 2/15/2010 12:15:09 AM

I'm with the "buy it, shoot it" crowd.

I buy things that appeal to me, regardless of what value others may put in them, and guns were made to SHOOT.

McThag says:

on 2/15/2010 6:54:16 AM

I have an eye for such details and still don't go out and buy them. "Wow, that will be expensive." is what I think about things like that.

Nine times out of ten you never get the real history, who bought this the first time and why? My 1908 hammerless has a history; you can see it in the wear on the finish. But it's a secret history since the person who owned it before me didn't tell the gun shop (and was likely not the original owner.)

I've made recreations of some historical guns for my pleasure, I am completely aware of the anachronisms, and I don't care! My SBR clone of an XM177E2 has the wrong color for several parts and the barrel contour is ever so wrong, but I am quite content with an 80% clone than to send perfectly serviceable parts to be reanodized in the "correct" color.

kaveman says:

on 2/15/2010 12:30:19 PM

Most of my guns have some connection to pivotal moments in history.

The cool thing about collecting firearms on a budget is that guns which made an impact on history were generally mass produced, which means they can be had for a reasonable price and in a common mass produced caliber. All of mine are still shooters, for sure but the guns I take to range have to do more with ammo prices than anything else.

I used to go to gun shows and buy on impulse. Now I read up as much as I can and look for specific firearms at a decent price.

BTW, the most valuable firearms I own, I didn't pay a penny for, I inherited them.

AR's look pretty fancy, and I own 2, but when you save your own life with a beat-up lever action .22, I know which one I value more.

kaveman says:

on 2/15/2010 12:36:49 PM

One other thing I thought of.

There's a guy in Arizona with the largest collection of Luger's known. He was interviewed for the History Channel's "Tale of the Gun" series.

Has stated that he has 1500 Lugers in his personal collection with an additional 500 Lugers for trading purposes.

2000 guns and they're all Lugers.

That's serious collector.

Robb Allen says:

on 2/15/2010 12:39:32 PM

but when you save your own life with a beat-up lever action .22, I know which one I value more.

Hence why my Dan Wesson .357 Magnum will never get sold ;)

Unix-Jedi says:

on 2/15/2010 2:57:24 PM

As someone who WOULD like that 1911..

Let me thank you for not raising the price by bidding on it and similar guns. If I could only get most other people to be so unartistic. :)

Jon says:

on 2/15/2010 7:58:51 PM

I'm with you - while I appreciate the history and all that, I don'y buy guns I don't like to shoot just due to the history factor and I'm really fond of modern firearms. to each his own, of course.

Gregory Morris says:

on 2/15/2010 8:30:38 PM

My Mosin Nagant M44 is connected with a very significant historical event: the day I bought my first rifle.

:)

Weer'd Beard says:

on 2/16/2010 11:54:01 AM

I gotta say I have some old Mosins kicking around that I haven't shot, may never shoot, and I bought them just so I can poke around with the markings and design details.

I like 1911s, so that old one looks really interesting to me.

That being said, the first thing I think when I see a gun like that is "Geeze, needs a bigger beavertail, a loop hammer, a lightweight trigger, likely a trigger job, and an extended slide stop...also the metal likely isn't beefy enugh to eat +p loads..."

I'm a huge 1911 fan, but in some circles I'm a heretic as well!

Comrade E.B. Misfit says:

on 2/16/2010 12:14:05 PM

I'd leave old weapons alone, unless I knew for dead-nuts certain that the thing was one of a gazillion. There have been some extremely rare variants of old rifles which have been destroyed by Bubbaization. And in most cases, one can easily buy a new Savage or Remchester for the cost of customizing an old military rifle.

Pops says:

on 2/16/2010 8:58:12 PM

In 1916-17, Colt made two weapons with almost the same serial numbers. One was for the military and the other for civilian sales. The military ser # would be 12345 and the civilian one would be 12345c. The military put in an emergancy order and Colt sent some of the subscript 'c' weapons to fill the order. An old man came into the sheriff's office to register his 1911 and was told that he did not have to register it, but dispatch ran the ser # and it came back stolen in Maine. The weapon was siezed and he said that he was issued the weapon in 1939 at some army fort, carried thru the war and took it home with him after the war. And he had never been to Maine. I was given the job of checking out his story. The Army could not help because centralized inventory did not take place until the late 60's.
I called Colt and talked to a woman who had worked for them for about 30 years. She listened to the story and said that she would call back. the next day she called and found the problem. Colt was going to sell 1911 to the civilian market and started a line. They Put a subscript 'c' after the serial number, showing that it was for civilian sales. The army bought them and issued them, thus you can have two 1911 with the same serial number, but one will have a subscript 'c'.
The old man was happy when we gave him back the 1991, along with the incident report explaning the reason for the subscript'c'.

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