Wow this is very cool! I also wonder how it got to be cocked and locked with a spent round. Just really makes you wonder the history of it and the small details. You do some amazing work, I would have never thought that gun could be disassembled and maybe fired again. Congrats on the progress and keep us updated!
Dug relic 1911 restoration (Pics and Video)
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I was skeptical it would come apart. Good luck and great project!
Hammerhead6814
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Maybe I'm missing something but HOW can that be saved? It looks like everything is pitted and rusted through. I can't see how it would be safe to shoot, even when the rust is removed.
FIVETWOSEVEN
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Aside from the silliness, that sounds like a plausible theory. From what I remember reading from Sharps is that it was found with the magazine body in but the spring and follower gone. Sharps theory was that it was a bootlegger's pistol that was ditched.
SharpsDressedMan
member
We have a gun here that fired, but did not eject the spent case. In effect, it was out of play at that point. It obviously wasn't a squib where the bullet lodged in the barrel. Why didn't it eject? Broken extractor? Squib, bullet made it out, but the charge didn't blow the slide all the way back enough to eject? Why didn't the user manually eject the casing? Were the circumstances so heated at the time that when the gun "jammed", the user just discarded it in the backlands of Tennessee? Moonshiners on the run from the revenuers? There is a story there somewhere!
Mac Attack
Member
Amazing work. I look forward to seeing it fired.
Grayrock
Member
Tag.
Keep up the great work.
Keep up the great work.
Shamus MacD
Member
i am addicted to this thread. keep up the work. cant wait to see the finished product.
WardenWolf
member
It's possible the bullet somehow discharged on its own, long after the gun landed in a field and rusted shut. Unlikely, but a nearby lightning strike or some freak environmental condition could theoretically cause it.
FIVETWOSEVEN
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I'm thinking it was dropped and inertia made the firing pin strike the primer. 1911's without a firing pin safety can discharge if dropped hard enough. I'm thinking that a hard impact is also what caused the pistol to shed it's magazine spring and baseplate.
WardenWolf
member
That'd take one hell of a drop. They do have firing pin return springs, after all. And it still wouldn't explain why it didn't eject. The only thing I can think of is that something *had* to be holding that gun shut when it fired. From demonstrations I've seen, it doesn't take a huge amount of force to keep a Browning action from cycling as long as it's held from the start of its movement before the barrel unlocks. It can be done with one hand gripping the slide easily enough. It can at least cause it to short stroke, allowing it to recock the hammer but not eject the casing. This raises the possibility that this gun may have been involved in a struggle.
shotgunjoel
Member
The safety was on, so that would've held the slide shut.
The gun was cocked and locked, and the spent casing appears to me to have a primer strike. That'd lead me to believe that the firing pin had to have moved somehow and struck the primer without the hammer falling. A drop would be the most likely explanation to me.
iLikeOldgunsIlikeNewGuns
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Man I've been missing out, haven't been on THR in a while and this is certainly one of the coolest threads I've ever seen! Had to watch all the videos I couldn't stop. I've had that first photo of the gun on my screensaver for a good while too, since whenever I saw Sharps' post of it, so this is just too cool, the last thing I could have expected to see here on THR after days away from my own computer.
The casing blew my mind a bit too at first. At an indoor range I've witnessed a 1911 accidentally dropped due to the shooter's shirt getting between the gun and holster then the shirt pulled the gun out of the holster. So it fell from tall-person waist-height down onto a concrete floor. It was a S&W (firing pin safety) so it didn't fire, but the base-plate, mag-spring, ammo, and follower went everywhere.
So I too am currently leaning with the theory that your gun was dropped, discharged due to firing pin inertia, the thumb-safety kept the slide from cycling, and the base-plate, mag-spring, follower and ammo (would compress the spring enough to make the baseplate give under stress) were scattered when the spring expanded.
Just a theory that's not necessarily correct. If that is what happened however, I wonder if that shot created trouble one way or another, for whoever was carrying it and/or their companion(s), which is why they didn't bother to retrieve their pistol.
I can't wait to see more, a previous post said "I wish TV was this good" and I say amen to that! I hope you can get a time-frame from the casing, and I really hope to eventually see a video of that gun being fired
The casing blew my mind a bit too at first. At an indoor range I've witnessed a 1911 accidentally dropped due to the shooter's shirt getting between the gun and holster then the shirt pulled the gun out of the holster. So it fell from tall-person waist-height down onto a concrete floor. It was a S&W (firing pin safety) so it didn't fire, but the base-plate, mag-spring, ammo, and follower went everywhere.
So I too am currently leaning with the theory that your gun was dropped, discharged due to firing pin inertia, the thumb-safety kept the slide from cycling, and the base-plate, mag-spring, follower and ammo (would compress the spring enough to make the baseplate give under stress) were scattered when the spring expanded.
Just a theory that's not necessarily correct. If that is what happened however, I wonder if that shot created trouble one way or another, for whoever was carrying it and/or their companion(s), which is why they didn't bother to retrieve their pistol.
I can't wait to see more, a previous post said "I wish TV was this good" and I say amen to that! I hope you can get a time-frame from the casing, and I really hope to eventually see a video of that gun being fired
firesky101
Member
Frankford arsenal? Any numbers on that bad boy?
Skylerbone
Member
A link with close-ups of F. A. headstamps: http://www.mcpheetersantiquemilitaria.com/06_ammunition/06_item_074.htm
lloveless
Member
Very Nice. Only started watching today. I don't have a TV cause nothing on it is entertaining. This is great. Who'd of thunk that chunk of steel was salvageable. I am mechanically challenged, and think this is awesome. Thanks for sharing.
ll
ll
06
Member
Also intrigued at the prospect of it functioning safely. Your restoration is just awesome---you have sooo much more patience than I. My second pistol is a 1911 gub style 32 Colt. It was not in anywhere near the poor condition as yours but finally got it apart, buffed and buffed, and still shooting it today-for 30 years.
WardenWolf
member
It's getting there. Keep it up!
bluethunder1962
Member
Crap this needs to be a reality tv show.Can't wait till next week to see what is new.
I fired a box of WW2/Korean War vintage steel case when I first got my Commander. (In retrospect should have saved it for collector value maybe.)
It had that steel case and copper looking primer. Before then I had no idea the US had ever issued steel cased stuff.. but post war a lot of it was available.
It had that steel case and copper looking primer. Before then I had no idea the US had ever issued steel cased stuff.. but post war a lot of it was available.
SharpsDressedMan
member
I missed a similar condition Colt .32 auto that was allegedly found in the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio a few years before this one surfaced. I just didn't react quick enough. There have to be a lot of great story guns out there.
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