Episode 41 - Celebrating 100 years of the 1911

[lokeuei]

Episode 41 - Celebrating 100 years of the 1911
Rick, Steve and Caleb are huge fans of the 1911 and we just had to dedicate one episode to talk about this venerable handgun design by John Moses Browning.

http://www.powerfactorshow.com/2011/09/25/episode-41-celebrating-100-years-of-the-1911/

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[Devereaux]

Love the web belt and holster!

[RickB]

The holster is a 1917-dated Boyt.  The canteen is dated 1943 and made from plastic; apparently something of a rarity, and I don't know how many were made.  I think the belt is a M1936, with an early-'40s date.  The rig also includes a Carlisle bandage, and a WWI-dated mag pouch with two, two-tone mags.

[Charlie Foxtrot]

The holster is a 1917-dated Boyt.  The canteen is dated 1943 and made from plastic; apparently something of a rarity, and I don't know how many were made.  I think the belt is a M1936, with an early-'40s date.  The rig also includes a Carlisle bandage, and a WWI-dated mag pouch with two, two-tone mags.

The two cord lanyard seems to be attached to the bottom of the mag of the gun in the 1917 holster.  Is that right?

How'd you come to have such a historic rig?   

[Devereaux]

Man, we see lots of 1911's, but rarely such a holster rig. You should feature it a bit more. Really, really nice.

[RickB]

The "gun" in the holster is a solid aluminum casting, about 7/8th size.  I don't know the origin of it, and though I've seen similar items promoted as some sort of military training device, that doesn't explain why it's not full size? I think it was an ebay purchase.  I got the lanyard at a local gun show for $10, though I think replicas now sell for more than that.  My dad enlisted in the Army when he turned 18 in 1946, and so luckily for me he missed the big show.  He then joined the Air Force in '52, got his wings, but again managed to keep my odds high by staying stateside and flying mostly in the Air Guard (B-26s in Oregon, I think).  That whole time, he was "collecting" military stuff, some of which I still have, and some of which has been donated to museums.  Two-tone mags used to be a pretty reasonable collectible, and I think they were another ebay purchase, maybe $20 each.  So, the rig came together mostly thanks to dad and ebay!

[RickB]

Savage .45 competitor for the government contract:  http://thearmorygroup.com/blog/2011/02/savage-45-acp-the-1911-that-wasnt/

.45 Luger: http://www.lugerforum.com/45Luger.html

[Devereaux]

Interesting links - thanks for those.

The .45 Luger is a rarity, but there is a retired machinist out in California that is a huge Luger afficionato, who reconditions Lugers that are not collectable. He will redo them in any calibre that you desire. Any number have been done in things like .22 WRM. BUT one guy wanted a pair in .45 Colt. The guy did it, but it took two Lugers to make one. American Handgunner had an article on the process and pics of the end result. They were a couple of really nice guns. However, they had bears for recoil springs, as the round fired was considerably more potent than the original 9mm. You had a real pull to work the toggle mechanism.

In the Savage article, there is a small error. The cartridge used in the Phillipines was the .38 Long Colt, a seriously anemic round with a bullet that was larger than the case (like a .22). It was dumped by the military but taken up and worked on by the civilians and eventually emerged as a new, much more powerful round - the .38 Special. (The other round was correctly noted to be the .45 Colt, usually misnamed as the .45 Long Colt. There is no round that is the .45 LONG Colt.)

[RickB]

I think you are referring to John Martz.  I've seen some articles that show how he would take two Lugers, section the frame of one 60/40, and another 40/60, then using a special jig, weld the two longer sections together so the magwell would accomodate .38 Super or other round longer than a 9mm.  Then he'd have to hand-make the mags, etc.  A shooting buddy has a Martz-restored Luger, and he and I have been trying to figure out how we can shoot against each other at a match; my Luger is a .30, so not legal for either IDPA or USPSA competition.  I'd convinced a local Match Director to allow my Luger as a Back-Up Gun, but my friend got cold feet at the last minute (that's the way I tell it, anyway).  In my part of the country, John Lawson is the Luger guy, and I think both Lawson and Martz are semi-retired.  Lawson replaced the barrel and did a trigger job on my Luger, probably fifteen years ago, now.  I just love the auto pistols of the 1890-1910 era, for the variety.  Everyone had an idea about how a pistol should work, and not everyone was right!

[RickB]

The camera focus got a little off toward the end of the episode, so here are some pics of the fuzzy stuff.

Davis "gunfighter" rig from the mid-'70s


Davis Gunsite Omega, '80s



Ernie Hill Fas-Trac, from the '90s



Hammer bite?  What's hammer bite?

[Devereaux]

Could well be Martz. I once had his address somewhere, with the idea that if I ever got $2500 to get a neat Luger I would contact him. Never happened, obviously. But i would have been nice - as any number of guns would have been.

Nice collection of holsters you have there. That first Davis rig is very reminiscent of Eastwood's rig in his spaghetti western series, except those were in rough-out.

[RickB]

Yup, and Davis makes an Eastwood rig, too.