I knew all of that, and still want one. Sigh.
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My grandfather gave a pretty good accounting of himself during the early 1940's both in the Aleutians and some garden spots in the South Pacific. He had a dim view of pistols in general, and the 1911 in particular.
Shortly before he died, I had occasion to put a 1911 in his hands that was mildly customized with a slightly enlarged safety, a mild beavertail, and most importantly a set of Novak sights. He figured he could have raised some hell with that gun and actually hit something with those sights, as opposed the vestigal ones the original 1911 was equipped with. He was mildly pissed that his generation could figure out an A-bomb but not build a pistol with sights that were worth a damn.
I have to echo a lot of the sentiments I'm seeing here. I was excited for 1911s to hit the CMP, as I think it would be cool to own a .mil used/issued gun. But in this kind of supposed condition at these prices I'll have to pass. Maybe someday I'll end up with a CMP Garand. My buddy's dad owned about a dozen of them, and they sure weren't beat up like these 1911s.
Well, in all fairness, none of us have actually seen any of these guns, and it may turn out that they are conservatively graded, like the M1 Grands. If I was shipping a product out to a customer that couldn't inspect it before hand, I'd under promise and over deliver, to cut down on the amount of bitching and attempted returns.
I am curious to see what 300K "vintage" 1911s being dumped on the market does to collectible 1911 prices though.
if you don't want to wait, here is a 5 digit 1911 for $3500: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/770296689
This is probably exactly what the CMP is doing, If one looks at the discriptions used for the M1's they're not much better, but everyone knows that they are, I've been to the North Store many times, a few years back when the CMP got a shipment of '03's and '03A3's in, I was working in Toledo, I managed to get out there, and walked out with a nice Remington '03, transitional, and '03A3. Both have the original barrels, in excellant shape. The matches were also going on and over at Fulton Armorys store I found new old stock Remington 03A3 bolt bodies, and extractors, sight covers, still in the cosmoline.. I picked up 2 bolt bodies, 2 extractors, 2 sight covers.. got them home did some swapping out, checked with headspace gages ( neither rifle will begin to close on a no- go gage, nice and snug with a go gage) $400 apeice, for the rifles, that was a good day..
ETA:
I Guess my point here is, there will probably some pretty good pistols in the lot, both original condition, and post war rebuilds, but, myself I would'nt buy them unless I could see them first, after all, somebody somewhere is going to get a turd, and I'd rather it wasn't me..