Expectations

There are US Property marked M1911's out there on the commercial market.

The condition of these guns are falsely informing the expectations of the people vying to own one of the guns the CMP is about to distribute.

You have to remember that a gun on the commercial market escaped the military decades before the M9 came along to replace them.

The Remington-Rand my dad gave me, that I foolishly traded on a Glock 21, was a bring-home from Korea.

It was a eight year old gun when the guy my dad bought it from stole it from the Army in 1953.  Because it was made in 1945, it might not have been issued for World War 2.  From 1953 to 1975ish, it was wrapped in an oily t-shirt in this guy's closet.  My dad kept it in his sock drawer for the next 15 years.

It was a 47 year old gun with 3 years of service on it when I, stupidly, sold it in 1992.

The pistol I turned in in 1989... which is the pool the CMP guns will be drawn from...

Mine was a 1944 made Colt frame.  It was probably issued and turned in for WW2.  Guns from my era were the ones issued least in the ensuing 40ish years, but were still subject to at least one arsenal rebuild.

You have to remember that the Army was trying to get new pistols as early as the end of the Korean war, and was getting desperate by the end of Vietnam.  'Nam murdered a lot of M1911A1s with high humidity, poor care and leather holsters.  The pistol competition in the '80's that got us the Beretta M9 was make or break for handguns in the Army.  The 1911's were literally falling apart.

As the M9 started to be issued, the best guns turned in were moved to replace the worst guns in units that still had the old .45's.  The Army only kept the most serviceable guns from what remained when there were finally enough M9's to go around.

There's a lot wrong with a "most serviceable" gun.  All you can really be assured of is they will go bang most of the time and won't spontaneously disassemble.  They were also in serviceable condition at the time of turn in, 25+ years ago.  A lot can go wrong in storage.

I assume that CMP is going to cull the herd of the guns that didn't make it and part them out for what parts are still good.

The odds that a gun in the pool that CMP is drawing from will be in excellent shape is pretty low.  First Sergeants, Sergeant Majors and Officers took home a few that were presented to them, those are always the best gun in the arms room at the time.

The creme de la creme has been skimmed.  The creme de la crumb remains.