But They're Easy To Catch

Flogging this dead horse some more.  Dead horses are easier to catch than live horses, plus you don't have to break them.

The USGI M1911A1 market has set some expectations for some people looking forward to their lottery entry at CMP.

Expectations that don't think will be supported by reality.

You've got to remember the route the guns on the market now did not get to civilian hands by the same path as the guns the CMP is presently sorting through.

More than a couple of those ex-GI guns went home in some GI's pocket or duffel.  Literally stolen property that the military simply wrote off and has zero interest in investigating.

Some are guns which were given away at retirements.  These are the real cream of the ex-GI crop.

Some are guns which were surplussed from an earlier time where the politics were different.  Back when it was the DCM rather than CMP.

Let's timeline this a bit...

Take-home guns which don't have a criminal investigation trying to find them are the ones which were combat-loss'd.  This sets the age and condition being closely related to which war it was loss'd in.  Grampa's WW2 bring-back is probably going to be in better shape than my Uncle's 'Nam gun because it spent 20-30 fewer years in service.

DCM guns will be in better condition than CMP guns because of the same lack of service.

The CMP guns are the survivors from 1945 through 1990 (or so).  While these guns might be the best of the guns remaining when the M9 finally supplanted the M1911A1, it doesn't mean they're in good shape at all.  I don't recall an ordnance rework plan for the turned in pistols.  I recall that the plan at the time we turned ours in was the very best guns were to be put in storage and the rest parted out with serviceable parts being retained with the rest getting destroyed.

Judging from vendors tables at gun shows, lots of parts didn't get stored or destroyed.

A goodly sized hunk of the stored pistols got destroyed during the Clinton administration without regard to their condition.

Something that I think supports my idea that these aren't very nice guns is the low-expectation description grading CMP has given and the lack of photos from the sorting process.  They've shown us pictures (and video!) of the Philippene Garands coming back, so we know they're not camera shy there.

I'm willing to TAKE those pictures if the CMP wants to invite me up!