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The CMP says in their notes about round 2 of 1911 sales:
"1911 type pistols purchased from CMP 1911 cannot be transferred to 03 FFL (curio and relic) license holders. CMP’s legislation contained in the 2018 NDAA specifies FFL licensed dealers. BATF and the United States Army prefer the second background check be performed by the FBI on an FFL licensed dealer’s premises."
I sat down and fucking read the 2018 NDAA from front to back and even looked up the relevant and referenced statutes in the US Code.
The black letter law does not differentiate between the Garands that they will just mail to your door and the 1911 which needs several more barriers to receive.
The ATF and Army might have heaped extra shit on, but not Congress; so they should stop claiming it.
I don't know why they're claiming it.
I strongly suspect it's a pure cover their asses move in case a 1911 from CMP is found at a crime scene. Pure "we did everything we could" PR and I suspect entirely generated by CMP itself rather than any agency they cite.
The reason I've come to this suspicion is how they respond when confronted about it. They lock and delete the thread on their forum and respond with silence where they cannot delete the conversation.
If the directives did come from higher, then they could easily cite the exact spot in the NDAA and or publish the direction from ATF or Army.
Their refusal and obfuscation are disappointing.
Not disappointing enough for me to skip getting an M1911A1 from them, but still.
Aw, just get a 1911 from almost anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteI used to think I wanted a real USGI one (we still had them on my ship when I was in the Navy and that's what I was issued) but then I wised up.
YMMV but to me it's not even close to worth the $$$ they want for a rode-hard-put-up-wet ex-gov piece.
I think the CMP's deals on Garands are much better and I did get one of theirs.
For many years I owned a Springfield USGI model to scratch the itch. It did for a while.
DeleteI wanted the cachet and the nostalgic romance was overwhelming. Because I was in when we turned them in for the last time, the odds were these guns were in same format as the pistol I was issued.
I did my due diligence on the price, by the way. Equivalent condition genuine USGI issue guns go for more than $2,500. These might have been rode hard, but they were arsenaled before being put away. I even detailed it here, searching for CMP should bring it up.
The people who got in line for the first tranche have been comparing their guns with what's out there. CMP is not screwing anyone on the money.
A $1,000 non-CMP M1911A1 is a beater. I've seen a few.
More than a few naysayers say they can do better. Fine, show me the picture of the pistol and your receipt! They never do. That's what we call an indicator.
And then there's the elephant in the room about the 1911.
Only Tisas is even close to making an M1911A1. Everyone else is working from reverse engineering and have all added their own embellishments. Jovian Thunderbolt even documented a few of the variances from various makers.
They're similar to, but not the same as a 1911.
Perhaps better in many ways, but still different.
Heck, my genuine Colt Gov't Model in .38 Super isn't even in the right caliber! It has extra parts and a firing pin block. Still a great shooting pistol, but not the same as the been-there-done-that real deal.
Having said all that... If it's not for you, then by all means don't get one! It won't make you wrong; or right. It won't make me right and you wrong.
The value of anything is what someone is willing to pay, and that's a subjective decision.
There's lots of things I wouldn't pay a nickel for that others spend thousands on.
I've got one of the Springfield USGI. I replaced the wood grips with a set of surplus ones, but it still isn't quite perfect. The biggest thing that bugs me is the "lock" in the mainspring housing. Finding a proper GI style one is not as easy as you'd think. I did finally find one but I haven't ever gotten the gumption up enough to swap it out. There are a few other things that aren't exactly perfect either. The shape of the safety, the mag release button, etc. All those are pretty simple to change out if you can find the proper parts. Part of what has kept me lazy about doing all that is not long after I got the part, I bought a very nice Remington Rand for a price that I thought was pretty princely at the time (a couple hundred dollars more than the Springfield was new), but which was much lower than the price mentioned for a beater these days. However all that said, the 1911-ish pistol that I shoot most is a well worn Ballester-Molina. It technically really isn't a 1911, it is based on the Spanish Star design which was a simplified knock-off of the 1911 made in Argentina (mine in the 1950s). Almost all of the finish is gone, the original barrel looked like a sewer pipe and when I got it it rattled like the stereotypical beater 1911. I paid I think $329 from Sarco, and they had put a new set of springs in it and a set of (very ugly) new grips on it. I was able to do a little home gunsmithing to the slide to tighten it up and I hand fitted a new match barrel and link I got from Midway. After that it is a surprisingly good shooter. The only real issue I have with it now is that it won't feed one of my favorite .45 ACP loads, the Speer "flying ashtray". It does however really love Hornady "Zombie Max", which is a pretty decent choice. To be fair, the Remington Rand doesn't like to feed the Speers either, but the Springfield, having a commercial feed ramp (another difference between it and a real GI 1911A1) will feed almost anything.
ReplyDeleteGetting a proper arched mainspring housing with lanyard loop is a trial.
DeleteIt took forever to find a blued example for my Gov't Model Super 38.
Documented here: https://mcthag.blogspot.com/2020/04/at-last-my-hand-is-whole.html and here: https://mcthag.blogspot.com/2013/12/subtle-change.html
Willard has a Ballerina Molester that shoots damn fine.
DeleteIn a lot of ways Star improved on the Browning design. Where Star tends to fall short is where the buyer didn't check all the QC boxes and you get a functional, but unattractive on the inside, build.
Durability sometimes suffers as well when material specifications were lowered for costs.
Argentina didn't scrimp on materials or QC.
Yeah, it took me quite a while to find the right mainspring housing. I went to a lot of gun shops and gun show vendors most of whom had ones that were close, but not quite. Mostly as you mention, many do not have a lanyard loop. I finally found one in a parts box, apparently a take-off from a GI 1911A1 that someone had hot-rodded. Most of the time I think the modders just delete the lanyard loop and checker the back rather than replacing it, which just further dilutes the supply of original GI parts.
DeleteThe biggest two areas that Star simplified the design were the deletion of the grip safety and the pinned, pivoting trigger. I don't really miss the grip safety and arguably the pinned trigger may be a smoother design than the sliding trigger in the original Browning design. It is hard to say whether my Ballester Molina's trigger being smooth is due to the design or just it being worn in for over 60 years. The Argentinians really did do pretty good work. Mine was obviously very "well loved" based on the condition it was in when I got it, but I've seen others that were like new and the workmanship when they were made had to be at near Colt quality levels. I've got a couple Stars, one in 9x19 Parabellum and the other in 9mm Largo. They aren't bad but the fit and finish definitely isn't like Colt's was in that era, although as you note, mostly inside. The exterior is decent but there are more tool marks, etc., inside than you'd see from American craftsmen of that time.