Colt Commemorative

[alfair]

Hello All,
I purchased a used Colt Commemorative WWI last week. I believe the born on date is around 1979. Anyone have any experience or info on one of these? This is my first 1911, hope to get to the range with it this weekend. Please excuse the pictures ( I just can’t see to get a good picture!)

[jerryd]

Somehow that doesnt look like a commerative model! but i could be wrong. The WW1 that i saw were the gov. model without the bomar style sight and upswept grip safty, and also they wernt 2 toned, maybe someone else will have the answer, nice looking pistol!!!

[hk24]

It was a commemorative, now it is a shooter. I have seen these and they did not look like that when they cam from Colt. Should be all blue with regular sights and no beavertail or adjustable trigger.

Lynn

[Jim Watson]

Well I can't see the picture well enough to be sure it started out as a WW I commemorative. If so, it is one of a series of WW I (and WW II) commemoratives made from 1967 to 1970. If one of them this gun has been heavily altered and converted from a commemorative into a shooter. It was originally bright blue with machine engraved WW I scenes on the slide and a rectangular medallion in the grip stating which battle it represents, but with hammer, trigger, grip safety, and sights as close to GI as they could come up with out of the parts bin at the time.

I know at one time, a commemorative Colt actually cost LESS than a standard Government Model and the commemorative SAAs were WAY less than a blue and case hardened sixshooter. A lot of them have been used for shooting, wiping out any speculation value. Which I don't think is much anyway.

[alfair]

Thanks guys,
I did purchase it to shoot, I ran about 100 rounds thru it today. No failures, nice pull... I looked at the first few pieces of brass and they were slightly misshaped. I checked again later because I planned on reloading a few rounds and found this (see pix). These were Winchester, ball, white box. I thought I stepped on the first one I picked up, but found there were several like this. Most of the brass was slightly out of round…

Ideas on the problem?