CMP 1911 Pistols

Unbelievable what they want for the pistols for sale (already payed for with tax money) and the BS you have to go through to get one.

Service Grade $1050. Pistol may exhibit minor pitting and wear on exterior surfaces and friction surfaces. Grips are complete with no cracks. Pistol is in issuable condition.

Field Grade $950. Pistol may exhibit minor rust, pitting, and wear on exterior surfaces and friction surfaces. Grips are complete with no cracks. Pistol is in issuable condition.

Rack Grade $850. Pistol will exhibit rust, pitting, and wear on exterior surfaces and friction surfaces. Grips may be incomplete and exhibit cracks. Pistol requires minor work to return to issuable condition.

CMP: Only 8,000 1911s Will Be Up for Sale This Fiscal Year, Pricing Categories Set - GunsAmerica Digest

 

Eh nothing to see there price isn't special the quality is nothing special If people would quit buying crap from the gument they might get reasonable it not they would give it to some group that would use it against us. wouldn't be the first time.

 

!I could get a Kimber for less money!

 

Not worth the price or effort...typical of our Government. Perhaps if we were foreigners or illegals we would get a better deal.

 

Agreed
I had hoped for better pricing but am not surprised. It's a shame, as I would love to have a couple of these old pistols. But like OC mentioned if I'm dropping that kind of money I'll buy new or build a really nice one here for the same or less!

 

the price is for the 'Rarity' of the piece. It was issued to a serviceman. It served overseas protecting the nation. It has provenance.
That's what you are paying for.
There are going to be pistols that are way more reliable with flared mag wells, lowered ejection ports, ... etc. for less .. but those are run of the mill commercial models.

Buyers want a special model with a story .. and that's what they are paying for.

It's like buying old silver coins. Some will only pay for silver content .. others will pay way more for the same silver content because the mint mark or year makes it rare.

I'm going to stick with silver content or in this case .. commercial pistols. I don't see a CMP 1911 showing up anytime soon .. if ever .. unless I can get it for around 500 - 600 bucks for an issue ready example.

 

Besides the price, the requirements to qualify prevent us normal gunowners from participating.

 

My father collected old ex military weapons and I got most of them when he passed away in the mid 80s. One of them was a 1911A1 manufactured in 1943. Not in perfect shape, but no rust. It hangs in my safe. It's plenty good enough shape to shoot.

I have other commercially manufactured clones so I mostly do my tin can and paper target busting with those.

 

The requirements look daunting at first glance, but they're really surprisingly simple to achieve. Ask around at your local gun shop or gun range and you'll find somebody that knows the ins-and-outs of the DCM/CMP. First time I went to Camp Perry I had run around and had copies of my military club affiliations, marksmanship training certificates, drivers license, CCW, military ID... and they never looked at anything but my military ID. The conversation was brief, and went like this:

CMP - "Retired? What service?"
Me - "Marine Corps"
CMP - "We don't need any of that" (the other documentation)

 

I have 5 service 1911s that have ether been passed down to me, or ( one) were my own carried on duty, all are worth far more to me because I know where they came from, who carried them and what they saw and did! These CMP units, while historical, are not near the value that is placed on them! Even collectors I know are not bothering to get these! I would jump on a few if they were $400 but not a grand or more! I'll stick with my service grade series 70s and customs I have bought or built and carry happily!

 

I too think their pricing is out of line for a pig in a poke purchase. If some of these pistols could talk they'd surely tell the tale of their adventures sitting in a box in an armory aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, and that time they traveled all the way to Camp Davis to pick up wood. That was as far as that pistol may have ever traveled, being assigned to a base unit, being only ever issued to MP's at the front gate.

The other troubling thing about these is that so many were refurbished during their service life that it really is a gamble that you'll get a completely original pistol, though it will be "as issued." Yup, I remember the last one I was issued. front sight was bent, and it looked like somebody had used it as a hammer.

 

No, the requirements are a huge impediment. One range here meets the NRA requirement, they do have comps, but membership is too expensive. Also health troubles prevent driving that distance and competing.
So yeah, reasons. Not all of us can meet those requirements even if we'd like to buy one of those pistols.
Simply a game for others.

 

Those hoops are many, and I got the run around last time I purchased a Garand at an inflated price, so, I'm not about to go through all that, even though my service qualify me to bypass most of those requirements! It's still not worth it for what's likely floor sweeping that were supposedly issued in the Philippines and stored there after use, and different arsonal have different standards of quality, so I'll pass!

 

Local range told me I could shoot there if I gave them $2500 a year, and then could only shoot on a given day IF a "real" member was off work and will to be PAID to open the range to me.

 

WOW! Talk about range snobs..

 

Yep, our "paid membership" range is run by and packed with snobs. If they don't like you, you can't join.
So I use the free public range, only ten minutes from my home. Just have to use early it when the idiots are still sleeping off the prior night.

 

We have a range like that a couple counties over. You'd have to wait for a member to die to get in. I'm curious what kind of lists the CMP has to offer for my area. They did offer to provide a list. Might be some folks I should get to know on this list anyway.

 

I thought these were the ones they got back from Korea or something a few years ago. Everybody was sure Zero was going to destroy them rather than giving them to CMP, still don't know why he didn't.
As to the CMP requirements, when I bought a Garand I remember there was a Garand Collectors' Assn you could join by mail that qualified, and the qualification could be had from all kinds of places, a local range official, a police dept., military qualification records, etc. If you want to buy a CMP firearm, don't let that stuff get in the way. I just don't see them having anything worth that kind of money any more. The good Garands have been long taken, and the good prices.

 

I just wish I had bought one the 1911s that came here from Vietnam in the mid-90s. They had been stored since the cessation of hostilities there. It appears most had come out of an arsenal refurbishment and been shipped over and never unpacked.

As a shooter they were of course over priced and not practical but as a historical piece I just wished I had grabbed one. There was a metric shit tonne of pump shotguns that came over here at the same time. They were not new LOL !!