Reborn 1945 Ithaca 1911 A1 Shooter

[El_Abogado]

A few months ago, a buddy of mine called me up to tell me that a friend of his from the gym had two pistols to sell. The first was a Colt M1911 manufactured in 1918. The second was a 1945 Ithaca M1911 A1. The Colt was $250 and the Ithaca was $300. Initially I was interested only in the Colt, but decided to buy both pistols, sight unseen, based on some mediocre images that my buddy e-mailed me.

I was curious about the history of the pistols. The man selling them had inherited them from his mother who used to shoot competitively, including at Camp Perry. The pistols were modified with Micro sights installed and front posts soldered onto the slides. The pistols shot well, but looked bad.

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/USGI_Pistol006.JPG

The collector's value of both pistols was minimal, given the alteratiions, but the pistols were shooters. I thought about restoring them, but decided against it because of the cost and the issues with authenticity. That didn't mean that I was going to leave them as I bought them. Given that the Ithaca was in better condition, I decided to work on it first.

I replaced the MSH for one that was accurate for the pistol and then sent it to Novak's for the reliability package, new sights, and reparkerizing. I decided to go with plain black Novak's lo-mount sights keeping with clean and simple look of the 1911 A1.

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/USGI_Pistol08.JPG

I was very pleased to see that refinishing did not degrade the markings on the pistol.

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/USGI_Pistol10.JPG

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/USGI_Pistol09.JPG

I was also very happy with how the barrel came out. The one originally in the pistol was a G.I. national match barrel, but it was shot out. Dustin looked around at Novak's and found a WWII G.I. "H.S."-marked barrel that he reblued for me and then installed. (The two slides underneath are a Vietnam-era Colt "hard" slide and a Colt "Black Army" slide.)

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/USGI_Pistol11.JPG

Here's another of the whole pistol:

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/USGI_Pistol07.JPG

I would carry this pistol if I had and I'm certainly going to shoot it when I can. Is it "original" or "authentic"? No, but it wasn't when I got it and the work I had done to it gives a new life.

Hope you all are interested in the pistol and its rebirth.

[John]

Oh why did you use Novaks on this one? A set of Colt high profile sights would look so much nicer and appropriate with the rest of the pistol (small thumb safety, spur hammer and grip safety, short trigger, etc.). The Novaks look totally out of place there.

Don't get me wrong, great sights, but this one needed something more ... traditional-looking.

[El_Abogado]

On the choice of gunsmith, I went with Novak's (http://www.novaksights.com/) because my other .45s were built there. My old (now sold) Combat Commander was built by Dustin's father, the late Joe Bonar. My two Government models were built by Dustin. The quality of work and reputation of the shop are solid. Apparently, this isn't the first time that Novak's has done a retro project like this one. I heard that Wayne Novak and Ken Hackathorn built up a bunch of G.I. 1911s awhile back. . . .

On the choice of sights, I went with Novak's lo-mounts because I have them on my other .45s. I prefer consistency on the pistols I carry.

It's funny, they don't seem out of place to me, but I understand what you're saying. For a long time, I absolutely did not liike the straight up-and-down grip serrations on the M1911 and M1911A1, preferring the slanted grip serrations on my Series 80 Mk IV Government models.

Even funnier is that another respected gunsmith, Ken Elmore of Specialized Armament Warehouse (http://www.specializedarmament.com/catalog/Colt_1911_Services-202-0.html), is offering "retro" high profile sights for Colt 1911s. Ken has worked on all of my Colt carbines. He and his wife are wonderful people.

[tenx]

I have to agree with John.

[John]

Even funnier is that another respected gunsmith, Ken Elmore of Specialized Armament Warehouse, is offering "retro" high profile sights for Colt 1911s.

Well, it appears that Ken doesn't like pictures at all, I spend some time trying to find his sights, and didn't see too many pictures of them. Actually I saw none. Or to be more precise, I didn't see almost any pictures in his site. Some one has to tell him that we humans like to see things before we buy them. :p

[El_Abogado]

Yeah, not much in the way of pics, but he is the source for Colt AR-15, M-16, M-4 parts and service. And recently, he added 1911s.

[crjoe]

That came out great. I like the way it looks.

[1saxman]

I think it's a rather interesting 'makeover', and I actually like the way the sights look with the Parkerizing. I may have been tempted to make all small parts darker like the sights to 'bring it all together', but it's a good-looking gun as it is.

[poppop]

Pictures aren't showing up for me.

[El_Abogado]

Hunt101.com was down briefly because of a fire in the building where the servers were located. . . .

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Nice "restoration"! :D

Yes, the Novak sights are a little anachronistic but you certainly could've done worse!

Enjoy shooting your Ithaca...I have one that I'm too afraid to shoot (much as I want to...).

[texagun]

How about some pictures of the 1918 Colt? :appld:

[poppop]

I'm not sure that I would have chosen them, but I kinda like the sights. To me it kinda makes the pistol look new and old at the same time. Only thing I would change would be to add some wood grips.

And yes, we need pictures of the 1918.

[El_Abogado]

The 1918-mfg. Colt M1911 should be back from Novak's this week. As soon as I can, I'll post pics.

[OD*]

I like it.