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I have seen and fired WWII surplus 1911's and I would never buy one. They are inferior in every way to a modern "NEW" pistol and can not be modified without destroying it's collector value.
I am not a collector in the "I love ancient stuff" way, I'm a collector in the "I love great stuff" line of thinking. Unless one of my relatives brought it back from overseas it would holds no interest to me.
Many of the WWII 1911's are selling for as much as a modern Ed Brown or similar custom. All of them are well worn and loose, many of the barrels are pitted. If I'm going to spend that type of money I want a premium firearm.
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No, not all of them are ''well worn and loose,'' I find that those who claim this actually know very little about old GI 1911's and A's.
I have a ''few'' GI 45's and almost none of them are ''loose and worn,'' they were built to a far better spec then people think. They were built to a tight enough tolerance that you could interchange parts and they would work fine. Biggest issue is that the slides can crack with higher round counts, nowadays few people buy them as every day shooters, they passed into collectable category quite a while ago.
By the time they were finally phased out, yes, they were pretty damn worn but lets face it, none of those are on the market and the last one made was 40 years ago. I have one's almost 100 years old and they are still FAR tighter then most people imagine.
As far as pitted barrels, blame the corrosive ammo of the time, rifles had the same problems save for the M1 carbine which never had USGI corrosive ammo made for it.
Take away the fact that they ARE a part of Military history and you still have a firearm that has existed in almost the same form for over 100 years, something very few firearms can claim.
OP, take your time, make sure whatever you buy is correct and buy the best example you can afford to. I have never lost one thin dime on mine, some I own are worth double or triple what I paid now.