The bump of Ajax22's thread about his resurrection of the severely rusted 1911 that was found in a field has inspired me to post about my own 1911 relic.

This is a 1914 vintage 1911 as manufactured by the Springfield Armory under license from Colt.

This gun was caught while fishing in a lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1961. The lake was extremely low on water that year and the fellow that hooked it was standing in an area that would ordinarily have been under 20-30 feet of water. As he was reeling in his line he thought he had hooked a catfish or maybe some kind of debris as whatever he had hooked was just dragging along the bottom. Much to his surprise, when he landed his catch, it turned out to be a 1911 pistol.

It had a loaded magazine, but no round in the chamber. While rusty on the outside, the inside was in remarkably good condition and all he did to get it running again was to replace the springs, trigger, barrel, magazine, grips and the thumb safety. He is now quite elderly and I got it from him when he decided to sell off some of his guns a few years ago.

Now, before some hand wringers get started, remember that this was found 57 years ago, the original barrel is long gone and there is no way to trace any of the history of this gun prior to it being pulled from the lake. The serial number is still present and since I was living in Commiefornia at the time in order to legally purchase it I had to go through a FFL dealer and register it with the Commiefornia DOJ.

In the past I have shot it, but the last time it was brought out I noticed that the spring plunger tube is starting to fail, so I have retired it to Safe Queen status. And before someone suggests it, no, I am not going to replace the tube and continue to shoot it. I have nine other 1911's and I can scratch the itch to shoot with one of them.

Shown with a 1916 dated holster and two original two tone magazines:

New plunger tube, keep shooting 'til hell freezes over.

Beautiful patina!  

Very nice, you lucky man.

Sweet.

Just for my own knowledge, what’s the two tone magazines all about?

I have made a decision to keep it as-is.

Early Colt automatics had trouble with the feed lips cracking and/or bending. In order to fix the problem, they dipped the top of the magazines in molten cyanide to restore the temper.

Part of the feed lip tempering process on the early magazines removed the blueing.

Learn something everyday.

One of the reasons why 1911s are awesome.

that is pretty bad ass

Man, that is a rough 1911.

That's a really cool pistol.

Looks like a stipple job that Glock guys will pay big $$$ for

Recovered from a pre war boating accident?

Pure awesomeness.......

Wow that's neat.  I'd love to know how it got in that lake, and who had it before then.

yup..

nice piece with a very interesting history!!

thanks for sharing

Did you find it on the titanic?

Cool gun tho