United States Marine Corps Colt Pistols
The Marine Corp
Hey guys! That's right. That was the Marine Corps Anthem and from the halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, we'll talk a little bit about that. But I'm going to talk about US Marine Corps pistols that are marked US Marine Corps because they're very, very rare and I know almost nothing about them.
This video was requested
But I had a local guy who stopped by and said, hey, I have a couple of US Marine Corps guns, you should do a video on it. So I guess that qualifies me to be an expert. Not really, I'm not an expert. I love to get your comments, but I'm going to show you some Marine Corps guns that are marked US Marine Corps and they are very rare. But to do that, we're going to take a look at some early Colt revolvers. Double action revolvers, not the real early single action, but the early double action revolvers.
To the Marines
Before I do that though, I have to do a shout out to all of you, US Marines. Semper Fi, because I'm not a US Marine and if you ask anybody, is the US Marine Corps an elite force? Well, if you're in the Marine Corps, you would say absolutely, it is an elite force. But the other branches of service don't agree that much. So a shout out to all of you who served in the Marines, especially my two nephews, Justin and Jacob. Thank you for your service.
The Evolution of the Revolvers
Okay, now for why you're watching, you want to take a look at some guns. I spread them out on the floor here, it's going to involve a little bit of history of the Marine Corps but again, that's not my specialty. I don't know a lot, I don't know a lot about these revolvers. But I feel compelled to show them to you and talk a little bit about the evolution all the way up to well, actually all the way up to modern times. So let's take a look.
From 1894-1911
So I have an array of pistols here, that span of time from 1894 all the way up to the World War I 1911. And then one that's not on here is this gun, which is the M45 A1. We're going to talk a little bit about that.
What's the point of this video you ask?
But to start off, I just want to be clear that the point of this video is to say it's very rare to have any gun marked US Marine Corps. And I'm only aware of three variations that were actually marked US Marine Corps.
1905 Double Action Colt marked US Marine Corps
The first one that I have, again, one of our viewers brought this in. So this is just a beautiful gun. The finish on it is beautiful, but this is a model 1905 Double Action Colt. And it is marked US Marine Corps on the bottom. We do know other revolvers are marked US Army. And some of the US Army guns went to other branches of service. But this is specifically marked US Marine Corps. Now, I'm not suggesting that these are the only guns, we know that other guns went to the US Marine Corps but not marked as such.
Let's not get in trouble
What's interesting about this one, somebody did try to grind that off, which is not unusual in that when people were given their service weapons, I see on the 1911 they tried to scratch out the Property of the US Army, just because they don't want to get in trouble. I'm not I don't know that he necessarily stole it but whoever picked that up, there's definitely some scratches on there look like he took a file to it with which is a shame.
Absolutely Beautiful
But also look at the serial number, this is number 798. And I want to point out of this model there's about 900 of these made. You see the beautiful blued finish, and the fire blue here and on some of the pins and screws, the top of the trigger. And I already mentioned the hammer, and then of course the screw here. You'll also notice that the US Army ordered special grips. These are more squared off. The typical army model, these are army models and I'll go back to them, but these were special orders just for the Marine Corps. So the 1905 and then the 1909.
The 1909
So let's take a look at this one. Again, it's marked US Marine Corps on the bottom. It has the swivel, which was ordered by the military and there's the serial number. They made a lot more of these. I think it was in the 30,000 range.
The Colt Logo
Let's point out the early logo, which I call the stallion with the surfboard. That's what I call it. I don't think that's a technical -- that's not what Colt called it. And this one is one that you're more familiar with. It's a stallion in a circle.
I'm not pointing a gun at you
So there's two different models there. They have similar very nice checkered grips. And the other thing I want to point out and I don't want to point a gun at you. So you'll take a look. This is 38 and this is 45.
What's the story?
Now the story behind this and maybe it's folklore, because I read it in a couple of places, but it was certainly a story that got spread around quite a bit. This gun, we'll start out with 1894. And it says right here, US Army 1894. This was a new design. Before this, they had the Single Action Army that most of you are familiar with, and was kind of hard to reload because you had to take the cylinder out. And this was a double action army, so it was an improvement and it had this swing open cylinder. So it was an improvement over the Single Action Army, obviously. So a very early gun. And this was the first variation of the double action army. And you see this is 1894.
The rebellion in the Philippines
So there was a rebellion in the Philippines, the US Army and the US Marines went to the Philippines. And this revolver was heavily used. It was also used in Puerto Rico. I mentioned the Barbary Coast from the halls of Montezuma was the Marine Corps and the military invaded Mexico and that was the halls of Montezuma. That was a battle in Mexico. And then also the Shores of Tripoli, that was the Barbary Coast. The US Marines, part of their job was amphibious landings, and they landed on the Barbary Coast to clear out the pirates.
This can't work!
But let's go back to the story of this gun. This went to the Philippines. And the story is told that the Filipino rebels were hopped up on drugs, probably cocaine or the cocoa leaves. And they say that when they would charge, they would shoot them with their sidearm, and they just kept coming. And so the military went back and said, we need something more powerful.
Think a minute here
Now let's think a little bit about the history 1894 and I believe that the battle in the Philippines was 1898. So part of the history was, of course, the US Army was trying out other guns. For example, here's a picture of the Luger. It's called a test Luger, because they sent a number of guns to the US military in .30 caliber, imagine that. How wimpy can you get they said the caliber was too small. We know they did make a couple in 45 caliber to try to get the contract. But the truth is the US Army did not want to be dependent on the Germans for their weapons. So the test Luger was in 30 caliber. The European military for the most part settled on a 9mm round and that was strong enough.
We said it's not strong enough!
But for the US military, the .38 was not strong enough, they kept giving feedback to the quartermaster, the armors and finally too cold and said we need a stronger round. So in 1905, they were still using the 38 caliber and finally Colt said, alright, we hear you loud and clear. And then they came out with the 45 caliber, which is a much more powerful round.
It's just my opinion
You know the story, I don't know, it's a little suspect. I think when you shoot somebody with a .38 depending on where you hit them, they're not going to keep coming. But that's just my opinion. I know some people get very energized and like to argue about it.
The 1909 was very short-lived
But the US Army clearly preferred the .45 caliber. His is one of the shortest contracts ever, because this is the model 1909. But by 1911, they came out with the 1911 Colt. And of course, that really took over. From this point on with the semi-automatic versus -- so all the advantages of the semi-automatic the number of rounds of the operation and for a lot of other reasons, all of the branches of service wanted to go to the 1911. So the 1909 was a very short lived contract.
Issued but not marked
This is a beautiful gun, 1917. Actually made in December of 1917 in time for World War I and was issued to the US Marine Corps. I wanted to show it to you because it is not marked US Marine Corps. Like a lot of the guns the US Marine Corps got, this is marked US Army. The Navy also got US Army and the Air Force also got US Army. Just generally it was accepted by the US military and then sent to the different branches of service.
Germans mark their guns
With collecting German pistols as sometimes it's a lot easier to track so for example, Navy guns are marked Navy. Krieghoffs have Luftwaffe have proofs. But sometimes you can only tell through serial number, but unfortunately the records are destroyed. In the United States military, most of the records are still available. So from this serial number, I can look it up and see that this went to the US Marine Corps.
Colt Collectors need resources
Okay, so if you're a Colt collector and 1911 collector, you do have to have books and resources because you do have to look up the serial numbers to see what year they were made and where they went. We actually go to this website and you can scroll down and see which ones went to the Navy, which ones went to the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps ones are very rare. And again, that doesn't mean these are the only guns that went to the Marine Corps. Some were transferred back and forth. I know some went to the Air Force, and then later were reissued to a different branch of service. But those are interesting things that you can look up and research a little bit. We also have the Clawson book, which is very thick. And then I have this quick resource guide that I use. Actually, one of our viewers sent this to me, so thank you.
Using a resource from my client. Thank you
So right here, this serial number, you see, we'll go with the first three digits, which is 216. And this is the serial range. And this was made in -- Well, this one we know was made in 1917. And I'll show you how we know that. Down here you see serial ranges that went to the US Navy, and here US Marine Corps. So right here, we know that this gun went to the US Marine Corps in beautiful condition in time for World War I.
History Time
Now, World War I just a little history about the Marine Corps, Semper Fi by the way, World War I only had about 30,000 US Marines participate in World War I as opposed to World War II, which was a half a million Marines were involved in World War II. And we all know about the amphibious landings where the Marine Corps distinguished themselves in invading the various islands as stepping stones to Japan. So of these, there was only 30,000 Marines in World War II. And their casualty rate was a lot higher than other branches of service. And I think that's mostly because they were all combat soldiers on the front lines, and they were assigned a lot of the most dangerous missions. So the legend in the legacy of the US Marine Corps was really built out of World War II.
US Marines are not a good peacekeeping force
So today, it has morphed into more of a Rapid Deployment Force. When we have a trouble somewhere in the world, they like to round up the Marines and get them over there and let them kick butt and come back home again. The US Marines are not a good peacekeeping force. They don't do well with that. They tried that in Lebanon. They send in the Marines, to help keep the peace in Lebanon and we know the result of that. Many of you were alive when this happened. And it was Ronald Reagan that sent in the Marines and terrorists blew up their quarters, killing a lot of people and the Americans were asking what why aren't the Marines keeping peace in Lebanon. So if you want to blow things up and bang some heads, you call in the Marines.
Time for a modern pistol
So this brings me to a modern US Marine Corps marked pistol, and here it is the M45 A1 one. It's a mouthful. It is made by Colt. These were made for Iraq and Afghanistan. So in the year 2000, they commissioned these. They are marked US Marine Corps. So it was 100 years, between 1909 approximately that guns were marked US Marine Corps, all the way up until the year 2000. When they asked for these to be made.
A Special Order
A special order 1911 with specific characteristics. You see it's tan for desert warfare. You see it has different grips, special grips; it is marked US Marine Corps, and it was built to certain specifications to make them a lot more smooth acting and accurate.
The MAC Channel
Here's Tim from the Mac channel that I highly recommend and he's shooting a normal 1911 and then a US Marine Corps 1911, actually, it's a 1945 A1 and he shows the difference. The pattern is a lot more tight and he takes it this far. Just check this out. This just amazed me.
I couldn't do that!
You know, I don't think I could do that. It has nothing to do with my aim. My eyes are bad. I just don't think see for more than 10 yards away. But great shooting Tim.
Commissioned then Decommissioned
So this particular pistol was commissioned by the US Marine Corps, marked US Marine Corps and then decommissioned. First gun in a 100 years to be marked US Marine Corps.
Check Gun Broker
They now are available. I see them on Gun Broker all the time when they first came out, I think it was back in about 2018, it might have been before that. The US Marine Corps, decommissioned them put a little X through it and decommission them. And they were sold on Gun Broker and they were going for about $1500. Now I see them at $7,000 and up. So they are truly collector items, even though they're modern pistols.
Clean up on Aisle 12
Okay, I'm now going to call this section Clean up on aisle 12. I just presented the guns. The two models marked US Marine Corps and the modern US Marine Corps marked. And now I want to do a clean-up on aisle 12 because I forgot to mention.
The Colt Certificate
Here is how's that for a good segue here is the paper that you can get, the certificate you can get from Colt and you just go to if you Google Colt archives, they will charge you for such a letter. And it confirms my hometown of Philadelphia, shipped to the United States Marine Corps. And it was made on December 4 of 1917.
The Holster with the 1909
The other thing that I forgot to mention, going back to this gun again, this was the 1909 in .45 caliber marked US Marine Corps. It came with this holster, and I think the gun is rare, very rare, but the holster is probably even rarer than the gun. I believe there's some 1911 holsters that are marked US Marine Corps or somebody at least made them. Some of you will chime in and maybe send me some pictures. But this is marked US Marine Corps. It is made by Rock Island Arsenal, and it's dated 1909. It also has a military inspector proof. So 1909 Rock Island goes with this model 1909.
Let me give you some pleasure
I hate to even put it in a holster but for the purpose of this video, I will grant you that pleasure. And there you go. That's the rig the way it came in 1909 a very cool US Marine Corps weapon.
Thanks much Ken
Hey, thanks for watching. I look forward to your comments. And I want to do a shout out also to Ken who is not a US Marine Corp person, but he's the one that brought me these pistols to show. Unfortunately, none of them are for sale at this time.
Stay Tuned
But we do have some of the US Army Revolvers on our site from time to time so make sure you like and subscribe to our channel because I have really neat guns coming up. A couple on my floor over here. Don't look. I have some more really cool guns I'm going to show you, so stay tuned.