Revolvers, Mammoth Grips, and 1911 Nighthawks Oh My!
Welcome to Throwback Thursdays
Hey guys, you've heard of The Walk In Wednesday. Well this is going to be a throwback Thursday. That's right! We're going to take a look back at some guns that I've done before, but they actually came in this week.
It's not a gun but check this out
So in way of review, this is not a gun. But check this out somewhere in about the middle of 2021, we decided to do a challenge coin. I don't know whose idea it was, but it's brilliant. Here's the challenge coin. Some of you will remember, we put it on our website, we made it available to people. And we did 2021, we featured the Walther PPK. So that's a look in the past. P.S. If you love this gun and think it's special, check out our other special deals here!
The 2022 Challenge Coin
But here we are moving forward 2022. We came out with a subsequent challenge coin, which is the Luger. Notice, it's a Mauser Luger which means it's from World War II, which is more my favorite, but don't they just look stunning, especially up against the white gloves. So the 2022 model will be available on the website now. And we're already looking forward to 2023.
Let us know what you want for 2023
For 2023, YouTube likes it when we're in interactive channel, so I want to hear from all of you. I'm kind of leaning toward 2023 being the year of the 1911 cold, but I'd love to hear from you guys. What do you want to see in 2023 on our challenge coin, and we'll let you decide. Whatever the majority wants, that's what we're going to do.
Go back in time with me
Now the next throwback is the woolly mammoth. Now you really have to go back in time I got in a little bit of trouble. I said, the woolly mammoth was from like 30,000 to 3 million years ago, I don't know. All I know is it's prehistoric. So don't quibble with me dates; they're prehistoric but I showed you this video.
The 1911 Nighthawk
Well actually, you'll remember the gold plated 1911 Nighthawk. So this is a modern pistol made by Nighthawk. They're individually made, superb craftsmanship. One of the comments other than I love the grip, one of the comments on this particular gun was the gold is a little gaudy for me, but and then fill in the blank. People said, I wish it had a different finish.
It is not illegal!
So while I showed you the gold plated woolly mammoth, and let me just clarify, it's a woolly mammoth molar. They actually find the skeletal remains in the Arctic region in Siberia and it is not illegal once they're dead that they do gather the molars and the tusks. On the gold plated you can see the grip of the woolly mammoth and if you don't like the gold, I just got another one.
I had to show it to you before it went out the door
Again, this is a local guy who orders them these are not for me, I generally don't buy any modern guns. Anything after 45 is too late for me, but we do get these in and we handle the transfer for him but I want to show it to you because he's going out to the door tomorrow and I thought you'd want to check out this woolly mammoth.
Two Woolly Mammoths
Okay, so he actually ordered two of them. This one is 9mm because you can see that it says 9mm but if you look at the bore size, you can see this one is 45 and this is the style of a coat Commando, size wise. The other one was a 1911 and this is a 1911 style. Again, these are all handcrafted, individually made, a precision made firearm.
It's the grip that's important
Let's focus on the grip here. So this is the molar that has been polished and the finish on this one instead of being gold. It's almost like an antique-y look. You can see how they just take the finish and they darken it a bit. It's just a classic look. It does have Trijicon sights, there's the rear sight and the front sight, very high quality sight. And if you rack the slide, sorry I'm covering it up, but this is a very strong spring and the hammer is extremely smooth. As smooth as any 1911 I've ever handled. This is like Laura Croft in Tomb Raider. You just push that button it pops right out, you pop in your new. It's just so simple. These are so well made. This spring is really tight so a little hard to push. 9mm is not as tight. You can see the action on this is just smooth itself, very tight, great trigger action. Again, Trijicon sights.
This is the look they wanted
Now on this one I thought this was used, it looks like has been kept in somebody's garage. But in fact this is the look they wanted. This is brand new, and they smudged it up. It looks like grease you can see in here and in here. They dirtied it up a bit. Again 9mm. This one in particular, watch that, pops right out. Holds 17 rounds and again 9mm. So just beautiful modern firearms.
We're heading to the range in spring
The only thing I will say about this even though I'm doing the transfer, I do have a deal with the buyer that when the weather gets nicer right now it's freezing cold outside so I don't want to go shoot these at the range, at the outdoor range. Come spring let's go to the range together and try these out see how see how they fire and you can join me.
Still doing throwbacks
Okay, the next throwback is not 30,000 years ago but just a couple of weeks ago I did weapons of the OSS none of those guns belong to me. They were a loan to me, but we actually did just get one in. Check this out.
Colt Commando
You can see here it's called Colt Commando Model. It comes in 38 caliber, it does have a parkerized finish. And it went to the Office of Strategic Services in the Fowler building, you remember that? That's in the video they sold a thousand of these. These again are the Colt Commando. This one was used, not in pristine condition. So perhaps was used in the war. A lot of these were also guarding facilities and especially the offices of the OSS, but some of them were used in combat and special operations. I have no way of knowing for sure. But you do see Colt Commando here and you see wear throughout. Open up the cylinder the action is still very good. I already mentioned it is 38 caliber. There is no military proof on this. Some of them you'll see a P, either here or here. There's no military proof. So it was not approved for the military but it was shipped to the OSS, special order, plastic grips with the Colt logo. And again, this is a Colt Commando that was issued to the OSS.
Check out the video on OSS Weapons
If you haven't seen the video about the OSS weapons, check it out. Here's the link, it's bound to be one of our most popular ones. And again, it's only been out for about a week.
Bingo! Here's a revolver
Now let's take a look at some revolvers. This is actually a revolver. But the reason I want to look at this is because I had comments from a couple of people and they said Tom, why do you only show us semi-automatic pistols? Why don't you ever talk about revolvers? Well bingo, here's one, and I have a couple more to show you.
The Model 13 Survival Weapon
Okay, so this is considered the Model 13 survival weapon of the US Air Force. This was made back in the early 50s. We're going to take a closer look. But if you remember, and again, this is a throwback from probably a year ago.
Hey, I did say throwback - Go watch the earlier video
I did do a video, you can see it right here and I showed this particular gun, not in as good condition as the one I have now. I also mentioned that the air force, they were looking for a survival weapon. This is a time when the United States was fighting a cold war with the communist countries. And we were having strategic bombers go over with nuclear weapons. Sometimes with sometimes without. We were certainly spying on what we considered enemy countries. It was also the Berlin Air Lift during that time where East Germany was cut off and wouldn't allow us to take supplies, so we airlifted supplies in. They ordered these in about 1953. And again, it was to be your survival weapon for US Air Corp. Survival weapon I'm not sure if this is after you land you're supposed to survival by fighting off a platoon of enemy soldiers or if the survival weapon was actually for you to use on yourself so you don't get captured. But it does come in .38 special, it is very lightweight cook because it was made with aluminium.
Here's why they had to be lightweight
At the time I did the previous video, I got a lot of feedback from military people who said the reason they were concerned about the weight was because of the G force. When you are ejected from a plane, they said that G force is tremendous and so you can't have something heavy on your body or it becomes it can become problematic if it hits you because of the additional weight that is added from the G force. Now that's maybe too much technology but they wanted this, suffice it to say, they wanted this gun to be as light as possible.
Sometimes I have to chuckle
So they made about 40,000 of these here's a picture of a Colt they did make a M13 Colt, a lightweight Colt and the design did not work in that they found them to crack or break after a limited usage. Smith and Wesson made this model 13 all aluminium other than the barrel and some of the parts. They made these and they found them to fail regularly. And so since the project was a failure, the air force went ahead and ordered 40,000 of them. I say that tongue in cheek because I have to laugh. They found that they did not work properly and yet they still ordered 40,000 of them. That was 1953. By 1957, they banned them said they're too dangerous and they ordered that they be destroyed. That's why this particular gun is extremely rare to find.
Look, it does have a P
Let's take a closer look now in the previous video and all the ones I've ever seen they are worn. I don't know how people got them other than they got permission or took them home. They found out they were going to be destroyed. Look at that, this one does have a P. Remember I said when military approved it, they stamped it with a P. This is stamped with a P but this is the nicest one I've ever seen by far.
This gun has steel parts, check them out
These are aluminium and so therefore it won't take bluing but rather it's anodized paint. Now anodized paint is the same thing they used with aircraft. On aluminium aircraft, they would use anodized paint and this uses anodized paint. Now this part is steel I have this little bitty magnet so the barrel is steel. Let's do steel trigger, you see that is case hardened. And this is case hardened and this is also steel. Now some of the internal structure is also steel and that's why you get light magnification -- well it falls right off. But the best way to tell that this is an aluminium frame is with the trigger guard. Ooops, that stuck to the trigger itself. There you go. Trigger guard is not magnetic, but the trigger itself is magnetic.
Why is this dangerous?
Now what made this one dangerous because most of you say I've seen guns modern guns with aluminium frames, the aluminium frame was did succeed in that they did continue to make them, but what made this one dangerous was the aluminium cylinder. So the cylinder, it catches here. The cylinder is non-magnetic, it just will fall off. So this is not magnetic, this is magnetic, this is magnetic, this is magnetic. So the cylinder is aluminium the frame is aluminium. And what they found was it was too weak and that the cylinder would crack.
A Smith and Wesson Design
So even though they banned them and ordered them destroyed, they were never to be used again. Here's an important part check this out property of the US Air Force. People liked design this is really lightweight, we're going to weigh it in a minute here. But if you take a look at this one, this is a Smith and Wesson smaller, you can see that this is actually about an inch shorter. This is all aluminium except the cylinder because of the failures of the past, the cylinder is magnetic. So the cylinder is steel frame is aluminium and the barrel is steel. So this is a little bit smaller. And they call this the airway. Smith and Wesson has continued to make the aluminium frame and they are a very popular gun. There's several different variations but this is an example of a .38 special, air weight, aluminium frame, which did become popular even after the failure of the M13 Survival weapon.
Colt made a M13 Colt Cobra
Now Colt did the exact same thing. Remember I showed you in the last video a Colt M13 Survival Weapon that was issued to the Air Force. They were also ordered destroyed. They made far fewer of those but just like Smith and Wesson Colt liked the design and the idea of the lightweight frame. So therefore they made this Colt Cobra. The frame is aluminium, the barrel is steel and the cylinder is steel. So they made them with steel and an aluminium frame and there's the Colt and this is of course the Colt Cobra, along with the Smith and Wesson a little bit smaller and this is the air weight compared to the US Air Force lightweight all aluminium except for some of the small parts including the very small barrel.
Here's an un-issued holster
Before we go and weigh some of these guns, this is also the original holster, mint condition, the holster is in an issued condition. It does have a number here which I think is a property number. There's the inside, had some kind of an ink stamp. This is, even though it's in mint condition and by the way, it does have a shoulder strap and this piece confuses me a little bit because it's supposed to attach here but it's so brand new and un-issued and this is not stretched that it actually doesn't fit very well. I could make it fit but it would damage it which it already did. See how that button has already popped off of here. So that would need to be repaired in spite of the fact that this US Air Force marked holster is in pristine condition. Let's put the gun in it, put that in the holster, I know some of you say don't do it, it causes holster marks. But I'm only doing it for the video and then I'll never do it again.
Almost forgot, I need your feedback/help
Oh, here's one thing on the bottom that I wanted to get your feedback on. The serial number makes sense but this also has A5. And I don't know the meaning of a five. These grips are very sharp, it's snagging my gloves. So that's how sharp the checkering is. But just a beautiful example of an M13 US Air Force Survival Gun.
Weighing Time!
Hey, let's go check out the weights with my trusty scale. Okay, this is my scale, I actually use this to a party leader grips to show you the difference between real and fake. Let's start off with the US Air Force gun. Again a beautiful gun aluminium frame and aluminium cylinder is the big issue here, we can see that the weight is 14.7 ounces. So about 14 and a half ounces. Very, very light. Now with this one I mentioned it's smaller, actually, it's smaller in this length and in this length. So it's quite a bit smaller. But the main difference is this is aluminum, but the cylinder had to be steel. Due to the stress, let's put the airway upfront and try this out. 14.1. So this is just a little bit lighter. And so you see the difference that -- it actually makes almost no difference even though this is a little bit bigger the aluminium cylinder really didn't help that much, which is why they said let's not do this anymore. So this is lightweight.
How does the Colt Cobra compare in terms of weight?
Now here's the Colt Cobra, with an aluminium frame. And let's see how much this weighs. Okay, this is about a pound. So it's a few ounces more. That's about a pound. And again, this is aluminium versus steel. But you can also see that it is quite a bit bigger than the airway. If you look at the hand grip, the hand grip on the Cobra. And that's a pretty interesting size, they're pretty much the same size. And again, it wasn't that they were copying each other. They made these guns to the specifications of the US Air Force, but when it didn't work out, they made commercial models.
The Lady Steel
I have one other gun here, which is a Smith and Wesson brand new just got this in. This is a Smith and Wesson small gun, but it seems to be a good marketing ploy because they said the Lady Smith. Now this is all steel, but it is particularly marketed to women because it's a small 38 caliber. And let's check out the weight on this. So this is all steel and this is the heaviest of all - 1lb 4 oz.
Comparing all three
So this is about a pound, one pound four. And then the lightest weight is this one, the air weight, which was 14 ounces. So that gives you a good comparison of these lightweight pistols in .38 caliber.
Did you like Throwback Thursday?
Hey, thanks for watching, and I hope you like this new feature that we called Throwback Thursday. And if you're a patreon of our channel, which means you support our channel on a monthly basis, thank you very much. Also, the next thing we're going to do is a giveaway video just for the patreons and give some stuff away. So stay tuned.