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I love the look of a well used gun, so I thought it'd be fun to start a thread with pics of our old friends. I'll start with my old Series 70, bought new by a family friend and carried for most of 30 years. I had thought about refinishing it, but it looks too good the way it is. Anyone else like the well "enjoyed" look?

That's a nice looking gun.

I haven't owned any of mine long enough for them to look well used.

My inheritance




1916 Colt Commercial 1911 from my uncle

This is an Ed Brown Special Forces with GenIII coating that has approximately 23,000 rounds down the tube! It is not mine, but I have the same gun (currently unfired) and I am loving the way I can expect it to wear and become distinguished.

That looks awesome, I imagine my Dan Wesson CCO will age about the same. Although to be honest, it's so pretty, I'm dreading the first signs of holster wear.

That S/N 2317 is correct. I have no idea when this early Special Forces was made, but to give you an idea, mine has S/N 100xx and was delivered in Dec 2011 and Brown does not make a lot of pistols each year (like Kimber & Springfield).

I only own Glocks right now. I do love them. I don't really think they will look all that different with age. I did have a Sig P228 that was starting to show holster wear but for the most part I am not expecting my polymer guns to show any real wear.

These are new pictures I just took this evening of my father's WW2 sidearm. It is a 1943 vintage Ithaca 1911-A1. Given its age, it is in remarkable condition. The only things on it not original are an 18lb recoil spring and a buffer pad I put on the guide rod so that it would handle modern ball ammo, and I occasionally shoot it still. I still have the original recoil spring. I also have the aviator's shoulder holster and OD green canvass magazine carriers that came with it, although the leather is in severe need of reconditioning. I'm a little afraid to tackle it because I'm worried I might do more damage than good. Some day I'll take that holster to someone who knows what they're doing and pay them to properly restore it.

My dad lost his original sidearm when it was taken from him in an aid station after he was WIA at Iwo Jima. That particular pistol was his personally owned one, which he had purchased from a hardware store in Glendale California, a few days before shipping out of Pendelton for Iwo. That gun was a nickel plated Colt Government 1911-A1. He had actually shot one Japanese soldier in the stomach with it, presumably killing him because he didn't move anymore after that. After recovering from his wounds on Guam, he was promoted to 1st Lt and put in command of a rifle company training for the invasion of Japan. The pictures taken below are of a pistol that had been in the possession of an enlisted man in his company who (presumably) accidentally shot himself in the hand with it while horsing around. The muzzle blast and bullet actually carried away part of his hand, and he was permanently disabled from combat effectiveness. My father, figuring that Ma Green still owed him for one Government Model 1911-A1 .45, confiscated the gun from the hapless marine and kept it for his own sidearm; stowing it in his seabag when he was shipped home after the war ended, and keeping it as a souvenir.















I know that Ithaca's are not the most rare of WW2 vintage 1911s, but it isn't that often you see one in this condition. It is one of my most treasured possessions, and my son will some day inherit it along with some other relics of my dad's and the memory of my his service to the nation.

VERY NICE!