Home 1911 Pistols Ballester-Molina

Ballester-Molina

August 21, 2022

1145

Ran across this at a local dealer. It’s an Argentine 1911 for all practical considerations. Guns like this cause me some quandary, but as they get to be more and more collectible, that is fading.

Back in the day, these were “not Colts”. And if it wasn’t a Colt, it was a copy. Copy used interchangeably with phrases such as cheap, substandard, junk, etc, etc.

Well…as people have figured out a few times in the past decade; go out into the market and try to manufacture this pistol as it sits here. Certainly, I’m not a machinist, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that endeavor resulted in guns that needed to cost as much as Wilsons just to break even.

So the million dollar question: Did I buy it? No. In the past, we didn’t buy 1911 copies and clones. Hell! The actual Colt guns didn’t run that well half the time! We would say stuff like, “This gun is just going to be trouble”. And “If you spend a bunch of money getting it running, at that point you might as well buy a Colt”. Etc, etc, etc.

These days, the Ballester-Molina brings an ever increasing price. So buying one needs to be measured against intent? Are you looking for an example of the type just to shoot(shooter grade)? Or the most perfect, factory original to keep (collector grade)?

To my mind, this was a borderline line shooter-grade gun with a solid collector’s grade price on it. So I passed.

When you get old, remembering what guns used to cost can really derail a purchase.

Sincerely,

Marky

www.John1911.com

“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”