Norinco 191191A1 .45ACP               

I bought this pistol for around $250 brand new back sometime in the late '80's as I recall. 

Even then, a brand new 1911 for $250 was a STEAL, and my experiance with AK's and SKS's led me to believe Norinco could make a reasonable pistol.

(Yes, those are genuine Colt grips. No, I'm not trying to "disguise" the gun. When I re-acquired it, it had some God-awful Pachmayr grips, and I replaced them with the only 1911 grips I had lying around at the time, the stock grips from my 1991A1. I want to eventually put some wood grips on, but haven't gotten around to it. I'm thinking multicolor laminant, but we'll see)

Being a 'Red Blooded American Boy", I flinched a little at buying a Chinese Communist version of John Browning's greatest creation, but in the end, I told myself, this was Capitalism at it's best! We'll show those dirty commies, we'll teach them to sell us copies of our own guns. Yeah, that will show them...all the way to the bank!

I shot this pistol a lot, and really dug it, but I just couldn't get used to the MADE IN CHINA stamp (This was the '80's...that was alot rarer then).

I ended up selling it to a pal, who in turn eventually traded it to my Dad for an old Herter's .44 magnum SAA clone, and then, after many years, my Dad gave it back to me when he moved into a rest home which doesn't allow guns.

...sounds like the Communists won after all.

                                    

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