From our pal , Stu from Thevintage1911

“Oh my GOD!!!”
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43 years seems to have passed in the blink of an eye.
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11 December marks the anniversary of the day “Magnum PI” premiered on CBS, and the rest, as they sat, is history.
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So pop your Betamax tape of the Army/ Navy game into the VCR, grab an Old Düsseldorf in a long neck bottle, and don’t look at the dogs… Work the lock…
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Filming on location in Hawaii meant there was plenty of sun, surf, and spectacular vista’s, but it also meant a lack of access to a variety of firearm props.
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I’m quite certain the producers would have selected a GI 1911 for Thomas’ edc, but the best they could find in anti-gun Hawaii at the time, was a commercial Colt’s Government Model, which had been fitted to fire 9mm blanks.
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To their credit, the property master did fit the prop pistol with a pair of brown USGI stocks, in an attempt to make the gun at least resemble a USGI bring-back.
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I was already interested in guns, and despite growing up in a home run by two Roosevelt Democrats, I would read everything I could get my hands on at a young age.
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“Magnum” ratcheted my enthusiasm for firearms up a couple more levels. By the time Season Three had rolled around, I had purchased one of the zinc MGC models from the Collectors Armory in Virginia… .

One thing lead to another, and another, so here’s my homage to TM’s pistol, Colt’s “Combat Government,” shod with a set of Coltrock panels from 1940.
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Just in time to see the sunrise…