[twisted954]

It is a beautiful piece and I am a little jealous...I would agree...if you can find some pictures...anything to increase the history of it, the value increases...I will also agree that most collectors like to shoot their old guns...but there are a couple of schools of thought pertaining to the practice...if you are collecting for that purpose...or if that is something you need to do with your collection, then by all means, go for it...again, I would recommend a thorough inspection of the weapon...I cannot perform metallurgical analysis of the gun, but I can inspect it for wear/damaged moving components, if you like...but I am of the school of thought that if one doesn't care about shooting it, then don't...let the collector that buys it do that and take the risks...at that point, you have parted ways with it...that being said, I would personally keep it in the family...maintaining it as a shooter would likely require a host of new parts, decreasing the value...and beyond that, decreasing the originality and history of it. In all honesty...I would even advise against cleaning it...honestly, no joke...it's worth the most amount of money, has the most appeal and is, in my humble opinion, the most valuable, meaningful, historic, and just plain coolest it will ever be just exactly how it sits...and you will find virtually no 1911 enthusiast that would disagree with me. That little treasure should not be touched.

Lastly...most collectors who shoot their collection, are shooting revolvers, or action type rifles, ETC...auto loaders are another story entirely...springs, locking lugs, linkages, bushings are all wearable items and part of how the gun runs. They need to be replaced and with 1911's, they need to be fitted...which means material of the original needs to be adjusted to compensate for the replacement parts. Action type weapons are not so intricately balanced with wearable items...at least not in a capacity that could prevent proper operation...so one can use smaller load projectiles...essentially underpowered to impart the least amount of stress to the weapon...an auto loader wont work like that. If you run a short load in a 1911, the slide will not disengage from the lugs...it wont extract and eject and even if it somehow does, the slide might not engage the next round or slam it fully into battery...slam fires can also pop up on 1911's from sear wear...IDK...I can think of a hundred things that could go wrong. IF for some reason you needed to fire it, I would proceed as such:

Professional inspection for fitted components
Metallurgical inspection (this can often be performed by xray)
and I would then plan on shooting a single short load at a time...and make sure the round clears the barrel every single shot

With enough care, the weapon could be discharged and I agree...it would be awesomely cool...but take all the precautions you would afford a weapon like that...also, I neglected to mention...if you can scrape together some history with the gun, I would insure it for 5K...it could not actually be replaced making it worth much more than the average retail value