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Colt’s Pt. F.A. Mfg. Co. MK IV/Series 70 Government Model .45 ACP (James B. Lile Project)
Guns International #: 103572818 Seller's Inventory #: 62102
Category: Colt Pistols - Colt Pistols - 1911 Series 70
Seller's Information
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Seller: Gulf Breeze Firearms
Company: Gulf Breeze Firearms
Member Since: 3/7/07
First Name: Duke
State: Florida
Country: United States
Phone: (850) 932-4867
Platinum Seller
Number of Active Listings: 410
Seller: FFL Dealer
Return Policy: 3 day inspection and return policy on used guns.
3 days
Payment Types Accepted: credit card, certified funds
Description:
According to “James B. Lile: The Arkansas Knife Maker to the World” by J.H. Hill and Jack Lucarelli, the Lone Wolf Gonzaullas project came to life in 1977 when Ben O’Brien approached Arkansas knife maker Jimmy Lile about doing a fundraising project for the Texas Ranger Library. It was decided that Mr. Lile would make a commemorative knife made to honor legendary Texas Ranger Manuel Trazazas “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas.
Gonzaullas joined the Texas Rangers in 1920 after serving in the Mexican Army. For the next 13 years he would go on to patrol the wild and turbulent oil fields and border lands of west Texas. Working in such an isolated and, at times, dangerous region by himself, Gonzaullas garnered the name El Lobo Solo (the lone wolf) and he is credited with coining the phrase:
“one riot – one ranger”.
After his long and celebrated career with the Texas Rangers, Gonzaullas went to Hollywood and consulted for radio, television, and film and his exploits hunting down a serial killer known as the Phantom Killer were made into a film, The Town that Dreaded Sundown. Additionally, Gonzaullas was also instrumental in the founding of the Texas Range Hall of Fame and Museum in 1968.
The project that Mr. Lile and Mr. O’Brien came up seemed to branch off in several directions but remained based on a knife made by Mr. Lile to commemorate Lone Wolf Gonzaullas. There were 100 of these knives made by Mr. Lile as an English style Bowie. The knives have 9” flat ground, hand polished English style Bowie blades, with a spiral fluted ivory handle with stainless steel hilt, collar, and butt cap all in the shape of a Tulip, the knife maker’s favorite flower. Inside the top cup of the guard’s quillion is the number of the piece (#95). Inside the bottom cup of the guard and the cup of the butt cap, the Texas Ranger Star is engraved. The left side of the Blade is marked “LILE” and the right side is etched: “#95” over “Lone Wolf” over “GONZAULLAS”.
The first 50 knives of the series were paired with a custom Colt Mark IV/Series 70 Government Model semi-auto pistol chambered in .45 ACP similar to Lone Wolf’s own pistols. Gonzaullas donated a pair of engraved commercial Colt 1911 pistols to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. These pistols had an ambidextrous thumb safety, which was radical for its time, and the trigger guards cut away and removed, a custom feature somewhat popular through the first part of the twentieth century to add an edge in a gun fight.
Just like Gonzaullas’ pair of 1911 pistols in the Texas Ranger museum, the pistols in these sets have A.D. Swenson ambi-thumb safeties and their trigger guards have been removed. Each pistol also has: Lone Wolf Gonzaullas and the Texas Range star engraved on the right side of the slides. Finally, each pistol is stocked with Ivory grips by Joe Reid, who also made the fluted Ivory handles for the knives. The grips were scrimshawed by Gloria Romine with the bust of Lone Wolf Gonzaullas on the right side, taken from his portrait in the Texas Ranger archives, and the Texas Ranger star on the left side. Each pistol is numbered (1 -50) on the bare metal where the top of the trigger guard was removed. This pistol is numbered: “TR 41”.
After serial number 50, the remaining knives were sold individually, without a companion pistol, and these knives were numbered: 51 – 100.
Originally, the knives were not offered with a sheath. The seller of this knife commissioned a handmade sheath by Mackey Custom Leather with a lizard skin panel.
Knife, pistol, and sheath are excellent overall.
Price: $6,995.00