John wayne armed services .45: will it go BANG ?

[GeorgiaDave]

Hello from Georgia,

   I have an opportunity to acquire a John Wayne Armed Services Comemorative .45. From what I have gathered this is a real Colt gun that has been made inoperable by a plugged barrell and chamber. Everything else appears to be operable. I am hoping that someone here is familiar with this piece and can tell me if it can be made to fire. This gun is not in pristine condition and the owner says that many people have played with it through the years since he has had it but that it has indeed never been fired. I am thinking that if a new barrell were installed it could be made to shoot. Not sure though. If it can not be made to throw lead and belch fire I no longer have an interest. Thanks in advance for any and all help.
Dave

[jhm]

Just asking that question leaves alot of questions, I would take it to a competent gunsmith and have it looked over, some of the parts may say COLT and some of them could be the mixed puppy variety, you may also have to factor the cost of making it able to fire towards the cost of just buying one already set to fire.   Jim

[williamlayton]

Why/How was it plugged.
If someone MADE it inoperable by plugging the barrel then a new match grade barrel is relatively cheap and, from my experience, a marked improvement over the commemorative barrel.
Blessings

[Mikey]

Dave:  jhm makes a good point about there being a lot of questions.  Colt made some commenoratives as functional pistols but some others were not.  These replicas may carry the Colt name or logo and may have been commissioned by Colt but may not be capable of firing - or, if they are capable of being made to fire I'm not so sure you would want to be holding it when it goes bang. 

Barrels and chambers are plugged on some guns to render them inoperable - this may well be due to the fact that they were not cast of properly composed and treated metals, but of pot metal or base castings that may not hold up or stay together if fired. 

If a gunsmith tells you the pistol is capable of being made to fire, safely, then it could be turned into an operable condition.

However, some commemorative pieces do not carry serial numbers or may not be sold as functional firearms, which means that if you get one you may have to register it as a functional firearm and I do not know if Jo-ja has any laws regarding that - you would hae to check....  HTH and be careful.  Mikey.