Author Topic: Curious About Your Colt M27 Argentine Sistema?  (Read 807 times)

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Offline zipperzap

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Curious About Your Colt M27 Argentine Sistema?
« on: September 16, 2006, 07:40:36 PM »


I've been searching for info on this for years - with no luck - just found it!

I finally found the date of manufacture of sn: 32376

Opinions on the starting dates for Sistema production are in disagreement. Various internet sources state that the serial numbers of Sistema Colts begin at 10001, picking up from the 10,000 Pistolas Modelos 1927; that from 1927 until 1942, 14,000 Sistema Colts were produced at F.M.A.P. Buenos Aires; that 8,000 were made in the late 1920s, followed by 6,000 in the 1930s and early 1940s; that this would account for the first Sistemas produced at F.M.A.P. Rosario, in 1945, beginning with serial number 24001.

Author Alex Gherovici observed Sistema serial numbers less than 10000 (marked FM – PT and FM – FMMCE, which could have been agencies that preceded the 1941 creation of D.G.F.M.), indicating that numbering was not carried over from Pistola Modelo 1927. Gherovici maintains that suitable production facilities were not available for the production of Sistemas before 1936, when F.M.A.P. Buenos Aires opened. Sistemas marked D.G.F.M. – (F.M.A.P.) couldn’t have been manufactured before 1941, when D.G.F.M was created. During WWII, inadequate raw materials and a U.S. embargo would have made production impossible. At war’s end, additional 1911A1-producing machinery was available from contract suppliers like Remington Rand and Ithaca through the U.S. Government, and through Colt itself, which was refurbishing its plant and transitioning from military to commercial production.

Production could have started as early as 1936, when F.M.A.P. Buenos Aires was opened, until 1942, when the war-related shortage of material occurred and the U.S. embargo went into effect. Twenty-four thousand pistols produced in 6 years isn’t unreasonable. That number matches the average annual production numbers for the “known” years of 1945 to 1966 at Rosario, according to a chart published by an Argentine gun magazine.

Sistema Colt 1927 DGFM(FMAP)  FYI
year made - qty made - serial no. range

1945 - 6,000 - #24,001 -#30,000
1946 - 7,628 - #30,001 -#37,628
1947 - 5,000 - #37,629 -#42,628
1948 - 7,000 - #42,629 -#49,628
1949 - 5,000 - #49,629 -#54,628
1950 - 8,000 - #54,629 -#62,628
1951 - 8,011 - #62,629 -#70,639
1952 - 7,016 - #70,640 -#77,655
1953 - 2,500 - #77,656 -#80,155
1954 - 5,000 - #80,156 -#85,155
1955 - 2,500 - #85,156 -#87,655
1956 - 2,500 - #87,656 -#90,155
1957 - 5,626 - #90,156 -#95,781
1958 - 5,547 - #95,782-#101,328
1959 - 5,000 - #101,329-#106,328
1960 - 2,066 - #106,329-#108,394
1961 - 1,000 - #108,395-#109,394
1962 - 0
1963 - 600 - #109,395 -#109,994
1964 - 750 - #109,995 - #110,744
1965 - 1,250 - #110,745-#111,994
1966 - 500 - #111,995 - #112,494
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