Colt Lunchbox Special

roadhunter02

Can anyone give me any information on Colt's lunchbox special? Picture if possible

Spider7115

There is no specific "lunchbox special". That term refers to parts smuggled out of the factory in a lunchbox and assembled at home by pilfering employees.

perry shooter

Lunch box Is like spider stated guns taken out one piece at a time from someone that worked at the factory . I have one such pistol Pictures to Follow . before the 1934 Gun Control Act no firearms by law had to have a serial number after 1934 Handguns made in the U.S.A. did . I can prove my pistol was made BEFORE 1934 as it Has a frame made by colt in 1918 NOTICE the grip frame cut out The heart shape was only made in 1918 But this pistol has some colt markings but no serial number it is full width,frame measured with micrometer. I have a letter from BATFE stating it is legal for me to own or sell this pistol sans serial number

charliemeyer007

I don't think that they "all" were stolen. Back then Enlightened shops allowed employee's to experiment on their lunch hour or after work. Theft of the hours of machine time is the crime not the buck's worth of steel in the finished product.

DRP-AZ

That Johnny Cash song won't leave my head now.

beantownshootah

quote:Originally posted by roadhunter02
Can anyone give me any information on Colt's lunchbox special? Picture if possible


As mentioned, "lunchbox special" isn't a model.

That term is used to refer to guns built out of parts taken out of factories by employees without going through the normal factory release process.

The implication is that this was illegal, or that they were stealing from the factory but as Charlie says, back in the enlightened pre-gun control era, the reality is that most of the time the factory permitted employees to build guns on their own time from spare or out of spec parts. Here is a specific story, that sounds plausible (and very interesting):

quote:http://tinyurl.com/a69ypmu
Onmilo May 10, 2005, 10:58 PM

Assuming the pistol is early and original and has not had the original serial number ground off for some nefarious purpose, the pistol is known as a 'lunchbox special'.

A 1911 that came out of the factory one way or another without the serial and acceptance stampings.

A very old gentleman who worked many years for Colt told me that the guns aren't actually stolen but assembled by workers from rejected parts that the Factory allowed them to purchase.

The guns were assembled during lunch hours and because of the convenience, and to keep everybody and anybody from wanting to make their own gun which would have lead to many more than neccessary parts being 'rejected', and the factories from meeting their quotas, the guns were quietly 'smuggled out' in the workers lunch boxes.

He laughed and said he guessed people thought it was more satisfying to think the workers were out and out stealing from the plant.

These guns, when authenticated, enjoy the same status as a serialed early Colt, that of a Collectable Relic.
So, most of the "lunchbox special" Colts will look externally like ordinary 1911s; they may just lack serial numbers and/or proof marks.

As a corollary story, one gun store owner near Springfield MA (where the Smith and Wesson factory is) told me a few years ago that several times a year he'll see some Smith and Wesson revolver that doesn't match any factory/catalog production gun. There will be some odd combination of caliber/frame/barrel type or markings. He assumes that the guns in question are either "lunchbox" guns cobbled together out of spec by factory workers from spare parts, or prototypes never released for commercial sale.

In fact, he even pulled one out to show me. A factory stamped model 10, labelled on the barrel as "357 magnum", that he showed me would chamber 357 magnum rounds. This was probably about 7-8 years ago. He assumed it was some sort of prototype, and interestingly I did find out later that Smith DID create a small run of prototype models 10-6 in 357 magnum before they introduced the model 13.